He did did great work on the runners. they are even and there are no digs where the cutter dug in. Working metal like I used to I can see the hand strokes of some so called porters. If I can see marks where there were fluid in there movements. I pass right over them. The hard part for me was to get the valve guide to look good. I wanted to be a head porter at one time because of my polishing background. I am easily as good as that guy with making it look nice. I don't have any way to quantify my work so I gave up on it. My luck it wouldn't flow for crap but look a million.

You guy did a nice job. You should see my Canfields. I let a "porter" open them up to a 1206, I still hate myself. They are very wavy.

 

Well i just spent god knows how long reading over 88 pages of your thread. All i can say is you are doing an excellent job. Good luck and keep up the great work.

I just wish i had half your patience for things like taking everything apart and cleaning and repainting them. Im to far into by build to start ripping it all back apart now, but saying this i know i am going to have to do it in the future to make myself happy.

Regardless, great job and keep updating!

 

Which is exactly what I did, anything I did halfway at first I ended up redoing it. Sometimes 3 times. lol.

My engine is done, the machine shop said it was a mess and took a lot of work getting the mains fixed, it would have had no oil pressure. So I'm picking it up Friday night, pictures to come.

 

And by done I don't mean done. Just the line bore.

 

Sounds good that the engine is finally coming together. Do you have any plans on dyno tuning the engine pre install? Or are you gonna install it and then chassis dyno it?

 

Dyno tuning is an expensive thing to do, I will be in the middle of a build still when the engine is together, I'd say that if it ever does get a dyno it will be a chassis dyno. The guy I got doing the build is recommending another cam now that the heads are ported, he says the heads should flow 260 or so, he has a bench so I'll get an exact number, and that I'd do better with a bigger cam. He said it should go 500-515 HP with that.

 

I'd never do another engine without align boring the mains! It's cheap insurance to make things like new! Amazing how far off they can be from either new, or years of use.

 

I know that guy is an experienced engine builder. I remember you saying he recommended a solid lifter cam. I think you would be better off where your at. The solid lifter will get old. Adjusting it every year minimum. Every month if you drive it alot. Then the clatter. Your starting to head toward a temperamental race engine instead of a turn the key and ride everyday hotrod.

 

He says he knows some tricks to keep from adjusting them. Plus, I have polylocks, that should stop that I think? I think he mainly doesn't want to leave anything on the table. And with porting the heads and doing some magic calculations according to the new measurements if I keep the cam I have now it will choke too soon...

 

I have a solid lifter cam in my 427, and have run it since 2000. Even when I drove it a lot more I still didn't adjust it as often as I hear people saying. Most say it's every 3000-3500 miles, and I've probably got 25,000 on the rebuild and have adjusted the lifters maybe 3-4 times including initial startup.
As for noise, you can tell it's solid lifters if you're standing by the car, but I don't hear them inside at idle, and at cruising speed you don't hear them anywhere.