Plastic Fantastic 2

[SuperBuickGuy]

So I haven't updated in awhile... built this

it's an 85 Suburban turbo diesel, it's basically a camper with a rack, solar panels, propane, refrigerator, awning...
then I accidentally picked up this

that I'm putting a turbo 231 V6 Grand National motor in....

but I haven't forgot about the Corvette... and that is the update

I bought a 427 for it - it'll be knuckle dragging as my prior C3 only with 427 ci of solid-cammed, BBC power. It'll get flares and as much weight savings as I can stand - for sure no heater, aluminum heads/intake.... anyway, pictures of the new motor tomorrow.

 

[rtj]

but I haven't forgot about the Corvette... and that is the update

I bought a 427 for it - it'll be knuckle dragging as my prior C3 only with 427 ci of solid-cammed, BBC power. It'll get flares and as much weight savings as I can stand - for sure no heater, aluminum heads/intake.... anyway, pictures of the new motor tomorrow.

You'll never regret that decision once you get it running good.

Get one of the auto gear m22's (or m23 now) to complete the unrefined old school vib.

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

but I haven't forgot about the Corvette... and that is the update

I bought a 427 for it - it'll be knuckle dragging as my prior C3 only with 427 ci of solid-cammed, BBC power. It'll get flares and as much weight savings as I can stand - for sure no heater, aluminum heads/intake.... anyway, pictures of the new motor tomorrow.

You'll never regret that decision once you get it running good.

Get one of the auto gear m22's (or m23 now) to complete the unrefined old school vib.

I'm going to fix the Super T-10 that came with the car and drive nicely :quote:

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

Pictures of the new motor
4 bolt main 427/454 - it's a truck motor, however, there are some interesting things about it. I'm thinking it probably came from a motor home. Block is 30 over.
Crank is a forged, 396 crank that's 20 under. It's been balanced and the entire assembly lightened.

clean

new seats, new valves, new springs... in iron heads. Too bad, really. I think these will get a half-hearted Craigslist then will occupy my shelf until a suitable truck motor needs built



funny, I didn't take pictures of the pistons. 10.5:1 compression with reliefs cut for 1" lift. No ARP bolts, but I'll solve that before I put this together.

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

Pictures

​

 

[rtj]

Looks like photobucket has shut off 3rd party hosting for you too.

EDIT: never mind, all of a sudden they showed up. Looks like mine are gone. I think they want $50 per year to host my images.

 

[rtj]

Someone spent some money on that engine at one time. Any back story?

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

The guy I bought it from kind of moved on from doing a 427. He planned to use it for the form of stock-car racing he did (though I've no idea whether or not there is or was a 7.0 liter class).... then life happened, and now he's hot rodding Harbor freight motors.... gets 14-17 hp out of a HF motor (which is really impressive) - and not so nutty as he also dabbles in other stuff (like making a neat hinge pin for Mopars)....

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

Got my OBX side pipes friday


they look really nice
except for the dent - that apparently they put there for clearance .... if you squint just right at their pictures, you can see the bludgeoned part on fleabay.


I'm not leaving it like that - it offends me on several levels, but they are 304 stainless, 16 ga, and have mufflers inside for $804 delivered... I couldn't build what I bought for the price (and they look well designed) and seem to have equal length tubes (which the Hookers do not have).

So the tl;dr is overall I like the pipes but am disappointed by the dent.... but not enough to ratchet up the complaint.

 

[BBShark]

I was just over at a friends house yesterday and he is putting an old Triumph motorcycle together. The pipe had a really bad dent in it. He filled it with water and froze it. The dent is completely gone now.

 

[bobs77vet]

nice....

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

now with shiney bits



$900 delivered. For the price, they're amazing. They need a couple hours each of porting, polishing, and edge-dulling.... but heavens.... I may get them shaved too, 9.5:1 is a bit low for my goals.

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

well, news is still news.

I figured, based upon measuring, that I'd need to do a split 20/30 under bearing, I was right....

at least the deck height is zero... too bad,

and I put some color on it


too bad - did I say too bad, yep. with 119cc heads instead of the 110 cc that I got with the motor the compression ratio is a disappointing 8.97:1. I can help it with .027 head gaskets (which are .012 thinner then the FelPro) and bring it to 9.17:1 but I think I'm going to either have to deck the block and/or deck the heads as well to get the 10:1 that I desire.... not a huge deal, but I'm not building a swill-gas-motor so steps will be taken.

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

comparing the two heads

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

In that vein, worked on the transmission today
these are what stopped me (and a ball bearing that is MIA).... I forgot to ask the PO how he did this to the snap rings, though probably a good thing I didn't, they look like there was a war.

a brief modification of a box to make removal of parts easier


for having three teeth floating around inside, it looks really good inside (and the synchros are in great shape

and yeah, missing teeth

have the gear, no idea what I did with my bearing splitter... ah well, I need more snap rings too


bright side is I found the motor mounts that I was looking for - of course, the person who needed them got mounts a couple weeks ago. Par would be finding the bearing splitter 2 weeks after I buy another.

 

[BangkokDean]

making good progress :thumbs:

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

got the intake

and checked the bearing clearance, 30 under bearings it was.
and got the cometic .027 gaskets

baby steps
​

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

I love tools that are older then me but work well for their purpose... 1950 Cornwell


pulled the heads apart so I can take them down to be decked.. they don't look bad - honestly, I'd recommend them so far.... as you'll see why through these pictures


the shop didn't touch the heads other then the machine work to put the valves in and their seats... all driver-quality stuff too. I'm impressed with the work - they seem to have taken the "we'll spend a couple extra dollars for the stuff we have to machine, but stuff like valve springs, retainers, and clips we'll cheap out" which is excellent because those are a lot cheaper to redo then someone setting a seat in crooked or whatever.
nice, undercut stainless valves - note the 3 angle valve job. Not unobtainium, not necessarily race, but a dang good start

same with the intake



they do need porting and I suppose a 5 angle cut on the valves (not going to). The ports need blending and (of course) port matching the intake... but here's why I like these - all stuff you can do at home without anything more then patience and a good dust mask...

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

heads are shaved


comparison to before
​

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

a bit was accomplished on the motor
first step was put the dowels back in the block

and then set the gaskets on

a nice coating of dykem

then pull the crank

and set the heads on to mark them

and to verify clearance of the valves
not a lot but good enough

hmmm....I'm not sure, but I think these might cause a leak

waiting on gaskets so I can mark then blend the intake and do the porting

​

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

transmission together


gasket - not so much, but useful for what I'm doing now..


​

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

onward
time to start on the grinding (blech)

inventory.... no mandrels...
​

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

I've really been admiring the DSE front suspension - especially the shortening of the upper control arm.... as I'm a contrarian, and I think they care about putting the car back to stock and I want to guarantee that there will be a TV show about the crap I build and them 'undoing' it in 50 years... that means, I'm cutting the upper mount off and putting it further out on the frame (like the DSE adapter does) out to increase camber gain upon compression

what would be a good baseline to start for a manual rack but capable of turning a 305 20 18 tire? Is there a good ratio of upper control arm to lower control arm? I've read the racecar book (name escapes me) I realize there will be a great deal of effort required to turn a large tire like that - but most dedicated track cars seem to pull it off.... as with the rest of this car, comfort is a nice thing for other cars... I want to be fast.

I know I'm an idiot for asking - but anyone want to enlighten me on why that is true?

 

[BBShark]

The width of the tire has an influence on scrub radius as does wheel offset etc. Large scrub radius would result in high steering effort at low speed.

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

on a clean sheet redesign of the front - wouldn't moving the track width center line towards the middle of the tire help with this?

 

[BBShark]

Absolutely.

 

[rtj]

I have a steeroids rack used as a manual rack. Parking is the only time it is noticeable effort.

As far as shorter a arms. Making your own spindle like DSE might be tough, but fab'ing a new a arm pivot wouldn't be too bad (like DSE). Pick an a arm like SPC, which are just threaded rods, and you could be half way there.

Some of the fabricated spindles being sold for racing are pretty simple, but it is a critical part. Not sure I'd want to go there myself.

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

I'm pretty sure that DSE spindle is a C6 spindle that they reversed sides to make them rear steer

 

[rtj]

I'm pretty sure that DSE spindle is a C6 spindle that they reversed sides to make them rear steer

If so, that would make it relatively straight forward.

Oh yeah, my front tires are approx 12 in wide with the manual rack.

 

[SuperBuickGuy]

Stuff is gonna get real
​