Not bad. It's come a long way. I'm pretty excited to see you at the track. If nothing more than to kick your ass.:pot_stir:

Thanks, Also using entirely 100% found parts from forums and craigslist.

Picked up my rotating assembly friday before Justin and I left for Vegas. Crank needed no mallory which is a HUGE plus. Just small amounts of material removal. Rods had just a touch of material removed as well. Rod finished by media blasting the decks of the pistons, apparently this strengthens the pistons by 2-5x a standard forging. All for $175.

Since I don't have a bolt stretch gauge i'm going to assemble it all tomorrow and torque the rod bolts when I get one. Rod commented he hopes i'm not putting a 1500hp capable rotating assembly in a stock block :bigthumbsup:

He said these parts won't even sneeze at 1000rwhp in a boss block. Which is exactly what I like to hear.

Everything went fine up until I realized I was shorted a ring, well the center spring section of the oil ring set.
Since I want the ability to grow in the future I set the ring gaps a little larger than a standard boosted application. .65mm on the top ring, and .76mm on the bottom ring.

So I put 7 pistons in until I can track down another spring ring, everything else went fine. Just need to torque everything down once I get a stretch gauge and bring my torque wrench to the shop.

Here's the pretty stuff




Coated race bearings






I was worried the pistons wouldn't come in below the deck, they did. Rough measurements are .010, i'll know exactly when I degree the cam

Gapping fun

Looking good but sorry about the rings. What was the bearing clearance?

end play or compression?
There was almost zero end play and the bearings all came in around .0021. since these are coated high crush bearings they run a tad tighter. But should be fine overall.

I was asking about all which you just answered, lol. Did you get a stretch gauge yet?

Not yet, gonna have to bite the bullet and buy one. Also going to buy a new ring compressor cause mine sucks dick.

Is that a 4.030 bore? If so I have one of these you can borrow.



They work great. You can push the piston in by hand with it.

It's just pretty to look at. :popcorn:

I'm assuming that you were going to pull it apart again but I guess since you already installed the pistons, you are talking about needing a new one for future builds.

it is, I meant for the next engine i do. I only have 1 piston left so i'll use my shitty one

thanks. it would make a nice coffee table.

Have you pulled the other engine yet or are you waiting until you have this shortblock done? I really want to see what damage you did to the other engine.

I have not, i'm out of space so i'm going to assemble it, then pull it and transer stuff over as i remove it.

However apparently even I do not know the bounds to the shit in my shop, i found another set of rings I didn't even know I had, so i'm good on that front. Also found a few amsoil oil filters

Finally got the last piston installed
All the rod side clearances came in a .50mm. Considered loose for a stock assembly but fine for a stickshift car using chamfered rods. Checked with Dick and he said up to .75mm is fine for this type of motor.

Finally torqued everything down. Main studs took 110lbs, side studs took 55lbs, rod bolts took 96lbs for a .006 stretch. Had I not purchased the gauge there would have been no way to know they needed that much torque. Goes to show how much stronger the MSA bolts are over ARP bolts.

Installed the cam and checked endplay, can't find the keyway so I had to order one before I degreed the cam. Also i'm going to order new lifters, I tried rebuilding another set but they were too worn out to be saved. So i'm stalled until I get more funds.

What is the stretch actually measuring?

Uhm, the stretch gauge is measuring stretch. High strength rod bolts aren't measured in torque to be fastened, they are given a stretch rating, usually between .005-.007 for which they have optimum hold.

Well the johnson lifters I wanted are still back
ordered so I bit the bullet and bought the Morels
http://www.flowtechinduction.com/mor...raulic-roller/

Splurged cause I got this for $300
http://www.maximummotorsports.com/st...roducts_id=231

What sort of piston forgings do you have to withstand 1000hp FI?

Probe SRS pistons

I wish I didn't have so many things to fix on the Cobra, I'd love to get a MM torque arm. How'd you get it for $300?

Posted up a WTB thread over on c-c. Had two people offering them to me for that price, standard duty and the race duty one that I bought. I already have the springs for it, just need subframes.

The race duty one has the same rating as the standard duty arm, so I'm going to pull the HD arm off the track car and switch them. I don't need the gray car to handle a full on 7k clutch dump, but the blue car will.

well, this is going to slow things down...

How did you do that?

If the valve wasn't in the head I'd say it was caused by a bent valve but the valve looks straight in the picture.

i would rather have a bent valve, the valve forced the seat sideways into the bowl over and over. not good.

Now that you say that I can see that in the picture. I couldn't see that the seat was in there crooked. Will you be able to save the head or is it done?

Taking it to BT performance today to see if it can be saved.

Eek. It can be saved, the question is are they good enough welders? Have Ron fix it... unless... :)

It's an aluminum head. I had a mig welder (one of Phil's buddies is borrowing it) but it doesn't have a spool gun to weld aluminum. Besides, I've never welded aluminum before.

I have an excellent welder, I'm sure it can be saved, but the cost is my concern I could grab a set of AFR's for a grand, which I might do if these are too much to fix.

You could source a set of heads for used bubble gum, two potted plants and $20. You're ability to get shit for pennies on the dollar is profoundly perplexing to say the least.

Well, i'm trying to work my magic right now

The welder I know (via big2bird) who does this kind of stuff and beyond would probably be a couple hundred bucks for reference.

My welder does this stuff every day, in fact has done this for me before and charged me the cost of lunch. It's the machine work and parts that get me. $650 to have both heads gone through and replace the seats.

I think you would need to TIG something like this. Ive TIG welded aluminum before... its very different

Haha, seriously

Unfortunately not this time, everyone wants 1200+ for a used set of AFR's which are only 1480 new. If I could grab another used set for 300-400 I would, but thats not going to happen by friday. Called AFR, 6-8 weeks for a set, 4-6 weeks to fix mine. So I found someone in Costa Mesa that has them in stock. Picking them up today and selling my old ones for $500 as is.