Junkyard Heap, Part 2 of 2

Here, Steve Brule from Westech Performance in Mira Loma, CA, cleaned the block and RHS Pro Action heads (PN 12053-02) and placed the head gasket on the block. Steve also made sure to set the timing mark to TDC before the head was bolted on. I used ARP head bolts (PN 134-3701) to secure the heads to the block. Don t forget to use the washers and apply ARP thread sealer to the bolts that pass through the water jackets. ARP fastener assembly lube is used on the top and bottom sides of each washer and the bolt threads that do not pass through the water jackets. Junkyard Heap, Part 2 of 2 383 Final Assembly with Dyno Numbers I will save the horsepower versus torque argument for another time. For the Junkyard Heap motor, I wanted a wellrounded motor that would produce 400+ hp and slightly more than 425 lb-ft of torque. Since I plan on driving the truck on the street, on the autocross course, and down the occasional dragstrip, the 383 had to be stronger in relation to its condition when it was a stock 350. The motor had to run on pump by Wes Drelleshak With today s aftermarket manufacturers producing many combinations for the Chevy small-block, I took on the fun task of building a motor from scratch using a junkyard block for the base. And not just any junkyard motor either, we used an 88 Chevy 350 with a one-piece main seal, cam thrust plate, four-bolt mains, and hydraulic cam in part one this buildup. I installed an Eagle Specialties stroked 383 bottom end kit (PN ESP-B13052L030) from Summit Racing. The 383 is given its name from the increased stroke and bore over a stock Chevy 350, and is a great way to gain cubic inches without having to go with a heavier big-block. I chose the 383 because of the increased horsepower, but more importantly for the torque. Torque, in most cases has the ability to get a heavy vehicle moving quicker from a dead stop than a same-sized motor with more horsepower but less torque. Remember the old saying, horsepower sell cars but torque wins races; well, this is especially true for trucks that tend to weigh more than the average hot rod car. gas, because in this economy I thought it would be unfair to the reader that wanted to build a similar motor but found out the price of race gas after the fact. Let s face it, pump gas is expensive enough. To keep the motor pump gas friendly, and run on 91-octane fuel, I wanted the compression ratio to be 9.6:1 rather than press the compression envelope and possibly risk detonation without the use of octane boosters or race gas. Prior to installing the head gaskets and laying the heads on, we chased the head bolt threads with a tap. Steve torques the head bolts according to the manufacturer s sequence, and in three torque steps. The first step is to torque down to 40 ft-lb. He then repeated the sequence with the torque wrench set to 60 ft-lb. For the final sequence, the torque wrench is set to 70 ft-lb. When building or selecting a bottom end it is very important to choose the cylinder heads at the same time. Cylinder heads are measured in several different ways. The first determining factor to look at is the combustion chamber size. This is the area next to the valves and the spark plug hole. The combustion chamber has a direct relationship between the piston shape and deck height. Bigger is better right? Well, that s not always the case with cylinder heads, especially when talking combustion chamber size. My RHS Pro Action heads have a combustion chamber size of 64 cc and if I ordered a set of 74cc heads instead it would have decreased the compression by a lot due to the 16cc D-shaped pistons that came with the Eagle Specialties kit. If I were using a flat-type or dome-type piston with the same 64cc heads my compression ratio would have been higher than I wanted. Now, if I used a flat- or dome- type piston with the larger RHS 74cc heads, I could lower my The Comp Cams hydraulic lifters (PN 850-16) were primed by soaking them in motor oil for a few days. Leaving the lifters to soak in oil ensures that they will be full of oil when you get ready to adjust the rockers and prime the oiling system. If they are dry it could lead to lifter and cam damage. I also used a Comp Cams spider tray (PN 08-1000) that included the lifter holders and cam thrust button. compression ratio. In a nutshell, the piston shape, cylinder head cc s, deck height, head gasket thickness, and cam size all play a role in pre-determining your choice of performance parts. I made sure to call the RHS tech line (800-999-0853) to have them help me select the right parts for my application. Another common mistake when ordering heads is ordering too big of intake runners and valve sizes per the motor s capability to pull vacuum. Remember, bigger is not always better. I ordered the smallest intake runners 180cc that RHS has available for their aluminum heads. Without the help of the folks at the RHS tech line I would have ordered the 235cc heads, and suffered a loss of intake velocity and power because the motor would not be able to keep up with the amount of airflow. That s not to say that 235cc heads don t have their place, but they weren t correct for my relatively low compression 383 stroker. With this particular 383, the RHS 180cc or 200cc intake runners work really well. ct 34 classictrucks.com August 2011 Classic Trucks 35

Next, Steve installed the 7 16-inch rocker studs with ARP fastener assembly lube and torqued them to 45 ft-lb. The Comp Cams 5 16-inch pushrods (PN 7949-16) needed to be measured to be sure they are the correct length. As with any custom motor, the pushrods need to be measured because of slight differences in block deck height, head deck height, head stud boss height, rocker arm design, cam base circle size, lifter design/brand, pushrod seat height, and valvestem length. Steve installed the Comp Cams pushrod length checker tool (PN 7702-01). Steve applied dye to the top of the intake and exhaust valve stem where the Comp Cams roller rockers (PN 1605-16) contact them. Steve then rotated the motor so that the rocker was pressing the valve half way down. If the pushrod length checker tool is adjusted correctly the rocker will be in the middle of the valve. Then the motor was rotated until the valve was all the way down and the rocker was at full travel. At this point the rocker should be making contact toward the intake side of the valve. Notice the red dye has a grove from the rocker being cycled and the end goal of selecting the correct pushrod length is for the rocker to make contact towards the center of the valve, and not off to one side. Once the correct length (7.300-inch) Comp Cams 5 16-inch pushrods arrived and were installed, Steve installed the Comp Cams roller rockers and adjusted two at a time. The Ultra ProMagnum rockers feature an 8650 chrome-moly material, precision-sorted needle bearings, and hard roller tips with a 1.6 ratio. To make sure the oil was getting all the way to the top of the motor, Steve attached an oil pump priming tool to the oil pump and used an electric drill to spin the pump. He then made sure oil reached each rocker by slowly turning the motor over a little at a time and then stopping, allowing the oil to flow easier through the lifters, pushrods, and rockers. Make sure the oil is running through the tops of all the rockers like this before moving on. I made sure that the block and intake surface for the manifold was clean and free of oil. It is important to use sealant between the head surface and block where the two meet to help seal the intake manifold. 36 classictrucks.com

I applied the Permatex grey sealant to the corners to also help hold the Fel- Pro (PN Fel-1206) gaskets in place. I used the grey sealant to mate the Edelbrock intake manifold to the block. Notice the uniform thickness of the sealant. You want to have a consistent flow of sealant without any air pockets that could allow a leak. Before installing the distributor, make sure the number one piston is at TDC. The distributor should be positioned so that the rotor points to number one spark plug wire location as if the cap was on. The Pertronix Flame Thrower Distributor (PN D7100710) has the ability to set a rev limit inside the electronic pickup. We found this out the hard way when the motor suddenly lost power after 5000 rpm on the dyno. We adjusted the rev limiter to 6100 rpm, and the motor loved the change. A Pertronix coil (PN 60103) along with a set of Pertronix Flame Thrower 8mm wires (PN 808290) buttoned up the ignition system for our 383. I then set the Edelbrock Performer Air-Gap (PN 7501) intake manifold on the motor and torque the ARP intake bolts to 24 ft-lb. I used the Edelbrock Air-Gap manifold because air will pass between the motor and the intake, lowering the intake temp. Another benefit of the air gap is that the intake will run cooler due to the oil from the lifter valley area not heating the underside of the intake. The longer-than-stock intake runners should also help in producing more power throughout the powerband. Lokar Performance Products new Anchor Tight locking and flexible dipstick (PN 122007) worked well in the tight space. The dipstick is adjustable for different oil pan depths. Simply add the amount of oil the motor requires and trim the dipstick down to size. The top of the dipstick also locks to the tube like an air chuck connection on a pneumatic air tool. Black ruff-textured RHS valve covers (PN VC-12000) are sealed to the heads via Fel-Pro cork valve cover gaskets (PN Q1649). Make sure to use anti-seize on the threads of all the spark plugs (Denso IQ24). This is especially important when using aluminum heads. The motor was nearly complete; all that was missing was the dyno s starter, headers, and our Holley 750-cfm carb (PN 0-3310C). Ernie Mena hooked the motor to the dyno using a neutral balanced flywheel since the 383 was internally balanced. We then filled the motor with Comp Cams 10w30 street rod oil (PN 1594-12) and checked for leaks. 38 classictrucks.com August 2011 Classic Trucks 39

With all the safety checks double checked, Ernie started the motor and began the cam break-in procedure by staggering the engine rpm from 2000-2500 for 30 minutes. After the break-in we allowed the motor to cool and then rechecked all the gaskets for leaks. It was a good thing we checked because the valve covers were a bit loose. This caused a slight leak around the gasket. A simple re-torqueing of the valve cover bolts cured the leak. With the motor cooled down we could then start the dyno testing. It took Ernie five dyno pulls to fine-tune the motor by adjusting the Pertronix distributor and tweaking the Holley 750-cfm carb. Steve, Ernie, and I were very pleased when the final dyno numbers came in at 454 hp and 481 lb-ft of torque. For a pump gas motor with 9.6:1 compression, this little 383 pumped out great numbers and had very nice horsepower and torque curves that should be very beneficial to any truck guy. All I can say is, Wow, this motor should be a hoot. Low-end torque with plenty of top-end horsepower. I m going to need a tire sponsor. Once the motor is in the engine bay of the truck I plan on using an alternator (PN 810350) and starter (PN 829100) from Summit Racing, but since we were still dyno testing the motor we had to hold off on their installation. Plus, I might add a serpentine belt setup to run the alternator and other components. I painted the Summit long neck water pump (PN SUM-312449) black and bolted it on using ARP bolts. I used ARP thread sealer on the bolts that go into the motor s water jackets to prevent coolant from going past the threads. 40 classictrucks.com August 2011 Classic Trucks 41

We tried fitting the Doug s headers (PN D372Y) on the dyno, but we were missing the fittings needed to connect the headers to the dyno s ventilation system. It s too bad because I hear the Doug s headers are really nice for making power, but they ll work perfect once the engine is installed in the truck. These headers are made to fit under the hood of a 67-72 C-10 and are made out of 16 gauge steel with 1 5 8-inch diameter tube exiting into a 2½-inch collector. Parts List S u m m i t R a c i n g Eagle Specialties 383 bottom end: PN ESP- B13052L030 Alternator: PN 810350 Starter: PN 829100 Air cleaner: PN 239441 Water pump: PN SUM-312449 ARP-Bolts Head bolts: PN 134-3701 Motor bolt kit: PN 534-9802 Thread sealer: PN 1009904 Thread lube: PN 1009909 Lokar Performance Products Locking dipstick: PN 122007 Doug s Headers Headers: PN D372Y Pertronix Distributor: PN D7100710 Coil: PN 60103 Plug wires: PN 808290 Comp Cams Camshaft: PN 08-432-8 Lifters: PN 850-16 Rocker arms: PN 1605-16 Pushrods: PN 7949-16 Lifter spider tray: PN 08-1000 RHS Pro Action Heads: PN 12053-02 Valve covers: PN VC-12000 Holley 750-cfm carb: PN 0-3310C Edelbrock Performer Air-Gap intake manifold: PN 7501 Fel-Pro Head gaskets: PN 1003 Exhaust manifold gaskets: PN Fel-1444 Intake manifold gasket: PN Fel-1206 Valve cover gasket: PN Q1649 Carb gasket: PN Q1900 SOURCES Summit Racing Equipment 800-230-3030 www.summitracing.com Comp Cams 901-795-2400 www.compcams.com Racing Head Service (RHS) 901-259-1134 www.racingheadservice.com ARP-Bolts 800-826-3045 www.arp-bolts.com Edelbrock 310-781-2222 www.edelbrock.com Lokar Performance Products 877-469-7440 www.lokar.com Fel-pro 248-354-7700 www.federalmogul.com PerTronix Performance Products 909-599-5955 www.pertronix.com Doug s Headers 909-599-5955 www.pertronix.com Westech Performance 951-685-4767 www.westechperformance.com Holley 270-782-2900 www.holley.com 42 classictrucks.com August 2011 Classic Trucks 43