new to me 462 short block

Found a 462 short block down here I couldn't pass up. It's had all oil mods completed, balanced with sfi flex plate and balance. Forged rods and pistons. Stock crank that has been turn .010. Block girdle from TA and it was dipped to remove debris before being machined. My question is could I run TA's 288-92h cam with almost stock 71 iron heads for now and upgrade to aluminum heads later and it still perform on pump gas? Or will it be falling on its face. I'm at a cross roads. Get it up and running by this spring with the irons or wait til this time next year for a set of Stage 1 aluminum flowing 313 intake 225 exhaust with stage 1 valves. Threw the pics of my headers in there to just for good measure.

 

Balance was suppose to be balancer

 

Its going to depend on the comp height of the pistons and if the block has been decked or not. You could also mill the heads to bump compression if need be. For what its worth, I have the 288-92h in my engine and made a booboo ending up with compression in the mid 9's (vs the mid 10's that I wanted) and my engine still made pretty good power on pump gas (540hp 560tq on a notoriously conservative dyno). That was with a set of Gessler ported edelbrock aluminum heads though. But the biggest thing with making the cam happy is your compression being right. Although the aluminum heads will add power, if the comps good the engine will still run nice with that cam and irons. Just make sure your valve springs, pressures, etc are setup correctly for it.

 

Comp height is 1.975 and they are TA Forged economy pistons. Not my choice of piston but cam with the set up. They should yield 9:3:1 with my 71 iron heads with 68 cc chambers and 9:8:1 with a set of the aluminums. I know the TA heads would be 64 cc chambers and the edlebrocks are 68 cc unless you mill them. You say mid 9 's as far as compression. Would 9:3:1 be in that realm. I have talked to a few engine builders and they say I would want to put that cam in at 6 degrees advanced with the irons and only 4 with the aluminums. Yielding 104 with 6 advance and 106 with the 4 which Is where a stock timing set would get you anyway. The thought is the cam might be a little rough at 106 with only 9:3:1 compression. Also the block has not been decked just cleaned up from use. So minimal decking if there is such a thing.

 

You're very very close to where i am. I believe my compression came out to 9.47 if i remember correctly. Block was trued up but not decked. There's a piston swap in my future, but after seeing the results I left it be for now. I can't remember where the can was degreed at, I'll have to check my notes.

 

Sounds good. It's hard not to just through in my 71 irons on and see what it will do. The car has been in my garage not moving for over 6 months now and it taunts me if ya know what I mean. It's like every time I see an old school drive by it tempts me to put it together and let it rip. But it's nice to get some advice from someone running this cam and somewhat of a similar set up. Do you have any sound bytes or videos of this thing running. I have found one on you tube but that's all. It sounded wicked u imagine yours does too. Thanks.

 

I say deck the iron heads and run with those for a while. My experience is, if you wait for something else, you may wait forever.

 

Here's a video on the dyno. I had more (with idling and such) but can't seem to find them. David Butts (another member here) has a few videos on YouTube of his car with that cam as well. Buick 455 Dyno Run 11-15-13: http://youtu.be/dOvVYsO3e5c

And I also tend to agree with Mark. Slap those heads on until you get around to upgrading. No, you won't have as much power with them, but beats nothing at all right??

 

If I installed it only 2 advanced or with no advance at all I would be better off? Okay the irons only have 2.00 intake valves and 1.625 exhaust will that be OK for now to get the car running? I guess I wouldn't want to sink a bunch into the irons then upgrade later for even more. I know hot rodding is not a good investment and not cheap by any means but I don't want to feel like I wasted the money later I guess.

 

I read your post backwards then read the article and realized I got it backwards.now that makes sense with everything else I have read and looked into.

 

Cool then thanks for the insight. I could sell the 455 core I have but I think I will get more use out of what is there. And sell what's left later. More of my build parts there.

 

Well I wanted to go Stage 2 aluminums but ran across a great deal in some hooker super comp ceramic headers. They are only 1 7/8 primaries. So I have to go Stage 1 but I will have have them worked to flow 313 intake and 225 exhaust with Jim Weise.

 

Have the heads shaved. 030 and bolt them on.

 

So your saying shave the irons .030? That would make my CC smaller and my static and dynamic compression go up. Closer or above 7.5. I guess I need to learn how to calculate that correctly. DCR that is.

 

With the extra lift of the aftermarket cam, you will need to check that the valve springs do not bind and that there is enough retainer-to-guide (or seal) clearance at max lift.

 

Good point Scott. That cam with the stocker 1.55 ratio rockers would make .508 lift if all things were true. It could be a little less or more. I believe reading that stock springs on a 71 head are good for .500 lift. Does anyone know if that hold true?

 

I never heard that of stock 71 springs. Get the right ones to be safe. Yes shave the iron heads . put static around 9.8 should bring up dynamic to where can can work better.