Rebuild gets underway at last.....

[Jorrocks]

Engine rebuild gets underway at last, block before cleaning:

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And after derusting and hot tanking:

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[Jorrocks]

Block deburred, crack tested, and sonic tested. New main studs fitted in order to measure bearing clearances.

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[Grant]

Lovely Jubbly Eric.. & may I ask who's doing the work? .. ie the hot tanking and deburring etc Eric? .. they look so cool when they are cleaned like this,.. I wonder what's in the Hot Tank to prevent it going rusty when they remove it from the solution?
Bloody Exciting for you Eric, well done

[Jorrocks]

Hey Grant,

The hot tanking was done by SPL in Dudley, they’re the company that does bodyshell dipping. They spray some kind of temporary rust inhibitor after the treatment. It was very impressive, there’s not a spec of rust on the block, inside or out.

I did the deburring. VERY carefully near the lifter bores and main cap registers! I thought I’d cleaned up most of the exterior, but once the paint was off quite a lot more casting flash and jagged edges came to light so that’ll need another going over before final painting. I also opened out the oil passages from the top of the main saddles to the lifter gallery to 9/32” except number 4 which was opened to 5/16”.

The machining work and short block assembly is being done by a shop at Silverstone that builds historic race V8 motors as well as some very serious drag cars.

[Jorrocks]

Stainless headers back from Zircotec. This is their most efficient thermal barrier coating, Performance White. I know it looks a bit naff but I suspect it’ll tone down somewhat with use!

Before:

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After:

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Close up:

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[Chris_R]

I also opened out the oil passages from the top of the main saddles to the lifter gallery to 9/32” except number 4 which was opened to 5/16”.

Presumably by doing this you intend to allow more oil to flow in this direction. Will that not deprive oil flow to the crankshaft and bearings. There is a balance between oil flow to the different parts of the engine that should be maintained.

[Dino Fritz]

I thought the same as you Chris, so I went back and looked at this and I think (???) that there are some more oiling modifications that we might not be aware of that may compensate for drilling this hole larger.

Back in the 90's, in the "Mopar Speed Secrets" book, they recommend increasing the diameter of the 440 internal oil pickup from 3/8 to 1/2 inch (as per the hemi blocks), and increasing the diameter of the oil gallery from the pickup to the oil pump feed as well. I did this on my engine block back then (and it wasn't easy to find a machine shop to do this at the time), and I dug up my photos to compare it to Jorrocks engine block, and it looks like his block has the same modification. Therefore, this modification, with the addition of a high volume oil pump, may compensate for the larger hole that he drilled.

Nowadays, it appears that this modification is more commonplace (440 Source sell prebuilt 1/2 inch oil pickups for 440's), and I can only imagine that with the passage of time, more information has been gleaned from the engines to identify further weak points which can be improved.

Jorrocks - what's the reason for the larger oil passages on the top of the main saddles?

Cheers, Dino

[RockyUSA]

Certainly the engine oiling configuration is different, but....

On the mighty Ford 351 Cleveland (which does not have priority oiling to the main bearings) the recommendations are to RESTRICT oiling to the lifter bores by various techniques, including:

* Restrictors in the feed from the mains to the lifter
* Lifter Bore Bushings with defined orifice sizes
* Restricted Pushrods
* Restricted Hydraulic Lifters

(Not all the mods are required / implemented in the same motor)

Typically - 351Cs have had oiling issues with the main bearings, and the goal is to keep good flow / pressure to the lower end of the block. The real issue is the connection of the lifter bores to the oiling system - each lifter bore has a hole ~1/2" in diameter. The lifter body is supposed to restrict this, but if you have a little wear on 16 1/2 in holes, you can imagine the loss in pressure that can occur, and this starves the main bearings for oil.

Again - different motors, with different oiling system designs, but it's an interesting contrast.

Rocky

[Jorrocks]

The oiling modifications are based on work done by Herb McCandless, a big Mopar tuner. They’re detailed in Andy Finkdeiner’s “Max performance Mopar big blocks” book, and I quote:

“....on a production block, the first things to look at in the oiling system are the passages that feed oil from the main gallery down to the main bearings. Sometimes the factory drilling process wasn’t very good and these holes are undersized or rough inside, a reamer can be run down these holes to open them up to 9/32 inch.... If the valvetrain is going to be oiled via the number four cam journal, then it is usually a good idea to open up the oil passage from the main oil gallery to the number four main bearing to a full 5/16 inch diameter. The number four main bearing and the rod journals tend to be the first ones to suffer damage from any sort of lubrication failure”

I have had the oil pick-up boss redrilled to 1/2 inch from 3/8 inch so that I can use a ‘Hemi style’ pickup, also I’ve radiused the 90 degree turn from the oil pump mounting pad, where the passage is drilled into the block that feeds the pick-up, allegedly this means the oil can "turn" with out getting all turbulent, not sure about that, but it can’t do any harm!

All this is combined with a high volume oil pump with an externally adjustable pressure regulator.

[Jorrocks]

The engine is coming along, the block has been decked and bored, and the rotating assembly has been balanced and is all now laid out on the bench for the first test assembly. Slight problem with the cam bearing housings in that some of them are undersize by around 2 thou. I’ve been advised not to line bore the cam tunnel, and that a safer solution is instead to have the cam journals turned down.

[Jorrocks]

Nearly there now, just waiting for powder coating of the inlet manifold and the water pump housing.
Pushrods still to be fitted, then it’s on to the dyno for setting up / running in.

Basic spec as follows;
Molnar 4.150” stroker crank and rods.
Forged 4032 JE SRP dished pistons.
Crane hydraulic roller cam HR222 & Crane roller lifters.
Trickflow 240 CNC ported heads with Hughes 1:6 ratio rockers.

A couple of pics of developments so far:

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View of CNC ported intake ports:

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[Chris_R]

Curious that the intake ports are not smooth. I thought polished inlet ports allowed the fuel/air mix to pass more easily and improved performance.

[Jorrocks]

My bike engine builder reckoned it was better to leave finish on the intake side a bit rough to promote a swirl effect on the fuel/air mixture.
The finish on these heads though is somewhat smoother than it looks in the photos

[bkbridges]

Very nice build! I really like your parts selection. It should make some very nice power!
RE: oiling. The 1/2" Hemi pickup mods are a period improvement to retain oil at the back of the crank at high RPM. While this modification helps, it is by no means a total solution. I know as I picture windowed my Dick Landy built 440 in my old 70 Challenger quite a while back due to excessive RPMs (7k), it had the mod. The best solution is to run an external pickup directly to the pump from the pan. There are a few kits out now that make this a lot easier than it used to be. The road race baffled pan combined with a good windage tray will also help oiling by keeping more of it in the sump and not winding up on the crank. I noticed a decided improvement in pressure at speed when I replaced the stock pan with the road race unit from Milodon and a good scraper style windage tray. Another solution (mine) is to rev limit at 5700rpm until I get the external pickup installed. Id like to keep the original block together for the duration.
Bruce

[Jorrocks]

Bruce,
Some of the parts are based on your advice, namely the cam and the oil pan / windage tray! We are expecting 590bhp and torque not much adrift of that number. It should produce this at a fair bit less than 6000 rpm so no worries about it grenading itself (I hope.....).
Do you have any thoughts about the head gasket coolant slots and whether or not to enlarge them to the old Felpro dims of .940 x .455? The guy building the engine is relaxed about using standard gaskets, I’m a bit twitchy about it! Your thoughts would be much appreciated.
Eric.