Got some more pictures for you guys. The machine work was by Dale Spooner, Motion Machine in Danville, VA. He's very meticulous, for instance, he honed the crank journals to spec, measured size with the bearings and then ground the crank to give the preferred .002" clearance. Anyway, enjoy! Jim
Very nice pictures.... So did you save any money ordering a reman engine???? Glad to see how nice it turned out for you in the end!!!
Hard to say Sean. I recovered about half or more by selling the crank and pistons but all the machine work had to be redone, even the cam bores were off. But as much trouble as I had finding a usable 340 block to begin with, it was probably a wash. I would try to find a '67 Skylark with a running engine if I was doing it over though I think. But, it might make more sense to go with the 350, a custom cam, and adapt the alloy 300 heads to it. (for weight reduction) But I'm guessing that might take a billet cam. Do you know if the cam blanks already have a rough cam profile as supplied? Be kind of hard to rotate the lobes around if they do. Other than that I swear I think it would work. Which might be relevant in another year or so. (edit: irrelevant) Jim
Right on, glad you checked everything and got it sorted out but it just goes to show that ordering a reman engine may not be a good idea for most. Poston says they have cam blanks and willing to do whatever we want, I was asking them about roller cams before.
Good deal. My order of small parts just came in from TA. Crank seals, pump wear plate and large tube pickup & seal. I ordered the 215 head stud kit, hopefully the lengths will match up and I'll just toss the extras in the bolt bin. Looks like I'm ready to set in with the bore brushes and brake cleaner. Got a question for you guys though, do y'all loctite the studs into the block? Seems like a good idea to me but I figured it couldn't hurt to get some other opinions. I've got studs for both the heads and the mains. Also, has anybody got any advice on installing the deck o-rings? It'll be a first for me. Dale sent me a coil of wire to use and suggested snipping the ends at an angle, which I can do, but I'd really like to get this right the first time. Jim
It might at that, and the Megasquirt would be able to handle it just fine. I could even switch back and forth without too much trouble I think. Definitely something to think about. Maybe I need a flex-fuel sensor next. Well I've got the crank installed. I did not loctite the studs because that would just make the caps too hard to remove. I really like those studs, and I'm really really liking the iron block too. No mushiness on torque whatsoever. It really felt great after all those builds on aluminum engines where you never really seemed to know for sure if it was going to reach torque or not unless you heli-coiled it, and even then it never felt that solid. No doubt the aftermarket blocks are different, but that consistent click is very reassuring. The mains all came in pretty much dead nuts on .002" which was what we had decided on and the crank feels nice and smooth. The rear seal is in, and all the mating surfaces and the cap corner chamfers sealed up with Right Stuff. I've test fitted the rings, assembled the pistons, rods and teflon buttons, and got the tools I should need for installing the o-rings. Next job is to make the tapered ring installing tool and the die set to punch out the 215 copper head gaskets to 350 bore size. The job is coming along well. It's truly a pleasure to work with good parts that are properly made, as there's very little needed in the way of adjustments. The Total Seal rings for instance fit quite well with maybe a thousandth of variation in end gap. I'm pretty confident that my rod bearing clearances will be right on the money too. I got a response from Schneider on cam recommendations but I'll have to call them as I'm not real sure about what they recommended. It's a square pattern cam 284-H-12 with .480" lift and 112* lobe centers and I'm not sure they gave it much thought. Where's the extra help on the exhaust because of the blower? I'll have to get that sorted out pretty soon, but at least it's a start. Maybe I just need to ask a few more questions. Jim
Great progress, thanks for keeping us posted! I as well like the studs for the mains, and agree with using nice parts... very nice to have lighter stronger parts that fit like factory.
I really have to hand it to Dale at Motion Machine. He's done a lot of Rovers and 215's but wasn't too familiar with the 340 or the big blocks but he's done an exceptional job of listening to me and not trying to tell me I didn't know what I was talking about when I asked for tight main clearances. I used his recommendation to angle cut the ends of the o-ring wires too, and that has come out real good I think. Here are some photos. I ground the face of a set of channellock pliers to get a true flush cut and buffed it to a mirror finish. The second shot is the wire end, then marking the wires and the final result. I think it came out rather well for my first time. I never even had to start over on any of them. Yea ME! Jim
Got some more photos. I made a punch and die set to enlarge the bore holes of my copper head gaskets using the hydraulic press and as you can see it worked like a charm. Only a very little flattening was required afterwards. Next step would be to pop 'e in the self cleaning oven and then scotchbrite 'em but I test fitted them on the block and lo an behold, the upper water ports were uncovered. Well that ain't a gonna work. Maybe I can sell 'em to someone with a big bore Rover or 215. Guess it's a good opportunity to see if I can find someone who makes the copper head gaskets with silicon seals around the water and oil passages. Next I test fitted the stud kit. TA didn't have a stud kit for the 300 or 340 so I had them send me the one for the 215 in the hopes it would be close and it is, sort of. I need 2 more of the short studs (3-1/4") and have a dozen leftovers, mostly the 3-5/8" size. Have to get a couple more studs somehow. Then I took the base (die) from the punch and die set and made a tapered ring compressor out of it. That ought to make installing the pistons a bit easier. Jim
I'm working on camshaft selection. Can anybody give me a link to the specs on the stock 340 cam? I'm guessing at about .380-.390 lift but have no idea of the duration or overlap and it sure would help to have a starting point. THX Jim
Hi Jim, Ironically I called Poston this morning about their cam selection and the person I spoke with could not answer any of my questions, so I was forwarded over to their cam grinder (Steve Leong (Spell?) of Steve Leong cams, his number is 951-272-0816. I'd give him a call, but before you make a decision I'd also talk with Mike at TA (480-922-6811) because they have a larger selection of cams. I would think that the cam you need would require no overlap, near factory lift but is still moderately aggressive... which is not a popular configuration. I've been calling around because I'm trying to determine if this Isky 270 cam was actually designed for the Buick 215/300/340 or is it just a SBC configuration on a Buick billet. What also has me worried is that this cam may have been designed for a 215 which has nearly a .5" shorter stroke and smaller valves than the 340. Since you had a 215 (or at least I think you did), do you know anything about the ISKY 270 cam? Keep the sticky side down, -Drew
Thanks Drew, not sure about the Isky 270, but the SBB cams are common to the 215,300 and 340. From what I've seen, more displacement tends to calm them down some. The best cam I've personally run was the hottest stick Comp Cams made for the line back in the early '80's but I seem to have lost the specs. It ran great on the top end but wasn't much for idle, wasn't a real polite cam for the street, wanted to run about 1000 rpm and spew black smoke a bit until it got going but it loved to wind out. From that I moved to a KB grind that sounded only slightly milder but in fact was very tame by comparison. A lot depends on what you're after. I'll copy a post from the BritishV8 site here: Here's what I'm looking at for a camshaft: dur@.050 lift: In/Ex Adv. dur lobe separation Mfg: Accelerated Motion 205/217 .427/.448 251/264 112 14821-20743 I realize the specs are kinda mild, that's part of the plan. I would actually like to have a 116* lobe separation, but this will do if it's the best I can come up with. I'm using Pat Kelley's dynamic compression ratio (DCR) calculator: [www.empirenet.com] This cam gives a DCR of 8.18 which is well positioned in the range recommended for street engines on 91 octane gas, but of course it doesn't allow for variations in the cam lobe area. That's a spec that is difficult to come by anyway. What I'm thinking about is something with about a 240/265 duration and a little less lift on the intake. Stock lift for the 215 was .383" so I may have some leeway there, depending on the ramp. Those numbers give a DCR of 8.26 which may be a little higher than I want to go with a blower, but they also give a 20.5* overlap which should improve economy and make the boost very effective. I like this a lot better than one manufacturer who recommended a cam with 60* overlap, that closed 72* ABDC and had a DCR of 7-1/4. I understand why he made those recommendations, but he failed to understand the application. I'm trying to find the specs on the stock cam for comparison. I may be a little low on the duration, but at least I'm getting closer. The link is: http://forum.britishv8.org/read.php?2,274,page=7 I don't know if that helps you any, but I found the DCS calculator useful. In my case I'm not after max power and the cam grinders don't seem to understand that too well, so I'm going to keep looking at whatever specs I can find until I find a few good prospects and then make my calls. Odds are good at that point I'll place an order. Personally I would like to see the specs on cam lobe area. I think that would tell more about what the cam is going to do than just about any other part. But I guess they have to keep some secrets. If their competitors had that, they'd pretty well know what curve they were running and could easily match it. Jim
I talked to Charles at CamcraftCams.com yesterday and I think he's going to help me figure this out. He pointed out (and quite correctly too) that that DCR calculator has no inputs for lift, and without that is can't help being inaccurate. FWIW it's like trying to hit a moving target anyway, continuously, all the way from the ground to the sky, and it'd take a heck of a program to do that even if you did have the lift curve. So he's going to cogitate on it awhile and see what he comes up with. I put four pistons in today and re-checked cam clearance. Looks like I'll have .055" with .250" lobes on a 1.175" base circle. (stock 340 cam from reman engine) but there really isn't much more clearance than that between the lobes and the crank counterweights. I'll try to get some sort of measurement on that tomorrow. The pistons are .008" above the deck, so a .050" thick head gasket should be about right and SCE does make them in that thickness. So things are coming together pretty well at this point. I need to get the correct torque figure for the main studs, there may be something here with it somewhere but I must have misplaced it. I know they aren't tight enough. Hopefully I'll get the other four pistons in tomorrow and be able to button up the bottom end. The tapered ring compressor gets mixed reviews. It works pretty well but it needs a groove for the o-ring and I have to be careful that the rings are sliding into their grooves properly. But not bad for a homemade tool. Jim
Hi Jim, I know the ARP 215 stud kit comes with: 6-pcs ap4.500-1lb (7/16-14 x 4.5" long) 14-pcs ap3.300-1lb (7/16-14 x 3.3" long) 8-pcs ap2.750-1lb (7/16-14 x 2.75" long) What does the TA kit come with? Martin
OK, let me think about this a sec. First off, Sherri at TA sent me two more of the 3-1/4" studs to complete the set for the '64 300 heads. They now know exactly what is needed for that set of head studs. Good folks there. I had 12 studs left from the 215 package (ARP btw). That would have been 2 extra long studs (the 4-1/2" ones I'd say) and 10 of the short ones. Clearly there must be a difference there somewhere. I'll try to look more closely in a day or so when it gets warmer. I used 6 long studs, 4 shorter ones (under the valve covers) and 10 of the 3-1/4". Are you sure the quantities of the shorter two are not reversed? I'd have had to stack washers to use the ones that were left over. Something is out of whack here. I ordered head gaskets, sent away the sample and got torque figures from ARP. I'm ready to button up the pan. Charles is finishing up his move and should be able to give some thought to my cam next week. We'll probably be looking at something around .490" lift and relatively short duration with as large of a nose radius as he can use, in the meantime I will check my spring pressure at .490 with a range of seat pressures between 100 and 120lbs to see what they are capable of. I'm guessing they'll come pretty close to 300 which should be plenty. I also need to start in on a front cover, doing oiling mods, installing a seal and such. Does anyone know of an aluminum water pump for a 300? Shorter is better and the slight forward angle of the inlet is helpful. If there's a real short V6 pump that might be just the thing. Jim
OK what came in the TA kit was: 3.3" studs: 8 ea. 3.6" studs: 14 ea. 4.5" studs: 8 ea. I can't seem to locate the receipt so I can't confirm with absolute certainty that it is a 215 stud kit, however there are 30 studs, the 215 heads each use 14. I do not know of another Buick application that would have the same number or close so I can't imagine what else it might be. I don't have a clue why the 2 extra long studs are in there either. Jim
Been awhile since I posted on this thread. Well, I ran into issues over the head gaskets. Actually, SCE had some issues, and all I can figure is that the guy who made them was high or something that day because the two bottom outside scallops were left off and there was a hole added along one cylinder where no hole should go. They made it right but it added another month to the build time. I mostly had to let it sit and overall the head gaskets held things up for close to 3 months. Personally I think that is just ridiculous but at the very least it is something to watch for. The good news is that SCE now has the 340 head gasket in their files and can run a set if anyone else wants them. So now that they've arrived I've test fitted, snugged down the heads, checked for valve/piston clearance, measured pushrod length and ordered those, and have ported the oil pump and enlarged the oil passages in the cover. I'm waiting on a duplex timing chain set to button up the front, and an 18" degree wheel is on the way. I decided I might as well go ahead and check the cam centerline since I've gone to as much trouble as I have on this engine already. Valve clearance turned out to be right at 1/4", checking with clay. Pushrods are 9.250 which gives me .040" of preload and another .030" safety margin. That should work out just about right and I shouldn't have any issues with lifter tap. My valve springs will need to be shimmed up just a tad bit to get the 250# open pressure and seated pressure should be around a hundred. I'll do a little checking to confirm those numbers and then the heads will be ready to go on. Since the decks are o-ringed and the head gaskets are copper I'll smear a little "Right Stuff" around the coolant and oil holes before torqueing them down. So maybe in a week or two the engine will be together at last and I'll post a photo. Then it will be time to start in on the intake manifold. That should prove interesting. Jim
