350 head port & polish and cam swap

Should be awe-ight.

Derek

 

Rest of the valve train is installed: lifters, pushrods and rocker arms.......set the lifter preload to 1/3 of a turn after zero lash. Also bolted up the headers to the heads.

Next on the list is to clean up the timing cover and oil pump and pack the gears with petroleum jelly, install same and run the oiling system.

 

Steve, if you have a hyd. cam and adj. pushrods, check the thread pitch (threads per inch) on the pushrods. If the thread is 32 pitch, 1.0 32 = .03125 for one full turn. If you set your preload at 1/3 rd turn, you only have.0104166 preload! Check it again, you want about .030 or so. Ten thou. doesn't allow much for settling in of mating surfaces either. If pitch is 32, you probably want one full turn of preload.

Whoops.....Just saw you have roller rockers. They are 20 threads per inch. I set mine at slightly over 1/2 turn (abt 5/8 turn). That gets you abt .030 preload.

 

Thanks Marty, last night I reset the preload to 1/2 turn..........I appreciate the tip.

 

Hey Steve did you ever get the heads flow tested?

Scott

 

Hi Scott, no I didn't...........i'll have to wait for qtr mile results at Lapeer dragway........

 

I am looking forward to the results.... my heads are at the shop waiting for me to tell them how much to shave off.

Scott

 

Took apart the oil pump last night for cleaning. Will pack it with PJ and assemble and install this weekend and prime the oiling system.

 

So reusing the old one? How did it look?

 

It looked really fresh, almost brand new, minor wear in the pump cover.........and apparently the mechanic who rebuilt the motor 35,000 miles ago installed the higher volume pump....it has the longer gears and spacer.

 

Packed the oil pump with PJ, buttoned it up, and installed the timing cover over the weekend..........hope to get some time during an evening this week to run the oiling system.

 

My son and I primed the oiling system with an electric drill and screwdriver shaft yesterday evening. We watched the oil fill up the cups of all the lifters and pool in the recesses of the block around the lifters, but we did not observe the oil coming out of the tops of the pushrods at the rocker tips. I'm thinking that my drill wasn't powerful enough to push the oil all that way up.

Does this sound normal? Is the oil system primed now?

Thanks.

 

Did you spin the crank? I'm thinking you'll only see oil coming from one side though...

 

Yes.

 

Thank you gents........it's very helpful to confirm the steps of the work as my son and I go through this project.

Next is the installation of the intake manifold, probably tomorrow evening. We've already test fit it and the bolt holes line up like stock.

Thanks again!!

 

My son and I made a lot of progress this weekend...........intake manifold, coil, distributor, alternator, cooling system.....all that's left is the carb, but I need a new fuel line, will pick it up this week. Just a few days away from start up and break-in.....

 

Its a good idea to run just water in the cooling system for initial start up just in case a gasket fails,you don't want anti-freeze in the crank case it will kill the bearings. Plus straight water is a more efficiant cooler without the anti-freeze in it when breaking in the cam.

Engine looks great,I really like that dark red looks really good.GL

Derek

 

Thanks Derek, will do..................picked up a new fuel line at lunch, will replace it this evening and check the carb as well. Oh yeah, and charge the battery...........

 

well, she's all set for start up and 20 minute cam break-in for Saturday morning.

Question: After the cam break-in, how soon do I change the oil and filter? Immediately? 50 miles? 100?

Thanks

 

Should have searched the forum first.........found the answer in a survey about "which Break-in oil do you use"