408 W2 Stroker Build

[M_Body_Coupe]

Alright folks...time has come to start wrenching away on this thing, otherwise before you know it the winter is over and than what??? LOL

So here is my plan: I'm going to try to do a whole bunch of videos as the work progresses. You can't capture it all in video format though, so photos will come as well.

VIDOES
=====
1) Introduction

 

[9secRR]

keep the videos and photos coming.
i haven't touched my car at all since september. waiting for my parts to come back from machine shop so i can assemble it. RAMM should have my heads done this week. been a very long winter looking at my car and not being able to do anything

 

[Duke5A]

Dude, holy quarantine beard! All kidding aside, I'm going to love watching these videos.

 

[M_Body_Coupe]

Hey Mark!

Dude, holy quarantine beard! All kidding aside, I'm going to love watching these videos.

Ha...yeah, I figured you'd probably get a decent chuckle out of that video!!!

...and listen, thruth be told I've been saving that look for my Hollywood premier you see here!

 

[M_Body_Coupe]

...i haven't touched my car at all since september. waiting for my parts to come back from machine shop so i can assemble it...

You know, this being a street car as opposed to your race combo, I really was having a hard time bringing myself to start the project. Not that I didn't want to do it, but it always felt like "man, I just put this thing together". Well, originally it was a darn nearly 15 year project, so I think I can be forgiven for wanting to put a few more miles on it before tearing into it again.

However, as I looked it over just a couple of weeks ago and noticed that the epoxy job on one of the exhaust ports was letting go (tell-tale white powder coating on my exhaust primary pipe) I figured it was the right time to bite the bullet and get elbows deep into this. There is just no way that port was going to hold for another season and to fix it the heads have to be yanked anyways...so it just made sense.

 

[Lightning II]

Totally looking forward to this build.

 

[M_Body_Coupe]

VIDOES
=====
2) Current Engine Pull


BTW: I had hoped I could just EDIT the original post of mine in this thread to keep the videos sequentially organized and avoid having them scattered all over the place in the thread...but the EDIT is not available in that original post. Is that by design (meaning: this particular forum software works that way)? I ask because I sitll see EDIT buttons showing on my other responses...so what gives?

 

[80mirada]

I think the Edit function goes away after a certain amount of time

 

[Lightning II]

I think the Edit function goes away after a certain amount of time

it does. Pretty annoying imo.

 

[M_Body_Coupe]

Hey Everyone!

Well, it's been a while. I have a bucket of videos to edit first, hoping to get that done this weekend.

In the meantime, the new block is up on the stand, painted and ready for assembly.

I had ran into a problem with the oil pump gear drive and the Comp Cams hydraulic roller cam I had intended to use in this build. Most of the folks on Moparts suggested there must have been an issue with the cam when the gears were machined. Most likely I won't be able to use this anymore. I've reached out to Comp Cams to see if we can fix, or perhaps replace with something else. Haven't heard back yet.

Otherwise, I did manage to do some other things, such as doing a DIY cylinder wall sonic check. DIY only b/c I'm using a hardware store checker, although it was spot-on with a number of test materials.

Take a look at the numbers, I was told these are pretty good, this being a factory '74 360 block.

 

[BudW]

I get the TMB (Top, Mid, Bottom) - but I thought one got those measurements front/rear and side/side (two sets of numbers per bore). I don't recall seeing four sets of numbers before.

 

[M_Body_Coupe]

I get the TMB (Top, Mid, Bottom) - but I thought one got those measurements front/rear and side/side (two sets of numbers per bore). I don't recall seeing four sets of numbers before.

Hmm, well this is the first time I did this. I based my method on what I was able to find on-line (speed shops) as well as a few of the Mopar engine building books.

So here is how I understand this:

1) Top / Mid / Bottom
So that you have a better feel for whether the wall gets any thinner along the piston travel path.

2) Major and Minor Thrust
Major Thrust is really what you care about as that is the side that sees piston loading on the power stroke. The Minor thrust happens on it's way back up.

3) Front and Back
There was no specific explanation for these other than to check for the consistency of the wall thickness.

All in all, you are talking 4 measurements at any bore depth, multiply by 3 (since you are measuing at Top / Mid / Bottom) and you end up with 12 per cylinder.

Belive me, I was pretty excited for the first two cylinders...then it got pretty tedious!!! LOL

Still, the effort was worth it, good to have the numbers. Of course I spot checked occasionally to make sure that I had repeatable numbers.

 

[BudW]

Hand meets forehead . . . Sonic check...duh. Its been a long day, sigh.

It only takes one cylinder to cause an major issue. My mind was elsewhere.

 

[M_Body_Coupe]

As they say: "Better late than never" right?

It's been a while since the last update, had a bunch of videos ready to get assembled into the 'Engine Tear Down' episode...and finally managed to get it all put together.

Soooo...without further ado, take a look at the following:

VIDEO #3 - Engine Tear Down

 

[Mikes5thAve]

Cool! How much miles did you have on it?
I always hate seeing stuff like the bearing differences, it makes me paranoid about what might have caused it and is it going to happen again the next time. Or what do the other engines Im still using look like..out of sight out of mind i guess

 

[M_Body_Coupe]

Cool! How much miles did you have on it?

8 seasons of summer cruising, which netted me about 10K KMs. Keep in mind, those weren't "easy miles"...I drove the car hard, few outings to the race track, etc. The motor would regularly spin to 6500, which I believe may be part of the reason for that tell-take cap-walk. No other hands-one experience on my part with this stuff, so I'm not sure how significant of an impact this may have had on the condition of the parts.

Overall though, I think the bearings looked pretty good for how the vehicle was used. Heck, couple of them still showed the factory top layer coating.

Anyways, the W2 408 stroker has main studs, and that's all done. I've got nearly the full short-block wrapped up, and if it wasn't for the screwed up Comp Cams hydraulic roller cam I would be well on my way to porting the heads by now!

 

[M_Body_Coupe]

Wow...inching up on a year w/o updates...yikes...I did that???

Well, no excuse, slow progress and un-steady, spurts here and there.

I need to start working on getting the engine assembly video next, in the meantime I just wrapped up the head porting...nothing crazy, just the factory extra casting flash removal.

There is some bad news here: I broke through on a pushrod pinch, but I'm working through the epoxy fix right now to get that patched up.

OK, here are a few pics:

 

[jasperjacko]

Is sleeving the pushrod hole an option? I can't wait to get on with my 410. Still fixing up the new house.

 

[M_Body_Coupe]

Is sleeving the pushrod hole an option? I can't wait to get on with my 410. Still fixing up the new house.

Well, unfortunately it is not. I had a machine shop clearance that area in order to make room for 3/8" pushrods...so that hole is now oval and in order to turn it round again you'd have to remove far too much material.

I'm actually in the process of fixing this up with J-B Weld. Using a piece of copper tube as the backing (on the inside of the pushrod hole) and just a thin layer on the inside of the port. I actually wasn't sure how strong this would be so I've set up a little test, need to pull it all apart tonight to see how robust it is (apply some heat, etc.) and then off I go to fix the head.

I think this should work, it is the cool part of the port/head casting and I've used epoxy once before in the roof of the port and that lasted for many years.

 

[M_Body_Coupe]

Yikes it's been a long road...but, it would seem I may have finally be getting to the end!

So a few updates:

1) the W2 head porting work is completed, I've uploaded a few photos, including the overall flow charts (SF-600 bench), no pipe on the exhaust port, finished up with a decent chamber polish

2) I have a borrowed spring pressure @installed height checker on my bench, so I'll get the valve springs all into a ballpark range of pressures for the SEAT & OPEN positions

3) head assembly would be the very next thing

4) I am currently working through some issues (potential seal replacement) on the Borgeson power steering box, hoping it won't have to go back to them for the replacement, but that remains to be seen