PISTON/ROD INSTALLATION With the cylinder bores wiped clean with a lint-free towel, apply a light coat of engine oil to the walls. After making sure that the connecting rod and cap saddles are clean and dry, install the rod bearings to the rod and cap and coat the exposed bearing surfaces with oil (I used [...]
PROJECT LS2, PART 3 Assembly of the short block and cylinder head installation by Mike Mavrigian All photos by author INSTALLING THE RELUCTOR WHEEL The reluctor wheel features a series of teeth that provide crankshaft position signals via a sensor to the ECM. The wheel press fits to the rear of the crank, immediately forward [...]
The side relief design provides additional clearance for the crank’s reluctor wheel. Without this added clearance, No. 8 piston would hit the reluctor wheel. Here’s an underside view that clearly illustrates the side relief/short pin design. Naturally, this also reduces reciprocating weight as a bonus. As you can see, the compression height resulted in the [...]
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 [...]
CHOOSING THE RIGHT OIL FOR FLAT TAPPET CAM BREAK-IN All oils are not created equal. by Mike Mavrigian photos by author Avoiding flat tappet cam failure can be as simple as using the correct oil during break-in. Chances are you’ve run into this problem first-hand, or know a builder who has shared his horror stories. [...]
CAM BEARING INSTALLATION Note: The cam bores feature sharp edges. To aid in camshaft bearing installation, first deburr the edges with a sharp scraper. Once all block grinding, tapping, and deburring was finished, the block was thoroughly washed, rinsed, and blow-dried, with 5W30 engine oil applied to the cylinder walls to prevent surface-rusting. The camshaft [...]
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 [...]
The valve reliefs were cut with precision. The intake pockets are 0.270″ and exhaust pockets are 0.064″. Notice that the pin bore location encroaches into the oil ring groove. Diamond supplied a set of support rails that are installed prior to the oil ring package. These provide footprint support for the oil ring package. Scott [...]
Dart 11-Degree Big Chief Cylinder Head Specs P/N………………………18500000 Material…………………355T6 aluminum alloy Comb. Chambers……….56cc (70cc also available) Intake valve dia…………2.470″ Intake port dim. …………1.815″ x 2.725″ w/3/4″ radius Intake port volume………FP CNC – 497cc Intake port location……..Raised 1.500″ spread ports Exhaust valve dia………1.800″ Exhaust port volume……185cc Exhaust port dim………..2.020″w x 1.780″h Exhaust port location……angled & raised [...]
We build a big, big block drag mill just for the sheer hell of it. by Mike Mavrigian photos by author Some folks love to claim that bigger is not always better. While that may be true in some cases, let’s face it…when the conversation turns to displacement, well, bigger cain’t never hurt. After all, [...]
Subscribe to Precision Engine
Sign up for our E-newsletter