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 This Winters Project 
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Post Re: This Winters Project
Looks like your having lots of fun 8)

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2010 SIM 2SS/RS A6
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Wed Nov 22, 2017 1:17 pm
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Post Re: This Winters Project
transamtom wrote:
Looks like your having lots of fun 8)


Well, its either putter around with something like this or suffer through whatever reality TV show my wife has on! Lol!

With that in mind I made good progress the past couple days!

Block cleaned up really well.

Imagereceived_10159856573995556 by Shane Hewitt, on Flickr

Any external fasteners got sandblasted.

Imagereceived_10159856577290556 by Shane Hewitt, on Flickr

It then got masked off and hit with a coat of paint.

Imagereceived_10159860728860556 by Shane Hewitt, on Flickr
Imagereceived_10159860735555556 by Shane Hewitt, on Flickr

I'll leave it for 24 hrs or so and hit it with another coat (I can see a few light spots).

After that is complete, time to hone the cylinders, take some more measurements, and order some parts!


Wed Nov 22, 2017 9:37 pm
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Post Re: This Winters Project
Pretty pleased with the results!

ImageE7E9B8DC-51B5-4E66-BE2D-877D7E486878 by Shane Hewitt, on Flickr


Fri Nov 24, 2017 8:42 pm
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Post Re: This Winters Project
The cleanup continues.

Image20171127_194832 by Shane Hewitt, on Flickr


Mon Nov 27, 2017 9:28 pm
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These are the next in my parts pile to get cleaned up, & the ones I was dreading doing the most (they don't fit in the deep fryer, Lol!)

ImageAs removed from engine by Shane Hewitt, on Flickr

Thought I'd try something different to clean these up so I sprayed them down with EasyOff oven cleaner and let them soak for about an hour and a half then rinsed them off.....

ImageCleaned by Shane Hewitt, on Flickr

Gotta say I'm beyond pleased with how easy they cleaned up.

After cleaning up the first one I measured the rod bearing clearance and found that they are also just a hair out of tolerance.

All the tolerances I've measured so far have been very close to being within service limits.....honestly I could likely throw this thing back together as it is and it would provide years and years of reliable service, but given that it is getting put back together with the possibility of going in my own car some day in the future, I'll take the time, spend the money (probably a couple hundred bucks at most) and build a motor that I might actually be eager to put in the car!


Mon Dec 04, 2017 6:52 pm
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Post Re: This Winters Project
One more item crossed off my list of things to do.

Not sure if the Vortec truck pan will clear an F-body subframe or not, so I decided to refinish it regardless.

ImageB62B1565-49DC-42C5-A33D-FB0BF0AD2DB2 by Shane Hewitt, on Flickr

Looks much better!

Also spent some time running a tap through every thread on this block........that's more time consuming than you may think!!

After sitting down with my spreadsheet of measurements, it appears that standard replacement rings and bearings are going to bring all the tolerances back into as new condition, so no undersize/oversize anything required which I'm happy about.

Next task will be honing the cylinders.


Mon Dec 11, 2017 9:09 am
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Post Re: This Winters Project
Finally had a morning with a few hours free so it was time to deal with this.

While the original cross hatch marks could still be seen, the cylinders had a pretty good glaze on them. No point putting brand new moly rings on old glazed cylinders.

Image20171218_094522 by Shane Hewitt, on Flickr

This was the first time I've used one of these to hone cylinders, so I was eager to see how well (or poorly) it worked.

Image20171218_093147 by Shane Hewitt, on Flickr

Close up of what I was starting with.

Image20171218_092903 by Shane Hewitt, on Flickr

Close up of end result.

Image20171218_092942 by Shane Hewitt, on Flickr


I think this tool is a keeper!!! Pretty pleased with the results!

Image20171218_094452 by Shane Hewitt, on Flickr

Note.....the lighting makes the cross hatching in this last pic look much more severe than what it really is! Lol!

Now I get to spend this evening with the tedious task of cleaning the every square inch of this block again.....there is grit everywhere! Lol! At least this should be the final time. Hopefully order up some parts tonight & then...........more measuring........ :(


Mon Dec 18, 2017 11:53 am
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Not sure why the previous owner would have removed this, but happy I noticed it was missing before priming the oil system for the first time! Lol!

Image20171221_154814 by Shane Hewitt, on Flickr


Thu Dec 21, 2017 5:17 pm
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Parts arrived a few days ago & I finally had time & ambition at the same time today!

Popped the new main bearings into place & measured the oil clearance.....all of which fell right into place. :D

Image20171231_170621 by Shane Hewitt, on Flickr

So once I was satisfied with the new bearings, the crank has been put back in place for the final time.

Image20171231_173700 by Shane Hewitt, on Flickr

Crank end play fell right into spec as well.

Now that the crank is place for the final time, a new 1 piece rear main seal is now installed! Not interested in having ANYTHING leak once this engine finds its way into the car.

Image20171231_183827 by Shane Hewitt, on Flickr

For giggles I popped a couple of the new rings out of the box & measured the end gap to see if I was going to be in for hours of file fitting rings......it appears I may not! Super happy about that.....I hate fill fitting rings! That will be a task for another day though.


Sun Dec 31, 2017 9:42 pm
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Post Re: This Winters Project
After fitting the rings for cylinder #1 (only the oil control rings needed filing) and re-installing the piston back in the cylinder with the new rod bearings I decided for giggles to re-check how far down in the hole the piston is. Before teardown this measured .025".

ImageE9219171-910C-4C69-9456-1367F6ADD83B by Shane Hewitt, on Flickr

Surprisingly it now checks in at .022".

I have reason to believe this motor has been apart before.....now starting to wonder if it may have had the decks milled true at the time (which certainly isn't a bad thing!).


Sun Jan 14, 2018 9:51 am
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Post Re: This Winters Project
Wish I'd have noticed that the 880 block is already clearanced to accept a stroker crank BEFORE I ordered parts and started assembling! :lol:

Image20180130_200649 by Shane Hewitt, on Flickr

This would currently be a 377 under construction if I had!


Tue Jan 30, 2018 9:32 pm
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Post Re: This Winters Project
Spent some time yesterday finishing up the bottom end. Now that its all assembled and ready to go I was curious about the thin ring package this motor has and what sort of difference it really makes in terms of friction. To test it I put my torque wrench on the crank bolt to see how much torque it would take to turn the motor over. Much to my surprise it only took 14 ft/lbs!! While that didn't seem like much, I didn't know what a "conventional" small block Chevy would take.

Luckily a week ago I went shopping in a fellas garage & came out with a truck load full of '86 - '89 TPI stuff.

ImageA7604048-ABFE-4A39-82A0-1582412C2F6E by Shane Hewitt, on Flickr

Amongst the stuff I brought home was an '86 -'89 L98 shortblock, so tonight I took my torque wrench out to see what a shortblock with a conventional ring pack would take to turn over. Much to my surprise again, this shortblock with conventional rings took 30 ft/lbs to turn over!

I really wasn't expecting that significant of a difference., but I'm happy that I'll be taking a mill with a conventional ring pack out & replacing it with a low friction, thin ring pack.......there has to be power to power to be had there!


On another note, quite a bit of the TPI stuff I brought home I don't anticipate having a need for, so some of it will likely be going up for sale shortly! PM me if you need anything!


Last edited by auto_god on Sun Apr 01, 2018 10:09 am, edited 1 time in total.



Tue Feb 06, 2018 8:59 pm
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Post Re: This Winters Project
An interesting article regarding thin rings.

http://www.hotrod.com/articles/dyno-tes ... orsepower/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-29IWc-zrv8

I was pleased to read that the torque measurements they recorded to turn over each set of pistons mirrored what I observed last week.

My motor won't be turning the rpm their test motor was, so I wouldn't anticipate the gains to be quite as high as theirs were, but I'm pleased to see that the thin rings should gain back a good percentage of the HP I'll be losing due to the drop in compression.


Mon Feb 19, 2018 8:41 am
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Got some parts in today to resolve a couple of issues! The wait for parts is the reason behind the lack of updates recently.

The first issue to resolve was the timing cover. The stock Vortec timing cover states right on the front of the cover "DO NOT REUSE". I'm guessing they're prone to leaks if reused.

The problem this creates for me arises from the locating dowel pins.....the Vortec timing cover has the dowels cast into the cover.

Image20180308_190118 by Shane Hewitt, on Flickr

A conventional small block Chevy has the dowels in the front of the block, so that left me with 2 options......either order a new Vortec specific cover or order the dowels to put in the block & use the timing cover that is on my current motor. I chose the $3 worth of dowels.

Image20180308_190406 by Shane Hewitt, on Flickr

Its a small detail, but one that will stop a project dead!

The second thing I wanted to deal with was the lifter guides. There really wasn't anything wrong with the ones that were in the motor, I just decided to do some forward thinking. Because this motor is going to have a lower compression ratio using my current Lunati cam will drop the dynamic compression so I'll be juggling cam profiles to resolve that problem. Now I've spent a significant amount of time deciding on which cam to use, but until the cam is actually in the motor and running all the theory and simulations are just that.....theory and simulations. With that in mind I've decided to install some GM Performance lifter buckets.

Image20180308_191534 by Shane Hewitt, on Flickr

Just like LS lifter buckets these allow the removal of a cam without removing the intake manifold. If the cam I've chosen turns out to be a turd (unlikely) substituting a different cam isn't going to involve me taking the intake manifold off again......well worth the $22 per side!!

Image20180308_191134 by Shane Hewitt, on Flickr

These things are pretty slick......hopefully installing them is a completely unnecessary detail.

Image2018-03-08_07-44-11 by Shane Hewitt, on Flickr


Last edited by auto_god on Sun Jul 01, 2018 7:38 am, edited 1 time in total.



Thu Mar 08, 2018 9:22 pm
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Post Re: This Winters Project
Well this project has become a little more urgent now!

Last week I was indulging in some wide open throttle fun and immediately afterwards noted that my oil pressure had dropped significantly from where it normally runs.......uh oh! So after work one night I popped a new oil filter on and cut open the old one .......suspicion confirmed! Looking through the filter media with a magnifying glass turned up small bits of metal.

Given that my plan was to rebuild the OE L98 engine back to its original condition, that motor needs to come out before something catastrophic happens. So I ordered some parts this week to get ready to swap motors.

First order of business is a new starter. The L98 starter doesn't have the staggered bolt pattern of the Vortec block. The new one is just a stock replacement starter for a Vortec engine......its a tiny little sucker! It's probably half the size of the monster on the L98! Should clear my headers much better!

Image667DDFFD-030F-4356-9E99-7B542DACDA4F by Shane Hewitt, on Flickr

As I noted towards the beginning of this thread, I felt that there was power to be had in the valves of the ported 083 heads that I'll be transferring over to this engine, so I ordered up some aftermarket valves to pop in while the heads are off. After looking them over last night there appears to be several notable upgrades with these valves.

Image20180525_184724 by Shane Hewitt, on Flickr

The first improvement comes in the form of no 2nd groove where the O ring would sit on the stock valves. That groove was the limiting factor in the lift these heads could support. With that groove gone these heads will support all the lift the valve springs are capable of, so further down the road 1.6 ratio rockers are now an option.

The second improvement comes in the form of weight. I weighed a stock valve as well as a new valve and found the new intake to be 3 grams lighter, while the exhaust is a surprising 11 grams lighter! In conjunction with the Comp retainers that I'm using with my Beehive springs, this brings the weight savings up to 25 grams off each intake valve & 48 grams off each exhaust......that is significant!

The third improvement I anticipate should come in the form of improved flow.

Image20180525_184606 by Shane Hewitt, on Flickr

Note how the stem remains uniform all the way down to the back of the valve rather than flaring out impeding airflow as the stock valve does. Also note the transition from the back of the valve to the seat area is far smoother than the OE valve. These "should" improve the flow of these heads......we will see I guess!

Of course I ordered up the usual stack of gaskets etc, but nothing really exciting to see there.

Now I just need to get to work!!


Sat May 26, 2018 6:55 am
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