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Gratuitous Lack Of Moderation - A little stroker build

That wouldn't change the amount of room in his shop, and having more room in the shop wouldnt' do much to help production.

What he really needs is an assistant who can run errands, clean parts and handle shipping. We've been discussing some options.

That's hard for older guys that have been doing it themselves forever, but would helps alot IF they can get someone decent.


Anyways back tot he tech and pictures!
 
Since you have a aluminum head, I'm curious why you didn't go with studs?

Russ says if the rockers we're going to come on and off regularly he'd do studs but not necessarily for this motor.
 
Alright, finishing up the tech.

We got the 9.650 push rods in. At the last minute I decided to sell a friend the 1.6 adjustable roller rockers for his build and switch over to the 1.65:1 ratio fixed roller rockers. I get just a little more cam out of it and don't have to worry about adjusters.

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You'll notice with the profile change they will fit discreetly under a stock valve cover, too.
 
Before installing, Russ looks through each push rod to make sure they aren't blocked. Every now and then you get a little grease or a metal chip in one he says, 1-2 times a year, but enough to destroy a pushrod if you don't catch it.

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Once they are all cleared he rolls them on a flat surface just to make sure they are all strait. They always are he says, but it only takes a moment to check.

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They go in with yet a different assembly lube. If you're keeping score, he has used 6 on this motor so far.

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Drop them all in place.

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LOTS of lube.

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AAAAND yet a different lube on the top of the valves.

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Back to the peanut butter, because no studs.

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Set the first couple of rockers in

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Then tighten them down

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He twists the pushrod as he tightens the bolt down. He wants to feel the pushrod start to engage 1/4 to 3/4 of a turn away from the lifter bolt tightening up, to set preload on the lifter.

Halfway there.

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Russ says with the way the head is built the 3 and 4 pushrods get really close to the head, so he wants to inspect and make sure they aren't rubbing. If they are we'd have to clearance the head or go down to a 5/16 pushrod.

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They are close, but they don't touch. This is as close as they get.

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And then he does the rest (I didn't snap a photo)
 
Now the harmonic goes on. Even though he honed it, its still a very tight fit. He says he hones a couple thousands off because they often are TOO tight, and will go on binding and popping their way down the crank galling it up.

It went this far with a rubber mallet.

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And from here it requires the installer.

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That's as far as it can go without putting a spacer in to keep pushing it.

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Marking the keyway on the spacer for orientation later.

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After putting the tool back on and pressing it all the way down. This is bottomed out, and shows why the spacer is required to bottom the bolt out.

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For purely GLOMy reasons, I bought an ARP 12 point crank bolt. Its for a big block chevy but also fits our cars.

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Just a touch of blue locktite and crank it down.

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I spent the next hour installing ARP studs for the valve cover and oilpan.

It makes putting the gasket on a little easier and it looks nice, but it is primarily gratuitous and as it happens, a LOT of work. Russ had no problem with me doing it but refused to take part. ;)

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Set the gasket down

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We RTV'd under and over both ends where they can sometimes leak and pressed it down onto the studs.

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And then installed the oil pan.

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Basically the same operation for the valve cover but with less photos.

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Installed a block heater in the rear freeze plug, and then the rest of the freeze plugs.

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And that's it, A complete motor.

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Wrapped up, and ready to go to Stinkyfab waiting for an install.

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There will be some spiffy bolt on's going in with it, but I'll cover all of that in the Project Unicorn thread. At some point in the next week or so Russ intends to write up what this would have cost retail and I'll come back here with that info, for those who are curious, but it would be in the $8500-$9000 range. I'm happy that I didn't pay anywhere near that (i bought the parts myself, re-used some from 4643, and Russ hooked me up on machine work and labor).
 
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Was the HB spacer because of a stock 242 crank vs a Scat?
 
As far as I know the scat crank still requires it, but yes, that is why.

This is the crank out of 4643 which is a 4CW OEM crank that we just had ground and balanced, and re-used.
 
No, the Scat crank has the snout trimmed down for XJ applications.
 
I'm surprised they would do that. Well it's probably true most of them go to strokers, it stops them from being installed in the pre YJ 258 application
 
Something you guys might like: Harbor Freight sells a pretty good knockoff of the Greenlee hydraulic junction box knockout punch tool. It's got a 3/4-16 internal thread on the piston and it's a pull-type cylinder. You can very easily make adapters to use it to press on harmonic balancers, transmission gears, etc etc - anything that needs to go onto the end of a shaft with a puller thread cut into it *without* abusing the bearings the shaft is already suspended by. I just used some 3/4 threaded rod, 1/2 inch threaded rod, a random scrap of DOM, and a 1/2-20 and 3/4-20 nut welded back to back to install the fifth gear on my NV4500, and it'd work just as well for pulling balancers onto cranks quickly with no effort and no cranking on an installer tool.
 
Sorry I meant 258, but the heavy weight/counterweighted is a excellent choice for the "hammers" and anytime you have the horsepower to get on with the show! :worship:
 
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