There goes my summer!!

[SneakyPete]

Sux man, Bob can hook you up with Callies stuff, or I am sure Scott can do the same. Bob seemed to have real good prices when I was looking. As far as the rest of the rotating assembly goes, it may look fine, and in fact may be fine, but will it always be in the back of your head that it may not be fine? It would for me...if you can swing the $ I would go new, just for piece of mind. Every short cut I have taken has always haunted my thoughts until I go back and change it out the right way (flatt tappet to roller, cheap valves to inconel etc etc...)

 

[SneakyPete]

One more thing, I hear you on the heat thing...I stabbed in my cam, measured the pushrods, and checked vavle to piston clearence the other day, I was soaked. Drank about 16oz of water every half hour. Rain yesterday kept me from degreeing and snugging down the heads....

 

[SneakyPete]

I am sure you already have thought of this, but just to make sure, don't forget to backflush the bejesus out of your oil cooler.

 

[vinny p.]

I am sure you already have thought of this, but just to make sure, don't forget to backflush the bejesus out of your oil cooler.

The cooler is going in the garbage. Unless someone wants it for the shipping costs. I have decided to trash the entire rotating assembly as well. My supplier is willing to work with me on the costs. We will see what he does after all is said and done.

 

[bigsbetter]

Vinny....although I havent posted much latley, I have been reading and keeping up on the site, including your bad luck. I was at work and had a minute to check the site and saw your post about your engine ( before you had it tore down), I text messaged my wife and told her " Vinnys' engine blew up in the ocean". She kinda freaked out...you know how girls are...she thought your whole boat blew up like a bomb!....All my budies have had such bad luck this year with engines.5 blown engines this year alone...W/ 5 different friends of mine... I can only hope you can enjoy the making and the designing and the matching of the new engine, hopefully as much as if not more than your original 540. I hope you get it together soon enough to enjoy it this summer (which I'm sure you will) and I look forward to your post of your in depth description of your first full throttle run at a speed close to 90 mph. CHECKMATE is a great boat, but when people like you have one...it just makes them better.

 

[vinny p.]

Charlie,

Thanks for the kind words. I'll keep posting as I get more information. Since the rotating assembly is junk, I was thinking of building a 572. But, my supplier told me he has 14 4.375" Callies cranks on order. There seems to be a back log of orders. I can wait for it, it may be a few weeks. In my past experiences, a few weeks turns into a few months, real easy. I dont want to wait that long. I'll know more soon.

 

[SneakyPete]

Vinny, if I use that cooler do you think my motor will make more power, becuase it has little bits and pieces of your motor in it ? (I am not making light of your situation, just couldn't resist the oil cooler comment...)

 

[vinny p.]

Vinny, if I use that cooler do you think my motor will make more power, becuase it has little bits and pieces of your motor in it ? (I am not making light of your situation, just couldn't resist the oil cooler comment...)

That was the best laugh I had all day. I heard from my engine shop. The block may not be safe to use. They milled the main caps and will set the block up for line boring Monday. BUT, they said it will be close. The main took a hell of a beating. To top off my afternoon, I have been in the garage for hours lately just cleaning everything in the parts washer. ( I hate doing that) I took my ESP pre-luber apart, luckily no metal was in there. The impellers are fine. When I blew out the pump, the tiny little key way that holds the impeller went flying across my garage. I spent an hour on my hands and knees until I found the damn thing. Thats when I knew I had enough for today. Time to start fresh in the morning. Lately, I have been screwing up everything.

 

[happy]

good luck vin... i wish you the best... i got the 525, 502, and a stroker 454 to 496 you can borrow.. we just have to figure out how to get it there.. i'm in norway, and the motors are in texas 525 is a sb.. 502 is a long block,, the 454 is complete less exhaust

 

[Big Dave]

When you start throwing wrenches, it's time to go inside!

 

[bigsbetter]

this isn't gonna drive you to drinking ,is it Vinny?:cheers

Pete...that was a great comment about the oil cooler...!

 

[vinny p.]

this isn't gonna drive you to drinking ,is it Vinny?:cheers

Pete...that was a great comment about the oil cooler...!

No it wont. It will take more than this to make me take a drink. Today, I found out my block is marginal. It may hold up, or it may not. So, a complete new short block is on the way. I should have all the parts by the end of next week. My next issue is the new cam I am looking into. I am getting pissed of at the guy who is supposed to be building it for me. I am about ready to tell him to stick it. Parts are always a big problem when you are building an engine. Especially when you are in a rush.

 

[happy]

i'll be home in 28 hrs.. i can shiip by thursday.. you really wanna lose the summer?

 

[vinny p.]

Thanks Daryl, but things are falling into place.

My engine supplier has all the parts for my new short block, except for the pistons. They should be in on Monday. Hopefully, the short will be ready for me to pick up by the end of next week. All the miscellaneous parts that are home are washed and ready to be assembled. I ordered my cam yesterday. The profile is as follows. It will be ground on a 4-7 swap core. Intake duration @ .050 244* .663 lift, exhaust duration @ .050 256* .646 lift 114* lobe seperation, 110 * intake centerline. Also going with Isky tool steel springs. 200 # on the seat, 450# over the nose of the lobe. When plugged into my desktop dyno, I get 720 h.p. Thats about 40 hp more then my current combo. I am going with Isky Red Zone solid lifters with their EZ roll wheels. I have heard only good things about them. Anyone here know anyone using them? Can you tell I like Isky stuff.

I got my new oil cooler, got it painted up last night. I got the rebuild kit for the filter head as well. Lots of debris in the filter head when I took it apart. Anyone who is thinkng of saving a cooler after an engine grenades, think again. DONT DO IT! I should have them mounted along with my pre-luber and anything else I can do, this weekend. Planning on having the boat pulled from its rack and blocked up Saturday, to get the biilge ready to drop in the engine. Then back to its rack.

I tore the drive down. All looked great. Those cryoed gears show no signs of wear at all. It may just be the ticket, we'll see. I swapped the the old style Imco vertical shaft for the later model. Big difference between the 2. Imco should be embarrassed to have ever made such a piece of $hit shaft.

I was talked out of using a Jesel belt drive. I was told that those belts dont really like to be throttle back and forth, they stretch out. Not to mention what the salt water will do to those billet aluminum pulleys that are exposed. So, I scratched that idea. Next is the T&D shaft rockers I wanted to upgrade to. It seems they are jamned with work.. Their lead time is too long for me to wait for. Nascar has them building lots of rockers for them and you know they will get preference over me. So, scratch that until the off season also. I am sure my Comp Cams Pro-Magnum rockers will hold up well.

In the mean time, its the 4th of July and I am boatless. Looks like I'll be sitting on the beach with my wife. DAMN IT !!

 

[happy]

i'll be home for hurricane season... hehehee (fishing) ((whoopps not me)) if you need any thing for your project lemme know...

 

[vinny p.]

OK, heres the latest updates. I went out to the machine shop this afternoon. Here is what the new short block kit will consist of.

Dart Big "M" Block 4.5" bore with billet main caps
Callies Magnum 4 1/4" Crank
Lunati Pro Mod 6.385" Rods
JE -3cc pistons
Calico coated main, rod and cam bearings

All parts are in stock. All I am waiting for is for the block to be done and the rotating assembly be balanced. They said they should have it all done and ready for me to pick up and assemble by Friday. The new cam, lifters, springs, retainers, keepers should be delivered late this week or early next week. The down side is that I am jamned at work. Getting any time off right now is impossible. I am scheduled for a weeks vacation the week of July 22. Hopefully, I'll have the engine all together and ready to drop back in that Monday. No time for the dyno this time around. Looks like I'll have to set up the in water dyno again. At least I have my previous tune-up as a base line. I dont expect things to change that much.

 

[SneakyPete]

Good to hear Vinny, so you decided against the Dragonslayer/Compstar combo? I have mine mostly together, just have to install the Crane Hi 6m, the cooling system, exhaust, and get the fuel system set up.

 

[vinny p.]

Today was a good day. I got all of the parts home and ready to assemble. I spent most of the afternoon getting the short block done. Pistons and crank are in and done. Cam and chain is slid in, but not degreed yet.
I'll try to take a few pictures tomorrow and post them. My engine shop surprised me today. When I went to pick up the parts, there were some strange looking pistons attached to me connecting rods. WTF?? They said these psitons are the hot ticket right now. They have used them with great success. I never heard of them. Weird looking things. Almost no skirts, you can see the oil rings from the underside.

http://www.jegs.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_10001_10002_756703_-1_10219

 

[vinny p.]

Here are a few pictures of the progress so far.

 

[vinny p.]

One more for now. More to come as I get the time.