Race Engine project planning

63 dream'n

Well Seasoned Member
Supporting Member 4
I drew them up,and another fella at work helped me out with the machining.I saw the design in a article about a 409 build that Lamar Walden was doing.the originals as best I could tell were of a 2 piece design.mine are 1 and just slip the wires thru.
 

region rat

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 3
My Stef's pan came yesterday and if it was for a less visually appealing engine I'd hate to put it down on the bottom where no one would see it.

As I get closer to the end, I am struggling with the idea of sticking with the Edelbrocks and having SD Performance CNC them, or trying to sell them while they are still new and buy a pair of Bob's new raised port heads. I THINK they will still have normal valve spacing/angles to use the same piston design and valve reliefs.....with the only thing required to run a standard 409 intake being a set of intake spacers. That was the plan last I heard anyway. The more I look at the port designs and runner entry the more I see how much better a raised port must be even if the flow numbers were the same.

I will most likely just stick with the current plan for the simple fact of keeping this thing on course and actually completing it instead of changing and it taking even more time and money to get running.
I'm pretty sure no amount of porting on an E head will match what you can get from mine.At least 10 guys have hit 350 with the old castings and the new ones are even better.
All the spacing and angles are off the GM prints.

I'll post some race port flow numbers as soon as I get them. I have 3 shops massaging them now. We'll digitze a great one so it will be repeatable.

Raised ports have valves in the same location. Intake pushrods are left out to relocate when pinch is widened. Not due to recieve new raised ports till after new years. I'm hoping they can go an extra 18-20 cfm. That was the differance in the first ones we did, as-cast vs as-cast.

Bob
 

1961BelAir427

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 3
I've been planning on just ordering a new one, but thought I would ask all of you guys first just in case. Do any of you have a solid roller camshaft laying around that you want to part with? I know several of you have ran different grinds over the years. I am looking for something in the range of 255-275 degrees of duration @ .050" lift and in the .650" to .700" gross Lift range.

My planned grind is: 265* I / 270* E @ .050" - .680" Lift with 1.7:1 rockers and 110* Lobe separation angle.

I'm getting closer to being able to start assembly. Hopefully all the machining will begin within the next couple of weeks.
 

region rat

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 3
I don't have any cam with more than .600 lift. If you need a new one I can get you a deal from Crane(or anyone else)

If any journals are loose in the cam tunnel that would require oversize, I have BBC sized cores that will accommodate well over 700 lift
 

region rat

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 3
You might have them grind the cam based on 1.750 ratio. If you think it;s too big, you can switch to 1.70 or if you think you need more lift you can try 1.8"s
 

1961BelAir427

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 3
I realized that I made a mistake by having my machinist set up my springs already. I was going to swap them out myself with a stud mounted compressor and just check the installed height, but some of the springs were in the way of the other studs so that would not work.....so took them to his house so he could use his REAL valve spring compressor on them. Well...I guess I out-thunk myself because I still need to make the exhaust clearance notch in each chamber in the block after I mock things up. :doh That means 4 exhaust valves will have to come back out of one of the heads. :bang

I do have an old pair of #333 heads here. Would I be able to get the same results from using the Isky cutter in one of those instead of taking the aluminum heads apart again? As long as the valve angles are the same it shouldn't matter right?
 

region rat

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 3
I've been told that the valves are off a little from GM heads. A customer of mine said his builder spent a lot of time lining up rockers and stuff. I think they would be close enough. Might be a good idea to use a valve cutter that is a bit larger than the one in your new heads. I got some cutters from a tool shop. The carbide ones were expensive but last longer. The tool steel ones can be resharpened. What size are the stems on your cutter?
 

1961BelAir427

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 3
I've been told that the valves are off a little from GM heads. A customer of mine said his builder spent a lot of time lining up rockers and stuff. I think they would be close enough. Might be a good idea to use a valve cutter that is a bit larger than the one in your new heads. I got some cutters from a tool shop. The carbide ones were expensive but last longer. The tool steel ones can be resharpened. What size are the stems on your cutter?

Cutter has 11/32" stems I think. Valves are 11/32" Old 333 stems are 3/8" of course. I thought about that yesterday.
 

1961BelAir427

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 3
It's been a while since I had anything to update.
The cutter that SkipFix offered to loan me arrived this week. (THANK YOU!!!) and I went ahead and paid part of the machine shop bill a few days back.
$200 to bore and hone (included cleaning the block)
$150 to align hone and install the main studs
$ 45 to install cam bearings & freeze plugs (labor only - will be done after the valve relief notches are cut, water/oil passages are deburred...then another cleaning)
Machine shop labor so far only $395.00
I think that is about it except for balancing costs and possibly decking to square the block. As little as we have to on that last step.
He wouldn't charge me for swapping the springs/retainers/locks.....even though he is going to redo that on 4 exhaust valves so I can cut the notches in the block chambers. He is also going to let me do all mock-up and final assembly in his shop at his house with his help/guidance.
I feel very blessed to have friends like this. I'd never be able to finish this without people like him.....and all of you on here.
I can't thank all of you enough!!!

Complete list in Post #167 updated again and is current as best I can tell.
 
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jim_ss409

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 5
Looks like it's going to be a nice engine. :beer
You're probably giving up just a little by being conservative on the cam lift,,, if you can call .680 lift conservative. :scratch
But really, I don't think you're loosing much there and .680 shouldn't stress out the valve train so I think it's a good move.
It's going to make a lot of power. :deal
 

1961BelAir427

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 3
Thanks Jim. I picked that one more for the duration numbers @ .050". I might go up 5 to 10 degrees by the time I order the cam....which will have to be soon. The .680" with the 1.7's will put it @ .720" with 1.8's if I want to try them later. I don't think I want to go over .750" and deal with swapping valvesprings constantly. The intake options have had me :bang badly for about a month now....although I've been thinking about it for much longer than that. It's looking more and more like I'll just run the 881 until something makes it to production.......or someone wants to sell a good one. I wish I had the skills that you guys do. That tunnel ram on the Pontiac looks like jewelry. I'm hoping to be in the neighborhood of 650HP @ 7,200 rpm and eventually run mid 6's in the 1/8th. I know that won't happen without plenty of tuning and seat time.
 

yellow wagon

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 2
Why not go with a hogan sheet metal intake or the CRW/LWA and grind the advertisement off? You will make more power with either if those options for sure. The edelbrock dual 4 intake is a good piece. Just needs some port matching and cleanup. Could use that with a set of carb spacers. Or Aubrey's intake with a big spacer would work also. 650hp should be attainable
 

63 dream'n

Well Seasoned Member
Supporting Member 4
I don't mean to redirect your thread,but at what point (valve lift) would I need to cut cylinder for valve relief if I would want to end up with 11:1 compression ratio in a passenger car block 409.at 11:1 I'd like a hot street car,that would get some track time,how hot a cam could I use before it would have poor performance and or loose reliability. Oh and I'd opt for a Hogan intake
 
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