She’s done. In this article, we’ll cover crankshaft balancing, valvetrain and crankshaft assembly.
How do you like the plug wire routing? I’ll cover this in a later article installment. I’m considering having the water pump pulleys polished and chrome plated. By the way, the water pump/alternator belt pulley alignment is perfect. If the belt looks whacky [...]
Our build is done. See the end of this article for several tasty photos of the finished engine, followed by a complete list of the participating manufacturers.
FINAL ASSEMBLY OF OUR
NASTY LITTLE DART 427W
OUR ONE TRICK PONY IS DONE.
WE’RE READY FOR THE DYNO RUN.
Engine build, text and photos by Mike Mavrigian
INTAKE MANIFOLD
Since our Trick Flow heads feature [...]
by Mike Mavrigian
Build/assembly and all photos by author
Our Lunati roller cam features 0.544″ valve lift at intake and 0.560″ at exhaust, with duration of 232 intake and 242 exhaust. Centerline is 108 intake and 116 exhaust.
CAMSHAFT AND TIMING
Dart thoughtfully provided anti-friction-coated cam bearings with their block. Each bearing is etched with a part number, and [...]
HP Books offers its latest release of its top-selling How to Rebuild BIG-BLOCK CHEVY ENGINES book. This 202-page technical reference, written by Mike Mavrigian, covers all aspects of the 1991-2000 Gen V and Gen IV 454 and 502 CID Chevy. This highly-detailed and illustrated book includes step-by-step information on disassembly, machining & reconditioning and final [...]
Tips for avoiding things that can bite you
By John Mummert
In disassembling Y-Block core engines, I have noted a number of common mistakes that are made during the assembly of Y-Blocks during rebuild. Take care to avoid these mistakes.
The drawer design, gauge and high-quality roller bearings provide drawer movement that is effortless and extremely smooth.
Even though the drive hub system will be clamped to the crank snout with the 6-inch long center bolt to prevent the possibility of independent hub rotation, two roll pins are installed to the hub. The countersunk inside face of the ATI Super Damper was then drilled to accept these roll pins.
Plumbing the vacuum pump [...]
The BG fuel log is adjustable for length, allowing bowl-to-bowl spacing to be set by simply slipping the male tube inside the female tube.
The male tube section of the BG fuel log features three sealing O-rings.
Fitting the BG fuel rail to our Dominator was a piece of cake. I installed the Race Pumps fuel pressure [...]
Our initial distributor offered a very neat low profile, but the large diameter of the head made installation impossible due to a lack of intake plenum clearance, so I switched out to a smaller-diameter-head MSD.
The MSD Pro-Billet distributor (P/N 85501) provided the intake manifold plenum clearance that we needed.
Our MSD distributor features a slip collar, [...]
CARBURETOR/FUEL PLUMBING
Our big-gulp carb is Holley’s Ultra Dominator (P/N 0-80673), an 1,150 cfm race carb that features billet metering blocks, three-circuit metering, mechanical secondaries and oversized sight windows for easy float adjustment. Recommended fuel pressure is 5-7.5 psi. The anodized billet metering blocks feature changeable idle feed restrictors for easier tuning of the idle system [...]
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