check out my SBC belly button engine - just a teaser.

Got my pet project 307 long block back together yesterday.

Fresh hone/rings and bearings, standard bore.
305 heads (416) stock 1.84/1.50 valves, fresh valve job, new seals and springs
1094 head gaskets. 0.042 piston/head clearance , 10.4x compression
Comp cams XE 262 cam.

Plan is to put it together to day. We'll see as the picture postings go.

 

New freeze plugs, oil pan and timing cover.




Had to grind the bolts for the timing cover.

 

Heating up the balancer. 15 mins on high, do not allow to boil.


And the 2300 stall vega (p9) converter. Got the funky shield on it.

 

Got this far.

 

alright i gotta ask. it may be a dumb question to some but...why did you heat up your balancer? to get the bolts out?

EDIT: Never mind i found out why. to put it on easier.

 

If you heat it up it expands the ID and goes on so much easier.
Even says to bake it at 250 for 20 mins in the company literature for the balancer.

No pics but the freeze plugs were in the freezer, it makes them smaller just like races.

 

Whats it going in?

 

Looks good, I like the color!

 

Nicely detailed motor.

 

I don't have a designated vehicle for it, most likely go into a OT mid 80s truck for a shake down and tuning. It's a pet project so maybe it will have a good home. But I am kind of excited to see how it runs.

The color is by PPG "City of Santa Rosa, California Silver" . Everyone who sees it thinks its very "different kind of silver" and likes it quite a bit. Maybe folks who live in Santa Rosa might think it looks like their city's trucks and busses. Lol.


I think the polished, Chrome and minimal black play well of of that silver. Brighter silver a.d black are a bit too much of a contrast. Chrome and polished aren't enough contrast off of bright silver. Kinda stupid but that's what and how my eye sees its.

Thanks.

Headed to pullapart for a few odds and ends, clips, brackets and stupid stuff to finish her off.

 

Nice work 31Vicky. I really like that little motor, I was thinking about doing up the 283 that came out of my Plymouth in a similar manner. Just as a little side project!

Do you have any tips on how to ID a vega torque converter?

 

cool idea on the dampner I gotta remember that one
I would have put it in a pan of water instead of directly on the burner

and gotta remember to wear welding gloves to handle it

 

With that combination of valve covers, intake, and block, I was wonder what your plans are for the PCV system.

As a side note, I "borrowed" a, fresh from a wreck, stock 307 from a buddy to stick in
a '33 Tudor as a temp engine, actually worked so well in the car, it stayed there.

 

pvc vale into the valve cover gromet and into carb base like usual.
From Air filter base into other valve cover gromet.

One of them will have to come out of a gromet for oil fill or I will add a filler port ( offy breather or donovan hemi water fill maybe) on the valve cover for oil.

 

Oops, thought the valve covers looked full finned with no grommet holes.

 

Is that a Fluidampr? And do you still need to use an installation tool with a thrust bearing to install it after heating?

 

Now I know why they're called "freeze" plugs................

 

No its not a fluiddamper.

Set my torque wrecnch an 50 ft lbs and pushed it on with the bolt.
No problems, never clicked before it bottomed on the crank timing gear.
Removed the bolt, double checked measurement to confirm bottom , blue locktight and torqued to to spec, 65 i think.

Easy peasy, no fuss, no hassle, no worrying.

 

The GM issue vega converters come in two stalls, and two sizes. Both fit the 350 & 400 trans.
They both have the funky cooling shroud.
The p9 is 11" and stalls around that 2000 + rpm range.
The p10 is 10" and stalls around 3000 rpm.

I don't fully understand why but the exact stall rpm varies on the amount or torque you engine puts out. In other words the exact same converter will have different stalls on different engines.

The p10 is really hard to get and they will only rebuild your core.
The p 9 was available from Dacco with a 30.00 core charge. 129.00 plus core.

 

dang, I used to get Dacco converters for $30 from the W-D. I guess it's been a while since I bought one.

Neat mill, it's neat that you built it without having a car for it.

 

Thanks,

I figured you would know why different torque inputs change stall speed Rpm of the same converter.
I'm having trouble getting my brain wrapped around that.
Rmp is rpm no ?

A p4 was only 75.00

 

That's a tough one to try to explain. But you can see the effect with any torque converter, with the car in gear and stationary, and the brake applied. Start with the engine idling, the rpm will be around 500 to 1000 rpm depending on where the idle speed is set. Push the gas pedal a little bit, the engine will speed up, because you're applying more torque to the converter. Push the pedal more, the engine will speed up more...etc. Then when you get to full throttle, we call that RPM the "stall speed". Now imagine you had an engine that was twice as powerful, you could get even more "stall speed" out of that converter. Or if you had an engine only half as powerful, you'd reach "stall speed" at a lower rpm.

Does that make sense?

 

Really nice mill! Love the color too. Don't forget the little plugs for those weep holes in the block near the oil pan surface.

 

No differant than what happens with a fluid style dyno

 

If you mean the threaded holes about mid block, l have some plugs.
If you mean Something else I'm probably already in trouble....

 

Thanks you but no.
Perhaps my understanding of how they work is skewed and that's why I don't understand that particular facet of a Torque converter. I can see the weight of the vehicle effectively changing the stall but not torque inputs.

Different pitched vanes Chang the RPM required to cause movement ... If that's wrong the. I need to either A start over or B stay out the inside of a TC.

 

You can't see the extreme difference of an engine idling in gear, vs the engine at full throttle? that's about the most vivid example I can think of. In both cases, the converter is displaying it's "stall speed" with the given torque input.

 

Well of course I can see that, but there's also a huge RpM difference. I think we may be talking about two different things.

Let's say I had a 4cyl vega, a stock 350, a high stepping 383 stroker and a nasty bigblock.
If I took the converter out of the vega and installed behhind each one of those engines it would have a different stall speed RPM in each one even though it is the exact very same converter. I haven't done it, but that's what I've been reading. Like I said I don't understand it.

 

The stock vega engine makes 100 ft lbs torque, so it will only be able to get 2000 rpm stall speed out of that converter. The 383 will make 400 ft lbs, and and get 3000 stall. The big block makes 500 ft lbs and will get 3300 stall. Each one will stall the converter at an RPM that corresponds to the maximum torque produced by the engine.

So the important thing is NOT the size of the engine, it's the amount of torque it applies to the converter. The converter will slip more with more torque, raising the stall speed.

 

It's gonna run as good as it looks !!!