Not exactly a build, but a rebuild .

[rainman]

Very nice.

 

[donsrods]

Thanks Bill and Rainman.

Well Bill, since certain members on here have been slipping these big hemis in their rods I have to try to keep up. Plus I see some members Dads are putting blowers on them, and Brothers are putting 502's in 55's............geesh, a guy doesn't have a chance around you guys! (tell "Steve" I said hi )

I'm pretty stoked to get this one running again. The mild 302 I ran in it for years was a great motor and pulled it nice, but this time I want outrageous. I can't wait until I feel how this little 331 pulls through the gears. Should be fun to drive.

Don

 

[Tripper]

It has it's flaws but I want to drive this thing again, so a few little booboos now don't bother me at all.

Yeah... Don's lil booboos & my lil booboos are in no way close to the same!!!

since certain members on here have been slipping these big hemis in their rods I have to try to keep up. Plus I see some members Dads are putting blowers on them, and Brothers are putting 502's in 55's.

Wow... sounds like we have some *really* crazy hot rodders around here!!!

BoB

 

[donsrods]

Yeah, right Bob. We've seen some of your stuff. Plus, you have a couple hundred at a time laying around just waiting to get worked on.

Don

 

[hotrod preacher]

hey there don, just looked into this thread for the first time and i have to echo the same comments as others- that was a nice car and will only be nicer after this rebuild.....

i love the wide whites and black rims it'll sure make that car "classic- beautiful", and that 331 stroker will make that light little car stand up and walk off

sitting patiently for another update

thanks for sharing
HRP

 

[donsrods]

Thanks Preacher. There hasn't been anything update worthy lately, but a lot of boxes have been showing up from Summit. Everyday the UPS guy glares at me more and more as he carries in another couple of heavy boxes. I expect our Auditors at work to come in any day and check the books to make sure I'm not paying for this stuff with company funds.

The first thing to come was the stroker kit. It is a Scat setup with forged rods and Keith Black forged pistons. What a nice piece. It went together and in with so little effort. There is almost no drag when you spin the rotating assembly over and the pistons are the shortest I have ever seen........guess they do that to clear the crank.

I then installed the Ford Racing X303 cam and roller lifters. This is the same cam my Son Don is running in the 306 Ford in his T and I love the idle and the way it pulls. Next was a Comp Cam double roller timing set and also one of their lifter retainer setups. I decided to go with a regular Melling oil pump as a high volume one might suck the pan dry on hard runs. I am using a Bronco rear sump pan with only 5 qt capacity because that is what I originally built the car around and their isn't room for a larger capacity pan.

Then came the cylinder heads. I wrestled with the decision of what ones to order for a month, and finally settled on a set of E Street heads from Edelbrock. They fit my budget of around a $1000 for the pair, and seemed to be big enough to let the engine breathe well. A day after I ordered them I had a scary thought that their ad didn't say anything about working with roller cams, so I called Summit's tech line. They weren't sure either so the next morning I called Edelbrock and they informed me these heads were designed for flat tappet cams, not rollers! They said they would work, but would limit my rpms to 5500.

I had no choice but to send the unopened boxes back to Summit and reorder a set of Edelbrock Performer RPM heads. They were a couple of hundred more, but they are designed for roller cams and breathe right up to 6500. Summit was super and shipped me the new heads without even getting the old ones back yet. All I had to do was fax them a copy of the proof that the old ones were on their way back via UPS and they shipped the new ones, only billing me for the difference in cost. I LOVE SUMMIT. They always try to do the right thing and make it easy.

So, the new heads showed up Friday and I of course had to put one on to see how it looks. Plan is that today I am going to paint the block black and then I can put the heads on for real sometime this week. I'm really excited to get this engine fired up. A member on another forum has some desktop dyno program and he worked up some HP numbers for me. It peaked out at about 424 HP and that was with the other heads. So it should pull my little 2000 lb T around pretty well.

Here is the Scat crank in place......

Pistons and rods installed........

And the one head laid in place.......

Don

 

[BigShem]

look great so far......but

definatly would of kept easter egged color.....lol very very kool.

 

[donsrods]

Hehe, I'm color blind.........I thought it used to be red!

Don

 

[Gastrick]

Very nice Don. You might even grenade some driveline parts with that mill. Why is the distributor hole in the wrong end of the engine

 

[donsrods]

Well Bill, with you Gastrick boys over there building those wicked machines us left coast guys just have to try to keep up.

I got a little surprise tonight. My T developed a little miss and I haven't driven it for about 3 months because of being busy with my 27. Tonight I did a compression test and 7 cylinders were at about 190 or so, and number 7 cylinder was zero. I wondered why my dipstick kept blowing up out of the tube a little..........all the compression is going into the pan.

I guess I holed a piston somehow or otherwise broke a ring or land. No big deal, I'll just park it until my 27 is done and rebuild it. I have always wanted a blower motor and I think a huffer would look great on this car. Something like a 471 maybe. That's just dreaming, but at least I might just build it as a 383 stroker.......Chevy stuff is so cheap compared to Ford and others.

Don

 

[Gastrick]

Sorry about the engine....but broken parts always gives one an excuse to upgrade to more power while making the repair. When are you going to open it up? I'm interested to see what the problem is.

 

[donsrods]

I'm curious too, but I don't want it laying in a million pieces until I can get around to redoing it. At least in one piece it runs well enough to move out of the garage when we need to move stuff around. I may borrow a scope from work and poke down through a spark plug hole to see what I can see.

The more I think about it the more I know it is a holed or broken piston. If it were a valve the compression would be leaking out the header, this one has it going into the pan as evidenced by the dipstick blowing out of the tube a little.

Guess I won't be running it at the Billetproof Drags in Oct, huh?

Don

 

[hotrod preacher]

sounds like a good diagnosis to me- and the fact that i had the same problem on a 302 i had in a mustang once, which also turned out to be a broken ring land between the 2 compression rings tells me your goin in the right direction.....

anyway- that lil ford stroker is gonna be AWESOME!--thanks for the update

 

[bob w]

Holy piston, Batman! An excuse to build a blower motor. Why didn't I think of that?
Don, that engine you're assembling looks like the best kind of fun.

 

[donsrods]

Thanks Preacher and Bob. Yep, that little piston problem was quite the surprise. But I just remembered I have a second Vortec 350 in the corner of the shop so I can start prebuilding that one and have it ready to drop in when that time comes. I figure I'll get Billetproof out of the way next Spring (shooting to have my 27 done for that event) and then I'll get back on my 23.

Bob, I really can't wait to hear the 331 run. I know how good my Son's 306 sounds so I imagine this one should sound and run pretty well. Every motor I've ever done I've always made some compromises to save a few bucks. My Sons have encouraged me to finally build this one with some good stuff on it regardless of the cost. I guess they didn't figure out that I'm spending their inheritance. That, and they may have to support me in my older age.

Don

 

[donsrods]

Haven't had much to post lately because all my work has been going into the engine. Finally got my Ford Racing short water pump setup and pulleys from Zoops. Also made the decision to go with Harlan Sharp roller rockers. I have those for my 460 Ford engine too and like them a lot. I am waiting for a 3/16 spacer from Zoops to move my crank pulley out to line it up with the water pump pulley.

I also bought some Edelbrock valve covers and thought they were cool until my Son Don asked me how I was going to add oil to the engine as these have no breathers on them. Guess I'm going to have to add some racing breathers to one or both of them.

Don

 

[35Mastr]

Don,We need some progress pic's. I am starting to go into withdrawl.

 

[Gastrick]

Yea Don.....where's the update?[S Oil?...who needs oil anyway.

Seroiusly, If you don't want to mess with those valve covers, you could add a fill tube with a breather cap to the intake. It would look neat and vintage. I know that doesn't allow for proper crankcase evacuation/ventilation, but I've done it without negative issues.

 

[donsrods]

Yeah, I've been pretty lazy lately. I thought of doing that intake modification Bill, but I found that Moon has some breathers with removable tops so you can add oil. I plan on putting one on each valve cover.

I'm trying to save my money in case I see stuff I really can't live without at Turkey Run. I did go to the shop today though and took care of some minor issues with the engine. Even with the 3/16 spacer my water pump and crank pulleys were off by about 1/6 more. Zoops doesn't make a 1/4 inch spacer so I removed the water pump and put it on my hydraulic press. I pushed the mounting flange for the pulley 1/6 further onto the shaft and now it all lines up. One more problem done.

I also set the valve lash on the roller rockers and installed my 2 x 4 intake manifold. I have one almost new Edelbrock 600 carb from my 23, it was only used about a year. So now I have to go by the All American Carb booth at Turkey Run and get a mate for it. I also need some other stuff like a distributor, alternator, clutch setup, etc. and I hope to score those at TR too.

I had my flywheel surfaced, and once I get my clutch and pressure plate I can mount the transmission and set the whole thing in the frame for the last time (hopefully the last!) Since this was a running driving car at one time with this same basic setup it should go together pretty fast. I'm shooting for February for Billetproof to have it done, so we'll see how that goes.

Anyway, here are some pictures of where I ended up tonight.

Don