401 Build Continued..

Discussion in ''Da Nailhead' started by Bigpig455, Mar 17, 2019.

  1. Bigpig455

    Bigpig455 Fastest of the slow....

    The way I figure it, a timeslip is as good as a dyno sheet. I would have liked to done it, but he couldnt get me in for 3 weeks and I wasnt gonna sit on a freshly built engine for that long!

    I got it in today, and mostly hooked up. The deep pan made it kind of tricky to drop, but it eventually went. I was interested to see how low the bottom of the pan stuck out below the crossmember, turns out it's right where I thought it would be with plenty of ground clearance. The passenger side pipe is lower than the pan, and I've never come close to scraping that on anything.

    upload_2019-5-14_15-29-52.jpeg

    upload_2019-5-14_15-30-25.jpeg

    upload_2019-5-14_15-30-51.jpeg
     
    johnriv67 and 300sbb_overkill like this.
  2. gsgtx

    gsgtx Silver Level contributor

    Rhett i had the same tires as you and they will never hook way to hard compound 720 tread wear.can understand why you didnt wait. the dyno is nice you can see when and where the power is coming in and out. i dont understand how Carmen talked you into that oil pan overkill lol
     
  3. Bigpig455

    Bigpig455 Fastest of the slow....

    Ha! It wasnt Carmen, it was my buddy in RI.

    With the original motor, these tires hooked ok - I was able to pull off high 1.9 60 fts...not slicks, but I was able to snake a bunch of much faster cars.....But yeah, theyre hard and have a LOT of tread left..
     
  4. telriv

    telriv Founders Club Member

    What!!! You took time off of work??? Looks like it's time to make those lots of threads into not so much threads.
    When you gonna start the smoke show I can see from my home???
     
    gsgtx likes this.
  5. Bigpig455

    Bigpig455 Fastest of the slow....

    Tommy! I took the whole week off to get this thing in, up and running...Also attend to the exhaust and anything else that went tango uniform while this car was laid up..so with any luck I'll be shredding the skins later this week..
     
  6. Bigpig455

    Bigpig455 Fastest of the slow....

    Cam is broke in and all the water leaks have been chased down. Idles down to 400 rpm and has a steady 19 " of vacuum, temp cycles between 180 and 190... Still have to dump the break in oil today, but I couldnt resist taking it down the road, I couldnt jump on it yet but I detect a little valvetrain noise at 2500 RPM plus (no noise at idle). I had set the valve lash at .025, I think I'm gonna have to step it up to .035.

    Today I'll retorque the heads, reset the preload and dump the oil so I can drive it around, and I might even wash the 3 years of dust off it...

    upload_2019-5-17_7-19-20.jpeg

    Quick video of the idle - 700 RPM here with Dynomax long case mufflers and X-pipe. Smooth and not too cammy, nice and quiet.
     
    Last edited: May 17, 2019
  7. gsgtx

    gsgtx Silver Level contributor

    lots of vacuum, was going tell that you need more than.025. i would go right to .050. you might still hear noise with that faster ramp cam till you get your solids in. solids are the way to go with a nailhead. can't wait till you test it out. thinking and hoping you will have tons of low end torque with that cam.
     
  8. Bigpig455

    Bigpig455 Fastest of the slow....

    Hey Joe -

    Only could drive it around the block, but it felt VERY torquey, very responsive. So far, I'm very pleased with the cam, from the vacuum, to idle quality, to how it spec'd as we degreed it.

    I set everything at .035 before I saw your response, so we'll see how that goes. Cant drive it this afternoon as the rain moved in again.....I dumped the break-in oil, hardly any metal in the filter so I think this weekend I can drive it some if the weather gets better.
     
    gs66 likes this.
  9. gs66

    gs66 Silver Level contributor

    Good to see this car on the road again! Can’t wait to see it in person!
     
  10. Bigpig455

    Bigpig455 Fastest of the slow....

    It’s on the road! Just took it to take my Daughter and her date to the prom. Runs great, making good power but still chasing this valvetrain noise so I’m tearing back into it tomorrow...hopefully it’s something simple but the car is grounded till I nail it down. Perfectly quiet at idle, and clatters like a diesel at 2500 plus RPM..preload changes haven’t touched it a bit...
     
  11. gsgtx

    gsgtx Silver Level contributor

    are you sure its not pinging, what is your timing set at. pull the vacuum advance off and try it. check your timing again maybe dist moved. just throwing ideals at you to cover all bases.
     
    Last edited: May 18, 2019
  12. Bigpig455

    Bigpig455 Fastest of the slow....

    Timing is at 8 initial, 24 in the distributor and 10 degrees vacuum advance...when this is going on I figured it has 38 degrees total with the advance.

    Good question, and one I should at least rule out but I don't think its timing related because (if it makes any sense )
    • it doesnt sound like any pre-ignition I've ever heard
    • the noise corresponds to RPM, not engine load
    • seems to be at cam speed as opposed to crank speed
    • It's is fairly uniform, not random.

    Thanks for the suggestion though, gonna try it this AM.
     
  13. Bigpig455

    Bigpig455 Fastest of the slow....

    Not timing related, and I'm happy about that. Lifters. pushrods and rockers even to an extent geometry I can change. Diving back in this AM to inspect all the lifters.
     
  14. Bigpig455

    Bigpig455 Fastest of the slow....

    Tommy! Whats the valve adjustment sequence each 1/4 turn of the balancer again?
     
  15. telriv

    telriv Founders Club Member

    Yes Rhett, 1/4 turn, 90*, BUT as you know I use the overlap method when adjusting valves.

    Tom T.
     
  16. Bigpig455

    Bigpig455 Fastest of the slow....

    So the good news is it was a few bad lifters..they were bleeding down or not taking oil at all.

    They are the correct lifters, can’t remember where I got them. Oil hole is in the correct place, but the lifter cup is .050 higher than the TA 1406 lifter held next to it (with the double groove).

    Gonna pick up another set of lifters and fingers crossed be racing next weekend! I guess that was the best possible outcome?
     

    Attached Files:

  17. telriv

    telriv Founders Club Member

    Rhett,

    If you notice the T/A lifter has the oil band higher at the top which were one of the things we were talking about actually appears to be a SBC lifter. As a guess a made in China lifter & NOT a quality lifter.
     
  18. Bigpig455

    Bigpig455 Fastest of the slow....

    Tommy - this is the sequence I was talking about. This method generally seems to be considered the most accurate by the solid lifter guys..


    Buick Nailhead Valve Adjustment Chart.JPG
     
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  19. SpecialWagon65

    SpecialWagon65 Ted Nagel

    Thank you for posting that. I've gone cross-eyed a couple times trying to work that out from the firing order!
     
  20. Bigpig455

    Bigpig455 Fastest of the slow....

    technically, there's a way to do it just by the TDC on #1 and #4, but I havent figured out that sequencing yet. I totally copied an existing Mopar chart to make this chart up (with obvious changes to accommodate the Nailhead firing order)
     
    SpecialWagon65 likes this.

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