Got to play a little bit added a 2 inch spacer then a 1 inch spacer. The air cleaner is up too high with the 1 inch spacer, looks like it will all just fit with the 1/2 inch nitrous spacer. would have to get a 3 inch air filter to run the 1 inch spacer, but then the nitrous spacer may still not fit in there. Unless I run no air cleaner. It is going to be close. Really need a cowl hood here now, and I found some fiberglass ones but they are about 400 bucks then you have to have it painted. Or do I just get the old hood out and put a scoop on it then I can run any spacer on it. That 2 inch spacer looks mean huh!
I went to the parts store bought some bolts, cut the heads off so I could make a couple of pins so the intake can be dropped right on the motor so I can stay nice and straight, and hopefully the gaskets will not move like they did the last time when I put the DP intake on there 15 years ago. Remember in the first pics my gaskets were cocked out of shape and this may have been due to not being straight when it was put on back then. Once I have the intake on and all glued down I will pull the pins out and fill with RTV. This little trick worked like a champ on getting it straight and you can keep it up in the air till you get your fingers out and dropped in.
Man that air cleaner looks so close with the thicker spacer it looks like it "missed by that much"(Maxwell Smart)! Can you flip the lid on the air cleaner and get more clearance with the edge trimmed down? Looks like its the crown in the lid that looks to high. Make sure if you do this to use shorter threaded rod so the wing nut doesn't hit the hood! With that crown upside down might even help direct air flow to where it needs to go a bit better? Cool, can't wait to hear the but dyno results!! Just try not to rattle those kidneys to much when you make it out for a test drive. Derek
The air cleaner is a K&N Flo Control air cleaner and the lid has a directional flow on the lid. I would like to couple this with a Super Sucker spacer on there that has the same shape as the air cleaner. The air cleaner was supposed to be a bolt on 10 hp increase since it directs the air down the carb. That but dyno better increase, but I bet it will run faster with my 75-80 shot of nitrous!
Right now I am trying to get AM&P to make or use the existing valley pan they made for the 350 so you would not have to attach it to the heads like the old one would be. This is what you have to deal with when you use the original valley pan with the composite gaskets. The bottom of the gasket gets pinched at the gasket and the valley pan does lift the intake some when installed. I mocked up the intake with the .015 gasket and just snugged the bolts down and you can see it is already trying to pinch it off and it isn't even tight yet. So what I did was try to thin the metal down some to make it thinner and filed off as much as I could so there was not too much overlap, check pics. This is about the best I can get it and I thought about trimming off the bottom of the composite gaskets but it is close to the water jacket and the ports. If you backtrack the pics to the beginning you can see how much gets pinched off when tight and on there for a number of years. That was with the .032 gaskets in the beginning with the DP intake.
Are you using the valley pan gasket and the composite gaskets stacked up on one another? You know you're suppose to alter the valley pan when using a composite gasket right?(Hard to tell in those pics.) "When using two piece composite intake gaskets, it is necessary to retain a portion of the original valley pan gasket so that the PCV system does not draw oil from the engine. A used metal gasket can be used for this purpose, just trim away the portion shown in white, retaining the black portion as shown in the picture below. Then install the valley pan gasket first ensuring that the catches, catch at the base of the head, then put the composite (2 piece) gasket into position allowing it to over lap the valley pan gasket at the areas around the end bolt holes and on the center area. Note: Do NOT delete the PCV system, unless other evacuation methods are used, doing so will cause excessive crankcase pressures." Sorry, couldn't get the picture from the catalog to copy and paste! But the info and pic is on the downloadable catalog on page 190, or is it 189? Its confusing how they have the pages numbered, but the 190 is right below the info. Rather than using tin snips to cut the metal valley gasket, an utility razor knife and a straight edge would be another way to cut it with a little less distortion. Set it on something you don't mind getting a cut in like a scrap piece of plywood on the underside. Can clamp down the flat portion to be cut with the straight edge trying not to disturb the formed areas that will remain. Easy peasy. Do the end vertical cuts last with your tin snips, should look like it was made that way after its done. Or get the preformed AM&P one and drop it in, if they are still available? Derek
I have it just you said there is about 1/16 on the head part and I do not use the bolt holes of it like in the TA pictures. But there is a little bit of overlap from the composite and the metal. That is the part that gets pinched in the pics. The last pic shows how much overlap there is. I will put the valley pan back in and take a pic for you. I have E-Mailed AM&P and sent him pics of the bottom of the SP3 so he can see how much is sticking down below the end rails. BTW I do use the valley pan gasket. Take a closer look at the pics and you can see the lip that attaches to the heads. I do not use the PVC system I have hoses from the valve covers to the headers with a valve there The PVC contaminates the fuel in the carb so I do not use it. The 2nd pic shows the lip that attaches it to the head
Well if in you don't use the PCV valve on the intake then you can trim the valley pan down further so it doesn't touch the composite gasket. You're not sealing anything under the intake so that valley pan is now only to keep hot oil off the bottom of the intake. Most of the splash is in the center where the cam is so........... I like the header PCV system better than the factory style because the more RPM the harder the draw with the header system whereas the factory style does the opposite, the more RPM the less it draws! Almost forgot again, I forgot about the air cleaner being a drop base. The inside of that thing is pretty dam cool too!! I like it. Derek
Here is how the valley pan fits on the engine Next is the lip area that has to sit at the bottom of the intake to hold it in place You can't trim this off otherwise it will fall on to the pushrods Ok now here you can see where the gasket and the steel pan come together and it pinches the gasket. You can see just snugging down the intake had already pinched the gasket. The Gasket is .015 and the steel pan is about the same .015 so this gets doubled to .030 at the bottom of the intake. So what I did do was make the lip on the valley pan as short as possible, then I tried to thin down the metal with the dremmel tool. Now do you see what I am talking about here. Everyone has to be running into this whether it is the 350 or the 455 and using the composite gaskets with the valley pan. If you do it like TA wants you to do it leaving the bolt areas intact with the valley pan and the composite gasket the intake has to be higher at the ports. Get what I am saying here? I just got a E-Mail from Mike at AM&P and he wants to make a valley pan that will fit both styles of intakes so stay tuned. I told him to take a look here.
Yeah I see it now, much better pics. Well, if the bolt hole on the pan were still there you could of glued the valley pan to the heads in that area and put short bolts in those holes with washers until the glue of your choice dried. The rest of it could be clearanced because the 4 glued on corners would hold it up. You could probably sand that bolt hole area a bit thinner and perhaps the gasket in that area thinner so its not a double thickness there? Or even cut the 4 holes off of the gasket in that area so there isn't a double thickness. You have to think outside the box when you're dealing with such a thin margin of error. I don't think trimming those holes off so there isn't a double thickness there will cause any kind of leak, so maybe? I'm not there so you would know better? With a thicker composite gasket that area of the gasket would compress more but being that thin it may cause some interference? I hope this helps? Derek
That is not a bad idea to try have to think about that one for a while. That would keep the intake from resting on the bottom of the heads along with the valley pan and the composite gasket. I do have another valley pan I can cut up. When I had it mocked up I used a .003 feeler gauge to see if I could get it past the water ports and at the top of the intake where the head meets it and I could not get the gauge in there so I think I am ok now to install. Just waiting for AM&P to reply on his valley pan.
Probably, but you have to drill and tap the intake and glue the bolts in, could have problems if it does not hold or in the wrong place. I think AM&P is going to hook me up with one.
That's what I'd do..... Stock valley pan gasket is .018-.020 compressed. That should be the ticket for you Guy. No overlapping of any gaskets that way!
Got a valley pan coming from AM&P and if it works out he will keep making them for the SP3. He just E-Mailed me on it. He knows of the problem with the composite and the valley pan. Hey Mart the track has been calling and wondering where you are at. They blow up my phone every weekend.
Can't get him to get off of his boat unless the waves get to high on lake Huron from the top of the thumb! He will be around to help Jeff out along with myself Wednesday though(rough waters the next couple days) to get Jeff's sbb ready to build. We might even get his disc brakes on his car afterwards so he can stop that thing! He's afraid to run it with the drum brakes at the track because of how fast it is now. Derek
Yep, these drums are the crap your pants style in a quick stop situation, I'll be in town till possibly Friday, so hopefully the brake kit will get installed. Going to see if I can modify & use my drum spindles. That will eliminate realignment, plus springs won't need to come out......and then the SP3!
Had a little set back, I started to bleed last night while at work from the kidney stone operation. I had to leave work after only 2 hrs of working. Felt like fire when urinating, so now I am going to take the next week off work until they take that stent out on Aug 1. No more activity allowed and I need to drink more and lots of water. If you are a 60 yr old like I am you better make sure you drink lots of water during the day to keep this crap away since this is no picnic this thit hurts. I wish TA would get those heads done not getting any younger here.
