January 2010 Project Begins (Raspberry)

[3X00-Modified]

I haven't got the AL-3 bearings yet, those are coming tuesday I think. I got the rest of them on saturday and ALMOST starting putting the motor together before I said I'm going to wait and ask a shop about balancing... THEN I'll put it together.

I would love to run 6500rpm without having to worry about a thing.

Here's what I got going on so far with the insight of Dave on 60*

This is a different port, but this is basically what I had done before when i gasket matched...




This is what I have now.





Still gotta work it a bit more but for the most part this port is about done.

[Money pit Beretta]

I like it 3X00. About how long did it take you to do it?
I know you don't need this but I found a site with some good info.
http://www.gofastnews.com/board/technic ... uding.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
I'm going to read everything when I find the time. It's big and well done. There are other articles too.

[3X00-Modified]

took me about an hour to do that one and thats mostly because it was my first and I was figuring out which ways i need to attack it and the best method.

[Money pit Beretta]

That's good, there is no need to rush and screw something up. What did you use again?

[3X00-Modified]

That was a high speed conical dremel cutter, I borrowed 5 different carbide burr's from a friend at work yesterday, so hopefully with those I'll have more angles and more ways to get to areas I can almost not reach with my current tool... But yes I just used a dremel with one of the flexible attachments so I can get in the port.

[Money pit Beretta]

Did you just use your fingers to support the shaft?

[3X00-Modified]

the dremel shaft? I'm not sure what your asking...

[Money pit Beretta]

Yeah the flex shaft. I used one to clean the rust from under the dash of my old Camaro. They can get pretty crazy if not supported. So, my guess is that you would say an air powered die grinder would be too much for this kind of work(with a flex shaft).
Did you get a chance to read anything on that link?

[IsaacHayes]

Air grinder will stall out, especially if you have a pressure regulator. Dremel can catch and skip across things. That's why when I ported my intakes I put like 10 layers of masking tape across the gasket surfaces cause it would skip and go flying everywhere. I used both dremel and air die grinder as the air grinder would last 7 secs before the tank was empty... lol I was using stones though I didn't have any high dollar carbide cutters.

[Money pit Beretta]

I have a good size tank on mine and could run two die grinders at the same time with wheels or 3M pads on. I would have to stop and let it catch up after about 10min. Do you have a link to pics of what you did Isaac?

[3X00-Modified]

I just used my hands yes... and I just ran the tool slow... that way it doesn't jump... Technique...

I read some of that link, that page was about shrouding, and I plan on looking at that, but since we have splayed valves and very small combustion chambers our shrouding is limited and typically no way to fix since most is done by the cylinder.

You can definitely open up the top half of the CC though, or at least direct it better.

This is what mine looked like when they went together.



As you can see the valve is close to the chamber, but its not very deep in there, so you can't de-shroud much... also if using a 3400 headgasket for use on a 3400 block, the fire ring is REALLY close to the chamber edges, so its not recommended to take them down or chamfer them much at all.

[Barry]

What's up with the balancing? I'm curious to see how everything is balanced from gm

[3X00-Modified]

Bottom line my cousin asked if I had it balanced, I was like um no, just factory GM... He said I should get it done if I'm turning high RPM's and that it should help over the factory balance... Its the same as doing a bore and hone then check to make sure each and every bore matches the piston... GM doesn't do that when building, that's why some motors tap worse than others.

[Money pit Beretta]

Yeah I really like 3400 heads, they are so much better than the old SBC heads. There is nothing that can be done about the shrouding though. There is another good article about port size if you look at #7.
A good line hone and line bore would be a great idea. GM use to match the piston to the bore and they quit doing that to save money. In the SBC they also use to use different size bearings. They did that so they didn't have to line hone the journals. Many people would check only one size and buy that size, only to spin some later.
A tap? Mine sounds like a rod knocking! My friend read somewhere that if you use lighter weight oil the engine will stop knocking when it's cold(0w30). He is using some Castrol Edge now and said that it stopped(it's 5w30 though). He was using Mobil 1. I hear that they have gone down hill after a buy out.
How much is the balance going to cost?

[3X00-Modified]

Just got off the phone... MUCH more than I'm willing to spend so she's going back together as is...

He said it's about 300 rock bottom price... that's for a basic balance, issues with that is they need to be sure the rods have a perfectly round end to check weight with... some aren't, so they may need to oversize them to be able to weigh them properly... which in the end means my bearings are useless... Also pistons have to be off the rods... Since stock is not a floating piston and a pressed in one, it could do one of two things, wreck the pin bore in the piston and it may or may not re-seat well, OR it could physically break the piston when removing it.

All those variables weighed out, I can't afford to do that this year, so its just getting a good cleaning and re-assy with the Clevite bearings. They way I look at it is she held up to multiple spins of 6750 RPM and NEVER lunched a bearing on the whole lower end, so Odds are its not that far off, and as he said on the phone, its hard to even tell if it benefits you much when starting with an assy that may have been closely matched to begin with. If I were starting off with a bunch of miss matched stuff, then yes maybe it would be a better idea to do that.

5w30 is the recommended weight for these motors... I also have used 0w30 when drag-racing...