My 1985 Monte Carlo SS Barney...

[SSLance]

Progress?

[mbheinz]

Ok Lance, give it up. Short block rebuild?

Mike

[Sbeck09]

Yeah are we stuck here guessing or what's the plan for this thing?

[SSLance]

Sorry, just checking to make sure you guys were still paying attention.

Plan is full machine work on the block including boring it 030 over and putting new forged rods and pistons in it along with a freshen up of everything else. Tried every way possible to not break the bank on this but given the OEM 3.8" stroke crank and 4.005" bore, this turned out to be the best answer.

We figured we'd give the awesome top end the bottom end it deserves.

[andrewb70]

...

We figured we'd give the awesome top end the bottom end it deserves.

^^^Like

Andrew

[Sbeck09]

Awesome news! Except for the bill that will follow. I still remember seeing that total for my engine...oof.

Sounds like we should setup a private test somewhere local with cones after you're up and running again.

[nokones]

Awesome news! Except for the bill that will follow. I still remember seeing that total for my engine...oof.

Sounds like we should setup a private test somewhere local with cones after you're up and running again.

Can I come? I have some cones and my car is bored "Staying-at-Home" (In a dark Trailer).

[Sbeck09]

Can I come? I have some cones and my car is bored "Staying-at-Home" (In a dark Trailer).

Don't tease me with a good time.

[SSLance]

Big beautiful pistons that have been ordered...





https://www.jepistons.com/pistons-130974

With this ring set...

https://www.cnc-motorsports.com/je-p...08-4010-5.html

Which will be hung on these rods...



Scat H-beam connecting rods are the strongest Scat connecting rods available by Scat. These Scat H-beam connecting rods are perfect for supercharged and nitrous applications. These rods incorporate a special doweled cap for specific cap-to-rod alignment and are profiled with extra clearance for stroker applications. Forged 4340 material with ARP 7/16 8740 rod bolts make them very strong and affordable. H Beam rods with ARP 8740 Bolts are rated to 750 horsepower on small blocks and 850 on big blocks.

https://www.cnc-motorsports.com/scat...ting-rods.html

The new rod length and comp height on the new pistons will put the top of the piston at the same height as the OE pistons. The OE piston had a 18 cc dish and the new piston has a 14 cc dish so that along with maybe a touch of decking and cleanup on the heads might make for just a bump in compression ratio but not a big deal. Bottom end should be safe to 7,000 RPM, it'll be interesting to see how high the top end can go now.

The rods and rings are on their way to me already, the pistons have to be special cut because of a bore size change, JE said 3-4 weeks, CNC said 5 weeks... We'll see. Block is disassembled ready to clean. Builder won't start machine work on block until pistons are in hand to be sure it gets cut perfectly. He can get started freshening the heads up though.

Glad to have this decision making part out of the way, now just have to find the money to pay for it all and wait in parts jail for a bit.

[Sbeck09]

I knew we were friends for a reason. There is nothing I love more than an N/A V8 at 7k rpm. I am so excited to see how this turns out. Great list of quality parts should mean no more bottom end worries.

[andrewb70]

I knew we were friends for a reason. There is nothing I love more than an N/A V8 at 7k rpm. I am so excited to see how this turns out. Great list of quality parts should mean no more bottom end worries.

You should be working on the DBW on your truck :-)

[SSLance]

So I finally uploaded all of the pics I pulled down from photobucket a couple of years ago...and ran across some doozies.

Here she was in all her glory not long after I bought it...



I had cleaned up and restored the bottom side before this picture was taken but hadn't touched much else.

305 vs 383



Newly tinted windows



GTO seat install



New Billet Wheels



Then I discovered racing...

These was taken at my very first test N tune...





It was all downhill after that... :D Thanks everyone for going along on this crazy ride with me.

New pistons have been cut and are on the way to me. Stay tuned...

[pro86tourn]

that's awesome!!

[SSLance]

One of the things about my EFI install that bugged me was this.



Because I used an internally regulated fuel module, I ran just one fuel line up to the engine and dead headed the other end of the fuel rail.

Here you see the -6 feed line attached to the rear port on the fuel rail with a plug in the front port.



Apparently it is common with a dead headed system for the injector pulses to send vibrations back through the fuel line. This is what is causing my floor to vibrate. Here is how the fuel line is attached to the floor under the passenger foot well.





What is strange is if one or the other clamps is removed, the floor doesn't vibrate.

I heard of fuel dampers possibly working to quiet this down so after a little investigation, I picked this up.





http://www.radiumauto.com/Fuel-Pulse...Kits-P751.aspx

This also gave me a place to put my new Holley Fuel pressure sensor. I then built a bracket to mount the damper and sensor to the firewall.



The 90 degree -6 Hose fitting on the existing fuel line attaches to the input side of the damper and I'll have to make a new fuel line to go from the output side to the fuel rail once the engine is back in place. The fuel pressure sensor will plug right into the circuit on the Holley harness and then I'll be able to verify and log fuel pressure with the ECU.

Hope to have a progress report on the engine itself soon.

[SSLance]

We have progress to report...look what's back on the lift once again!!



The builder is very happy with how the crank turned out, says they did "exactly what he asked them to do". He said it spins over very easily with the mains torqued down.

Here are some pics of the short block assembled.





Some of the additional clearance work he did to clear the new rods.





He should have it wrapped up by the end of this week if no more hiccups.

Looks like I need to get busy prepping the hole it's going to go back in...

[andrewb70]

Good progress, Lance!

[rixtrix1]

Looks like a great shortblock; full of very nice parts! What's your new rod length?

[SSLance]

Thanks. New rods are 5.850"

[jlcustomz]

Factories use all sort of little doodle looking items we don't know what they are for & don't appear to do anything. Many times dampeners are just a length of hollow pipe with the end capped off, which absorbs these pulses. Same thing for j-pipes on exhaust stopping drone.
That little part should end your annoyance.

[SSLance]

Took care of some piddly things today in preparation to put the new bullet back in place. I moved the oil pressure sensor from the boss above the filter to this boss up by the distributor. This keeps it away from the headers better and will give a better representation of the oil pressure on the top side of the engine.



Also got the distributor back in place finally...leveling the engine out helped stand the oil pump drive straight up and centered which let the distributor fall right into place.

Since I moved the oil pressure sensor and added a fuel pressure sensor, I had to dig into the bundle of wires under the AC and on the firewall and since I was there anyway, I cleaned them up a bit. The fuel pressure sensor lead to the ECU was tucked up under there last summer since it wasn't being used




May not look like much but it's MUCH neater than before.





Cleaned up the alternator plug as well. I know it's not Andrewb70 quality wiring but I am getting a little bit better at it. :D



I then used a tap to clean all the bolt holes in the heads and block and put the engine mounts on. This gets me pretty close to ready to put it in the car. Might get around to that tomorrow, we'll see how it goes.