408 Stroker Short Block Details: Blueprint Engines

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Do you have to wiggle the engine and cherry picker through the door? Or lower the body onto the k frame? wow that's tight in there!
Yeah, engine through side doors, mounts bolted and a jackstand propping the rear up, and then trans installed. Actually there's ample room all around, very easy to get to everything....when the doghouse is out of the way .
 
That blueprint engine is gonna kick some butt....
I loved my Stroker I put in my Vette.....tire burnin' ****!
I can't wait to hear your results!

Jeff
It's getting close, finishing up the exhaust and deciding on final trans cooler setup, ignition wiring and throttle hookup. Lotta little ****
 
Here's some shots (some are posted on older threads) of various work I've done over the last year leading up to where this project is at now. Whole front end removed and rebuilt, I de-arched the front leaf springs to lower 1.5", installed 3.73 gear and sure grip in the 741 8.75, mild porting of the EQ heads, lots of work on the Weiand Action+, I rebuilt the 727 a few years ago w/ transgo shift kit, just took it apart to inspect and replace clutches and adjust the bands, running a Turbo Action 10" 17805 tight, finished fab work of the 3" exhaust w/Dynomax Ultraflo mufflers, and fabricated torque strut.

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Getting down to the nitty gritty, spent a ridiculous amount of time working on the throttle hookup. Started with a Lokar 84" cable and their kickdown cable kit, oh yeah, supposed to be the ticket......nope, it'll hook up and function, but response was sluggish and was unable to get wot, the cable not rigid enough. Need a push pull. So for now to get good throttle response and pedal feel I'm now using about 5' of rod from a custom fab'd bell crank back to a 3' section of the Lokar cable (inserted in a 5/16" tube in order to keep the cable from compessing into a snake under the pressure to get to wot) up to carb, all brackets, guides etc. fab'd what a nightmare. Got it though. Trans cooler brackets fab'd and mounted, pulleys, fan, alt installed, relay and assorted cables hooked up. Fuel lines insulated, starter wiring harness made and insulated. Canton overflow tank mounted
Mostly wiring just left now: battery hookup, line lock, fuel pump, trans cooler fan, ignition, couple switches and all the new Stewart Warner gauges.

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Getting down to the nitty gritty, spent a ridiculous amount of time working on the throttle hookup. Started with a Lokar 84" cable and their kickdown cable kit, oh yeah, supposed to be the ticket......nope, it'll hook up and function, but response was sluggish and was unable to get wot, the cable not rigid enough. Need a push pull. So for now to get good throttle response and pedal feel I'm now using about 5' of rod from a custom fab'd bell crank back to a 3' section of the Lokar cable (inserted in a 5/16" tube in order to keep the cable from compessing into a snake under the pressure to get to wot) up to carb, all brackets, guides etc. fab'd what a nightmare. Got it though. Trans cooler brackets fab'd and mounted, pulleys, fan, alt installed, relay and assorted cables hooked up. Fuel lines insulated, starter wiring harness made and insulated. Waiting on battery cable thru-studs to arrive for battery hookup, still gotta wire up line lock, fuel pump, trans cooler fan, ignition, make brackets for the Canton expansion tank............still a shitload to do!!!

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NIIICCEEEEE..!!!!!!! The Motorola gold anodized v.c., a priceless to a 80's dude ,like me.
 
When you think about it, how many times does anyone need to drain the block? It's handy when flushing things out good, a mess either way.
best of 12.10
113 mph, the top end of the motor changed a bunch over the years, but the poor rotating assembly just got abused. I used to drive it up to 250 miles to the track race sat, sleep in the car and run sun then drive home. Only started to trailer it when I went to 4:10 gear. Still hoping for 11.99 one more chance this weekend.
 
NIIICCEEEEE..!!!!!!! The Motorola gold anodized v.c., a priceless to a 80's dude ,like me.

Priceless? Really?
I've got a brand new pair of them.
Wanna talk and see what "priceless" really means?

Now let's see...there's that brand new Demon coming out soon.......


 
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All the little **** takes 10 times longer than all the big ****.

Details suck.
I am now at the point of the details sucking......like BIG TIME!! Wiring madness, lots of ranting and f-bombs while laying on my back under the van hooking **** up, the home stretch, light at the end of the tunnel sure is a long ******* stretch of tunnel! :BangHead:
 
Yeah wiring can be annoying. Thats why I junked the factory harness that was trashed and put in a universal hot rod harness.. SO much easier.
 
Love this van build. I got the Blueprint 408 kit from Jegs. The kit with water pump, Performer RPM Airgap and some of the essentials. It is the Magnum iron head version that I believe Dyno sheet showed around 418 HP and almost 500 torque. Came with the Edelbrock valve covers I was looking at also which was great. Been running it for about 1.5 years now, mostly with the FiTech and love the way it runs. I have the stock 7.25 open diff with I'm sure is a 2.9? ratio. Pulls hard for such a tall gear. Soon I hope to change that, but whatever, happy with it now.

Point is, Blueprint Engines are a great product for the money and would buy again in a heartbeat. Good luck getting everything done on the van, love it!!

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Running, after cam break-in, but carb needs dialing in. Had coolant leaking from lower alt bracket bolt prior to first firing but fixed, no leaks anywhere, getting about 65 psi at fast idle, temps about 170. Total timing at 34, initial 18. Carb ootb way too rich, waiting on calibration kit.
 
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My success or failure with it would be no different than if I had a shop do the machine work and I assembled the rotating assembly, which was initially the plan,
I hope you'll not mind my pointing out that if you assembled it yourself, you would add a quality control step that you may or may not have gotten with this pre-assembled unit. I have found issues coming out of good machine shops....
 
In the friendliest way possible, Our quality control at blueprint is 2nd to none. We go through inspections and quality checks at every step of the game. Including dyno testing, and a 30 month, 50k mile warranty.

Have you ever seen a sediment wash station that measures the sediment coming off of NEW parts before they go to assembly? Just to make sure there are no contaminants or debris that would jeopardize the build? I hadn't until I took this position with blueprint. Pretty amazing stuff to see things checked down to the fraction of a micron, in the name of quality!
 
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