bantambunny

Good old marines :D

That's crap news mate :( I still haven't got to see yours on the road yet but I can see how you spent what you did now from the cash this projects draining out of me! Hoping you get yours sorted out soon buddy, and truly sympathise :(

It's annoying missing out on 3 more meets and paying out another £60 insurance and losing a month's tax though. To say i'm frustrated at the moment is an understatement :(

Hello buddy, had some time to think, investigate and reflect and come across a few things: The oil pressure on the old engine was 39 on idle when hot and 55-65 under load in the old videos and there's only two things that could be causing loss of oil pressure on the new block, the plug under the rear cap could be missing or missplaced, or the push rods could be leaking oil The cam is too far retarded to give any power so i'm going to bring it back to 0 and maybe advance it slightly by 2 degrees, had a chat to a couple of people in the know and they say it's not revving like a solid roller should and it need to come forward again To sort the handling out i need to raise the engine and subframe up again so i'll take the spacers out and bring the air intake through the bonnet which should lower the temp of the intake and engine bay at the same time. The push rods are too long, the 2nd cylinder exhaust on compression is sitting on the outside of the valve stem which isn't right so i need to dig out my pushrod length checker and correct it with a new set. I'll also invest in a stud girdle. Top end was 5200RPM before it dropped out when i've been told this should be 6-6500RPM which is also cam timing based. When i'm going to do this i don't know because i'm off today somewhere then back to work again and building driveways so i'll have to fit it in when i can.

I have a real appreciation for trucks after working at a haulage company in my youth, love the saab trucks :D

You think you two are bad! Total Posts: 13,975 Posts Per Day: 6.60 :headvswal

lol, it's not over yet. As i say if it's not sorted by Sunday and i still feel the way i do then i'll start breaking it. There's no way i can afford to anything more to it this month now so that's another 3 weeks gone and i miss tomorrow's show and japfest then :( And as of next month i have £0 (ZERO) spare every month apart from petrol money for it so i have to choose between putting petrol in it or fixing major issues so it means months of saving to do even the tiniest thing and it's not worth that. The option of taking on factory work on top of a £30k+ a year for a stupid car is not an option :(

Cheers guys, i did think about using jamb nuts but the shape of the rockers stops you from using anything but a poly locking nut. I did have a thought today i'm going to check out tonight in a minute which is pushrod length affecting rocker geometry. I measured and bought the correct pushrods for the old block but if one side of the new block has been skimmed more than the other you could end up with the rocker rolling too far and loosening off. I'm going to coat the end of the valve tip with marker pen and give it a couple of turns on the known offenders and see what happens then compare it with the other side.

I've read a few threads about these poly locks. I can't see how i can get it right on one side but not another. once i get my missing poly lock off my dad (who's taken it upon himself to try and find longer grub screws to give more clamping force) i'll try a technique i've found to lock them on. They keep going on about this "chirrup" sound you're supposed to hear when using them but i've never heard it. Must be a youtube video of it somewhere when i have a look tonight. You know me, i hate being beaten on this project and i will do everything i can to save it guys

The oil pressure isn't that much of a worry as it's something more than likely easily sorted but the rockers loosening themselves off is more complicated. It's only on one side, i've replaced everything on the valvetrain (studs, rockers, lifters, etc) and tried every technique to lock them down but they keep shaking loose. I could end up sinking another £300 in some stud girdles in the attempt to rectifiy that, but if it's a natural harmonic problem it may never fix it. It's been one hell of a journey getting this far and if it's had been making over 400bhp i would have fought on a bit to get there but with my housemate moving out, increasing cost of petrol and increasing deby struggling to get this car on the road I think i might have to just cut my losses. To say i'm a bit gutted having to be making this decision is an understatement.

Well it's all come to an end. It's been one hell of a week on the car and i'm left disheartened, after 3 years of building this thing i've lost interest. It's cost me over £400 the last few days and the car still runs badly, the rockers are still loosening themselves off despite brand new studs and the power is less than satisfactory without spending more money to improve it. The engine's so tight and the starter motor gets so hot that i can't turn it over on an almost full 800 cold cranking amps battery when the engine's warm. The tuning on the engine with the bonnet up means nothing when you have the bonnet down as the air/fuel goes all over the shop. The prop knocks badly under changes in load, the suspension handles badly and all in all i'm left thinking - why did i even bother. The oil pressure and temp (at 143 degrees c) was so bad last night that i had to pull over 15 miles into my journey and let it cool down. I've spent in excess of £16,000 now, i have an outlay of at least another grand and a half to fix all the problems and i think i'm going to call it a day and walk away from the project, break it for parts and spend the money more wisely. I'm sorry to have dragged you all along for the ride on this one, it breaks my heart to write this but i don't feel any different after a night's sleep on the matter. I'm stepping away from this for a week to get my head straight then if i don't feel any better about it i'll start breaking the engine then decide if i want to just buy a straight, tidy SWB and move my parts across or end my love affair with the zed and buy something completely different.

Cheers buddy :) not bad for someone who's never built an engine before lol bit of fettling to get it closer to 400bhp but the torque's bob on. I have yourself and keith5700 to thank for the inspiration buddy, I never forgot seeing yours at the bubble inn mate or keith's amazing attention to detail with his build on his threads. Pity they're not around in the club any more to park up next to :( It won't be long till you do yours again...... ;) hehe

At least i won't have to worry about changing gear too soon on the strip :rofl: Just got back from work on the car this morning, we've located the problem. The heads had old rocker studs in and the thread was knackered on a few of them so ordered a set of new ARP rocker studs and we'll replace them tomorrow. Also ordered the Edelbrock tuning kit with all the jets and rods i needed to lean the mixture off at cruising speed. Should hopefully make it alot better to drive long distance. Other than that it's sounding nice and meaty and the final run yesterday the HP was up 5bhp over the other runs after changing the rods but the air temp was up to 22 in the rolling road from running all day long. Best power we got was 13 degrees C. Amazing how much HP you lose through warm air - 20bhp at the wheels!

Well it's still there. 3 rockers kept working loose. Best result we could get was 320bhp at the crank and over 420ftlb torque from 1600rpm (!) - so much torque it kept ripping itself off the dyno lol Power doesn't sound much but when you see the torque curve it's solid all the way up to 5000rpm! Going back down now to see if we cansort out the three rear studs - possibly bent from when the engine fell on it's side while being transported

That's fantastic! :)

I really don't know, there's been some speculation from talking to a few in the know of 450bhp is, i'll be happy with 400-420bhp at the engine so we'll just have to wait and see. Either way, i started off in 3rd gear the other night and didn't even notice it :rofl: lol It's superb isn't it! :hyper: Cheers buddy, i haven't forgotten the BBQ. Just need to get a few jobs sorted then i'll organise a get together for everyone :)

Well apart from the fact i've now got the second bonnet catch in this is what it's looking like at the moment :) Off to the rolling road tomorrow so we'll know what it's pushing out all being well and it should all be tuned up for the zed eliminator at Weald on Sunday

Happy birthday John! Best wishes :hyper:

Calm down dear :p [YOUTUBE]2Q78jjygjcg[/YOUTUBE]

Just to let you know we've been out filming tonight and had a good run out in the car so currently crunching frames as we speak and i'll whack it on youtube :)

You're on :D Just remember to bring your crash helmet! :rofl:

Interesting question - the answer is absolutely no idea! BUT i did have a proper talk with Peter Knight at Knight Motorsport Services who's been building them for about 20+ years now and went through the spec with him including cam timing and he was sure it'd make more than 400bhp easily straight off and more than likely 450bhp at his estimate. He said with the block hugging manifolds i was using i'd only get to that, if i had some long headers made up that'd free up 50bhp and get me to the magic 500bhp mark i wanted from the project so i'll be saving up to have those done later this year. I'll be happy if we can hit the 420-430bhp mark on Wednesday on a reasonably fresh engine. No idea what that would be at the wheels though. The torque is unbeliveable, the thing pulls from 1000 RPM upward and cruises quite happily at 1500RPM up hills. I'm only using the carb's primaries at the moment and there's a block under the accelerator to stop me opening up the secondaries (the carb has smaller primary jets and openings that give a fraction of the power to increase economy when cruising then a mechanical flap opens up past a certain point in the pedal travel and sucks through a much bigger opening)

Haha, cheers Andy, no one is more happy to see the end of this thread than me :) It'll be a refreshing change to post a new thread entitled - my dyno day out! :sorcerer: Hopefully see you at North Weald next Sunday?

Thanks buddy :D Okay, a bit more news. I rang a couple of places to try and get some jets to step down the mixture a bit and ended up ringing american auto supplies in minworth and asked if their garage would be able to set the carb and engine up for me. Dave pointed me in the direction of a place they use with a rolling road in Solihull called Rev It and a guy called Trevor. Gave them a ring yesterday and had a chat for ten minutes and went through the spec with him, he's got a 383 stroker in his 78 Stingray so wholeheartedly approved of what i'd got in mine :) Anyway we've arranged a rolling road session next Wednesday morning where they'll do a power run then we'll set up timing, mixture and everything else and tune the primaries and secondaries so it's all up and running ready for next weekend :hyper: Very excited :hyper: :hyper: So over the weekend i'll be finishing off everything, getting the suspension set up properly and re engineering the gearlever. All in all it's all coming along nicely! :D

Great news buddy, picked mine up to my first house in Feb and loving every minute of it! :hyper: Building a 57 m2 driveway at the moment before i start on the garden - god i feel middle aged :rofl: