360 build thread

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tanis4457

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Figured I'd share my engine build that I'm working on. First time building a motor and wanted to get a little more performance out of it. When I first tore the motor down the pistons were in the hole about 0.100" and it had already been bored 0.030" over in the past. The J heads on the engine already had 2.02 intake valves installed in the past. All my machine work was done at Tom's Performance Machine and Repair | Auto Repair, Performance Tuning and Machine Fabrication located in Vancouver, WA | Quality Brands Used including Elderbrock, Felpro, NGK and more | Proudly serving our neighbors in Portland and Battle Ground.

Here's the basic break down of the motor.

71 360 block bored 0.040" over stock stroke.
J heads cleaned with new valves 2.02 intake/ 1.6 exhaust installed, hardened seats installed, minor bowl blending. Recommendation was to not put too much into the heads.
ICON forged pistons with OEM rods, ARP bolts in the rods.
Custom cam, I've included a pic of the cam card.
HV oil pump.
Kevko oil pan.
B3 racing engines roller rocker assembly 1.6 intake/1.5 exhaust.
Edelbrock single plane intake with a Holley Sniper EFI setup that I was already running on this motor in it's previous configuration.
Basically everything else is pretty much standard. I'll try and upload pics and info along the way.
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Congrats on the build your doing.
The J heads can be expensive to rebuild and/or port without a big return in flow. While there not bad considering there a factory iron part not designed for high performance, the can do fairly well for what they are. The current crop of aluminum heads is an overall better purchase though more expensive. It will show up well in the power output.

Healthy cam you have there. It’s a bit hard to read on my phone but it’s 240* I take @ .050 with .536 lift? Hard to see the rest. For me at least. 245/[email protected] rocker?
 
Who ground the cam, Jones?

The heads as 2.02 versions from the factory are decent factory performance heads. You can go to see stock class nhra demons and dusters and find them in the high 10's to low 11's "in dedicated race cars", big difference there, but my point is made.The heads do 225-228 cfm by .500 lift as factory versions. If they just got 2.02 valves as an upgrade, they don't do as well in flow as the steeper throat cut from the factory does.imo
In the end they are not a race head, just a factory performance head for their street fighting sb v8's in The late 60's early 70's. They have been modified by countless people to race/compete with success, including myself, but there are much easier or faster to configure heads out there to use. I would port them a little, just to 255 cfm, 'doesnt take much' before i bolted them on to anything warmed up. Just spending 2-3 minutes an intake port "in the right hands" would have them around 240 cfm... The cam will use them up in their current form, good choice. Should be run good.
 
When it's time to prep for the oil pump, the main stud will require some "love", an early start for fitment is good.
 
Who ground the cam, Jones?

The heads as 2.02 versions from the factory are decent factory performance heads. You can go to see stock class nhra demons and dusters and find them in the high 10's to low 11's "in dedicated race cars", big difference there, but my point is made.The heads do 225-228 cfm by .500 lift as factory versions. If they just got 2.02 valves as an upgrade, they don't do as well in flow as the steeper throat cut from the factory does.imo
In the end they are not a race head, just a factory performance head for their street fighting sb v8's in The late 60's early 70's. They have been modified by countless people to race/compete with success, including myself, but there are much easier or faster to configure heads out there to use. I would port them a little, just to 255 cfm, 'doesnt take much' before i bolted them on to anything warmed up. Just spending 2-3 minutes an intake port "in the right hands" would have them around 240 cfm... The cam will use them up in their current form, good choice. Should be run good.


Cam is a Cam Motion.

From the looks of the hot lash I'm going to ASSume it's a tight lash street roller which is essentially a hydraulic roller cam that uses solid roller lifters and tight lash.


I can't wait to see this thing together.
 
I have seen average flow numbers between 200 & 210 as cast with 2.02/1.60. Never higher.
Well ported, (not fully, but close) they get almost as good as a as cast W2.

The factory head can be a good performer. Tasters choice.
 
Cam is a Cam Motion.

From the looks of the hot lash I'm going to ASSume it's a tight lash street roller which is essentially a hydraulic roller cam that uses solid roller lifters and tight lash.


I can't wait to see this thing together.

Its a solid flat tappet, i picked up some comp edm lifters. Figured id give the edm type lifters a shot.
 
Its a solid flat tappet, i picked up some comp edm lifters. Figured id give the edm type lifters a shot.


Damn, I should have looked at the grind number and not just the specs. It's a tight lash solid.

I like the tight lash. Also like the 108 LSA.
 
Congrats on the build your doing.
The J heads can be expensive to rebuild and/or port without a big return in flow. While there not bad considering there a factory iron part not designed for high performance, the can do fairly well for what they are. The current crop of aluminum heads is an overall better purchase though more expensive. It will show up well in the power output.

Healthy cam you have there. It’s a bit hard to read on my phone but it’s 240* I take @ .050 with .536 lift? Hard to see the rest. For me at least. 245/[email protected] rocker?

Cam specs are
LSA 108
valve overlap 28.2

INTAKE 1.6 rocker
valve open 15.5 BTDC
centerline 103.9 ATDC
valve close 44.5 ABDC
Duration 240
lobe lift .33539
valve lift .53663
lobe area 27.55

EXHAUST 1.5 rocker
valve open 53.6 BTDC
centerline 111.9 ATDC
valve close 12.7 ABDC
Duration 246.3
lobe lift .31539
valve lift .47309
lobe area 27.39

I didn't get into a conversation with Tom about the cam specs he chose when I picked up the motor (too busy asking other questions), but most of the time I see the intake/exhaust lifts closer together on off the shelf cams. Anyone care to enlighten me to the science behind this cam grind?
 
There is nothing crazy about the cam. The use of the split rocker ratio is normal if you know about the head cfm rates. Engines normally benefit from more intake ratio before exhaust ratio.
The 108 LSA should provide earlier and greater torque.

I like the cam. There is good power potential in it.
 
Who ground the cam, Jones?

The heads as 2.02 versions from the factory are decent factory performance heads. You can go to see stock class nhra demons and dusters and find them in the high 10's to low 11's "in dedicated race cars", big difference there, but my point is made.The heads do 225-228 cfm by .500 lift as factory versions. If they just got 2.02 valves as an upgrade, they don't do as well in flow as the steeper throat cut from the factory does.imo
In the end they are not a race head, just a factory performance head for their street fighting sb v8's in The late 60's early 70's. They have been modified by countless people to race/compete with success, including myself, but there are much easier or faster to configure heads out there to use. I would port them a little, just to 255 cfm, 'doesnt take much' before i bolted them on to anything warmed up. Just spending 2-3 minutes an intake port "in the right hands" would have them around 240 cfm... The cam will use them up in their current form, good choice. Should be run good.

I know Tom did a little work when me installed the new valves, not sure how much though. Based on our conversation when we decided what to do, he didn't recommend putting a bunch of porting money into them and that if I would've gone that route to get some Edelbrocks and work those over. My goal was to try and use mainly stock parts and as much as what I already had while not trying to not break the bank. I have no doubt that I probably left some on the table not porting out the heads but I figured let's just see what it will do in their current configuration. I have my car setup for autocross/handling so that's the type of environment it will be running in, so that was the application that the motor was designed for.
 
So the heads were fixed up and cleared for the lift. Hell! Works for me! Have at it. Let us know how she goes!
 
Damn, I should have looked at the grind number and not just the specs. It's a tight lash solid.

I like the tight lash. Also like the 108 LSA.
It would have been opening at like 22 if it were closing at 44 to be worth the roller riding on it. Lol but I took a second look as well initially.
 
Got the crank in and checked endplay, between .002-.003. You guys werent kidding about the oil pump stud, i grinded the pump, stud and the cap with the cap taking the most, what a pain in the ***. I don't have a beam torque wrench to know the break away torque is but it sure doesnt feel like much (10-15 ft/lbs is my guess)
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Now you need to throw the number 1 rod and piston in the bore without rings and degree the cam. BTW I hope you already slid the cam in. It's easier to do before the crank goes in.

Once the cam is timed you just start throwing rods and Pistons in. And you're on the way.
 
A tip... use a arp 12 point nut on the stud that needs trimming, its shorter and if you just grind it down just past where the top taper of the nut stops "fully torqued 1st"...it fits without grinding the cap or grinding the pump body.
Last one i did , i thats all i did to clear it.
 
Now you need to throw the number 1 rod and piston in the bore without rings and degree the cam. BTW I hope you already slid the cam in. It's easier to do before the crank goes in.
Once the cam is timed you just start throwing rods and Pistons in. And you're on the way.

Ah i thought about that, ill be putting the cam in next. Good call on no rings with the piston that will make it easier. I need to get a degree wheel put together.
 
A tip... use a arp 12 point nut on the stud that needs trimming, its shorter and if you just grind it down just past where the top taper of the nut stops "fully torqued 1st"...it fits without grinding the cap or grinding the pump body.
Last one i did , i thats all i did to clear it.

Thats basically what i did, still had to trim my cap there was a lot of material there and the pump kept hitting so i trimmed and trimmed til it fit.
 
Got the camshaft installed and Piston #1 in without the rings so that I could degree the cam. Somehow I got rid of the camshaft bolt/washer and the cam key, DOH! Anybody got spares of these lying around, I can PP you $.

Gives me time to soak the timing chain and sprockets anyway. Also drilled out one of the cam thrust washer bolts for oiling, don't know how much this actually helps but what the hell.
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Got the timing chain on and the cam degreed. First time doing this, with the timing marks on the sprockets at zero i got 102 centerline, retarded the crank sprocket 6 degrees and got roughly 108.5/109. Did two measurements one at .050 and .020 btdc/atdc on the cam for redundancy.
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