I milled .030 from the heads and I've put them back on, but the two bolts behind the power steering pump are just far enough away that I can't line them up because the thinner decks of the heads moved the holes.

How important are those bolts? Is it that important to brace the alternator bracket to the heads? Or do I really have to enlarge the holes of the alternator bracket so they'll fit? I don't see that happening easily...

Thanks guys,
Craig

 

you need to enlarge the holes in the bracket

 

I would just enlarge the holes, it's not that difficult.

 

Well, that sucks but I was afraid of that... thanks guys.

PS - Do any of you guys have a picture of the back of the alternator? It's been months since I took it apart and I didn't remember how those brackets went back on. The GM service manual and Haynes don't show for crap...

 

Mock up it my boy...you will get it...

Black bracket to the intake...

 

Why you have that bracket off, you might want to helicoil the holes in the head too. They are very likely to strip.

 

Not completely related, but you took off .030" from each head?!?!?! What did that take your combustion chambers down to?? You DID have your intake taken down accordingly right?

 

The chambers were 63CC to start with with .010 already taken off (I took another .020 off right to the 2.02 intake valve seat to get them to ~60cc). The guy I bought them from (here on the board) thought they were around 52-53cc and was mistaken He was running a 383 so it didn't matter so much, but I'm only a 350 and had to get them down as much as possible or my SCR was going to SUCK.

As for the intake, I asked the machine shop and he said that it didn't need machined unless we went for an even more aggressive angle-mill. Are you saying that he was wrong, and .030 off DOES require the intake to be machined?

...Oh boy...

 

PS - Here's what they looked like with only .010 off:

http://beeph.no-ip.com/heads/valves.jpg

 

I'm not an engine building expert, but let's just say that I'm about to let the cat out of the bag as to what my problems for the past two years have been caused by. I'll give you one guess what wasn't cut down and thus wasn't sealing to the heads correctly. And I only had just under .015 taken off the heads.

 

Well ****!

I haven't even quite finished getting it back together yet and I already have to tear it apart. Nice...

 

PS - Was it just an audible vaccum leak around the intake gaskets? I'm so close to ready to run I'll probably at least try to fire it up and see what happens?

I did notice that the intake slid left to right quite a bit between the heads, but I took it apart 8 months ago so I didn't really remember how it fit.

 

Inaudible. I was sucking oil and oil vapors into the intake runners though. It was completely internal.

Give it a shot as it sits. You may not need work. Mine did. And .030 is a lot to be taken off.

 

Thanks fastbird... after your info I've searched through the forums and found a LOT of info about people with the same problem. Some with poorly installed intakes, many needed to be milled but both cases had the same problem - sucking in oil from the lifter valley.

I'm nervous enough about this thing running, so I'll just add this one on to the "please god, make it work" list.

Thanks for the great info. Just FYI for anyone else that might hit this in the future, this thread had the most solid info about having to mill intakes to match milled heads:

http://web.camaross.com/forums/showp...24&postcount=8