Heads and camshaft have arrived from Advanced Induction Cylinder Head Development.

Ai CNC TFS21 degree with XH432 alloy exhaust valves and Manley 221421-16 springs

..a mighty lift camshaft for the JeZus motor

63cc combustion chamber, 21 deg valve angle.

JeZus has arrived.

Hoisting into the 399 Race Shop.

Quickly I want to see the condition of the rod bearings.  They are perfect.

The crank rod journals are like new.

This is #1 piston. Pitted just above the top ring.

The center 3 billet splayed main caps help to keep the crankshaft steady.  Bolts were used instead of studs which is unusual but worked well in this case.  Stock bolts were used for #1 and #5

#2 piston is the only one with damage.

A photos of the crankshaft serial number.

The camshaft is only slightly worn.

The main bearings are all good.  #1 is the only bearing that has slight wear and a debris line.  I wish the bearings in my motor would hold up this well.

The only funny thing I see is the cavitation at the #5 thrust cap probably from the cap walking.  Maybe a stud would have prevented this?  The bearings look really good so why mess with it.

I like to take photos of the bottom of the cylinders to see things that my old naked eye cannot see.

A few bores to look at.

Yea there are some stains but that does not affect the ring seal.

This is cylinder #2 with the bad piston.

Big Block Chevy nose

For all to see...this is the Autoshop Racing Engines bob weight.  Unfortunately we will have a heavier piston/pin combination and so we will be adding mallory metal for the rebalance.  A heavy sturdy blower piston is worth the stress on the crank and rods up to a point.

Crower shaft rockers arrived.  Hard to find a better set for the money.  Stainless Steel.  Fit well under some, (not all), valve covers.

Just a mock up test fit.

Looks like the .150" offset will work for the pushrods.

Nice fit on the valve tip.

Bill Koustenis does the cylinder hone and cleaning.

Here we have JeZus home from the hone.

The block-head deck was shaved a tiny bit to make a good surface for MLS head gaskets.

NEW:  We decided to do a 1/2 fill on the block to minimize bore distortion.  The block is now at the machine shop (again).

New pistons arrived from Diamond to fit 4.040" bore.  Here I am weighing the old pistons/rings/pin and comparing to the new piston/rings/pin/etc.  This combo weighs a relatively light weight 615g

New piston from Diamond. 1.213 compression height, 35.3cc dish for 8.5:1 compression ratio, 500g super heavy duty.

Old pin on left = 137g.  New = 172g 

New pin locks are 3.0g total.  The old spiro-locks are 4.0g

New weights: Piston 500.0g, pin 172.0g, wire lock, 3.0g, rings 36g, oil rail support 7g, total 718.0g

The new piston with gas porting and hard anodize and pin bore polish.

35.3 cc dish

Time to do a 1/2 fill of Hard Blok.  Torque plate installed prior to measuring bore.  Possibly the bores will not distort.  If they do then it will go back to the machine shop for a hone job.

Now I make sure the block is level.

20 hours later the concrete is poured into the other side and cylinder head torqued.

After the 1/2-fill of concrete I checked all the bores for size distortion and all bores are round and at the same size as prior to block fill.  Now onward to main cap bearing clearance check.  Re-using all of the Clevite H bearings except at #1

0.0025"

#1 bearing was the only that was worn.

Clearance from .0021 to .0025"

Crankshaft installed and spinning freely.

Thrust at .009"

Time for a piston and rod mock-up.  No reason to believe things will not fit but the pistons are "custom".  I had to clearance inside the piston under the crown at the pin-boss to allow the rod to fit.  (photo later).

I found out why the rods wont fit.  The one on the left is a typical SBC 0.960" pin-end width.  The one on the right is atypical 1.015"

Under the pin boss area it is clearanced for the typical .960" rod and then tapers.

Here I clearanced out the taper.

Decided to go with new connecting rods.  Callies Ultra

The rod bearing only has my bore gauge marks.

Piston is .008" in the hole.

Old timing set is stretched.  It gives 2 deg. retarded.

New Cloyes hex-adjust set at zero.

Thicker timing set now requires more room.

Billet timing cover from TPIS.

Cometic MLS head gaskets, (.040")

Head studs cleaned and threads coated with RTV to keep water from seeping.

Head stud nuts torqued to 80ft-lb

Detail of the Advanced Induction heads. Someone wrote "ERE" on the exhaust valve.

More detail of the Ai heads.

Crower shaft rockers, (1.7:1 ratio).

Thick and Long Pushrods. (3/8" x 8.000")

8.100" long pushrod is a better fit than the 8.000"

Now I have the lift side rockers installed and valve lash set to .015" cold

Here is a view of the quick surface rusting of the Crower shaft stand.  The stands come slightly rusted out-of-the-box but I think it rusted more from exposure to the air. (time for a protective film of oil)

Here is a good look at the 3/8" diameter pushrods and the Crower stainless steel shaft rockers.

Hub is pressed on.

...A nice close up of the sturdy seal in the new timing cover.

Oil pump spun by my battery powered drill.

Intake manifold on loosely as a dust cover.

Now I'm ready to RTV the carb mainifold.  These are slightly used intake manifold gaskets.  I use them for dyno sessions.

Intake bolts torqued to 30ft-lb...slightly lower value than stock.  Borrowed ProForm valve covers.  These fit nicely over the shaft rockers.

Transporting to the Dynamometer.

Next in line behind this 632 BBC by Terry Samakow Racing Engines.

Eye candy....

...and more eye candy.