Well, five months after I blew up my stock motor I'm just about done. I took it down to get tuned today and ran it on the dyno. Found out that the #1 cylinder wasn't firing, changed the plug and didn't help. I figure its the plug wire and will change that out tomorrow. Anyways the results with seven cylinders firing was 390hp to the wheels. I know that's not close to what a lot of you guys put down, but here's the build:

Forged 383, 6in rods, SRP dished pistons, 8.5:1, stock rebuilt heads/valves, crane 224/234 .553 .575 112LSA, 1.6 rollers, and powerdyne BD11-A @ 5lbs

The car runs a bit rough due to the miss, I can't wait to get it all squared away. This entire build was done in a storage garage, since I live in an apartment, mostly by my self. I had friends help me out when I needed the extra hand, but limited equipment and space made it all the more satisfying when it finally started. It fired up on the first try! Anyways, I just had to share this with you guys and I'll get a video of this thing up here when I get the chance.

I'd also like to thank you guys for all the advice when picking out certain parts. Not just replies to my posts, but all the forum searching I went through. Thanks!

-Pete-

 

Congrats on getting the car done. I'm wondering why you went with a cam with such a wide LSA for a blown application.

 

If he is not going for insane numbers it should still be fun. I would max out the little powerdyne (what 7-9psi) on your setup and see what happens. Get it all squared away and you will have somethign with some lope, sounds mean, and puts a good 500 or better to the wheels.

I'm not really shooting for much myself.

 

I went with that particular cam because that's what crane reccomended. Since I live in Daytona Beach I just drove down to their tech center and spoke with a tech in person. I told him the complete build (ie. weight, compression, tire height ect.) and thats what they said to go with. I also went with the guides, locks, retainers, springs, and everything else to go with that cam.

Well, I changed out that plug wire yesterday and the car ran great. Broke the tires loose at 1/2 throttle leaving the garage. After about 5 minutes of cruising the opti started acting up. Typical opti failure behavior.... So, I guess I'll be changing that out this weekend. Doh!

-Pete-

 

5 degree overlap is not too much for a FI 383. You will got nice lopey idle tough.

 

You need to ditch that powerdyne and make some real power. That charger will hold back that nice motor.

 

Figuring 390 hp on 7 cylinders yields around 430 with all eight, and that is like 530 or so at the fly wheel. Honestly, I don't want any more power for now. I still have a stock rear and a tranny that was rebuilt a few years ago. I'll worry about making more power after I have 5k to sink into a built tranny, 12 bolt, and stiffen up the frame. For now, 400+ to the wheels will make the car exactly what I wanted it to be and leave room for expansion later

-Pete-

 

Well, I changed out the opti on Sunday with not so much luck. #5 and 8 aren't firing now. After changing plugs/wires/injectors no luck. The plugs are getting spark, and the cylinders are getting fuel. Could it be the plugs gapped too tight? .030 I'm thinking the most likely culprit is the new opti was dead on arrival...

-Pete-

 

are you running any kind of ignition box? might try opening the gap on the plugs but that is problly not your problem. at least pull a few out and look at them. you may be fouling them out.

 

May sound dumb, but make sure you hooked all your connectors back up after disconnecting them for the opti change.

 

So I put in a new set of TR6s gapped to .035 with no avail. Running out of things to check I pulled the valve cover just to take a look and found no push rods on the #5 cylinder. Apparently one of them bent halfway to a J shape and took out the one next to it. I'm going to call Crane tomorrow to find the correct length for the rods since the 7.2s don't seem to be cutting it. Not sure why 8 wasn't firing, but I'll worry about that after I swap out the push rods. For not checking that the first time.

-Pete-

 

I've been tearing into the motor the last few days trying to find something that would have caused what happened and haven't found anything wrong. All the lifters are in good shape, the other 15 push rods were in good shape, the head/valves, and pistons are looking perfect. I'm going to run the head over to the machine shop that did the work to have them check the valve guides and see if maybe something went wrong there. At this point I'm just glad a valve didn't punch a hole in my piston. Heres a few pics of what did get damaged.









-Pete-

 

I forgot to add, the length push rod crane told me to run seemed way off. Considering the heads have been slightly milled I'm just going to get a test spring and measure with a measuring push rod.

-Pete-

 

should have done that in a frist place all motors are different so you never know what lenght you will need till u actually check it Glad it was just a pushrod, not something major

 

Sounds like the rocker arm adjuster backed off. I had the exact same problem with one of the first engines I ever built.