Long Block 101

That's a class I should probably take to get through this next part of the engine building story.

It's kind of laughable that I'm writing these bits about assembling an engine, when it's something I've never done before. Of course, I did watch it all go together, so I figure that essentially makes me an engine guru, so let's proceed. As with the short block, this will be a pruned down version of the ol' how-to.

Once again, our expert Joe was there to help with the first part, which was to check the valve to piston clearance. This is called "claying the head", a small piece of clay is put on the top of the piston to see how close the valve comes to it. The simple equation being: valve + hitting piston = bad. Here's a picture of Joe, making sure things fit.

We're using Chevrolet Vortec iron heads, which are called that because they super swirl the air/fuel mixture in the combustion chamber. An improved mix gives you better efficiency and more power. These heads were first used on some of GM's trucks, and then the Chevy performance guys found them be great for motors wanting lots of torque and horsepower. That's us!

After that the heads are assembled with the valves and springs, the push rods are put in and the rocker arms are installed.

Before going any farther, we need to make this thing looks like a Chevrolet motor, and that's done by painting it, what else but, "Chevy Orange", just like the 60's!

At this point, what's left to do is bolt on the last pile of parts that's scattered about. That would be the timing cover, the harmonic balancer, the Edelbrock intake manifold, our deluxe Moroso road racing oil pan, and our spiffy polished aluminum valve covers.

Toss on a fuel pump and some motor mounts and this thing's ready to go into the car. With the help of Matt, Rick's son and one of our main worker bees, that's done.

We're at a point where everything is nearly finished, but not quite. It's time to get something wrapped up.

NEXT TIME: Nice Brakes!

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Ay Chihuahua!

Or it's more like, what the hell did we do now!! We were cruising along, getting things done at a nice pace, about 8 months out till the Panamericana race, plenty of time to get the car done and road tested. So, all of a sudden we're entered in another race in Mexico!
We've signed up for "The Chihuahua Express", a three day race in and out of the city of Chihuahua in Northern Mexico. This event is associated with one of the last open road speed runs in the United States; "The Silver State Classic Challenge", in Nevada.

It's the maiden voyage running of this competition, and definitely will be a excellent tune-up for us and the car. We'll be running against Corvette's, no problem, Viper's, they're nothin, Porsche's and Ferrari's, whatever, and some of the Pan Am cars, oh yea!

All we have to do, is get the Chevy finished.

If you want to see what the other events are about, check these......
http://chihuahuaexpress.com/index.asp
http://www.silverstateclassic.com/

NEXT TIME: Long Block 101

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That's a V8, A'merican style!

That's right race fans, this is the real deal, lots of good old A'merican horsepower! All the final little bits of grinding and smoothing are done, now it's time to put this baby together.

Now building an engine is kind of like putting together a puzzle, one piece missing or one out of place and it doesn't work. It always seemed to me that an internal combustion engine was a very complicated piece of machinery, and they are, but really there's not that many parts that go inside one. When you see one going together, starting with the block they become much simpler. It's something like "the foot bone's connected to the leg bone and the leg bone's connected to the knee bone" kind of thing. Also what's being built is pretty simple and straightforward, with the car being as old as it is, there is no pollution controls to deal with, no fuel injection, no turbos, no double overhead cams, nothing too fancy, just a good ol' V8.

Now our team of experts were, myself, of course, my racing pard, Rick, who's been building engines since High School, Everett Selby, machinist extraordinaire, and Joe. Ahh Joe, I'm sorry I didn't get your last name, being our utmost expert consultant, but maybe that makes for a better story.

What I know of Joe, is he's a young fellow of about 26, who's put together umpteen motors for himself and others while working at the local hot rod shop. He's a Chevy man at heart and he has been a big help to us prescribing what brands of parts to secure. He likes to make sure the Ford guys know that we're building a "real motor". Being a hot rodder, he looks at engines in terms of drag racing, so we had to make sure to kept him on the right page for road racing. He donated our 350 block, and he also tells funny stories.

What you'll see in these pictures is building what's called "the short block". The actual steps in putting a motor together, you can read in an engine building manual, what I'll give you is the highly abbreviated version

First the block is cleaned, dirt being the villain, can't have it clogging an oil passage. The crankshaft, main caps and bearings come next, with measurements always taking place to make sure it's straight and fits as it should. Like cooking or carpentry, engine building is a matter of having the right tool, so it's good to know that if the hammer to smack the crank place isn't big enough, there's always a BIGGER one around. But hey, like Joe sez, "It's only a gas motor"! Meaning, it's not some alcohol fueled, fire breathing, 1200 HP monster, just a little gas engine!

Next, comes the rods and pistons, which have been prepared with the rings, and are fitted into the block and attached to the crankshaft. More measurements take place to make sure the piston heights are right.

Following that, the camshaft is is installed, which slid right into place for us, they sometimes can be a problem if things aren't lined up right.

A quick side note about our cam. One of the top cam grinders in the business just happened to move in across the street from the shop. Dimitri Elgin of Elgin Cams did the work for us, and if you have any notion to learn more about camshafts, go to this link and read up on it.....

http://www.elgincams.com/campaper.html

He told me it was written for a tenth grade education, if that's so, I'll see you in kindergarten!

Next, you throw on a timing chain. And finally, the camshafts position is checked so it matches with that of the crankshaft, so their rotation is synchronized, that's called "degreeing the cam". As it sounds, it's rather complicated, with lots more calibrating and measuring to get it right. With that, you have yourself a finished short block.

Whew, I'm all worn out doing all that wrenchin', so next time we'll do the top half, or "the

long block". But first we'll talk about "The Chihuahua Express"!

NEXT TIME: Ay Chihuahua!

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So, what's under the hood?

That's a question that's been asked since the beginning of the 20Th century. To answer it, I have to talk a little more about the rules and get somewhat specific. As I've said, the car has to be more or less as it was in 1964. For the engine, that means nothing bigger than a 327 cubic inch V8 went into a Chevelle. In some of the Corvettes and a few Chevelles and Novas that motor developed around 360 HP. We have the allowance of boring the cylinders up to +.040" or +40 thousandths over, that means putting in bigger pistons. We'll only be going +.030", which gives us about a 331 cubic inch engine. The plan is having somewhere between 400 to 450 HP. That should be plenty, but, there's an old saying, "never enough horsepower". We'll see.

What we are starting with is called a Chevrolet small block, these were made between 265 cubic inches up to a 400 ci. Ours is a 350 that will be "destroked" or built with a 327 crankshaft. This makes it a 331 engine, keeping us within the rules.

Where the motor is being built at is Selby and Sons Machine Shop, just down the street from us. Here's a picture of one of the sons, Everett Selby, our main man at the shop, balancing the crankshaft. That nifty machine spins the crank, and figures out where the weight needs to come off. You take off what's needed with the drill press, and you have a balanced crankshaft. Add the flywheel to one end and the harmonic balancer to the other, both also balanced, and you have a bottom end of a motor that's better than most.

The block has already been bored and is ready for the rods and pistons, our camshaft guru is bringing the cam over anytime now, so at this point, all the big parts for the engine are here, almost ready to be put together.

There's a few little tweaks yet to be done before that happens. A little grinding here, a little filing there, so lets get that done so we can build a motor.

NEXT TIME: That's a V8, A'merican style!!

We are looking for sponsors

Wish List

This is going to be a quick segue from telling our tale, to asking you to join us in fulfilling our laundry list of parts. As you probably have seen, we've been asking for sponsorship in these blogs, and figure an easy way for you to participate is to make a wish list. For your help I could tell you that you'd be getting to pin our racing suits to your wall after the race, but.... no, I hope we need them again. Or we could park the car in front of your house and do burn-outs up and down the street to impress the neighbors.

What you will definitely get is our heartfelt thanks for believing in our project and making a donation. So without further delay, here's what we need...

2 - G Force Helmet Restraint Systems # GFR-SRS-1 - Summit Racing - $269.99 ea

http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?autofilter=1&part=GFR%2DSRS%

1- Entry Fee to La Carrera Panamericana - $4999.95

surfblue@sbcglobal.net

The way, I hope, this works is you can click on the link, go to the sellers web page, and order it up. Or you can call us and tell us what you want to sponsor, and send us a check.

Our address is - North Bay Bavarian 1801c Empire Industrial Ct. Santa Rosa, CA. 95403

Phone #707-545-0820

And let us know what you sponsored so we can take it off the list.

Thanks for being our pals, thanks for reading this, thanks for considering our wish list, and mostly, thanks for asking if you could help. xox e