HELICOILS 555BBC BUILD

grumpyvette

Administrator
Staff member
This seems to be best '540 BBC' build forum on the net that I can find so what better place is there to add another one. I was led to this site in a search for some info on my 555" one day and have been stuck to it ever since. I am not a Chevelle owner but it seems many are not either. I will post the progresss of my 555" build going together, my dyno results, and then the track times in the car, which BTW is early shoebox Nova.

I have been acquiring parts for several years now for this and many are left over from a blown alcohol 509 BBC effort for a rear engine dragster that I have since sold. I am a little more liberal than most when it comes to what I can street drive. My car does not have P.S. or P.B. and is quite a bit lighter than many so I can get by with some more radical parts, at least IMO. The goal is mid 9's on motor and mid 8's on the N20.

I will try to add lots of pics of my progress starting with these.

Comments or suggestions welcome.

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I have some more pics to add. First step was a trial fit of all the components so I wouldn't run into any surprises through the process.
I had a friend bush the lifters and size them to .9045" with his BHJ fixture, no pics of that process taken as it was outside the shop.
Step 1 was size the cylinders so the pistons would fit.
I bored the block to 4.556" and honed it with the ARP studs torqued to 80ft. lbs with Felpro MLS gaskets and some huey alumunium torque plates.
Bore is 4.560" for this build.
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Step 2 was line hone the mains as they were .0007" tight

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I sized the small ends of the rods to get .001" pin to rod clearance, they came at .0007" out of the box.

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A few more pics of a preliminary mock up.
Miles of rotating clearance in the block. No grinding necessary. Crank e/p was .007". Piston to deck was .004" after square decking the block .015". Looking for a quench of about .045"

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I installed the Dart 360's to check P to V and rocker geometry, yes I said 360cc heads will be used as they were one of the original items from the blown alcohol build. These are older castings from 1999, but Ron's Porting in St. Louis did them up very nice. Flow numbers on these are better than the current Pro 1 355 CNC models. I will post them later when I have the sheets in front of me. They are BIG, but I have light car and plan to spray a decent amount, I don't think they will hamper my goals, NA or on the bottle.

I have several cams to chose from that I will mention specs on later, still trying to decide what to use. I am using T&D rockers with a 1.8/1.75 combo which will put me at a 'net' lift of approxiamtely .800". I did say my idea of a street driven engine was little different than some didn't I? This is just going to be a toy with most of the emphasis placed on performance, believe it or not, with a budget in mind. I didn't have the luxury to go and buy the latest, greatest heads or build a bigger inch engine on a wim, I have had many of these parts for many years now and it is what it is. I have decided to build this 555" 'pump gas' effort engine.

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All in all, everything fits pretty well. I need to clearnace the pushrod holes in the heads to run the 7/16" pushrod tubes, set the rocker stand heights after deciding on the camshaft and do some other little massaging but not as bad as I expected.
 
After checking mock up and making notes I was able to dis-assemble and begin the balancing process. Before that I did a little de-burring on the pistons and checked the crank sizes.



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The billet I-beam Oliver rods are somewhat heavy so the crank needed wieght on both ends to internal balance. Quite a little job for a 1600.00 crank.
The crank needed a 3/4" piece of Mallory installed in the front and the back of the crank.


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Here is where things get a little complicated for me in my head. Camshafts! I understand them fine, the problem is that there are too many options unless you know of a tried and true, proven combo. Even dyno numbers can be misleading to performance numbers in the car. This is the reason I currently have 3 for this engine. SO after doing homework on the subject for sometime I have 3 to choose from that I can't seem to make up my mind about.

Early on I had thought about MAX NA HP only,then as time lingered on and I mini-tubbed the car I decided i was going to run some N20 and then as more time went on I decided I want to go in the 8's again, but this time with something I can drive around a bit. I realized this would take a decent amount of N20. Not wanting to sacrifice much NA performance I can't decide if a dedicated N20 grind cam is for me, so I have a compromise cam as I like to call it.

So here are the 3 cams I have. There is one listed that after searching around on this site reading multiple different threads I have found some others using a variation of. Can't recall names right now, I believe John (69 Chev truck), with a much milder head combo hit a little over 800 HPNA on Larry Meaux's dyno and then there was another recently I just read about....A white 70 SS running 6.20's @ 109 1/8th and 10.01 @ 136 MPH 1/4 at 3750llbs. So this first cam seems to work pretty well and seems it would hit my initial goals. Weird thing is I got this cam back in late 2006 as a custom grind from Jay and it seems it works well for many with street driving 540 or bigger BBC's

(Goals at bottom of page)

It is a grind from Jay Allen. Specs are as follows.

295/310 duration @ .020"
265/280 duration @ .050"
189/201 duration @ .200"
lsa 109
icl 107
.821/.752 gross lift
Peak HP @ 6200, shift @ 6800 RPM

This was my first thought about a max NA power cam.

The second thought was a N20 dedicated grind.
This is one that a reliable source at Comp Cams spec'd for me and my combo.
This is a 4/7 swap version.
309/330 duration .020"
276/292 duration .050"
190/196 duration .200"
lsa 115
icl 112
.786/735 gross lift
Lobe masters are 4268 (int) and 1484 (exh)

The third and most recent cam is one from UDHarold (the man)
I call it the compromise. This is also a 4/7 swap.
302/316 duration .020"
274/288 duration .050"
199/211 duration .200"
lsa 112
icl 108
.817/.795

My heads flow the following air with no intake installed.
@.200" 185/142
@.300" 260/183
@.400" 321/214
@.500" 357/251
@.600" 389/282
@.700" 406/298
@.800" 420/307
@.850" 426/314
@.900" 429/320

The rest of my combo is

555" BBC
10.6:1 comp ratio
Super Victor + 1" spacer (ported)
2 1/8" to 2 1/4" stepped headers 4" collector
1050 cfm Dominator or a 1290 cfm Pro Systems Nitrous Pro IV Dominator
RPM 7000-7500 on N20

Car is 3300lbs give or take 50#. 28" x 10.5" MT ET Drag with ladder bars/coil overs and a decent chassis. 4:11 gear. I currently have a PG, but am wanting to use a TH400, maybe even the Rossler 2.10 version. Converter is yet to be decided as I will have my dyno results before deciding, but most likely something in the 4500 range MAX. I am looking at a 300HP hit between two nozzle systems to avoid breaking the tires loose.


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I was able to get some more work done this week. After all the mock up work was done and I was able to wash all the parts I am finally ready for assembly, at least I hope I am. After getting the block cleaned up, re-painted, and the cam bearings installed I was ready to size up the mains. I ended up splitting two main bearing sets, a std. and a .001" under to get my clearances between .0028" and .003". The Federal Mogul bearings always run a bit loose and the Callies crank was sized on the small side, hence the reason for the .001" undersize bearing half.
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Once the crank was in and torqued up to 100 ft. lbs I went onto the rods to do the same thing. The Oliver Billet rods were dead on size on the big end and required no finish honing, except on the small end to get my pin clearance where I wanted it for this engine, which was .001".

I ended up doing the same thing as I did on the mains to get my clearance at .0029" on the rods. A Federal Mogul 8-7200CH std. and a 8-7200CH1 did the trick.


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This was the clearance with a set of .001" undersize rod bearing installed
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used a set of Hellfire std. tension 1/16", 1/16", 3/16" std. tension oil rings and filed them to give me a .030" Top ring gap and a .029" Second gap. Afterwards I assembled all the rods and pistons with the oil ring groove spacers.


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After getting all the rods and pistons put together and installed into the block a went on to stretch the rod bolts. The Oliver I-beam rods use an ARP/Oliver 7/16" WSB bolt which needs to be stretched .0053"-.0058"

I used the torque angle method, 30ft. lbs plus 40 degrees and I was able to hit .0053"-.0055" consistently. For grins I check this with a torque wrench and it was between 91-93 ft. lbs.

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Getting closer to having to make the dreaded camshaft decision......I decided to do some work on the heads. The valve and port work was all done over 5 years ago and between mocking the heads up in the car a half of dozen times and moving them all over the place there were some scratches in the decks that needed attention, so I was going to have to surface them, but before that final step they needed some other work for this application.

The heads needed to be machined for the small valve guide seals since originally the intended use was for a blown alcohol engine where typically seals aren't used. Since these never got machined after the tripple springs were installed, the guide bosses needed to be cut down. With a tripple spring there isn't alot of room for a seal. I am using a metal band type seal from a 3.8L Ford from the mid 90's. This seal had in i.d. of .488" and I only had a .500" guide cutter, they ended up fitting really well. After a little cross referencing I found this seal to be the same Performance seal Felpro sells along with Comp Cams for tripple spring applications, go figure. You can get them at Advanced Auto in a pinch if necessary. They all come from the same supplier, KOK.

I also decided to install helicoils in all of my header bolt holes. There is nothing more I hate than a stripped aluminum thread, especially when the piece is in service. I did this while I had the head in the VGS cutting the guide bosses for seals.

Finally, the heads needed the pushrod holes massaged for the BIG 7/16" pushrods I plan to run. My high rocker ratio 1.8/1.75 only aggravates the situation. I also did this in the VGS, since set-up time in the mill would have taken forever with all the different canted angles. I used a carbide end mill with a spherical tip as a core drill, kinda crude but it served the purpose and beat the hell out of doing them by hand with a carbide burr and air grinder

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heres a different 555 BIG BLOCK BUILD posted info from kjett
555
Custom Diamond Pistons (annodized) 11:1 compression
Brodix BB3 Extra Oval heads prepared by Tom Vigue 3V/Gray Motorsports
Lunati Pro Mod rods +400 (6.535" rods)
Callies crank (4.375" stroke)
GM Bowtie Race Block with splayed mains
Lifter bores honed/bushed Jesel .947 lifters
Jesel shaft rockers 1:9 IN 1:8 EX
Manton 7/16 push rods
Cam Motion solid roller .919 in .874 ex duration 268/282@ .050 114 LSA (stick car)
Custom Hogan sheet metal intake front entry
Accufab 1,600 CFM monoblade throttle body
Precision 83lb injectors
Melling pump
Custom Stefs aluminum pan


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Good thing that motor has a Callies crank and Lunati rods! They don't say what the stroke is, but assuming a 4.25" stroke, the means piston speed is 4958 ft/min and at the end of the run it moving 5171 ft/min while turning 7300 RPM. It takes some quality materials at that level of stress.



I have no idea what a piston weighs when its a 4.25" bore, but assuming it's 500 grams.......then it weighs over 5200 lbs when it gets yanked from over 93 mph to a dead stop and accelerates to 93 mph going the other direction in 4.25 inches at 7000 RPM. See graphic below....all I can say is BIG WOW !!!

Download and calculate your piston stresses with an Excel spreadsheet here:

viewtopic.php?f=99&t=6636



 

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HERES A 565 BIG BLOCK CHEVY pump gas ENGINE build I FOUND POSTED ELSEWARE
I want in on the pump gas builds..

Customer was hoping we could get 800HP from it. Final results are 829HP @ 6700RPM and 700# @ 5700 RPM. Very flat torque curve from 5100-6000 RPM. here are the specs on the engine:

BBC 565 by Pascal at L&L Racing Engines
Diamond custom 10.5 piston with 1/16 standard tension rings
DART 325cc heads custom ported by SRH
Edelbrock Super Victor intake with plenum mod by SRH
CompCam/LLRE custom camshaft
277* - 294* @ 050
0.825" - 0.785"
Installed at 110* on a 112LSA
Stainless Steel 1.7" stud rockers
Quick Fuel 1050CFM dominator
R&M anti-reversion spacer combo
34* timing
Too big headers with 2 3/8"-2 1/2" with 4"collectors (dyno headers)


Car weighs 3500lbs and has run career best of 9.67@140

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heres a bbc build id be more familiar with, AND YES I THINK THIS IS DARN IMPRESSIVE, I'VE USED SEVERAL SETS OF TRICK FLOW BIG BLOCK HEADS, OVER THE YEARS, AND ALONG WITH BRODIX I CONSIDER THEM TO BE A TOP QUALITY PICK

http://www.onallcylinders.com/2012/05/2 ... -assembly/



There’s gonna be one happy racer come October.

As the 2012 Summit Racing SuperSeries Top Class Champion basks in the glory of victory, he’ll also be busy loading his trailer with loot, including a brand new American Racing Cars dragster with a 565 cubic inch big block Chevy built by Trick Flow Specialties.

While Trick Flow is best known for developing cylinder heads for high performance street and race use, Trick Flow also knows a thing or two about building engines. Over the years, they’ve put together hundreds of engines ranging from docile small block Chevys to blown LS motors, torque monster big block Fords and Chevys, and everything in between. Simply put, a Trick Flow-built engine makes solid, reliable horsepower.

To prove the point, Trick Flow manager Mike Downs invited us to document the assembly and dyno testing of the 565 Chevy for the giveaway dragster. In this installment, we’ll take a look at the short block assembly.

Why a 565?
With a large 4.600-inch bore, 4.250-inch stroke, and a 6.535-inch rod, the 565 can make large amounts of horsepower and torque, yet uses readily available parts and requires minimal machine work. Better, yet, the 565 is adaptable to many IHRA sportsman and bracket classes.

The Parts
Here are the building blocks for the engine:

Dart Big M Engine Block: The Big M is one of the strongest blocks available for big Chevys. The cast iron engine block has race-ready features like scalloped outer water jacket walls to improve coolant flow around the cylinder barrels, four-bolt billet steel main caps with splayed outer bolts, a true priority main oil system, a stepped main oil gallery to increase oil flow to the crank at high rpm, and lifter valley head stud bosses to prevent blown head gaskets.

Callies Magnum Crankshaft: Manufactured from 4340 steel, the forged crankshaft is given multiple heat treatments for unsurpassed wear and strength characteristics. The 4.250-inch stroke crank has gundrilled mains and fully profiled counterweights.

JE Pistons Forged Pistons and Rings: These forged pistons have a 46cc dome with two valve reliefs, vertical gas ports, and an oil rail support. The ring pack consists of .043-inch plasma-moly coated ductile iron top rings, .043-inch phosphate-coated iron secondary rings, and a low-tension 3mm oil ring.

Manley Connecting Rods: These 6.535-inch H-beam connecting rods are made from forged 4340 steel alloy and are fully machined, stress relieved, and magnafluxed. Each rod set is weight-matched to within 2 grams and come with ARP cap screw rod bolts.

Clevite H-Series Main and Rod Bearings: The main bearings have Clevite’s exclusive TriArmor coating that offers extraordinary protection and lubricity. The bearings have enlarged chamfers at the sides for greater crank-fillet clearance and are made without flash plating for better seating.

Dart Roller Cam Bearings: These bearings can handle large amounts of spring pressure, decrease power-robbing friction, and hold closer oil tolerances. The bearings are steel jacketed and encapsulated for ease of installation.

COMP Cams Roller Camshaft: Ground specifically for this engine, the cam has 283-degree/296-degree duration @ .050 and .824/.785 inches of lift with a 1.7 ratio rocker arm.

Jesel Belt Drive: The two-piece camshaft belt drive reduces the amount of harmonics being transferred to the camshaft. That means rock-solid cam timing compared to a timing chain or gear drive. It also has an external cam timing adjustment feature that allows you to accurately set cam timing.

Assembly
There are no special tricks or double-secret procedures to building a reliable race engine. It’s all about taking your time, keeping things clean and well lubricated, and most importantly, measuring everything–twice if you have to. Follow along as Trick Flow’s engine builder and tuner Todd Hodges puts together our short block.

http://www.onallcylinders.com/2012/09/0 ... s-top-end/

In our first Top Class 565 post, we outlined the short block assembly for the 565 cubic inch big block that will be part of the prize package awarded to the 2012 Summit Racing SuperSeries Top Class Champion.

The 565 is being built by the cylinder head experts at Trick Flow Specialties. With a large 4.600-inch bore, 4.250-inch stroke, and a 6.535-inch rod, the 565 can make large amounts of horsepower and torque, yet uses readily available parts and requires minimal machine work. Better yet, the 565 is adaptable to many IHRA sportsman and bracket classes.

We also dropped a hint that the cylinder heads for this engine will be pretty special. In this post, we will reveal what’s behind the one-off Trick Flow PowerPort® cylinder heads as well as document the valvetrain assembly, intake manifold install, and oil system installation.

The Pro Stock Connection
Considering the horsepower and rpm goals of the 565, the cylinder heads are cirtical. Trick Flow’s best offering for big block Chevy is the PowerPort® 360 cylinder head. The PowerPort 360 (part number TFS-4141T808) features:
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/tfs-4141t808

Heart-shaped 122cc combustion chambers with 2.300/1.880-inch valves
360cc intake/137cc exhaust Fast As Cast runners—near CNC-ported
performance in an as-cast design
Exhaust ports raised .300-inch from stock
CNC-bowl blended valve seat transitions and 24-degree valve angles

Trick Flow knew the PowerPort 360 needed some enhancements to feed 565 cubic inches of race engine, so they turned to someone that knows their way around cylinder heads—current NHRA Pro Stock Champion Jason Line.

Active in KB Racing’s engine development and tuning programs, Line can’t resist the challenge of making something run faster, flow better, or make more power. He made some revisions to the intake ports and did a bit of work on the combustion chambers to help give the incoming air and fuel a more direct shot at the valves—no trickery or fancy port work involved.

Check out the progress on the cylinder heads, valvetrain, and top-end components in the Slide Show below. Then, be sure to look for our final installment of Top Class 565, when we’ll bolt on the remaining accessories, strap the 565 to Trick Flow’s Superflow dyno, and let ‘er rip.

You’re gonna want to see what happens…stay tuned!


http://www.onallcylinders.com/2012/10/1 ... o-results/

netting 1,013 peak horsepower at 7,400 rpm and 770 lbs.-ft. peak torque at 6,100 rpm.


In our Top Class 565 (part two), we showcased cylinder head and valvetrain assembly for Trick Flow’s 565-cubic-inch big block Chevy. This time around, we’re gonna find out what this conglomeration of parts is worth on the dyno. Without giving up the results in the first paragraph, let’s just say those parts are worth a lot of horsepower.

In case you missed the first two posts, this 565 will be installed in the American Racing Cars dragster that is part of the prize package awarded to the 2012 Summit Racing SuperSeries Top Class Champion.

The engine was configured and built by the cylinder head experts at Trick Flow Specialties, and uses readily available parts and requires minimal machine work. Better still, the 565 is adaptable to many IHRA sportsman and bracket classes.
The Last of the Bolt-Ons

We last left the 565 with the installation of the Trick Flow PowerPort® 360 cylinder heads, which had been massaged by Summit Racing/KB Racing Pro Stock driver (and diehard engine guy) Jason Line. We also bolted on the Trick Flow R-Series intake manifold for photo purposes; it was removed for a trip to the porting and polishing room for some airflow enhancements. We’ll be showing you those here.

The rest of the bolt-ons included the following:

Holley Ultra Dominator carburetor, 1,250 cfm
MSD Pro-Billet crank trigger distributor and crank trigger kit
Moroso electric water pump
Moroso vacuum pump
Moroso valve covers

Powa!

With the engine all buttoned up, it was rolled into Trick Flow’s Superflow dyno room for some power pulls. Engine builder and dyno operator Todd Hodges added a set of Hedman Husler 2 3/8 inch to 2 1/2 inch stepped headers and hooked the distributor to the dyno’s MSD 6AL ignition system.

After making the break-in pull, Hodges and Trick Flow’s resident tuning expert Cory Roth made several power pulls on VP C-12 racing fuel, making incremental timing and carburetor jetting changes. Hodges also tried a power pull with Q16, a 116 octane fuel that is highly oxygenated, allowing more aggressive tuning. With no other changes, the Q16 was worth an extra 13 horsepower.

Unfortunately, Hodges and Roth ran out of Q16 before he could make tuning changes to take advantage of the fuel’s power potential. They switched back to C-12, reduced carburetor jetting from 106 to 102, added a carburetor spacer, and increased engine vacuum in a final attempt to break the 1,000 horsepower mark. The changes worked, netting 1,013 peak horsepower at 7,400 rpm and 770 lbs.-ft. peak torque at 6,100 rpm.

Check out the dyno video below or shuffle through the slide show above for pics from the dyno sessions.
Epilogue

The 565 is proof positive of what kind of power you can make with the proper selection of parts and some well-thought-out airflow enhancements. The engine is currently at American Racing Cars, waiting to be test-fit to the dragster that goes to this season’s Summit Racing SuperSeries Top Class champion.

Congratulations in advance to the Summit SuperSeries Top Class winner Tim Butler—and enjoy your Trick Flow horsepower in 2013!
Parts List

HLY-0-80532-2BK Holley Ultra Dominator Race Carburetor

MSD-8558 MSD Pro-Billet Crank Trigger Distributor

MSD-8620 MSD Flying Magnet Crank Trigger Kit

MOR-63547 Moroso Billet Aluminum Electric Water Pump

MOR-22640 Moroso 3-Vane Vacuum Pump

MOR-68356 Moroso Fabricated Aluminum Valve Covers
 




 
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