I believe they were made from 4032 aluminum so clearance will be a minimum of .003"-.004". I know mine rattle slightly when cold, but disappear after a few minutes warm-up time.
Hey Walt! I thought I had put a more recent update here, but guess I didn't. I now have all the parts back from the machine shop. Block, heads, crank, assembled pistons/rods, are all ready to roll. I just need to strip the engine bay in the car and get the engine and trans put together and installed. Of course there is a laundry list of other details, just gotta get out there and start chipping away. The bearings are all new. I will verify and report when I get home what brands were bought. I had the engine shop purchase the bearings for me so I had some assurance that they were correct. When he got ready to buy them he called me on the phone and went over prices and brands and his recommendations. I then called Donny and confirmed the recommendations and my thoughts. I didn't pay anymore getting them through him than what I would have if I had bought them myself, so it worked out. Actually got them a little cheaper because the parts house cut him a discount for buying a package. Rods and Mains are -.010/-.010. I can't remember off hand what the cam bearings finished at. Main Bearings: Sealed Power 4265 M10 Rod Bearings: Clevite CB-762 P-10 Cam Bearings: Dura-bond B-8
I guess to go over some other details on the build that I cant remember if I have covered or not. Engine: Block: 401 +.045 Pistons/Rods: Toms Forged pistons pressed on stock rods w/ ARP Rod bolts Crank: Stock Cam: Carmen's W30-10 Heads: Stock rebuilt heads with reconditioned factory valves, Carmens Hyd 2 springs, and factory rocker assemblies Q-Jet Intake and Factory Replacement Q-Jet Stock exhaust manifolds Pertronix Ignitor III Ignition and matching coil Transmission: ST400 w/ JW SP Coverter A couple other upgrades I plan to do are convert the power brakes to a dual master setup, swap the steering gear box to a quick ratio from Carhex, larger front sway bar and add rear sway bar, and add Bilstein shocks all the way around. Thats all I can think of performance wise at the moment. Will eventually swap the rear to something with 3.36 or 3.42 gears and a posi unit. Also will come headers and hopefully move into doing headwork and such once Donny and I come up with a flowbench.
Good to hear, Sealed Power must be making the bearings again. For a while they were either not available or over $300 for a set! I used the Durabond cam bearings too. I did have to shave them for proper cam fit. A flow bench would be nice, but I just use my eyes and a finger to check flow! I didn't remove much material, just blended things. Summit has a tapered (adjustable) piston ring compressor that works so much better than the sleeve type. Your 0.040 is kinda in between sizes tho: http://www.summitracing.com/search/...h&SortOrder=Ascending&keyword=ring compressor Have fun putting that beast together!! Tom, thanks for the TRW info. :TU:
Well the main bearings sure as hell werent cheap, I can tell you that. I know I wrote it down somewhere but cant seem to find it. But it was getting close to that $300 mark if i remember correctly. Looking up the part number now shows the standard size not being a bad price, but that -.010 set is a big price hike. I should be getting a copy of my invoice in the next week so I will report back then. Owner of the shop wasnt there when I picked everything up so he was gonna mail it to me.
Just remembered to come back and update with a price on the bearings. I got them through the machine shop, so he has a little in it on top, but I don't think much. Also because of the parts house he went through to get them, they gave him a "kit" price for buying the different sets of bearings together. Still not cheap, but is what it is. Cam Bearings $63.29 Main & Rod Bearings $351.10 And for anyone reading this and curious about labor charges for the machine work on these engines, my bill for the labor come out to around $1800 and then parts on top of that. Now this also figures in some additional work that some others may not have to go through. Price includes cleaning, inspection, testing, and some machining of 5 cylinder heads to find 2 good ones. And then total head rebuilds including work on the valves, seats, and guides. Also installing an adapter in the crank because it is a '63 crank being mated to a ST400. Then the normal work associated with getting a block ready for a rebuild.
So starting to make some progress on the car finally. Little brother came over this weekend and we got the engine and transmission out. Had to remove the bumper and grill to get the engine out cause the engine hoist doesn't have a long enough arm to reach over the front end of the car. No big deal as it gives me the opportunity to paint that area while it's off and I will be painting the engine bay anyway. So as usual the area below the battery is shot. I don't have time to fix it proper before the Nationals so it will be getting a temporary fix of some sort. Probably a small piece of sheet metal screwed in place just so I can mount a battery tray and battery back in there. Got a lot of work to get done in a short time frame, but I am going to give it the best shot I can. Even though it's rough looking I want to take it to the GS Nationals this year so I can cruise it around. Drive my own car this time instead of one of the Uncles. Also I want something I can race down the track, even if it is just during Test and Tune. Should be fun regardless. So here are few pictures to capture the steps taking place. Hopefully these up dates come more often with big progress being made. Ready to get her back on the road and show her off.
