A guide to building the lil guy. The Mighty 300

jim,
how much work to fit the 340?
have they looked at making it higher?
$730 is a big chunk. have to squeeze other projects for that.....
john

 

Johnny, We are trying to get the price down. The shipping is what is really ridiculous. Maybe shipping a dozen or more in one crate would be cheaper? You would need spacer plates for the 340. A 1" open spacer would be good for racing. Dan Jones had the Willpower on a flow bench and it flowed almost the same as the cylinder head alone. Compared to the Huffaker it had a better radius on the longer runners.

 

I didn't think firing order made any difference since we're just talking about the lobe profiles. There are differences in the LS and TA heads of course but just how much that affects the engine I'll be building? In other words, enough of a difference to make it unproductive to consider LS cam lobe profiles? Do you know how much different they are from the LT4 cam?

Jim

 

Jim, Firing order does not matter as long as you specify you want the Buick one and not the LS. Delta has an LS profile they sell with a little more lift. With 1.6 rockers it would have .550 lift. The 1.7 LS rockers have .585 lift. The LS intake port flows over 300cfm with a mild cleanup. Very tall narrow intake ports.

Domestic - Delta Camshaft

 

Another pic with spacer under throttlebody. Different intake/Wildcat for high port Wildcat Rover heads. Made by Willpower in Australia:

 

Just at a guess I think the valves have a good chance of clearing the pistons with the .500 lift. Maybe not with .550" But I haven't checked it yet. I'll know more after some assembly, probably after the BritishV8 meet, but if I do have to notch the pistons I expect I could as easily go .550 as 500. Sounds like that LT4 profile might be the better choice. I don't feel like I really need all the extra lift for a street engine and my heads are unported so 200cfm intakes. Hard to see how 300 cfm ports work at all on the street. Really don't want to screw up my idle.

Nice looking intake, just needs the valley plate. Hope they get 'er done. Weight of a 300 aluminum intake would be about 12-13lbs. I have a 2bbl I can weigh again if you like, IIRC it and the 4bbl were within a few ounces of each other.

Jim

 

i've seen the stock 4 bbl intake and thought there was enough flat material to cut down for a plate to mount a blower on it.
kind of hard to do it on this one.

 

I've completed the short block test fit and am waiting on the roller cam, my waterjet guy is cutting some main cap stabilizer plates for me, I'll post a photo in another week or two when he has those done. Turns out the Pankel rods look like a better choice than the Carillo, provided you can get the bearing inserts. The capscrews use a smaller size head and clear the oil suction galley casting without any extra work. I'll see how the shoulders look once the cams get here.

Jim

 

300 build recipe:
BritishV8 Forum: Buick 300 V8 build recipe

 

Here are some new parts. The stabilizer plate is also an oil scraper. The roller cam is 220/230 and .520/.530 112 from TA.

Jim

 

Exciting!

 

Excellent!

 

Jim,

That stabilizer plate is a clever idea. Way less machining involved, and for the forces involved, totally adequate. I'm assuming you were able to get away with the available stud kits, instead of special order?

 

Getting back to the short block assembly, with the new roller cams I have found that there is a little interference between the cam lobes and the rod shoulders with both the Carillo rods and the Pankl rods, the same as what I had with the Scat rods in my 340. So a small cut will be needed for clearance and the smart move is to cut all the rods the same so that if the timing chain was to fail it will not wipe out any cam lobes. This is a step that really should be done before the engine is balanced but the amount of metal that will be removed is so small that it will not have any significant effect. Still, for the perfectionists out there if you go this route just know that this will be an early step in the process and may mean an extra trip or two to the machine shop.

Jim

 

Jim, you think your cm specs would work for a Turbo 300? is that place for a 300, or a 340? If for a 300, would you be willing to supply one?

 

?

 

Jim, I think I can translate. Jim B had TA grind a roller blank to SBC LT4 "Hot" cam specs. Good for about 400HP N/A, Good TQ band for Turbo or Supercharged. 300 and 340 can use the same cam. Jim has a 300 stroked with a 340 or 350 crank.

Chevrolet Performance 24502586 SBC Hydraulic Roller Hot Cam (sdparts.com)

 

The specs for that cam are very similar to the TA 112. Mike Moor is running a very similar cam in his 300 with shorty headers and dynoed 300hp at the wheels. Driveability is very good.

Jim

 

Got the cam stop plates made for the roller cams. It's a working solution, since nothing seemed to be available and I wasn't satisfied with the bumper bolt. These are patterned somewhat after the V6 one, made of 1/4" brass plate. I'm sure something much nicer could be made but this will do. there is a tapered face on the back side that matches the tapered face on the roller cams, I think it's about 27 degrees. Maybe 27-1/2.

In other news I clearanced both the Pankl and the Carillo rods to clear the lobes of the roller cams. It was an easier job on the Pankl rods since I didn't have to do any work to the rod bolts. Everything considered, I think the Pankl rods are the better choice. Basically the corner of the shoulder has to be cut back, down to where the threads start.

Jim

 

Jim, did you entertain the idea of having a flat shoulder instead of the 27 degree design. Anything will probably work.
I know all rod corners have to be corner clearanced with roller cams....only all on one side for balance. With my Pankls, I had to cut into the rod bolt thread some.

Gotta do whatever it takes to make it work...