WE BEGIN THE BUILD OF A BORED STROKED PONTIAC 455 TO OBTAIN 501 CID AND ABOUT 600 PONIES. THE GOAL:TO CREATE AN IDEAL “INDIAN” POWERPLANT FOR STREET, STRIP AND STREET RODDER APPLICATIONS Prior to block machining, the block exterior was smoothed and detailed. Not only will this ressurected Pontiac provide some ground-pounding thump, but it’ll [...]
Edelbrock Victor Pro Series water pumps are an all new design ideal for small-block and LS-series Chevrolet circle track racing applications. They are a two-piece cartridge style design and feature improved symmetrical flow paths that increase coolant flow and reduces parasitic power loss. The pump housing has large inlet and perfectly symmetrical outlet port [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
A customer (and a buddy) recently brought his nostalgia-flavor Ford Thunderbolt clone (equiped with a vintage 427 FE) to my shop, complaining of high engine temperature issues, primarily at idle. The water temp at idle would routinely reach in the area of 210 to 220 degrees F., often continuing to gradually climb even higher. While [...]
The FE ready for it’s dyno visit. PROJECT FE PART 5 Text and photos by Mike Mavrigian INTAKE MANIFOLD With the heads installed, and before installing the rocker shaft systems, you must install the intake manifold. FE manifolds feature captive pushrod holes (the pushrods pass through the intake manifold). In order [...]
The Victor water pump mounting gaskets are alloy bases with elastomeric seals. These appear to be very re-useable. Our Edelbrock water pump mounted to the block. Fit and hole alignment were superb. Here’s the upper left timing cover bolt that we mentioned. It’s close, but it does clear the pump body. The Edelbrock water pump [...]
The camshaft was checked with a degree wheel. Crane did one heck of a nice job grinding this bumpstick. Lift and timing moments were dead-on to the cam card. With our crank snout pinned for the damper, the timing cover was installed using ARP’s front cover kit (12-point stainless). The front coolant balance tube assembly [...]
PROJECT LS2, PART 4 This has proven to be a fairly easy build. The LS series-both Gen III and IV-shows definite promise. by Mike Mavrigian all photos by author Our LS is now ready for induction and ignition.At this point, our LS2 is a complete longblock. Here, we’ll cover a number of subjects leading up [...]
The upper intake manifold plenum box gasket is stainless-steel reinforced and provided a perfect fit. The upper plenum box is secured with 1/4″ x 20 x 3/4″ stainless socket head cap screws. I applied a dab of moly to the threads prior to installation. I tightened all screws to 60 in-lbs using a criss-cross pattern. [...]
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