Rebuilding my 700hp 408

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dart19666

FABO Gold Member
FABO Gold Member
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Location
Collierville, TN
I built this engine in 2004 and after 10 years of great service I believe it is time to finally crack it open and see what I see. I have already pulled it apart and beside a crank polish, new bearings, block hone, and new rings everything looks good to go. The only things I have/going to changed is that I went with T&D 1.6 rockers. Also on my 360-1 heads they were hand ported way back in the day by Indy. I sent them back to Indy to get them CNC ported with the Intake. I will be starting the rebuild tomorrow with all the pic that I can do.

Here is some history of the block and how I prepped it back in 2004. The block is a 1970 360 from a truck. After pulling seven or so blocks from junkyard trucks I finally found one that was the best of the best. Well as good as a 1970's vintage block could be. I have the right side oil passage drilled and copper tubed. All oil passages have been opened up to 1/2 inch except the holes going to the mains they are 9/32. Also instead off blocking the oil that goes up from main #1 to fill the left side lifters at the half inch hole behind the cam plate, I just blocked it at the oil passage right off the main with a set screw. This is way easier and looks much cleaner.

The Car is a 1966 dodge dart. Caltracs, 727, 8 3/4 4.30 spool, 28 x 10 Hoosier slicks "track" or 275/60r15 drag radials "street", stock front suspension with slant 6 torsion bars. The best the car has ran was 9.41 at 141mph. This is great but I did not want to run in the 9's and all the SFI, cage cert bullshit that went with it. So we pulled off the 1050 dominator and changed it to a Quick fuel 750. This was very nice because I can run 10.30 - 10.20 depending on air at about 129 - 131 also depends on air. I race in the NHRA heritage series in a class called hotrod. One more thing Yes this is street legal and still drive to cruise night and back home again. If you have any questions please feel free to ask. Once again I will be doing all the set up and building tomorrow. 8/4/14.
 
It's got to be a great feeling opening up a old motor you build after ten years and not seeing a problem. I'm subscribing, probably one if the highest hp small blocks on the forum.
 
Sounds bad ***.

You drive a spool on the road?
 
driving it on the street and a street car are two entirely different animals....
 
Craftsmanship, attention to details & consistent maintenance, make a difference. 9:49's with a 408 is honking fast. Subscribed.
 
Yes, and I do it very carefully. I know not the best Idea but it is what it is. I have another chunk without a spool but pain in the *** to change just to go to cruise night.
 
I drove a spool on the street, mind you i had 31x16.5 et streets on it, the tires dragged around the corners pretty easy. Just need to make wider turns.
 
Yes, and I do it very carefully. I know not the best Idea but it is what it is. I have another chunk without a spool but pain in the *** to change just to go to cruise night.

You and Scott (pettybludart) will have to compare notes. He also has a blue 66 Dart with a stroker. toolmanmike
 
Its amazing that you lost close to a second in ET swapping that carb like that. lol That motor is moving a lot of air efficiently with the dominator on it.
 
How much compression, dished or flat tops, and what are the cam specs ?
 
Its amazing that you lost close to a second in ET swapping that carb like that. lol That motor is moving a lot of air efficiently with the dominator on it.

Well I did more than just the carb swap. I backed off the timing to a total of 32 degrees and opened up the valve lash 0.005". Also I put an air cleaner on it, believe it or not that is worth a tenth slower.
 
How much compression, dished or flat tops, and what are the cam specs ?

These are flat tops with a zero deck height. Heads were at 58cc but now unsure I will cc them when it goes back together. Total compression before was 12.78 to 1. But I am going with a slightly thicker head gasket to bring this down to 12.4ish level. I will know a lot more of this tomorrow. Cam is a custom solid roller cam from Crower. Crower makes power. Intake @ 0.050" is 270 degrees with the new 1.6 ratio 0.700" and Exhaust @ 0.050" is 278 degrees with the new ratio 0.702". Lobe separation is 106 and installed 2 degrees of advance.
 
Well I did more than just the carb swap. I backed off the timing to a total of 32 degrees and opened up the valve lash 0.05". Also I put an air cleaner on it, believe it or not that is worth a tenth slower.


I learned on the dyno that running a 3" drop base K&N filter lost me 12 foot lbs of tq at 2900 rpm. dropped jetting 2 sizes and got 16 back on the next pull.
 
So here are some pics of my block. I got called into work so not much done today but start laying out some ****.
 

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Today is the day that I am going to start the build. I will be doing this all day and going to keep my laptop open as I go. I will be posting pics and answering questions as I go.
 
I have seen this in the ten years that I have built this engine that the oil pick up has broken on launch. My car pulls the front end pretty good so I know this is over board but what the hell, piece of mind. So I made a bracket to support the pick up tube.
 

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You can see that I use a set screw to block the oil going to the left bank. This works better than the huge threaded hole in the front with a special bolt under the cam plate to block the oil. Also you can see how I really cleaned up under the oil filter plate. I also added 4 more "1/4" holes. The oil filter bolt also has been opened up to 1/2. I did not take a pic of it but the oil pick up tube where it screws into the oil pump also has been opened up to 1/2, hence the reason why I made the support bracket.
 

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Finally 0.006" of end play. They just don't make bearing with the same tolerances as they used to. I found out later today that Mahle bought out clevite. If you buy these bearings MS1266HG just make sure to check everything twice before installing. After three different sets I found a set that matched. Today was almost a whole day of sanding, measuring again and again.
 

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So here we have the short block built. Deck height is now a true zero deck. Not what I was looking for, trying to slow it down not speed it up. I did the piston CC for the top of the pistons and I got 8.1 cc. This is more than before with 6.1 cc but I knew this would happen because I cut the valve reliefs 0.040" bigger to accept the 1.6 ratio of the T&D rocker arms. Oil pump is the same one from 2004 I just took it apart check all the specs and it is all well within specs so put it back on. The biggest thing I changed in the bottom end is the main bearings went to an "H" series and the support for the oil pick up. You have no idea how stressful it is to let go of the trans brake feel the front end go sky ward and hoping that the oil pick up does not crack, snap, fall off when it comes back down. I would always be looking at the oil gauge as I was pulling second, stressing. I would have never even thought about it unless I had seen it first hand twice, snapped after wheelie. Just my piece of mind.
 

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