Recent content by ValleyRat

My gasket set finally came in, along with my new lifters. Just finished slapping the heads on, and installing push rods. I set the intake on the motor just for looks, gave me a little inspiration. I’m excited to get it painted, it’ll be orange.

Little bit more progress tonight, timing cover prepped for installation.

Here are a couple pictures of the engine as it sits today, sorry I didn’t take more pictures along the way, I’ll try to be better about that! Crank, pistons, cam, and timing set are in!

I bought a set of Melling Factory Hydraulic Roller Lifters, JB-2225. I guess it won't hurt to have a backup set (the used ones).

Great comment, I appreciate it! I think I did save the roller lifters, but just pulled the trigger on a new stock set of roller lifters. I thought it might be smart to replace them, rather than try to reuse the old ones with 144k miles on them... I can still cancel the order, what do you think...

I'll measure it will calipers too, try to be as accurate as possible. Good information, I appreciate it! At that cost ($1140), knowing what you know about the importance of balancing a street engine, would you still have it balanced or run it as is and hope for the best?

The small local shop I got my block bored at doesn't have the capacity to balance... seems to be common around here in Alaska (not many machine shops around). They told me I didn't need to balance the rotating assembly with the new pistons if I'm not spinning it up to the 6500 rpm range...

Here are a couple photos…

Motor is back from the machine shop! Finally... I excitedly put it on the stand and got to work. First thing I did was check the main bearing clearances with plasti gauge, they all were right at .003". I've heard some say it's fine with that clearance, other sources say its too much... what are...

I was lucky enough to find another machine shop to do some work to my block. I was fully planning on putting the motor together as is, however this family owned shop quoted me a price of $7-800 for all the work I mentioned above (minus crank balancing, all they can do in house is polish and mic...

Tonight’s progress, lapped and installed new stainless valves, valves seals, and springs. One head down, one to go!

1999 DODGE RAM 2500 COMP Cams 20-746-9 COMP Cams Xtreme Energy Camshafts | Summit Racing This is the cam I bought originally, its a little better than stock, but nothing crazy (from what I understand). The iron heads I have are ported some, will that help my situation? Thanks for the...

They are KB107s, maybe I made a mistake by buying them? My cam isn't too extreme, what ways can I avoid detonation with these pistons? Aside from aluminum heads...

Look like there aren’t any cracks in the heads. So that was nice to confirm. Last night my pistons came in! Now I can take all my parts into the machine shop this week. Excited to get the ball rolling on that. There is something pretty cool about fresh speed parts!

Looks like my phone logged into my old account... that last post was me...