What to do with this broken 283 V8

is this a good cam to use? for the two four set up. i am thinking using the 3 speed with the od i have and a 55 rear axle i just bought. i don't know the ratio yet but will find out tomorrow if i get time.

 

i will get a photo in the morning. it did have a line around the out side but i can not remember where.

 

I'd want something hotter, I think you will too. Keep the lifters, I suspect they are the factory hard-faced lifters, you can re-face them, and they are a really good lifter, not available anymore.

 

the lifters are dead flat across the bottom. i held a straight edge on them and did not see any cupping. i don't think there is many miles/hours since the rebuild. i washed the heads off in the parts washer and the paint looks like new.

 

I've run GMC 6 blocks with notches like that with no problem if there were no cracks. We race a Dart Iron block and needed to put in 1 sleeve and could care less. Run it between 5000 and 6800 lap after lap. Yellow flags are its only rest time. A good cam for a dual quad unit is a stock 220 hp; after all that's what the 245 hp had in it. Just advance it 6-8* and hang on.

 

They need to be slightly crowned. Pm me a photo, and I will tell you how to re-face them.

 

I put three in a BBC, and went on to make 650hp with it. Sleeves dont scare me at all.

 

I wouldn't really consider a 112 lsa cam in a 283, even if I was determined to use a "period" cam. Assuming flat-tops with steel shim head gaskets and 1.72's in unported heads, 3.55-3.90 rear gear and the 3 speed od, I'd go with this, in at +4.
http://www.summitracing.com/int/parts/isk-201264/overview/

 

That 327 cam in a 283 will seem bigger. The lift is the same but camshaft duration is in relation to the degrees of stroke. So the duration will be longer for the smaller stroke. I like the 69 350 350 HP hyd cam to go in front of a automatic trans.

 

I never thought I would live long enough to see so much fuss over a 265 283, are they getting that scarce that the OP has to use a broken, worn out block to rebuild? I probably have 4 or 5 of these complete motors sitting in the shop taking up valuable floor space that I was going to just give away, not any more!

 

Maybe its the lower gas prices? I can remember the time when how much fuel we used wasn't a consideration. We wanted to turn RPMs. We didn't want torque. We geared for pulling power. Wind that old 283 until the points bounced or the valves floated. Spend a few hundred fixing a old mill. and get to say I built it myself or spend a grand and a half on a crate engine? Its not about logic anyway. Its about fun!

 

you want me to spend money? i have the new hydraulic cam i took out of my stroker when i changed it to a solid lifter.
i don't really know what i want from this engine. it may just hold the intake and carbs.

you say broken and worn out, i say "chipped" and fine.

i like that statement "it's not about logic anyway. it's about fun!" that is how i am approaching this, illogically........

 

when did chevy stop using stovebolts to hold the timing cover on?

 

Whats the specs on it? 283 needs a narrow lsa, ESPECIALLY with flat tops. Running a cam with a real wide LSA and advancing the hell out of it to try to get cylinder pressure is not the best approach, you are moving the intake closing point back, but you are also walking the overlap triangle back earlier into the end of the exhaust stroke, when the piston is moving faster, and the pressure at the tail end of the exhaust stroke is higher.

 

Sorry, what's Isa? and LSA? and what symptoms would be experienced? how good would it have run using this cam.?

 

"you say broken and worn out, i say "chipped" and fine."
Sorry I guess I missed your post on the block and crank being checked out by a competent machine shop and finding it's "fine"! I wish you luck, nothing wrong with not spending any more money than you have to!

 

That's very close to the old Duntov 097 solid lifter cam, a little less duration, a little more lift, same LSA. That should have a good blend of torque plus good breathing at higher revs.

 

Both of those abbreviations mean the same thing, they were just wrote differently in error I believe. But, it means Lobe Separation Angle. If you've got an old cam card (or even a new one), it's easiest to see what's being talked about by looking at the card. I am Butch/56sedandelivery.

 

I have a 1961 283 punched out to 4", and it still had the slotted timing cover bolts like the early engines...a 56 283 I have has them too. I´m not sure, when they changed to the stovebolts..I believe the 283 in my 62 Impala has them already....

 

My 283 had those panhead bolts as well, they won't be going back in.

 

Well, somewhat similar, the LSA (sorry I didnt use caps on lsa, same thing, its the angle in degrees between the centerline of the intake lobe and the centerline of the exhaust lobe in cam degrees) on the Duntov is 110, and it has quite a bit more duration, IIRC, its 228 @ 050, the isky I recommended is 214, but the duntov is a solid, the isky is a hyd. so to make a direct comparision, you can knock about 8 degrees off the duntov 097 and call it 220, so divide the duration difference by two, you get 3 degrees, + another 2 for the 108 LSA, and the Isky I suggest is going to close the intake valve roughly 5 degrees earlier than the Duntov, assuming both cams are installed with the same amount of advance/retard, and have about the same amount of overlap. For a cam with valve events similar to the duntov to be a REALLY good choice here, the motor would need more compression. Its also got a lot more lift than the Duntov.
Vizard actually says you start figuring valve events by calculating the LSA based on a ratio of cylinder displacement/intake valve diameter, then select the overlap you want, and that gives you the duration Mike Jones does it a little differently. Vizard has been making a big whoop-dee-do about his "128" formula for years, just went public with it on Speedtalk. I use a totally different approach, I start with intake port CSA and calculate what rpm that will support peak power at, then select a duration that makes peak power at that rpm based on dyno syms, and finally tweak the shape of the power curve on the sym by tweaking the LSA.
Funny thing is, I just did this whole process a few months ago when I stepped up to AFR 195's on my daily. Just for shits and giggles, I repeated the process yesterday using David Vizards method, and the valve events his method generated were identical to what I had come up, not close, not similar, IDENTICAL.
I'd also got a cam recommendation from Mike Jones prior to all this, and his was also virtually the same, same LSA, a hair more duration and overlap, and he recommended a 5 degree split. At the time Mike made a recommendation, I was waffling back and forth on cylinder head choice, my guess is the split was to compensate for the exhaust port in the other head I was considering. I also think his cam would probably be the quickest through the traps (by maybe a couple hundreths) and give up a hair of part throttle fuel economy.
So three different methods applied to the same combination, all generate basically the same cam choice, and none of them look remotely like anything in the "Comp" catalog, hint, hint, hint.

 

I'll round up a cam card around here and scan it.

 

back at you. sorry i guessed i missed YOUR post on the block being checked out by a competent machine shop and finding it broken and worn. at least i have touched it.

 

@falcongeorge thanks for the info, it is above my pay grade and this rebuild is not that high tech
here are pictures of the lifters. they do have the little line near the bottom.

 

before i yanked the crank......uhhmm....... i mean took the crankshaft out, i decided to plasti-gage the crank bearings. they all came in .002+. they pretty much all measured the same.

 

So heres an old Erson cam card in .050.


This really tells you everything you need to know about a camshaft, and really, you dont even need the duration number at the bottom, the valve opening and closing points tell you EVERYTHING except lift.
The solid line is the intake lobe, the double line is the exhaust lobe.
Lets start with lift, multiply gross lift at cam or lobe lift by the nominal rocker ratio, and you get theoretical gross valve lift, so we multiply .35 by the typical sbc rocker ratio of 1.5, and we get .525
Duration is easy, you just add the opening point, the closing point and 180 degrees (degrees between tdc and bdc = 180+ op + cp) and we get 230.
Ok, so to calculate the lobe centerlines, we add the positive number to 180, subtract the negative (before number) and divide by 2. So lets use the intake lobe as an example, we add 45 to 180 = 225 minus the 5 degrees before tdc, we get 220, divide by 2, we get a 110 intake centerline.
Now we do the exhaust centerline, again we add 180 to 45, we get 225, -5= 220, divide by 2, and we get 110.
So now that we have the lobe centerlines, we can get the LSA, or lobe separation angle. This can also be called "lobe displacement angle" or LDA, both are correct.
So we add 110+110,we get 220, we divide by 2 and its 110. This cam is ground "straight up, also called "split overlap".
So why did I do this, if they are both the same number? Lets say the cam is ground 4 degrees advanced. When the cam is ground advanced, this doesn't change the LSA, it just moves the valve events relative to the pin that aligns the timing gear, so the exhaust events are going to move too.
If it were ground four degrees advanced (like every cam in the Comp catalog) the new valve events would be as follows. The intake lobe would move 4 degrees earlier relative to the crank, so the new valve events would be as follows. Intake opening would now be 9 degrees before tdc, and the closing point would be 41 degrees after bottom dead center. So the new exhaust events will be 49 bdc and 1 atc. So lets run through the math again with the cam 4 degrees advanced.
So intake centerline first, we add 41 + 180 = 221 - 9 = 212 / 2 = 106. So the new intake centerline is 106.
Exhaust, we add 49 + 180 = 229 - 1 = 228/2 = 114. so the new exhaust centerline is 114.
Ok, LSA, we add 106 ICL to 114 ECL = 220. Anyone notice anything yet? Yes, thats right, the centerlines moved 4 degrees but the total is the same as before. Divide 220 and you egt the same LSA as before 110.
So a quick glance at a cam card tells you if the cam is ground straight up or advanced, and you should be able to calculate the duration, intake centerline. exhaust centerline and lobe separation angle with a pocket calculator. The math is not difficult at all once you understand what it actually means.
So if you look at this, and digest it, by now, when you look at a cam card, you should be able to see at a quick glance if the cam is ground advanced or retarded. If you read this stuff five times and look at cam cards while you do, and think about how these numbers relate to the valves opening and closing relative to crankshaft motion, you can move beyond the "my Uncle Louie had that cam in his chevy II and it sounded cool" method of cam selection, and start to actually understand what you are doing when you select a cam, and have a clear cut idea of how the valve events you choose affect the way your car is going to run. When someone says "I wouldn't run a 112 LSA cam in a low compression 283" you can actually visualize in your head how going from a 112 LSA to a 108 LSA is going to affect when the intake valve opens and closes relative to the pistons motion, as compared to running a wide LSA and advancing the hell out of it.

This stuff is NOT rocket science. It IS EASILY understandable. Hell, I look at a cam card and do the math in my head, and anyone who can count their freaking change should be able to do the same! Cripes, its addition, subtraction and long division, they teach it in elementary school! or they did when most of us were there anyway, what the hell they teach them now, I dont know. I generally wont even post on most cam threads on here, because 98% of the cam "recommendations" are based on the "Uncle Louie" method, and I just cant cope with that kind of crap. It makes my head want to explode.

 

I only used the word "broken" because that's the word you use in the thread heading! (smiley face goes here)..............................................................................

 

Beauty! And yes, those are the "good guy" hard-faced chevy lifters. Give me a bit of time to catch my breath, and I will get a pm off to you and Slack.

 

This motor actually looks really good inside to me. So with the money you save by not needing a crank grind, now you can afford a decent cam!! How do the bearings look? If they arent worn, I'd just clean them up and re-use them.

 

i do love solid lifters...........
none of the bearings look worn at all. i will plastigage the rod bearings and check them out [after i make sure the block isn't cracked]. i was thinking of checking the ring gap and reusing them if they are in tolerance.
i keep thinking if this engine did not break a rod, and was yanked out......let's say changed for one of those SO much better 350 crate engines........and was stored for all this time, like it was, chances are someone [me for instance] might just lube it up and stick it in something and run it..........nah....nobody does that.