We took it out last night after we put the grill, and front bumper on. Took it easy...found a hill to help with break in. Then went and filled up with 94 octane. So with a full tank of fuel, this this is doing rolling burn outs...no brakes required at all. From a dead stop, instant spin. ......torque much?! Very happy so far. Only issue we have is the Autometer temperature sending unit we bought. It is out by about 60*F. As soon as we fired it up, the temperature went to 140*F, and climbed to almost 250*F (That's why the wife was asking why the fans weren't turning when the temperature was showing over 230*F) So we pulled it out last night and tested it, to verify it was the sender,not the gauge. Our gauge has a range from 100 to 250*F, and the ohms for 100*F is 1123, and 65 ohms for 250*F. (Autometer spec's.) We had a pot of water on the stove with a mercury thermometer, and my Fluke 789 multi-meter, and it read over 7000 ohms at room temp. (72*F) At 150*F, it was reading 123 ohms...which by Autometer spec's should be 210*F. At 200*F, it was reading 68 ohms. At 205*F, it was reading 65 ohms, which should of been 250*F. Wanted to video it, but we have the rev limited to 4500. (It hit that right off the dead stop...)
Have the idle at 750-800.... but in gear, man it sounds frickin awesome! Haydn couldn't help but bust out in a full blown teeth showin smile and chuckle, at the lights...(The kind that you make when your in church, and you think of a joke that was told to you earlier, and you find it funny again.) Putting the hood on later today, as he works again. Gonna check for hood clearance with some Play-Doe rolled up, and placed on top of the air cleaner.
I am looking at these. Black face, easy for my old eyes to see, both are mechanical. My old Stewart Warners are just that, old. Look at this on eBay http://www.ebay.com/itm/262933203265
We just used what I'm not using anymore. I had these gauges on my truck, but the sender is still in the side of the block. Haydn is now realizing just how easy it is to spend money....$65.00 for gas, and $30.00 for A&W last night killed close to $100.00 for him. He's happy with using "used" gauges. Lol
Found a drop of coolant on the floor today. Traced it down to the heater core hose which comes off the water pump. Now he's off to wash the car. (And I'm sure try out the higher rev limiter setting....6000.) Boys will be boys...
Only 6k? Mine is at 6,500. Derek says your rods are good to 8,500! I say let it rip.... You have a baby Nascar engine.
We called TA Performance this afternoon, and spoke with Tim, who asked Mike what we should set the rev limiter at...his response was 5800-6000rpm. If the springs aren't stiff enough to prevent valve float at 6500 rpm...I don't wanna go there.
Does he know you have better than factory rods? That limit sounds like a factory rod rev limit. If you matched the springs to the roller cam you have you should be good to 6,500, probably around the limit the roller lifters are as well? You might want to call TA again and re-ask your question about RPM and let them know you have better rods, also ask about valve float @ 6,500 with the springs you have as well and the RPM limit of your hydraulic roller lifters. If in the future you want more RPM out of it you could swap in some solid roller lifers, upgrade springs and set the lash to .010" hot lash, that should get you another 500 to 1,000 more RPM out of it! That is after he gets use to the new found power it makes now and if the brakes are up to the task of stopping it. If you haven't already, you might want to get the frame reinforcements that go from the rear upper control arm frame to the rear lower control arm frame mounts. You may want to look at traction enhancers and upgrading front and rear sway bars while you're back there.(if you haven't already?)
You don't want to spin you need MT's drag radials. I spun mine to 62o0 with the SP3 you should be able to do the same. The dyno operator spun mine to 6400 22 years ago and I spun it to 6200 today you should have no problem spinning to 6500. wing the sucker. With this intake I would now use solid lifters on the roller cam.
Yes, Tim asked us what rods we had, and what the cam grind was, so Mike should have known...unless he didn't relay all the information to him. Got a call today from Haydn today...may have overheated the engine. I asked him to park it until I get home again... All hoses are hot. Electric fans work. I asked if he turned his heater fan on to help cool the engine....he said no. (It was 37*C @ home today.) I asked him to shoot the entire engine with the temperature gun, and write down all the info. He said oil pressure was still good. Said it seems to be harder to start now...cold and hot. I said to wait until it's cooled down before touching anything...and then drop the coolant, and pull the thermostat out, and test it.....go from there, I guess. I knew we should have done a compression test, but wanted the rings to set in first. Apparently it MELTED the plastic flywheel cover. (Header heat, maybe?)
Probably air pocket , did you fill the system then run engine with cap off then fill when thermostat opened and level dropped? Fill the rad then capping it for beak in is a common problem, and with you not doing a break in with it being a roller cam it's even more common
If you watch the first start video again, you can see the rad cap is off. (First couple seconds.) Had our big floor jack under it, lifting the front as high as it could go when filling it up, so we could get as much air out as possible, and to keep the radiator fill opening higher then the rest of the system hoses.
Hope it's nothing more than an air pocket that has to burp out of it... At least the thermostat has a pee hole.....not that it helped much....but everything got warm together.....jdk.
I have had constant troubles with air in my cooling system. My first 350 and the one I rebuilt too. It is just so easy to trap air in there and then run into heater issues, false temp readings, overheating or the thermostat failing to open. I would try cracking open some of the coolant plugs on the intake too. Common to have some air trapped there.
I never really had any problem with my 350. I filled mine with water on break in and left the rad open, and when it went down, I topped it off. It was water and June, so I didn't care about overflowing. I had the opposite problem actually, engine ran cold. I had a 160 stat in there for break in purposes, and never swapped it out. Even without a shroud and a 231 5 blade fan with a fan clutch that probably had 84,000 miles, once I swapped in a 195 it NEVER got above 210 on the gauge. Even idling in hot traffic. I had a dinky 115$ aluminum/plastic radiator. Now the engine compartment airflow may be different between a g body and an A body, but just relaying my experience. Super pumped for you guys that it works! I know it might be a rude question, but how much do you have in this so far, if you have a rough estimate?
I will tell you what I did, I put a small hole in the thermostat at the top right off the bat so the air would get out. Since my mechanical water temp gauge had a leak because the threads were shot I put in a temp gauge that goes directly in the intake manifold. Got that from Summit Racing. I would change the oil right now since you think it may have gotten hot just to be on the safe side since you probably used Dino oil to break in the engine. I personally would have used a clutch fan set up to get this all broken in since you know that system would cool right away. Then I would have hooked up the electric fan set up once I knew the system was ok. I would put in a 180 * thermostat and it will run from 180-190 when hot. That is what I did been that way forever. Once you get this motor broken in I would use Mobile 1 10-30. I use 2 quarts of 15-50 Mobile 1 and I use 4-5 qts of Mobile1 10-30 been that way for 22 years now. Still spinning 6200+ rpm
What I do consists of one additional step. I run the engine, cap off, until the stat opens and the level drops. I top the radiator level off, but then I open the throttle and hold the engine at about 1500 RPM. The level drops some more and I again add coolant to top it off. Then put the cap on before closing the throttle. It can be done by yourself if you have everything close by, but it is easier with two people. Never had an air pocket using that method.
I have a spill free funnel kit that makes this super simple to burp the system. Lisle 24610 https://www.amazon.com/Lisle-24610-Spill-Free-Funnel/dp/B001A4EAV0 Easily one of the favorite tools I have and cheap too at about $25