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 [...]
We machine the block, balance the crank and check clearances. The Dart Iron Eagle 351W block is a precision-cast and raw-machined product of unparalleled quality. Dart provides a bit of extra deck height and minimal bore diameter, allowing the builder to precisely achieve desired dimensions. By Mike Mavrigian all photos by author [...]
A close-up of our bobweight card. Gressman centered each bobweight using an aluminum spacer. This ensures that each bobweight will be located in the exact center of each rod pin. Gressman spun our crank on his pro-ball balancer. Our Lunati crank is a high-quality, forged, non-twist steel unit featuring a 4.000″ stroke. As you would [...]
All main studs are installed finger-tight, with just an added scooch to make sure they’re seated. The main caps slid on easily, with no stud splaying interference. Be careful when installing the main caps. Each cap is numbered for location, as is the block. Be sure to install caps with cap numbers on the same [...]
LS PROJECT, PART 2 BLOCK PREP AND BALANCING by Mike Mavrigian all photos by author We swapped out the OE torque-plus-angle main cap bolts for a set of ARP studs. This will provide added strength and will eliminate wear on the block’s female threads during future servicing. I recently visited Gressman Powersports where Scott Gressman [...]
The camshaft is spun-up on the balancer similar to any other rotating shaft. Example of a camshaft out of balance. Notice that the left side of the camshaft is 1.2 in./oz. out of balance and the right is 1.67 in./oz. out. Also note that the unbalanced units are not opposed to each other. This will [...]
CAMSHAFT BALANCING That’s right, camshaft balancing. It’s all about optimizing and regaining lost energy. The camshaft is yet another rotating mass, so why would we not pay attention to the subject of balance? When was the last time you balanced a camshaft? If you’re like most builders, the answer is never, with the answer accompanied [...]
BALANCING Our crank was balanced at Gressman Powersports. Scott Gressman handled the job using his Sunnen Pro-Bal balancer. We began by first weighing all components (pistons, pins, locks, rings, bearings, rods). The Diamond pistons required no correction at all, with the entire set weighing in at 542 grams, +/- 0.5 grams). The Lunati rods, though [...]
PROJECT 632, PART 3 SHORTBLOCK ASSEMBLY Our shafts rotate and the slugs run up ‘n down. Life is good. by Mike Mavrigian photos by author Clevite coated main and rod bearings were used for pre-fitting and final assembly. Building a stroker bad boy isn’t a walk in the park, as anyone who has been down [...]
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