Roller-cam Vortec 357 TBI build

[MOBS]

My first time building an engine, I kept thinking I'd forgotten to torque or install something throughout the build. Anyways, including time to order parts and balance stuff, I spent about 6 weeks 8hrs a day making sure everything was just perfect. It was a 260 olds V8, tiny lil pistons.

 

[stroker52]

Good deal, I've always ran iron for longevity. Funniest thing I've ever heard aside from "3/4 cam" was someone claiming to run chrome-moly rings. I myself have never heard of such a thing, there's either chrome or moly.

here you go... i use them all the time and well worth the money but your person thats doing the hone better be good and know what there doing... not something you can do at home are you will not get them to seat well... read what it tells you on the side...

http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Speedway-Moly-S-B-Chevy-Piston-Rings-Style-A,3209.html

 

[MOBS]

Yeah those are moly rings, I've ran them once, and they require the finest hone, very difficult to get right. Chrome is much easier, but iron is good enough for most pump fuel engines, whereas chrome helps when you're running aluminum heads, block, reverse flow cooling etc due to being able to run higher CR and still remain on pump gas. Those $5/gallon drums of rocket fuel cost alot to get shipped from Texas!

 

[stroker52]

you can run up to 10 to 1 on pump gas and 11 to 1 with aluminum heads... the rings dont bring you compression up it the better ring seal that does.. and this means longer life... your piston play a big roll in your ring seal, most people look over this.. the ring land on a piston helps the ring seal... there are little thing that you can do to a motor to make it live alot longer and really not cost anything...

you say the normal old rings will work just fine... well your right they will but if you take some time and do a few thing and check some stuff you will be really surprized how way off those normal cheap rings are off and the cast pistons are not as good as the box looks lol....

the guy that has built my carbs (Q-JETS) set down and we have had long i mean long talks over pistons and rings... he built AJ foyts motors... he took me out in the shop and he had a big flat stone with some 800 grit sand paper and lapped a ring in and i was like WOW... it was hit and miss.. the ring was wavy, he could not rub it flat... now he takes me over to a piston... and he ask what do you think about this piston... i said well looks good to me.. and the piston is a keith black piston... well he checked the ring land and showed me it was pointed down, thats a big no no!! it needs to point up to seal against the ring... he said if you was to put a motor together with this stuff, yeah it would run but your giving up so much... on top of that in a year it will need rings again so i pay real clost attention to this stuff on stock motors all the way up to my dirt track motors...

man i can go on an on about this stuff lol i like talking motors i live eat sleep SBC

 

[MOBS]

you can run up to 10 to 1 on pump gas and 11 to 1 with aluminum heads... the rings dont bring you compression up it the better ring seal that does.. and this means longer life... your piston play a big roll in your ring seal, most people look over this.. the ring land on a piston helps the ring seal... there are little thing that you can do to a motor to make it live alot longer and really not cost anything...

you say the normal old rings will work just fine... well your right they will but if you take some time and do a few thing and check some stuff you will be really surprized how way off those normal cheap rings are off and the cast pistons are not as good as the box looks lol....

the guy that has built my carbs (Q-JETS) set down and we have had long i mean long talks over pistons and rings... he built AJ foyts motors... he took me out in the shop and he had a big flat stone with some 800 grit sand paper and lapped a ring in and i was like WOW... it was hit and miss.. the ring was wavy, he could not rub it flat... now he takes me over to a piston... and he ask what do you think about this piston... i said well looks good to me.. and the piston is a keith black piston... well he checked the ring land and showed me it was pointed down, thats a big no no!! it needs to point up to seal against the ring... he said if you was to put a motor together with this stuff, yeah it would run but your giving up so much... on top of that in a year it will need rings again so i pay real clost attention to this stuff on stock motors all the way up to my dirt track motors...

man i can go on an on about this stuff lol i like talking motors i live eat sleep SBC

I actually agree with what you say and yeah, that KB piston would've caused the ring to "rock" in the cylinder causing it to lose it's "squareness"....I've also found that older engines that have had ether used alot to crank them, have scorched ring seats in the pistons. Ever noticed that? If anything, I suggest using spare gas or wd-40 cuz of it's oily properties, whereas ether is very dry.

I think I liked sbc's alot more in the early days....i'm more into the old school bbc cubes now, although i did do an olds 403 a while back, took it +.020" and since a 403 is pretty much already max bored, had to open up some copper gaskets so they'd seal(steel mesh would've disintegrated at that thin). I wanna do a 409....I just don't remember what block that engine design was based on in the first place. You remember the first and second gen 409 nascar engines? first gen was a lemon for nascar, think i wanna build a nascar spec'd second gen 409....got a buddy with an old stock car, he'd croak if I told him i built a 409 for it

 

[stroker52]

here you go lol

http://www.worldcastings.com/products/big-block-merlin-409-inchwinch-block.html

 

[MOBS]

yeah RIGHT!!!! haha, it would have to be a vintage block, or atleast an iron. I know the 409 in the car has a cracked block due to incorrect winter storage by previous owner, I'd thought about brazing, but it's external damage and i dont know how far the damage goes into the casting. I dont know about you, but I have the bad habit of talking about(and alot of times starting) a new project before I finish the current lol. Gotta finish my engine build for my green '95 ecsb.

 

[woody80z28]

Finally got some pics up:

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[woody80z28]

Had to modify a couple brackets to work with the different Vortec intake pattern. I also heli-coiled and studded the carb holes and studded the carb-to-TBI adapter because if you used bolts that were too long they would hit on the carb pad and bend the adapter plate.

I went to the junkyard yesterday with my bro-in-law to grab some misc stuff and got a single air cleaner stud for TBI too so I can ditch the ugly stock one. It actually came out pretty nice for a bunch of used junk. The pistons, heads, headers and bearings/gaskets are the only new stuff. Oh and I did grab a new set of plugs & wires.

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[stroker52]

sweet.... i like it.... you need some valve covers like these done up black and leave the cut outs polished...

http://www.abad71camaro.com/servlet/the-4398/SBC-Tall-Valve-Covers/Detail