Can you elaborate on the valve springs? What size retainers? TA Roller rockers? Sounds interesting. Thanks.
Yes on the T/A roller rockers. Sorry I can't supply much on the beehive deal. I know that it was a combination of 351 Ford and 6.0 liter Chevy. That is a part of the engine I didn't do myself. The guy that put it together for me was very reluctant to give out part numbers. It is one of a kind.
To limit some of your oiling to the top end you may want to (if you haven't already) look at Comp Cams High Band BBC, Olds & Pont performance series solid lifters, PN 2900. With T/A roller rockers I was getting too much top end oil and these helped. They are the deep cup style, so check your pushrod/head clearancing with the longer pushrods. Tom
Greg, I love this thread. Way to go! Anybody can run a Chevy. It's takes some thinking to run hardware that no one else runs. I started running autocross and time trials with my Buick 350 back in 1974. I had to make my own oil pan from a Moroso kit with five trap doors and the pickup bolted to the bottom of the pan with about 1/4-3/8" clearance. I had to go back to a stock volume pump and also used the crankcase evacuation system running off the headers. I regularly turned that motor to 7000 rpm and never had a rod or bearing problem in about 12 years of competition. Congratulations on daring to be different.
Thankyou Paul. It sounds like you ran into some of the same challenges I ran into. It can be done though. That is the same clearance I run in the pan. I weld 1/4-20 nuts to the bottom of the pickup to keep the oil flowing in case the pan takes a hit. Good luck with the autocross. Hill climbs would be fun too.
On the Speed Pro pistons... what clearance, quench distance and ring gaps work best? You do know the KB 357 hyper is only 700 grams and has a killer quench step that reaches the deck, no? I GOT WIDE AWAKE WATCHING YOUR VIDIO. I first got real interested in racing Buicks while watching vintage coupe bodys with 322 nailheads running against SB Chevys back in the early 1960's. I'm reeaaally curious about the piston info if you don't mind sharing that.
Depends on how much you want to spend, I can have you contact Mahle and they can make some light weight fully coated forged pistons with rings and pins. Diamond is good, don't get me work but their still heavy, I talked to Superior Crank (Pankl)(L.A. Kryponite Crank), they make pistons,rods and cranks. All out of billet and then heat treated, They told me I can have any size crank,rods and pistons I want but how much do you want to spend? They only do Formula 1, Grand Prix, Some NHRA and Nascar and Majority of the road course racers,(Lemans type cars.) All light weight and Damn near indestructable. But it is not cheap.
We are not doing anything special with pistons. Zero deck height. Gap and clearance are what is written on the box. Cometic head gasket. The multi-layer metal type. I think .020 if I remember correctly. My memory is a little foggy on some of the finer details. We threw it together 2 years ago in about 4-5 days. Had to race on Saturday ya know. Thanks for the tip on the KB's. Here's another link for the faithful. This was a much tackier track with much higher speeds. Probably 100-105 mph at the end of the straights. The engine was knocking on 7 grand for 30 laps in this one. There is an amazing flip in this one too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9mmfUjjamg&feature=channel_video_title
Wow! Great video. Great driving, Great chassis set up, and of course a Great engine. That tickled the s..t out of me. and thanks for the info on the pistons. By the way... Those KB 357's need no block milling due to the 2.01 compression distance.
