NEW MOTOR FOR IMSA- HIGH RPM 345 SBC

[NixVegaGT]

i think i've had this thing in various states of assembly and then dissassembly to check compatability of parts and tolerences about five times.

DUDE, I totally feel you on that part. I swear I thought I was never gonna get done building and rebuilding the current engine I'm working on. That's what we get for building totally custom engines though. Nothing off the shelf, right man?! LOL. I just finished the bulk final assembly on my engine all I have left is fabricating aluminum valve covers, building a mount for the EDIS coils and crank trigger, and some oil pan mods for the larger-than-stock oil pickup and galleries. SO CLOSE!

I figure I'll be at the dyno by next month. I gotta get done. I know you understand where I'm coming from. Holy long term build.

[mldeolde]

MORE LIKE A LIFES WORK!!!!!!!!!!!! BUT I'M FINALLY GETTING CLOSE IN THE ENGINE DEPARTMENT. WHEN THIS THING FINALLY HITS THE DYNO FOR THE FIRST TIME ,HOPEFULLY SOON,IT WILL BE A MAJOR MILESTONE FOR THIS PROJECT.

[mldeolde]

PS: good luck on the valve cover fab. i'm thinking you'll be demonstraighting some real SKILLS making those. can't wait to see them. please post pics when you get them going or done. keep up the great work. if they say you can't do that or no one has ever done that !!!!!!!!!! that's you green light to streach the envelope and leave them shaking thier heads in disbelief when you rock thier world with something that they can't believe even exists..... stock is for people with no time. inovation is for people whose time has come.

[NixVegaGT]

Thanks, Bruce. I'll definitely keep you posted as much as I'll keep track of this build. I'm really looking forward to seeing how it dynos.

[mldeolde]

another first for me anyway today.picked up the rotating assembly from ballanceing. easy job for the shop as the GRP rods were all perfectly ballenced as were the Mahale pistons. they just had to take even more metal off an already pretty light crank. now it weights in at 46.4 lbs now that's light far a vintage non billet crank..... you see or find out something new every day.

[mldeolde]

LATEST ASSEMBLY HOLD UP. I WAS INFORMED JUST THE OTHER DAY THAT I REALLY NEED TO USE BOWTIE BLOCK SPECIFIC ARP HEAD STUDS AS THEY GO MUCH DEEPER INTO THE BLOCK AND UTILIZE A LOT MORE THREADS. OH YEA THERE ARE NO DEALS TO BE HAD ON THEM EITHER. $ 229.00 plus tax take it or leave it or $229.00 plus shipping from Sumitt and wait till 11-20-09 for it to be shipped. thank god my local speed shop will match Summits price due to the economic conditions here they don't want to loose any sales.................. RACE BLOCKS-EVEN MY OIL RESTRICTORS WHICH WORK IN EVERY OTHER SMALL BLOCK WON'T WORK. THEY HAVE A DIFFERENT ONE FOR BOWTIE BLOCKS. BAH HUMBUG.................

[mldeolde]

ps: also got the news that the dyno use is up to $600.00 now and that is just the minimum and can go up from there. i'm becoming less and less interested in documenting the out put of this beast. i guess its my cheap side saying "last time it was $400.00. is that little piece of paper worth $600.00 to me that's the question. i'm accepting contributions if any one is intersted.

[72 SS PNL]

not worth it , put it in the car and tune it that way , then dyno it if you want the numbers

[gerbsinmd]

Yeah I say put it in and tune it in the car. If you want numbers find a chassis dyno at some car event some where and they will let you make a pull or 2. My dad did that with his car and I think it cost $50 per pull or something like that, they even gave us some tuning advise, l "it appears to be a little rich, looks like you need to take about 2 numbers out of the Jets on the secondaries". Way less than $600.

The guys we were working with would have let us do a little tuning while still strapped in as long as the line was short.

[mldeolde]

the numbers are the only real reason for putting this engine on the dyno. with all the crazy things we did on this engine i'd really like to know if we succeeded in achieving the numbers we expectedand if there are any little tweeks that might help it. there is the ego thing with this engine also,it would be nice to say our little 345 cu in sbc engine puts out -------- hp and when told no way be able to show them the "NO BULLSHIT" dyno sheet.

[72 SS PNL]

engine vs chassis dyno , tuning is still gonna be different , as will the power it makes from day to day , but the actual exhaust that is fitted to the car will make the biggest difference between the engine vs chassis numbers

but in car tuning is still the best way , plus if you figure 10-15% loss for the drivetrain , you can get close to what the motor is actually making at the flywheel

[Astre-mutt]

mldeolde, engine is looking great. This would really add to the road racing theme of the car. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/SOLEX-FU ... 2303bc3a0d Look forward to hear how it runs after all that hard work!

[72 SS PNL]

that is a sweet set up , though problematic for tuning and keeping in tune , but done up as a electronic fuel injection set up would be alot of fun

[gerbsinmd]

the numbers are the only real reason for putting this engine on the dyno. ------- hp and when told no way be able to show them the "NO BULLSHIT" dyno sheet.

At $600 to start, I would wait for a chassic dyno at an event somewhere. A Dyno Sheet is a Dyno sheet even if it is a chassic Dyno. If you are expecting great numbers you'll get them on the chassis dyno too.

I kinda think what it ACTUALLY puts on the ground in street trim is more impressive than what can be created in the lab. You can fuss with too many things in the lab to make it seem like it has a bit more power. I've seen guys that have engines with amazing dyno sheets that just can't seem to make it run at the track like their sheets say it should. I have a couple of friends that were for years dueling it out and the guy with the amazing dyno sheet kept getting beat.

Make it run like the wind in the real world then get your chassic dyno sheet and show 'em what its really all about.

IMHO

[mldeolde]

well it seems that MURFYS LAW is alive and well,at least around here and the never ending IMSA project. ordered a new set of ARP head studs for the 345 cu in sbc with my one off Brodix spec heads with thier -11 port arangement on a set of what was supposed to be a set run of the mill Track -1 layout heads with the tel tale ridges to make any modifing very noticable .. what showed up was a set of studs for an 18 degree set of heads. that's about up to par as the way things go around here. so need to reorder the "CORRECT "set this time. hope they come that way. MURFYS LAW #2- was when i was going into final assembly mode on the short block only to find that the #2 upper half of the main bearing actually had a hard bump in it about 1/16 th inch in diameter. had this engine together and apart about five times and never caught it untill now. not that it is a bad thing ,actually glad to have found it now and not later when it surely would have done some nasty and maybe catisrophic damage to a rare and quite trick crankshaft. so the saga continues. been too busy at work to do much lately anyway but it sure is frustrating when you get the time and the parts to make some progress and then something like this happens.