airwoofer
Drivetrain limit explorer
Well, I have been muddling through building a BB for my drag Demon. I already had bought a pile of new parts that Mike (MRL) had found on RJ. Those included Indy 440-1 CNC 325 heads, Indy R2 cam and roller timing chain, Indy 3 single plane intake. Also had a 520" 440 Source rotating assy (for a stock block) and CRE girdle, Comp roller lifters, all of which I have subsequently sold. After looking at the options and weighing the compromises I decided to buy a new Mopar Performance World Siamese block and get it bored to 4.500 (more later). I bought a Eagle rotating assy (4.25 stroke / 4.500 bore) with custom Diamond pistons that with my 78.5cc heads give 14-1 CR from Indy. Dennis Mitchell Racing Engines is doing the build with all parts supplied by me.
The good:
I sent the heads up to IQ52 (Jim LaRoy) to fix the terrible surface from the CNC chamber and open the chambers to the 4.500 bore, fix the uneven valve stem heights, put a gooder valve job on, check the seat and open pressures and clearances. Jim got the flows all checked and evened, decked the surfaces and got all the CCs within 0.1, got more mid lift flow from his valve job, fixed the seat cup, got the stem heights and fits to the guides right and supplied caps to get the geometry right for the 1.6 Harland Sharp rockers. I give kudos to Jim - he does good work, is great to work with, and no surprises.
Highly recommended. Now if only he could figure out how Mike gets all that low/mid lift flow.... rayer:
Here is what his valve job netted with no changes to the ports and the same 2.19 x 1.81 valves:
lift............before..........after (in / ex)
.100..........69/61.........80/68
.200........144/123......158/134
.300........215/172......226/183
.400........274/217......277/229
.500........321/251......320/265
.600........346/280......349/290
.700........362/301......368/307 < my max lift with 1.6 is .700
.800........372/317......372/327
Combustion chamber CCs 78.4-78.5.
Note that the in / ex ratio is .85 across the flow spectrum. I think a lot of power is left on the table in the intake flow and next I will get 2.25 intakes put in.
The bad:
At the time I was looking for something better than the stock block with girdles and fills and alum caps so I didn't have to worry about the main webs and breakage. I am a durability kinda guy. I couldn't find a block anywhere and finally found one at Indy. At the time I thought it was lucky finding one, but it turns out that Mopar is still making them. The one they sold me had to be bored to 4.500 and they did a good job with the bore. Coulda got a 4.500 block if I knew they were still being made and saved money. The block came in extremely dirty and the deck was not square and the finish was very rough - had to be redone.
After dealing with Indy on this I regret going to them and cannot recommend them to anyone. I would deal with Bob Mazzolini next time if there was to be a next time. Indy overcharged me and I could have gotten better stuff for the money I spent. Dennis decked the block back to zero deck (it was -.007 on one end, -.009 on the other and the surface was extremely rough, no good for MLS gaskets). Indy says they will refund the cost of the deck job - we'll see. I wanted 13-1 CR and it says that on the sales order. I am done with Indy. Funny how so many of their customers feel the same way after they do bidness with them. :banghead:
The ugly:
Dennis cleaned all the crap outta the block, did a trial assy, fixed the deck, honed the rod small ends to size, and had the thing all ready for me to paint. I took it home but first went to the paint store to get more of the Hemi orange paint I have been using on the body (Noser acryllic enamel with hardener) but was sold on engine enamel by the kid behind the counter. I masked the block off and shot it with that stuff using a my small shop compressor that doesn't have as good a regulator as my usual paint setup has. Man that enamel with no reducer was hard to get on but it seemed to cover and flow OK. I left the block outside my shop in the sun and came back a few hours later. Tacking up nicely. Put it away in the shop for the overnight stay. Next morning there is a krinkle finish on the paint! Not sure why but I left it in the shop all day (gets kinda warm in there from no insulation) and that evening it was wrinkled bad like the paint was gonne drip off.ops:
Ya'll remember the good old Berryman chemdip that stunk like nothing else but would clean a carb to look like new? I have been cleaning up the manual steering box for the fish and was using Purple Clean but it didn't get all of the 45 yr old gunk off. I bought a new can of the Berryman and poured in onto the steering box in a pan. BTW, the new stuff does not stink at all so I figured they must have took the good stuff out. It had been sitting in that pan on my shop floor for a couple weeks getting brushed and wetted occasionally. The box did clean up. The open pan was sitting on my shop floor when I brought the freshly painted block inside. My guess is either I really screwed up on the paint (shoulda used the car body stuff like I did on the airplane engine block) or that Berryman still has some aromatic stuff in it that attacked the enamel paint. :angry7:
So now I have this very funky finish that is still soft. Hopefully it will harden up but that wrinkle finish is there to stay until the block gets hot tanked.
Now what?
I wanted 13-1 but it is what it is. Gonna cost more for the race gas. Headers are the next problem to work in an A body (I have no inner fenders and may get a front steer K frame setup) with the 440 RB deck and the Indy 440-1 D shape ex ports. I bought a set of flanges from Indy which IF they fit the ports will be the start of a set of custom headers. The flanges are for 2 1/4" tubing supposedly. Need the headers to dyno the motor so after the engine is built I will drop the motor onto whatever I end up with a K frame/steering and get the headers built. Lucky for me one of the best exhaust guys is nearby and he likes Mopars. Still deciding how much carb this motor will want, probably 1150 or maybe one of those Pro Systems SV-1. Not sure what race gas this thing will need. I am looking for about 800 HP - well see what the dyno shows.
The good:
I sent the heads up to IQ52 (Jim LaRoy) to fix the terrible surface from the CNC chamber and open the chambers to the 4.500 bore, fix the uneven valve stem heights, put a gooder valve job on, check the seat and open pressures and clearances. Jim got the flows all checked and evened, decked the surfaces and got all the CCs within 0.1, got more mid lift flow from his valve job, fixed the seat cup, got the stem heights and fits to the guides right and supplied caps to get the geometry right for the 1.6 Harland Sharp rockers. I give kudos to Jim - he does good work, is great to work with, and no surprises.
Highly recommended. Now if only he could figure out how Mike gets all that low/mid lift flow.... rayer:Here is what his valve job netted with no changes to the ports and the same 2.19 x 1.81 valves:
lift............before..........after (in / ex)
.100..........69/61.........80/68
.200........144/123......158/134
.300........215/172......226/183
.400........274/217......277/229
.500........321/251......320/265
.600........346/280......349/290
.700........362/301......368/307 < my max lift with 1.6 is .700
.800........372/317......372/327
Combustion chamber CCs 78.4-78.5.
Note that the in / ex ratio is .85 across the flow spectrum. I think a lot of power is left on the table in the intake flow and next I will get 2.25 intakes put in.
The bad:
At the time I was looking for something better than the stock block with girdles and fills and alum caps so I didn't have to worry about the main webs and breakage. I am a durability kinda guy. I couldn't find a block anywhere and finally found one at Indy. At the time I thought it was lucky finding one, but it turns out that Mopar is still making them. The one they sold me had to be bored to 4.500 and they did a good job with the bore. Coulda got a 4.500 block if I knew they were still being made and saved money. The block came in extremely dirty and the deck was not square and the finish was very rough - had to be redone.
After dealing with Indy on this I regret going to them and cannot recommend them to anyone. I would deal with Bob Mazzolini next time if there was to be a next time. Indy overcharged me and I could have gotten better stuff for the money I spent. Dennis decked the block back to zero deck (it was -.007 on one end, -.009 on the other and the surface was extremely rough, no good for MLS gaskets). Indy says they will refund the cost of the deck job - we'll see. I wanted 13-1 CR and it says that on the sales order. I am done with Indy. Funny how so many of their customers feel the same way after they do bidness with them. :banghead:
The ugly:
Dennis cleaned all the crap outta the block, did a trial assy, fixed the deck, honed the rod small ends to size, and had the thing all ready for me to paint. I took it home but first went to the paint store to get more of the Hemi orange paint I have been using on the body (Noser acryllic enamel with hardener) but was sold on engine enamel by the kid behind the counter. I masked the block off and shot it with that stuff using a my small shop compressor that doesn't have as good a regulator as my usual paint setup has. Man that enamel with no reducer was hard to get on but it seemed to cover and flow OK. I left the block outside my shop in the sun and came back a few hours later. Tacking up nicely. Put it away in the shop for the overnight stay. Next morning there is a krinkle finish on the paint! Not sure why but I left it in the shop all day (gets kinda warm in there from no insulation) and that evening it was wrinkled bad like the paint was gonne drip off.
ops:Ya'll remember the good old Berryman chemdip that stunk like nothing else but would clean a carb to look like new? I have been cleaning up the manual steering box for the fish and was using Purple Clean but it didn't get all of the 45 yr old gunk off. I bought a new can of the Berryman and poured in onto the steering box in a pan. BTW, the new stuff does not stink at all so I figured they must have took the good stuff out. It had been sitting in that pan on my shop floor for a couple weeks getting brushed and wetted occasionally. The box did clean up. The open pan was sitting on my shop floor when I brought the freshly painted block inside. My guess is either I really screwed up on the paint (shoulda used the car body stuff like I did on the airplane engine block) or that Berryman still has some aromatic stuff in it that attacked the enamel paint. :angry7:
So now I have this very funky finish that is still soft. Hopefully it will harden up but that wrinkle finish is there to stay until the block gets hot tanked.
Now what?
I wanted 13-1 but it is what it is. Gonna cost more for the race gas. Headers are the next problem to work in an A body (I have no inner fenders and may get a front steer K frame setup) with the 440 RB deck and the Indy 440-1 D shape ex ports. I bought a set of flanges from Indy which IF they fit the ports will be the start of a set of custom headers. The flanges are for 2 1/4" tubing supposedly. Need the headers to dyno the motor so after the engine is built I will drop the motor onto whatever I end up with a K frame/steering and get the headers built. Lucky for me one of the best exhaust guys is nearby and he likes Mopars. Still deciding how much carb this motor will want, probably 1150 or maybe one of those Pro Systems SV-1. Not sure what race gas this thing will need. I am looking for about 800 HP - well see what the dyno shows.
