Glory.

Timed, wired, oiled, sealed, and sexy!

A lil nip o' the mill

Rocker covers hit the intake.


Ah, the joys of having an adequately equipped machine shop under your roof....

added a PCV valve to the sucker too

Although it looks terrible....

Devilsh details

Uncanny how the head gaskets match the block color

Old habits die hard

Front cover nailed

Lifters preloaded

Intakes nailed, ZDDP and oil in!

Preoiling!

Good oiling up top.

A little pick-me-up

New awwwll pump meets a recently unclogged pickup.
They fit well together.

Just had to make sure there was room between the throws and the pickup, and the sump didnt bottom on the sucker either.

Modeling clay. The first guy who thought of this trick was not an engineer. He was smarter than an engineer.
(that's really not that smart)....

Plenty of room.
A little too much for my taste, but more room is better than not enough in this case.

Clearance, Clarence?

Wont be a problem.

And it has a decent contact pattern too.

Time to replace the checking springs with the real deal and start assembling the top end.

100 (degrees)

Upgraded the original cam thrust plate to a Mopar Performance thrust plate.

It has chain tension shoes on it.
It was a challenge to get it to work, but after my dumb ass realized the mounting holes were slotted, it worked like a charm.

Onward to degreeing the cam!

First, TDC was established for the 1 hole.

Then the cam was indicated off of another homemade dummy tappet and positioned to the correct tappet lift at the required crankshaft position.
In this case, 6 degrees ATDC @ .050 tappet lift on the intake lobe.
(You getting all this?)
Then the chain was strung. That was interesting. It was getting crowded in the build area, someone (who shall remain nameless) knocked the dial indicator off the block. And caught it with his boots.
Ninja.

 Then the intake is checked against max lift (.278" tappet lift) and then the intake closing event at .050" tappet travel in this case, 30 degrees ABDC.

The intake was perfect.

The exhaust side was then checked. An interesting thing- the exhaust was supposed to open at 43 degrees BBDC, but this one opened at 47 BBDC.
Closing event is spot on at 9 degrees BTDC.
Nothing I can do. Maybe its tolerance stack up from Crower. Either way, the exhaust event on this cam has four degrees more duration than advertised.
Exhaust max lift was spot on at .296 tappet lift.....

      I hope there's at least a hint of power in the exhaust note at idle.... we shall see.

The Tunnel of Love

Prepped cam by pressing in a new key and test fitting the driven gear over the snout.
Homemade cam handle threaded into cam.

Then the bearing journals were coated with assy lube, and yet another chemical was used, Lobe Grease.
Applied liberally to all lobes, except for 1 and 2 lobes just yet.

Cam bearings were lubed up.

And the cam was gingerly mated to the block.
Easy, peezy, japaneezy....

 

 The 1 and 2 lobes were lubed up before the last of the cam was sent home.

Time to degree the bad boy.