Well it was supposed to be anyway. Got it on the dyno and all hooked up. Fired it off and theres an oil pressure problem. It has good pressure down low but not getting up to the top of the engine. TA 296-R cam. Solid roller lifters 3/8 push rods and 1.7-1 roller rockers sitting on S3 TE heads. I noticed when we spun up the oil pump before the intake was installed that the oil was not flowing up the push rods like I thought it should. It was a cold day and had SAE 50 in it and chalked it up to that . We did lightly score one lifter from the bottom to the oil hole and that one was moving oil pretty good. Kenny didnt want to do them all for fear of over oiling the top end. Ran out of time today. Will look at it in the morning.
That "Fisher Balancer/Damper" shure looks familiar.:TU: Can't wait to see what the numbers are. I just finished up a customers 1987 GN front & rear seal replacement along with doing all the pump and cover mods. When I went to prime it (you have to purge the oil cooler system first) I had 55lbs. of pressure with a drill that has a free rpm of 800 and about 400-rpm when loaded down. With room temp. 10/30 Brad Penn it took a total of at least 5 minutes to get oil to all rockers. I started and stopped the drill on and off during the procedure. Same situation with a Ford 312 Y-Block we built for a customers '56 T-Bird. How long did you prime yours? I can image you are correct in thinking the 50wt. has something to do with it. Also I'm just curious as to why you chose not to install the 5th head studs? No big deal, just curious. Larry
Ran the drill for a good long time. You could feel the pull so I know it was primed. The block was not drilled for the extra studs. Kenny, my engine guru, said with a iron block it was not really needed. My first plan of action today is to drain the 50 and refill with with Rotella 15/40. If that makes a difference but not enough I'll go to 10/30
Just so you know I run 10W/30 in my Tomahawk. I also worked my way down to get my oil pressure where I liked it.
I'm a bit confused.. So you have good oil pressure, but it's not feeding the rockers? How long did you run the engine? Lack of upper end oiling cannot be determined until the engine is fully warmed up. Both sides? JW
My experience has been just the opposite with TA Stage 2 aluminum heads. The extra head bolts seem to be needed more with an iron block than an aluminum block. The TA Stage 1 aluminum heads do much better without the extra head bolts mainly because of the exhaust port structure above that portion of the head I feel. I have never installed the extra bolts on a TA Stage1 There are a few parts on your engine that just might be older than some of the readers here. The heads, I.D. by the aluminum screw in front and rear plugs which makes them fairly early heads, and yes, that Fisher Damper we used to sell back in the late 80"s early 90's. I still have 3 and one is brand new in the box. Can't wait to see how this turns out.
The right bank was doing ok first one then another started oiling through the rockers. The left bank had nothing. Turned the drill for 10 -15 mins. I drained out he SAE 50 and put in Rotella 15/40. Ran the drill for another 5-10 mins and they started to oil. I was happy enough with it that we started the engine and let it warm up. Will do some pulls after lunch https://youtu.be/-mTaCZ635No
I was just curious, isn't it standard practice to have an oil heater in place on the oil pan sump prior to dyno/break in? Maybe I am thinking that because my machine shop always does. I realize the block & components will take time to warm up. Larry
We always run water 160 for over an hour or more ,minimum . To Get it hot .... Heats the block nice and the pan ....I turn the crank several times until all pushrods have oil Usally with valve covers off , Or prior to Dyno on the stand . Too much assembly lube can delay also . My Dyno guys builds mostly Roller Chevey & fords 15-40 rottella and then Joe Gibbs . All the Buicks I have done recently have been Brad Penn 30w break-in , last one was Rotella with additive . Hopefully extra care was taken & all parts cleaned .
The results are in. First pull it started breaking up as the pull was applied to it. At first we suspected the carb The fist pull was 527@ 5000 and 610Tq @ 4500. I dont have the printouts so my numbers might be a bit off. (i have CRS) changed carbs and it got worse. put mine back on and it got better. did a jet change to lean it out and did worse ect back and forth. Finally figured it was ignition. Found 2 bad plug wires. Would idle fine but cut out under power. So she made the power running on 6. Went back to the orig jetting fresh plugs and wires Had the timing dialed back to 31 while trying to find the miss and forgot to crank it back up to 36. Last pull it made 682 @ 5200 . We cut the last pull short cause the flex plate was not liking the high numbers as much as I was. HP was climbing at a rate of 45 hp per each 500 rpm. So I figure it would be in the 750 range at 6500rpm. I got more work to do once its in the car and a few bugs to work out. Overall Im happy with it. The Vid below is the first pull. You can hear it breaking up under load. https://youtu.be/iXIMpQof1Ik
Some kind of secret shop, they won't let you video inside? o No: Damned impressive numbers, in any case.
Steve , Best if you can iron it all out on the Dyno ... Carb ,fuel & ignition just as it will be in the car ... Save you a lot of time etc . Be careful of too much timing . You will be surprised ... Wonder why the Dyno has a flex plate ? Flywheel Typically with large coupler etc . Great to here it's making power !
The carb and ignition is all worked out. If I wanted to get full pulls I'll have to pull it off the Dyno and wait for a new flex plate then install and hook everything up again. and @ 500.00 a session.... The Dyno does have the clutch plate and disk ect but that connects to my flex plate. Stock plates are only good to around 500 hp. Was hoping to skate by with it for now but I'll have to bite the bullet and cough up another 250.00. The other item is the Bronze Dist gear. and to lock out the mechanical advance. Once thats all put back together and the car running on its own again the jetting will change with current weather conditions. With the last engine I had a jet kit and had all the sets labeled as to what DA the car would run best. Ex. used 94 jets in the secondarys and 88 primary in really good air like about 500" above seal level. Im starting this Dominator with 88's front and rear
