She's still buried in the barn at the moment, I'm going to pull her out once the motor is done though. I've got a thread going for her, but it won't be updated till she comes out so here are a few pics for you. This car donated it's spindles for the magnum force brake kit for forward look cars, so the prototype setup they made got sent to my dad and it's staying with the car. This car will stop pretty nicely. I'm excited to get it together after the motor is done.
Got the motor Down to the bare block today, going to get her off to the shop next week to be tanked and honed. There was a ton of crud under the freeze plugs, had to dig in pretty far to hit air inside the block. Every thing else is looking good, crank measured out, the rod journals are all good. I'm excited to see it clean.
Picked up my sheet metal parts today. Still waiting to get a verdict on the bores from the shop, they are a bit busy. I'm really disappointed by the lack of .010 and .020 Pistons for the 392 If I have Pistons made in one of those sizes, is 10.5 to 1 reasonable? I figure the stock Pistons were more like 9.5 to 9.7 vs the rated 10, might as well get a little more squeeze in it if I'm going to pay for customs.
It's been quite a while since I've updated this but, good news! I finally got my block back today. Now it's on to my heads. They are up for new valves, a valve job, new guides and some light porting. I can't wait! Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
2 years is a "while"! OEM advertised C/R in '58 was 10:1 (vs 9.25 in '57) & that's a good C/R considering todays gas.
It's only been a year George! I ended up with 10:1 Keith black pistons for it in .030 over. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Got her on the stand this morning! Some pics of my lovely rods and pistons. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Maybe it's an optical illusion, but the compression height (pin centerline to block deck/head gasket surface) of those new pistons looks way l-o-n-g-e-r than the original pistons . Arias seems to say the comp height is just under 2 inches on a 392. https://ariaspistons.com/products/chrysler-354-392-4-030-1-950ch
I looked at the arias and it looks pretty similar to what I have. My old pistons are still at the shop, but I'll compare them to the 9.25 to 1 set I have. These better be right Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Double checked against my set of 57 392 pistons. Everything is good! I weighed the assemblies, and the new piston combo is 1/2 lighter than the 57 rod and piston. 3.5 lbs vs 4lbs Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Don't forget the the small plug for the lifter galley inside where the distributor goes, and pay close attention to the frost plugs- I had one pop out on the freeway.
I've verified that the plug is in the back of the galley, my machinist is on his game the plugs are in and sealed around the edges too. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
A common trick is to drill an .050 hole in the inner plug to provide extra lube to the cam/dizzy gears
Thanks for the tip, I'll look into it. Do these motors have oiling issues at the distributer gear? One of my build goals is to have excellent oil control in the motor, I want it where it's needed and nowhere else. Any other top end tricks? I've got the bottom end oil stuff planned out, I'm running windage tray plus an Ishihara Johnson crank scraper and some welded in baffles in the oil pan.
Not that I've actually heard of. I did lose the cam gears on a totally different engine, so I figured why not! I seem to have no pressure problems with the mod. Actually unless you're planning on road track racing/slaloming your truck you probably aren't going to get a huge benefit from all that.
It will see some spirited use, that said the scraper and tray are well worth it, keeping oil off the crank = efficiency and power. The baffles are for the day I take it out to play in SCCA CAM class for autocross. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I've been picking this back up again after moving to a new house with a modest, detatched 1 car garage from the late 50s that gives me the space to work. I've cleaned the rocker arm assemblies some and decided to get the shafts hard chromed and the arms bushed, likely by rocker arm specialties. Ill have him size the arms for 5/16" pushrods so i can use a quality lifter from a big block. The heads are fully disassembled and as i expected the guides and OE valves are junk, so i had the heads tanked and Magnafluxed with the heads coming back clean. I've got the castings back so i can do a little bit of light porting and smoothing of the castings themselves. My -2 head was not cast nearly as well as my -1 so i've got some extra work on it. There are casting boogers in the intake ports that i have to grind away in the -2! I'm buying an electric die grinder this week along with some tungsten carbide burrs and stones. Ill be busy for a bit!
Be cautious about mixing lifters. Although there are many with an interchangeable diameter the key is the location of the oil feed groove. The best replacement on the market today is the VL-8/HT-812 . They both use a ¼" pushrod tip, same as the rockerarms. .
I will get those then, I can skip the re-size as i haven't sent the rocker assembly out. Thank you for the heads up.
I will double check it with the calipers. Unfortunately i don't have the old 10-1 set, the set i compared to in the pic is from a 9.25-1 57 motor.
An easy way to compare two pistons is to connect them with a wrist pin. The location of the shoulder will be obvious and then checking the top of the dome from the pin is easier. Of course, the only way to determine actual piston c/r is to measure the downfill volume to determine dome volume. The oem pistons, 9¼ and 10, have slightly different comp heights and is easily checked. The KB may have the same somp dist or they might have more dome. ..
Christmas came a few days early courtesy of Gary and Hector at rocker arms unlimited. They look and move so well now. I had them do the adjustable arm conversion so I can avoid the fun of adjustable pushrods. The increased cost was not that much and worth it now that I see it. Excited!!!
I had flat valve covers and with new gaskets they would clear... Just. After a few tightening s it would hit I used a rounded head lug nut, backed the valve cover with a bag of sand, and made my own dimples. Sent from my SM-G935V using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
apparently results vary, according to some reports sometimes it warps 'em enough that the tubes don't seal
Depends on stuff like can lift too. VERY nice compared to adjustable pushrods !!! Sent from my SM-G935V using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
The Jalopy Journal
