grumpyvette

things to read guys (I was asked to repost this) http://www.gnttype.org/techarea/misc/octanebooster.html http://www.team.net/sol/tech/octane_b.html http://www.turbofast.com.au/racefuel8.html http://www.turbofast.com.au/racefuel4.html http://www.zhome.com/ZCMnL/PICS/deto...etonation.html http://www.vettenet.org/octane.html

"surprisingly the guy at my friends dad's shop put some antiseize before installing the plug. " yeah but as you also stated (below) "not much you can do with a bolt that needs about 140ft-lbs to remove " and "'Impact wrench that fits into tight crevices' to tighten it the last time, " thats a big part of the basic problem, if it was installed correctly with anti-seize on the threads and torqued to something like a reasonable 35 ft lbs the problem would NEVER have come up

"I think it's just a corrosion issue or a different expansion rate of the plug and the housing issue more than an idiot at the lube place." the installation of a steel plug into an aluminum case REQUIRES THE USE OF ANTISEIZE COMPOUND on the threads and carefully alined threads http://www.standardequipmentco.com/loc_sale/loc_ad.htm

your BASIC problem was CAUSED by some JERK overtightening the plug, those plugs normally seat or open with about 30ft lbs of force, your very lucky the jerk didn,t crack the trans case

having had several real jerks work on my cars in years past I learned that if you want everything done (YOUR WAY) theres only one sure method, ....LEARN TO DO THE WORK YOURSELF AND BUY THE NECESSARY TOOLS TO DO IT CORRECTLY in this case a 5 foot long section of clear plastic tubing, (most hardware stores) a threaded fitting and a small funnel,(most auto parts stores) and a friend to hold it , all of which cost maybe $5 and 5 minutes of your time plus the lube will have allowed you to fill your own trans they come in a zillion sizes and there are adapters available, a 3/8"npt or 1/2"npt size fits many trans plugs screw the fitting into the trans,threaded hole, insert the tubing over the fitting on one end of the tubeing, stand next to the car with the funnel higher than the trans and pour trans lube into the funnel inserted in the other end of the clear plastic tubeing

I was recently ask the length of a sbc cam, (WHY I HAVE NO IDEA) but it was simple to measure, I just went to the shop and measured one, they are 21.375" give or take a few thousands of an inch btw that leads me to point out how to store cams long term, when you store your spare cams, the best way Ive found is to cut 24" sections of 2" pvc pipe, glue a cap on one end then slip in the cam,add a 1/2 pint of clean oil and cap the other end with a slip over rubber cap with a radiator hose clamp to seal it, lable the outside on tape around the tube,or if you have the cam card insert it in a plastic bag and tape it to the outside of the tube, so that when you change the tube contents the lables gets torn off and changed, or you can find the cam card in a few years. I have cams stored this way for MANY year that come out in NEW condition when the time comes to use them

vanir97 a few months ago one of my neigbors 6 year old kids decided to fill my gas tank with the hose after seeing me wash the corvette and foolishly leaving the hose running to water a few trees, the reason I bring this up is I needed to flush the tank that had about 6 gallons of fuel and 10 gallons of water (THANKS KID!!!) what I did was at first thought Id need to drop the tank(LIKE YOU) but I went to the local auto parts store and bought an electric fuel pump, 40 feet of clear plastic tubeing and a deisel fuel filter with the water seperator built into it! these are comon at boat supply and large truck supply stores running a section of tubbing with a brass fitting stuck in the end to give the tip weight and keep in in the bottom of the tank on the suction line and having the return line lead back into the tank to keep things stirred up, plus 30 feet of 10 gauge wire with two aligator clips to hook to the battery allowed me to drain the water off into several 5 gallon buckets and filter the fuel, it also effectively removed crud from the tank, I then (after several hours)added several cans of gas drier (basically methonol) , several cans of injector cleaner and some marvel mystery oil to the tank to take care of the injectors and any small amounts remaining moisture I set the contraption up so the suction hose went to the water seperator,first to limit the pumps water contact, then a short section to the pump, then a section back to the tank, I mounted it all on a 12" sq board mounted in an old cheap plastic tool box so I could NEATLY store the hoses and assembly, and so Id have it for future use and could hang in on the shop wall

b__sosick is correct WE ALL (with NO EXCEPTIONS)make STUPID mistakes at times, don,t beat yourself up over it, just learn from your experiance and check much more throughly from now on.

slownrusty (providing thats NOT a photo shop deal on the cover photo) congrats THAT IS quite an accomplishment! (both making the cover of the mag and making 670 rear wheel hp) could you post ALL your engines specs? and a parts list? Im sure most of the guys will want that info!

this may help http://www.oldengine.org/unfaq/hei.htm http://www.vintageperformance.com/retrorockets/PerTronixConversions.htm http://www.vintageperformance.com/retrorockets/ignitor1.htm http://www.vintageperformance.com/retrorockets/gm.htm

the guys are correct! your symtoms point to the engine getting a LEAN mix ,durring the rapid increase in air flow, probably because the accellerator pomp and or power valve need to be set up to provide a richer A/F ratio durring the transition from low to the high air flow states Id set the accellerator pump up to give the richest and longest durration shot you can as a first test, then Id sellect a stronger spring to slow the rate the secondaries open,it won,t cost you any power simply because the engines fully able to suck the secondaries fully open to the match the rate of flow it needs with most of the springs available BTW ID also make SURE the ignition timing and advance curve were set up correctly , ON MOST SBC engines, youll need to have about 6-9 degrees at idle and have the ignition curve SMOOTHLY increase to give full advance by about 2900rpm and reaches the full 36-38 degrees of advance and check for vacuum leaks

"Boat dealers have a product called "fogging oil". which is specifically designed for cylinder protection during the off season. " yeah, its a good product,but to use it correctly you need to run the engine up to operating temp before squirting some into the intake, untill the exhaust starts belching smoky oil clouds and shutting the engine OFF while its still hot, something thats difficult to do while the engines NOT installed, its far easier to just pull the plugs and squirt a couple tablespoons worth of MARVEL MYSTERY OIL into each cylinder and spin the engine over by hand while the engines out of the car, then re-install the plugs finger tight, and oil and bag/seal it up

yeah! thats standard procedure, sorry I forgot to mention that!, its just a NO-BRAINER, I don,t even think about anymore, like using a hair drier to heat the surfaces untill thier just too hot to touch comfortably too remove moisture before spraying on the LPS #3

Ive soaked a partly assembled engine in MARVEL MYSTERY OIL and sprayed it down on the external surfaces with LPS #3, then, filled it with a case of clean new oil, I stored it inside several plastic bags one inside the other in layers, all tightly taped with duct tape, then placed it in a large plastic box for over 10 years, and it came out just fine!(no rust, and in great condition) ITS MOISTURE and exposure to air,thats the potential problem! KEEP the engine AIR TIGHT /MOISTURE free and stable in temp and it should be fine! BTW, starting the ENGINE like that without pre-lubeing the engine after it sits for several weeks/months/years is causing some minor wear! simply because much of the oil has drained away from the surfaces its meant to protect, but I would not be very worried about it! , IF it was my engine Id add a case of oil to the pan to prevent moisture and keep the internals like the cam and crank covered, THE OIL, acts like a moisture barrier, its very cheap insurance,then just pull the plugs, shoot a few squirts of marvel mystery oil into each cylinder, replace the plugs finger tight and let it sit untill its installed in the car, then drain it/refill and install new plugs at that point look the case of cheap new oil costs like $20, its very cheap insurance to prevent moisture and rust internally while the engine sits in the garage for months/years

http://www.classicperform.com/TechBook/BrakeTroubleshoot.htm http://www.cranecams.com/index.php?show=browseParts&lvl=3&prt=31 http://www.afcoracing.com/tech_pages/fluid.shtml http://www.advancepitstop.com/index.php?id=231 http://auto.howstuffworks.com/brake.htm http://auto.howstuffworks.com/disc-brake.htm http://www.familycar.com/brakes.htm http://chevyhiperformance.com/techarticles/71398/ perhaps this will help

"Ever think of NJ? " only occasionally, ....in nightmares

just some info youll need to make an informed choice a big block chevy CAN be assembled from readily available parts that weights close to or even less than a small block using expensive options like an aluminum block and heads,intake,water pump, etc.......but lets look at the more comon style combo with an IRON block and aluminum heads, intake, water pump. youll be about 80lbs-90lbs heavier than an iron small block combo, but what do you gain for that extra weight? first you gain much better flowing heads,larger stronger rotateing assembly and potentially at least a larger displacement, and better engine cooling, a wider head gasket seal area between the cylinders, and generally significantly more hp at the rear wheels if both engines are built to a similar hp per cubic inch level of power. lets look at that! lets assume your sbc corvette weights 3500 lbs and has a 383 stroker based on the comon 350 block, producing 470hp a similar big block stroker would be a 496, this gives you a 113 more cubic inches, if both engines make about the same 1.23 hp per cubic inch that small block makes the big block will make about 608hp but the car would weight aproximately 120 lbs more, yet the small block with 470hp is pushing 7.44 lbs for each hp, the big block combo even thought its 120 lbs heavier(engine plus accessories) has only 5.95 lbs per pound to accellerate...........approximately a 20% advantage, now both engines can be made larger, or more powerfull but the ratio and potential advantages only get slanted even more in the bbc favor info/examples http://airflowresearch.com/articles/article69/A-P1.jpg http://airflowresearch.com/articles/article73/A-P1.jpg http://airflowresearch.com/articles/article71/A-P1.jpg http://airflowresearch.com/articles/article76/A-P1.jpg http://airflowresearch.com/articles/article52/A-P1.jpg

most kits and crate engines engines are rated at FLYWHEEL HP

this is interesting and probably a good deal compared to most kits I see, listed as a 500hp kit http://store.summitracing.com/default.as...p;x=35&y=12 TFS-K314-500-450 is the part number. Summit has it for $1750 I find this kits info mis-leading in that they don,t go into the short block requirements NECESSARY to make the combo work (youll need something like a 350-406 10.5:1 cpr shortblock) Im running a set of TRICKFLOW heads on my 11:1 cpr 383 and Im making just under 500hp (N/A)( before the nitrous) but thats because I sellected to build an engine with a cam designed to maximize the potential of the 200hp nitrous system Im running, not the (N/A) results, theres nothing wrong with those TRICKFLOW HEADS that a mild port and bowl cleanup won,t fix, infact after that minimal work the heads slighly outflowed the 195cc AFR heads out of the box flow figures Ive built several 383-406 sbc engines using CROWERS #00471 hydrolic roller cam http://www.crower.com/misc/cam_spec...=00471&x=28&y=4 and CRANES # 118551 solid roller cams http://www.cranecams.com/?show=brow...rtType=camshaft with 10.5-11:1 cpr that exceeded 500 N/A hp they require a 3.73-4.56 rear gear and a 3000rpm stall converter, plus other mods to work correctly theres many other combos that will get you a 500hp sbc, and you don,t necessarily need a roller cam or those cylinder heads either, BRODIX,AFR,DART PRO 1 and several hundred cams can get you there example http://airflowresearch.com/articles/article85/A-P1.htm http://airflowresearch.com/articles/article09/A9-P1.htm http://airflowresearch.com/articles/article14/A14-P1.htm http://airflowresearch.com/articles/article94/A-P1.htm http://airflowresearch.com/articles/article16/A16-P1.htm http://airflowresearch.com/articles/article31/A-P1.htm http://airflowresearch.com/articles.htm then look in / SB Chevy Articles/AFR Article Archive

I can,t help it! Im going to make you feel worse!!!! my CORVETTE weights 3429lbs with ME in it! and WHILE I won,t give you exact info, that "with ME in it!" part is significant! (at OVER 250 lbs)(Im 6'3")

jmortensen I think your missing a good option by not looking SERIOUSLY at FLORIDA, It s the state I sellected to live in, for several reasons its a state with NO STATE TAXES. no cold winters and average temp year round is in the 90F-60F range over most of the state most of the year, hurricanes are not the huge concern some make them out to be PROVIDED YOU SELLECT A WELL BUILT HOME WELL INLAND, AWAY FROM THE COASTAL AREAS and in the UPPER MID state areas. think ocala, lake wales,sebring and surrounding areas theres a reasonable 6%-6.5% sales tax (depends on area/city) its growing so theres LOTS of job options, land and house prices vary wildly over the state but most of the mid to upper state is fairly reasonable, Id look in the areas north of orlando-to- tallahassee area careful shopping should allow you to find a home on 1-5 acres in your price range and youll be within reasonable driving range of several larger cities and famous race tracks like daytona,sebring,etc. while maintaining a more rural life style , and cost of living, yet decent traffic and good job opertunities http://www.househunt.com/florida/ then theres the added benifit that house prices/land cost is moving up, so almost anything you buy will aprreciate in resale value allowing you a good proffit if and when you move

"5140 or 4340 ? Get the Facts and End the Confusion." Before we can answer the question "which metal do I need in my crankshaft". I think we need to take a moment and review just what each metal is made of and what are the best applications for each. In the following discussion we will see the strengths and weaknesses of each and with this information we will be able to decide which Crankshaft material will best fit our needs. Starting with the basics, metals containing primarily iron are classified as "ferrous metals". They range from pure iron through exotic high-alloy steels. Stock Crankshafts are made from cast iron, a metallic iron with more than 2 percent dissolved carbon. One preferred variation, ductile or nodular iron has all its carbon contained in the form of tiny spherical graphite nodules uniformly dispersed throughout the metal's matrix. This makes the material more ductile (deformable rather than brittle) and eases casting and machining. Even the best cast iron has only limited tensile strength. Increasing ductility, hardness, malleability and fatigue resistance requires removing most carbon and at the high end, alloying iron with other elements, creating "steel" an iron with less than 2 percent carbon The most basic form of this is carbon steel, which contains up to 1.7 percent carbon and minimal additional alloying elements. Carbon steels are designated by a four digit number. The first two digits indicate the basic type, and the last two digits indicate the approximate midpoint of the carbon content. The "10" ID's these alloys as non-resulfurized carbon steel with some manganese (popularly called medium-carbon or mild steel). The second two digits the "45" or "53" means the steel contains about 0.45 or 0.53 percent carbon respectively. Stock forged OEM cranks are usually made from 1045 or 1053 steel. There are exceptions to this, some 350 high performance steel cranks in the sixties were made from 5140 and some manufactures offer 5140 or 4340 in their high performance aftermarket catalogs. From these mild OEM steels the next step up is Alloy steel. Alloy steels allow for more variations depending on the alloying materials. Over time as manufacturing techniques improved and chemical knowledge grew., metallurgist developed whole families of alloy steels, custom-tailored to make metals stronger, lighter, more durable, more ductile, and harder. Alloy steels are also identified by a four-digit number, with the first two digits indicating the major alloying element or elements, with the last two digits indicating the approximate midpoint of the carbon range. We will now examine the four most common groups of steel, we will examine their best uses and hopefully come up with a buying criteria for making a decision on our crankshaft purchase. We want our purchase to be based on knowledge of the product and its intended use. 4130 The best known chrome-moly steel. It is a high-strength/high-stress alloy when produced in thin sections (sheet metal and tubing). But 4130 possesses very poor deep heat-treating characteristics which make it a bad choice for machined or forged parts. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4140 A deep-hardening chrome-moly steel , it forges well and has good impact resistance, fatigue strength and general all around toughness. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4340 A nickel-chrome-moly steel, this alloy is used to make premium cranks.4340 has good tensile strength, toughness, and fatigue resistance. Modified 4340 alloys with vanadium and more silicon can make this already good alloy even tougher and more fatigue-resistant. The main drawback is cost. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5140 This chromium alloy increases tensile strength, hardness, toughness, and wear-resistance over carbon steel. It has the same basic elements of 4340 and is made with the same process but is more affordable. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So what can we conclude from this short primer. Our first conclusion is that we don't want to purchase a crank made from 4130. The lack of deep heat treating properties makes it unacceptable for most performance applications. That leaves us with 5140 and 4340. Of the two we feel 5140 is the crankshaft material that suits most clients needs. Reason #1, based on feedback from clients using our cranks the 5140 crankshaft lasts as long as the 4340 when used in all but the most extreme racing conditions. For applications where the engine is putting out 800hp or less and turning 8,000rpm or less, 5140 is the right choice. Reason #2, in engine building you save money where ever you can, if it doesn't effect the performance or durability of the engine and our 5140 crankshafts are priced 30-40% below 4340 crankshafts in cost. short answer,forged is best, cast steel is significantly stronger than plain cast iron and can be slightly more flexable, unfortunately, as the quality gets better the cost gets higher, and your connecting rods are FAR more likely to fail than the crank in most engine combos below about 6500rpm http://machinistinfo.com/types_of_cast_iron.htm http://www.key-to-steel.com/Articles/Art1.htm http://www.seaportsteel.com/TechHeat.htm http://crankshaftspecialist.net/cryogenics.html http://carcraft.com/techarticles/116_0308_crankshafts_how_to/index1.html

yeah, a TUNE UP , replacing the cap,rotor,plugs and adjusting the carb float levels and acellerator pump shot, voluum, to the max setting should improve things, doiing a valve adjustment,and check the ignition timing, if its not something silly like an open vacuum line you forgot to hook up or the distrib not advancing correctly, or an electrical problem once those check out, Id advise a compression test is run and you check the voltage the ignition receives plug gap should be about .045 max, and check the plug wires and FIRING order, its abserd but I frequently see plug wires run to the wrong plugs, and the owner says that is never run correctly since the last tune up?????(which is usually about two days ago, before they bring it by

thats a very interesting project! you gotta admire the skill it takes to build a car like that!

Check this out on Ebay. #4606674123 yeah! SANITY CHECK! spend $4150 on $90 worth of tools because they were once in a Ferraris trunk and come in a nice leather case :rofl: there must be some REALLY rich, STUPID people, besides if you can AFFORD to spend $4150 on that $90 worth of tools and are really that dumb, you can afford to import some skilled italian Ferrari mechanic to live in the apartment over your 18 car garage and SERVICE the car anyway (not to mention your TROPHY WIFE when your out golfing) :smirk: