Harv's meth monster project

[Errol62]

I can only tell you what not to do 8 ). Well you've got a spare set of bolts for the MM.

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[FbSTDwagon]

Technical question:

When I washed out the block, I gave the lifter bores a good scrub (soapy water and nylon bristle bottle brush, degreaser, air dry and oil with light machine oil). I can still "feel" that the bores are not perfect. Nothing nasty, but probably very light corrosion.

What's the best bet for cleaning them up? Brass or stainless wire wheel in the Dremel? Wheel cylinder hone?

Cheers,
Harv

Harv I used a wheel cylinder hone.
Unsure if it’s right or wrong but it polished them up well

[Harv]

Thankyou.

Cheers,
Harv

[FbSTDwagon]

How’s the motor coming along Harv?

[Harv]

I'm at one of those points where I need to make a major decision, and keep putting it off.

Two projects on the go - the meth monster FB sedan, and the FED. Both largely the same setup, but the meth monster is dry sumped. That changes the pan and girdle quite a bit.

Fresh built 155ci short motor mostly cobbled together on a stand (... in the house ). No head... still waiting on the repro head. Ex-speedway Repco head on a stand in the garage.

Need to make a call if the fresh motor will be the dry sumped one (probably wise). If so, cut the girdle ends off (as the sump builder would not build me one with the horrible long girdle ends in place). Block was bored with the girdle in place, so need to check (measure) that nothing moves once the girdle end is cut off. Dry sump pan should arrive this month, so that will probably be the time to make the call.

That will likely leave me with the ex-speedway motor in the FED. Started the strip down last weekend with this in mind - balancer off after a fight, water pump and generator gone. Made the blanking plates for the water pump, sideplate breather and water neck (need to get the brother in law to TIG them for me). Popped off the timing cover, and all was as promised - steel timing gear, very clean inside. Noted the cam number, need to do my homework on what it is (and then think about if it will suit the FED). Mocked up the Norman and ran some masking tape to simulate the belt. It is going to be TIGHT if I run a cam-driven fuel pump, but perhaps possible. Need the final blower location, belts and tensioner in place to decide. For that, I need the blower manifolds. Made them up out of cardboard, and sent them off to get made up.

The reason I am leery of running the speedway motor in the FED is that I'm not sure what bottom end strengthening was done. Once I'm home again I'll spin it and pop the sump, hoping to see a girdle (unlikely) or bridges (hope so). Not so keen to abuse it in the FED with an unrestrained crank... it will run past the 6300rpm mark four times each quarter mile. If it is not braced, then it will need bracing... and that will likely need the crank out for roundness checks. Hoping to avoid that much shenanigans.

Cheers,
Harv

[Harv]

The crank flange threads are 3/8-24UNF, and ARP make a good flywheel bolt (206-2802) that is designed for Mini flywheels (BMC A-series engines). These are the ones that BS used a while back on his HAMBSTR, and the same as the ones that came with the Repco headed engine I bought a while back.

Ordered some more fancy ARP fasteners, and went to bolt the flexplate up. No joy... the bolts bottom out before clamping the flexplate, as they have a shoulder (not fully threaded). They work fine in a thick flywheel, not so good in a thin flexplate. You could put a washer under the bolt head to take up the slack, but I am a little cautious. The ARP bolts do not use a locking tab (unlike the GMH bolts), and rely on thread locker + bolt head friction to hold them in. It would be just my luck for the washers to stuff up the bolt head friction. A little far fetched perhaps, but launching a flexplate at 8000rpm is not going to end well. Swore, as the ARP bolts are not cheap.

Some hunting through the ARP catalogue shows that 230-7301 are mighty similar but fully threaded. These are made to clamp a torque convertor in a TH350, so very similar load. You can see the difference in thread shoulder in the photo below.

Closing the loop on this one. I was a little hesitant using long 206-2802 ARP flexplate bolts with washers under them to shorten. The reason for my concern was that ARP flywheel/flexplate bolts do not use a locking tab at all, but instead a fancy torque sequence to ensure they do not loosen. I figured if I got cutesy and put a washer under the bolt head it might upset ARP's torqueing, the bolt might loosen, the flexplate try to leave the car and I would say bad words.

Checked with ARP, and they finally got back to me (being impatient, I bought the fully threaded 230-7301 bolts in the mean time). ARP advise it is OK to use an ARP washer under the too-long 206-2802 bolts, but recommend only their own washers as they are hardened and a parallel surface grind. They suggest avoiding star or lock washers. They are equally OK with the use of the 230-7301's in flexplate service.

A little pedantic on my part perhaps, but this thing will spin past 8,000rpm.

Cheers,
Harv

[Harv]

Drysump arrived.

D3E4B58E-BDE4-4582-BA61-1EB5561D8FAB.jpeg (4.26 MiB) Viewed 1232 times

CD7F6C6E-3A6B-453F-A8CE-EA14EB0D4DBA.jpeg (3.7 MiB) Viewed 1232 times

Cheers,
Harv

[BS]

Good looking bit of gear (or sump) there Harv


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[Harv]

It took some deep thinking, but I finally realised I had two projects (the FED and the meth monster FB sedan) and one worked block. After some hard mafs with compass, sliderule and abacus, I realised I was one motor short.

Galloway Engines was thinking about doing a run of billet cranks. I had sworn off billet cranks earlier, and figured a reinforced (girdled) factory crank would do. My mind changed a little when it took me half a dozen teardowns to find a single crank that was 10-thou or virgin and uncracked. That crank is destined for one of the two projects, but if it cracks (and I intend leaning on it) then I may have one hell of a time finding another. I bit the bullet, mortgaged a kidney, and signed up for one of Galloway's billet ones.

The crank, caps and studs are now ready to go, and I got to thinking about organising a pallets-worth of freight from WA to western Sydney. The block the crank goes into will need machining, and I started figuring it might be easier to get Galloway to do that work. An EJ block, sleeved as needs be, and mebbe o-ringed for the extra 10psi or so from the Norman....

Freighting a pallets worth of crank from waaaay out west to home will be pretty close to freighting a pallets worth of short block. A call to EKMart and I secured a bare EJ block (with thanks).

The tricky bit of course is how to get the block from the EKMart showroom in the Perth hills to Galloway's workshop in Pinjarra, when one is not located in the state of WA. I didn't realise that EKMart had a side-hussle running:

Logo Uber EK.png (4.57 KiB) Viewed 764 times

Many thanks to Blacky for both access to a block and dropping it off - much appreciated.

More to follow as this thing gets machined up.

Cheers,
Harv

[Blacky]

Was a pleasure mate - good to give back to someone such as your good self who has done so much for the early Holden family

I would be sorely tempted by one of their stroker cranks - they are a thing of beauty and wonder - one small request if I may - can I have any unused main caps back ???

[Harv]

Can do.

I've got to stop talking to Galloway... they have too many cool toys. Crank, bearings, ARP studs, middle bearing caps, SFI damper all got the tick. Trying to remind myself I don't need their adjustable timing gears for what I am doing.... must resist temptation or I'll end up living on 2-minute noodles.

Cheers,
Harv

[Harv]

So two motors on the go.

The EKMart block for the FED is nearing completion in Pinjarra. Mebbe home for Christmas, if not early new year. Billet crank, wet sump, genuine Repco head, no cooling.

The meth monster block for the FB is home again. This one ends up with the factory crank and part-girdle, dry sump, repro Repco head, full cooling. Crank, rods and slugs now balanced and all installed, cam in place. Attached below the gratuitious lump photo. Custom forged slugs for 9.5:!, so smaller lumps than a normal Repco gets.

lumps.jpg (669.38 KiB) Viewed 74 times

Went to put the dry sump on, and by some miracle I had no sump gaskets. More on the way. In the meantime I tapped out the dipstick hole for a 1/8NPT plug (no point dipping a dry sump... the plug will make for one less leak point).

Cheers,
Harv

[Blacky]

MMMM,, those lumpy pistons make my pants lumpy