Totally idiotic engine build

A bit more progress.....

3 down..........

and a bit tighter on bowls 2 and 3

another comparison....  intake port #3

Id go Webber before I went SU.  You'll never get the throttle response from an SU that you will with a Webber.  

nice work, are you going for a high compression to make the most of the Hemi heads?

Pistons come in @ 9.9:1- I'm using a slightly shorter Eagle rod (IIRC it's like .007 shorter), and the plan is to zero deck the block and use a skinny head gasket. Think the plan is for like a 10.5:1 static compression ratio.

Yeah, it's got a Hemi

The head is back in my hands after the valve job.  The top cut now needs blending into the chamber.

As far as the DCOE type intake, the larger section, encompassing the coolant housing, is a perfect fit now.  It had 2 of the bolt holes just off enough that I could "adjust the holes", and make it a no slop fit, the rear 2 cylinders is perfectly aligned... so there is about 0.015" slop in the fit.

If so inclined, drill a couple holes to pin the intake to the head in the correct orientation. As this will not be an SCCA car, I have no problem using 1/16" dowel pins to fix the intake manifold to the head in the correct orientation

twentyover said:

If so inclined, drill a couple holes to pin the intake to the head in the correct orientation. As this will not be an SCCA car, I have no problem using 1/16" dowel pins to fix the intake manifold to the head in the correct orientation

Far easier said... then done....  not a lot of room to get a straight 1/16" hole..... 

Deshrouding the chambers... not a lot of fun working around the fresh valve job, but the flow would be impeded without it.

The head is now back in the hands of the machine shop so it can be resurfaced and given a final cleaning.   Once back in my hands, it'll be time for re-assembly

Weber manifold smoothly blended......

just assembly left....   

assembled and waiting for its owner.....

So pretty much been remiss in updating- First surprise was the move to the CM forums when I hunted for it in google w/ GRM as the named site- more a cold shock realization that the stuff I like to work with is now ALL vintage. S'pose that miata's are now being accepted at progressive vintage racing groups I shouldn't be surprised, but I was.

Have had focus on the failing health of the Spousal Unit's father. Mrs. Twenty spent the last couple months getting him to assisted care and winding down his house. She spent almost 7 weeks in October & November, and another couple days in December clearing  his house. No tears- he's had a good long run with good health until the last couple months, checking in at over 90. I spent that time making trips to MI to move my stuff, put on a club rallye in SoCal, and shovel 8 ft of snow off the drive. All in about 12K miles between 1st Oct and the tragic end of the Explorer in early December. The Exploder ... did. Lost a motor in the middle of No Place (LeGrand OR) carting stuff from FIL to our place. So I have been busy,

And waitiung for pistons. The end of October (ordered in August) turned into the end of December and has lapsed into late January. If the supplier can be believed. This was supposed to be an off the shelf solution, but there were several things I didn't like, such as only a single bore size @ 1.5mm over and only ogffering a chrome ring package. If they miss this latest date, I may follow Old Skewl's advice and resource. Except that may be like starting from scratch with it's own additional wait.

Cam and rockers (October order) came in this week, just waiting for slugs. Then I'll probably find out mains or rod bearings or gasket sets are on 6 mo backorder.

I do expect a 6 month machine shop turnaround. With the proliferation of crate motors (not a bad thing) alot of the old time machinists' seem to be hanging it up, so the line grows behind the good guys. Thought this was going to be a 4-5 month deal all in- apparently not. Sorry for many words and no pixxors

Whining off. Carry on

Which machine shop are you using? Jerrys?

If you ever need help out there, I'm always willing to assist.

Sorry to hear about FIL.

birdmayne said:

Which machine shop are you using? Jerrys?

If you ever need help out there, I'm always willing to assist.

 

Sorry to hear about FIL.

RE FIL- Like I said, no tears. He's lived a full life, grown kids (almost all are productive),  wife died in April, we're just trying to minimize physical pain.

Assume you are talking about Jerry's in Leavenworth and Wenatchee? I asked Wenatchee valley cruiser's about a high performance machine shops and they came up dry.

Ya, Jerry's in Wenatchee is the only game in town currently. They do okay work if given exact specs, but they aren't quick. (8 weeks to replace two burnt valves on a Subaru head)

I'm loving your "idiotic" engine build!

I'm considering one of my own...Ford 2.3 Lima engine with mostly head work and a blue printed factory bottom end. I've collected a 450 cfm Holley 4 bbl and a matching Offenhouser intake. Planning on larger valves, stiffer springs and some intake and head porting and shaving the deck for more compression.  Getting 140 HP should be relatively easy, but the real goal is 175 which may require some of the forged components you are using.

I'm interested in how yours turns out power-wise.

Not idiotic at all....what's it going in....72  Celica fastback? Japanese Mach 1!

78CobraII said:

I'm loving your "idiotic" engine build!

I'm considering one of my own...Ford 2.3 Lima engine with mostly head work and a blue printed factory bottom end. I've collected a 450 cfm Holley 4 bbl and a matching Offenhouser intake. Planning on larger valves, stiffer springs and some intake and head porting and shaving the deck for more compression.  Getting 140 HP should be relatively easy, but the real goal is 175 which may require some of the forged components you are using.

I'm interested in how yours turns out power-wise.

My thinkin'- more or less- if you're gonna wind one of these babies up that starts with, 100K miles on it, you need to AT LEAST resize the rods and hopefully arp rod bolts. Maybe polish and shot peen the beams. And now your talkin' the same kinda coin for an aftermarket rod. Granted, not a Pankl or Carillo, but a new (usually) lighter rod.  I just need to stay away from the bar for a couple weeks and not give my money to the stripper named Candy and I save enuf for the bottom end in a couple months. That is, the bottom end of the motor, not the stripper. Gotta keep focus.

To yard out 175 hp on an old 2 valve 2.3 (2.2 in my case), you kinda need to make that baby sing. I believe I'll do well to get any more than 150 outta this one, since I specified to the head porter I wanted a meaty mid range, and am caming fairly conservatively. The RPM may be available, but it may not be rewarding. Time will tell

I had the porter match a DCOE style intake to this hombre even though I don't like Webers. I'm still looking at a poster on the big MG site who's son has a Zetec in an MGB on bike carbs, and I'm diggin' the idea

Agent98 said:

Not idiotic at all....what's it going in....72  Celica fastback? Japanese Mach 1!

I wish- Probably a Locost or an MGB. The B would let me have a fun car w/o adding another license plate

So what's been happ'nin? Well picked up the completed head from Ol' Skewl on my trip up from SoCal to NorCenWa (North Central Washington, where my wife forced me to buy a retirement villa. In the mountains. Snow, Natutral Beauty, Majestic evergreens, Hiking, Snow Shoeing, X-Country skiing, salmon spawning in the creek a quarter mile away. Sound like a travel brochure? don't want to- please don't visit.)  And not much else. And still 8-12 inches of snow on the ground.

Ordered off the shelf pistons Auguist 12, they were due in October, giving Old Skewl enuf time to work his magisc on the head. Then October turned to December that turned to January turned to... well you get the picture. Thank goodness these weren't custom pistons, they would be obscenely expensive and I don't think I's get them until the next decade. And these weren't exactly cheap. Anyway, wife called from SoCal that I got a box, packing list says Piston Kit. Morons were supposed to call me before shipment so package would be sent to where I'm at, not where I wuz. So I'm headed back to SoCal this Friday, I'll be back here in NorCenWa where the motor is middle April, when the machine work will hopefully start. WIth machine shops backed up the way they are- well, we'll see about when the next missive hits.

Also ordered a set of RX1 Carbs (Imaging a Yamaha R1 motor in a sled, you'd be pretty close. These are designed for horizontal, rather than canted 45 degrees, orientation) to start my dance in Bike Carbs.

Mo' later

Pistons and flywheels and rods, Oh My!

Meeing up w/ Old Skewel tomorrow and hoping to introduce the 20R to the machinists

Pistons finally here to WA after 8 months. Thought the reason to buy off the shelf, catalog stuff was to get it relatively quick. Kinda didn't work so good in this case. Anyway, my impression is that (good) machine shops are backed up, so I anticipate this will probably go radio silent again for another couple months. No problem, I'm willing to wait for quality work rather than getting rushed machine work

Just to keep  the hive mind informed- OldSkewel advised that the machine shop has like an 8 month wait list. So assume another period of extended radio silence

Looing forward to seeing this thing assembled with bike carbs!