My 331... she's alive !!!!

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Actually it wasnt that loud in the garage... i stunk of exhaust like a mofo though...was a tad stoned....:D

Those other vids are from my GT40 set-up, thats the motor I sold.. Thumper heads, steeda 19, GT40.

My new motor is the Eddy RPM....

Those are Mac LTs I had for 8 years or so and sent out to get coated as they looked like ass and I wanted things a tad cooler under the hood.. $ 220.00 shipped, coated in & out. they look as nice as the day they came after running and the temps are cooler under the hood.. I'm gonna send the header to my bike to get coated this Winter...

Ceramic Coating
 
Hit 200 miles as the weathers been junk round here lately and was in Cancun for some R&R....:D

Went for a ride the other night and got some popping again...:( came home pulled a plug and didnt look all that great so I upped the FP to 41 and pulled some timing out to...dropped it back to 12. Took it out and hell ya it def was looking for more fuel and the dreaded lean pop is gone.
Got a small coolant leak somewhere out back of the pass side of the motor. I get smoke rolling out from under the cowl then it goes away...nothing on the garage floor either??? I did notice I had a 25 lb rad cap on so I swapped a 16 lb'r on today. Never did re-tq the heads or intake but I never did that before on HCI swaps and never an issue. So the piss leak has me thinking..:rolleyes:
I did get boned on my t/stat though....new 180 +/- 2 deg unit and the freaking thing appears stuck open... I can drive near 8 miles before it even hits 170 deg... first freaking time for that one.. sucks I gotta crack that loose..

Considering I'm running the stock puter the car runs the balls with crisp power all around, no start, stop issues and runs sweet down the road, cam doesn't like the low RPMs to much as it'll buck a tad but oh well..I'm pretty happy overall. Def has a bad azz sound cause when I get into it peeps turn right around for a look...:nice:
 
Won't the computer override any small changes made fuel pressure wise in closed loop? I can see how it'd work in open loop.

Or is that adjustment going to be outside of the window the computer can change it?


I've never messed with fuel pressure tuning so just asking.
 
Cantonoilpan_1_1.jpg

Congrats Andy -

This shot is so sweet, makes you wonder if you should leave it on the stand and not hid it in the engine compartment. :D

Ed
 
Well I got 232 miles and it broke on me... :(

Background info..... Came home Saturday after going to work... doing some 5k shifts and all was well and the motor was running sweet. I did pop the hood and give a listen as I know I had what sounded like some rocker noise. car was at idle and i was listening and sounded like my tensioner was knocking on the stop or something??? I went in for lunch and told my wife I had to get the stethescope out and give it a listen as something was up.

My son came over and I grabbed him to help as I been seeing smoke at start up and it was cool enuf to see what gives at start up. I pulled # 7 as it seemed the smoke was coming from this cyl. Plug was kinda Black in the center, sorta like a rich condition?? No signs of being washed by coolant as I expected to see?? Pulled # 1 for comparsion and it was way clean...polar opposite of 7.
I pulled the coil and told my son to put his finger over 7 and i'll crank and see what comes out...figured something coolant wise might show up... nada comes out. I throw both plugs back in and tell him to watch smoke around the back as it starts....crank the motor and it runs for like 10 seconds and I hear a "clunk" and kill it...W.T.F. is going one here???? Pulled the breather on the drivers side and stick my finger in there and #2 rocker is crazy loose and I can see a broken rocker stud....:nonono: stick a magnet in and fished the nut right out. Broke exactly at the bottom of the nut...

Can't believe I was lucky enuf to be in my driveway idling and this happens....if it had happened on the way home??? I can only imagine the outcome...shifting at 5k and it let's go.... :mad:

To say I'm depressed is an understatement... I really took my time and triple checked everything in the valvetrain assy. Looking around I see this isn't uncommon and AFR heads and mine are an older version and the studs did have issues. Need to break it down and see if my PR lenght was off and was the culprit... but all looked good when setting up/measuring. I feel my error was not going back in to check the rockers after putting a few miles on it. The valvetrain didn't appear to be noisy but maybe it off??? Pisses me off just the same.

Going back to the #7 issue I was thinking maybe I have a head gasket leak at that cyl... I had the heads on the motor and tq'd to bout 55 lbs. I let them sit awhile that way and one day I decided to double chk my PV clearance and used that head. My feeling was I'd be ok to reuse as all looked well and I wasn't at full tq yet?? Seems odds as I removed that head? I did mark my o/flow tank and in 2 days it lost bout and inch of coolant so somethings up???

Luckily this isn't my daily driver and it not a huge problem. Building a motor like this with all the different issues that go with it is not to be taken lightly I guess. I'm torn between tearing the motor out again and putting it on a stand or just doing the rocker stud and storing it for a few years... I think I'm Mustang'd out for awhile.
We do this as a hobby and we do love it but the learnin curve is a bitch to say the least as many of us have seen our share of BS modding these... All in the name of more ponies I guess....:nonono:

afrstud1.jpg


afrstud.jpg
 
Don't pull the motor again :nono:

Just replace the one stud
or
Upgrade all of em if you wish

Which ever route you go with :shrug:

It ain't that big of a deal :Word:

Most important of all ;)
Get it on the road and have some fun with it :banana:

Grady
 
Thanks guys....

Grady... Ya I'll email Ed and see what's up with the studs. I did read around about AFR making longer ones. These look like I only got 7-8 threads and that was mentioned in the breaking of the studs.
Hopefully thats it and it'll be a simple fix and not geometry or a bind issue. Did come across the AFR number on longer studs... (PN# 134-7104)

ARP-134-7101 Rocker Arm Studs, High Performance, 3/8-24 in. Thread, 1.75 in.

I gotta something to get some air into the cyl's and see if I have a headgasket issue...thats the one that blows.... :mad:
 
That sucks dude. But what the hell are you doing doing 5K pulls on an engine with 200 miles on it. Kind of silly to drop all that money on a new engine and then ruining it by not break it in at all.

Kurt
 
That sucks dude. But what the hell are you doing doing 5K pulls on an engine with 200 miles on it. Kind of silly to drop all that money on a new engine and then ruining it by not break it in at all.

Kurt

Kurt... The shortblock I bought had like 4k on it. It was already good to go.

Tore it down tonite and it looks fine....only thing I found was one sliver of thread, otherwise it was pretty mint. Pushrod was fine with no signs of damage, pulled the intake and all was fine on that as well. The pattern on the valve tip makes me think the PR lenght is ok, its a tad wide at .080 or so but def centered. think there some room to improve but not feeling it was the cause. Ed setup the heads and the cam came from him so I wouldn't think I have a bind issue?? Maybe all of em should just be swapped out for peace of mind??

From what I read the studs AFR uses on Chevy heads are longer and can swap right over. I need to get a lenght on those compared to these. This set-up doesn't seem all that stout with only 3/8 thread engagement on the stud. Seems smaller nuts would be stronger than this??


studengagement_1_1.jpg


studlenght_1_1.jpg


brokenstud_1_1.jpg
 
Andy,

Air Flow Research will probably warranty the studs for you. Call them and talk to Jeremy. Tell him what happened and that you're "one of mine". ;)

Judging by the pictures, those studs have a small fillet radius at the jam nut area and those are the problematic ones. Newer studs have a much larger radius at the transition between the stud shank & the jam nut and should be about 3/16" longer at the thread area.

*Email follow up coming*

Ed