I arrived last Thursday. Friday we did make dyno pulls with the Batten heads, finally. All was good. Saturday we went to assemble the new short block, Diamond pistons, Eagle rods, cross drilled forged crank, etc. Well the Diamond pistons use a 0.984" pin and the Eagle rods are bushed for a 0.980" pin. Brad, lead engine builder at Livernois, walked me through how to use the rod hone and open them up. 7 of the 8 were perfect, that first one, well, lets just say we need a new bushing, it's ordered (learning curve). So we rebuild the existing engine. I had a set of 3/4 groove Speed Pro bearings that I used for the mains. Brad, former engine builder for Jacks NASCAR engines, has never seen main bearings fail like that. Ripped the bearing material off the backing, but the backing wasn't discolored like it got hot (which is what normally causes that). Best we can figure is bad bearings. Crank is at Moldex being fixed. Trying to build the stroker motor, needed to notch the block for the rods. The new set of Gen3 Edelbrock heads is a total disaster. May need to put new seats in some cylinders due to out of round so bad. Right now I'm not sure we have a good set of heads to put on the engine. I will work on that this morning....

Should have the stroker short block built this morning, but not sure what heads to use yet.....I haven't drank heavily yet, but I may.

jerry

 

Moldex does good work. I have them lighten some of my 330 and 425 cranks.
And a lot of piston companies use the .984(Mopar) pin in Pontiac and Olds pistons. They don’t have to buy the more expensive .980 pin for those.
And if your sealed power bearings were new old stock, I would believe that it was a bad batch. Their QC has been inconsistent over the years.
Finally, are you using big block Chevy rods on this Stroker? If so, you shouldn’t have to relieve anything.

 

The Sealed Power bearings were sitting around for a while, probably 10 years.

The stroker kit uses a 7.1" Eagle rod with a big block chevy big end. Once we "adjusted" the block a little big, no more subtle clunk when spinning it. Got it running, shakes badly. Person I got the stroker kit from said it was balanced. There was mallory in the crank at both ends so I figured he was correct. It was about 230 grams out with external balanced balancer and flexplate. Without those it's 120 grams out. So, more drama and no dyno pulls. I told my wife I should just come home.....We are getting a new bushing from Eagle tomorrow, so we can assemble the 461 Olds. To add all that weight in the crank will take a little time, especially when they are doing it for free. So no chance the stroker runs again this trip, but maybe Saturday the 461 runs again.....

Current phrase this trip, "this trip it's always something and it's always some thing big."

jerry