Building Up A Blown Olds Motor for an "A/GS Gasser"

Decided to sneak up on it a little at a time, so aimed for an 1/8" (0.125") cut on the first try, just did it by eye, ended up with 0.135" when I was done, so put it in and it looked good! With the outer end of the clutch fork up against the pressure plate shell where it had been rubbing, it looked like I had about 3/8" clearance at the clutch fingers, so adjusting the link from the bell crank to a 1/4" free play should work just fine! I made the adjustment by screwing the ball itself into the threaded coupling a bit, eyeballing it, measured it and got the 0.135" reduction in height, then cut an equivalent amount from the stud, and put everything back in with blue locktight and screwed it down tight. It is solid! I'm guessing the clutch pedal will be closer to the top than it was before, and I need to put in an adjustable stop under the clutch pedal, as it does go too far down now if I push it all the way, it needs a stop. When I was driving it before the actual clutch function occurred in about the middle 1/3 of the total pedal travel, and I was careful to just go down that far when shifting. If it is up higher this time, I really do need to put in a stop to keep me from accidentally pushing it in too far.

Mostly it depends on how it feels when I get it back out on the road though....
W.
 

Measure twice, think about the pro's and con's of how much to cut for
an hour, cut once.......perfect!

 
my 58 truck with a 502 is now 12 years old! May be getting time for a rebuild. Looking at the 540 inch rotating assemblies available out there, Ohio Crankshaft for one! Maybe even build it with a procharger in mind, man wouldn't that be a fun handful!!!

It's already been "back halfed", but might have to upgrade the suspension to a triangulated four link!
It's currently leaf springs with caltraks, which work very well for what's in there at the moment.

If yer gonna dream, might as well dream big!!!
 
Wired in the new Line Lock switch on the shift lever, and still doesn't work!!!
Gotta to check the solenoid now, and the power source, think there is a fuse in there somewhere, wouldn't that frost ya if it was that fuse all along!!!

Test drive today, ran well, still a bucket o bolts, like an old Mack truck with big balls, the whine of the square cut gears in the Doug Nash, the blower belt whine, the fuel pump noise, keeping the cutouts closed just to listen to the rest of the symphony!!!!

The heavier steel flywheel does mellow it out a bit, easier to shift, as it doesn't come "down" on the rpm between shifts as fast, so way cool for just cruising and making mellow shifts!!! But put yer foot into it and let it come onto boost and it does chooge-a-loog right along!

Need to break in the rings again, need to retorque the head bolts after a couple more runs, need to change the thermostat, it is cycling too high, up into 220/230 before it backs back down, needs to open up earlier.

I was running 20/50 oil the first time during breakin, the oil temp at 220 still had 60 lbs oil pressure, this 10/30 I'm running now, seeing under 40 once the oil hits it temp....
Am thinking that's probably ok....
Like they say, 10 psi oil pressure or more per thousand rpm, got that and plenty more....

The clutch change is working just fine. The car is still a handful, when I get back home after an hours drive, I know I've had a workout!!!

Will try for a vid soon, not today or tomorrow though!!!
Aloha,
Willy
 
2Loose said:
The heavier steel flywheel does mellow it out a bit, easier to shift, as it doesn't come "down" on the rpm between shifts as fast, so way cool for just cruising and making mellow shifts!!! But put yer foot into it and let it come onto boost and it does chooge-a-loog right along!

I changed from a steel flywheel to an aluminum on the sprint car and it was a whole different animal when revving it, out of gear. It rapped so much faster, but under load it not nearly as noticeable of course.


need to change the thermostat, it is cycling too high, up into 220/230 before it backs back down, needs to open up earlier.

Are you thinking it's defective then??? What temp stat is it?


The clutch change is working just fine.

Good news, I bet bench pressing that trans is a pain in the ..... !


Willy
Click to expand...
 
I think you should use a wide ratio trans for a blower big block, the power/rpm range is wider with a blower so it could be better i think, i got no problem with my aluminium lightweight flywheel and wide ratio trans.
 
The difference I note is mainly the slower down speed when clutching between gears on an upshift. Just cruising around I skip shift, 1-3-4 or 1-3-5, as the gears are just too close and skip shifting works well with this setup. Actually skip shifting worked well with the aluminum flywheel, as it would slow down just about right for the next spot two gears away....

But with that aluminum flywheel, wot no load that motor immediately went into boost and revved up to redline so fast it was scary! A little slower now, but you are right, other then shifting, can't tell much difference as far as acceleration goes, am pushing probably 3600 lbs with me in it and a full tank of gas (24 gal).

I wasn't really aware of how close together those gears were when I acquired that DN 4+1 box, it surprised me the first time I drove it. I need to change the rear gears from 3.50 to 3.00, I think that will make a difference in how it feels on the street. As far as wot rev limiter runs, the first four gears feel just about right!

I think the thermostat is sticking, not opening early enough, it's a 180 and the fan switch is about 190 before they both kick in, so am going to put in a 160, then it should be full open flow at the thermo when the fans kick in. Right now I think there is a bit of cycling conflict between the thermostat and the fans, on-off-open-close, seems to be going on too much. I think that 160 thermo will even that out a bit.

There were two of us "bench pressing" that thing into place, after jacking it up close on my makeshift tranny jack (piece of 3/4 plywood bolted on my floor jack.....).

Willy
 
Grumpy,
On the effects of the weight of the flywheel, don't forget that the flywheel, due to the distance the weight is distributed from the centerline, has a fairly large intertial effect that the smaller diameter harmonic balancer and the crankshaft in general do not have. The difference in the inertial energy of the steel flywheel vs the aluminum flywheel is fairly significant, more so than just the difference in weight (20 to 24 lbs) would indicate, as that weight is distributed a fair distance from the spinning center compared to other parts. I think the additional feel I get from the heavier steel flywheel is entirely due to the increase in inertial energy the heavier flywheel is providing.

I think that in road racing, where coming off the line isn't really involved, a lighter flywheel, if it facilitates faster, accurate upshifts and downshifts, where you want to change that rpm to match the next gear quickly, a lighter flywheel probably would be a valuable addition.

Willy
 
I think it is time for a vid.
Tomorrow sounds good.

The new 160 deg thermostat has done wonders, the motor runs 160 to 180 and the fans did not come on all day, even though it was in the high 80's during the day. The oil temp is much cooler also, 180-190 instead of 200-220 it was before!

Still needs some tuning, and break in the rings once more, but is easy to drive and fun, so will get the camera out tomorrow....
Willy
 
Ive built a great many more 396-540 big blocks than small blocks, and most of the sbc engines Ive built were 377-421 cubic inch , Ive built both circle track and drag race engines, but the vast majority of the engines I build are for hot street/strip car use, and built to last a long time with minimal maintenance.
Ive used a 20 lb aluminum fly wheel and a 30lb steel and a 40 lb steel fly wheel on various big block race cars, the 20 was in my opinion a true P.I.T.A. it seemed to make the engine run far less consistently, and drop rpms more noticeably between shifts. now if given a choice Id select a 32-36 lb steel fly wheel, and have zero issues with a 40 lb steel fly wheel. but again, thats usually for use in a hot street car with an engine making 450-500 PLUS hp that probably weights 3000lbs-3600 lbs or more.. I can easily see where a very light weight circle track car ( usually under 2500 lbs) that probably won,t be shifting gears a great deal,benefits from a light weight rotating Assembly
 
My experience has been in Olds, Buick, Chevy, kinda in that order, as Dad was a died-in-the-wool Olds true fanatic! I love the Buicks cause of the huge bore to stroke ratio back in the late 60's. Only fairly recently ran across a trio of '70 Buick 455's I have stashed away to play with. Aluminum heads now available, what fun! Oiling is a problem with the Buicks, but that is surmountable. The change to a 35 lb flywheel made the Olds motor more reasonable on the street with that close ratio Doug Nash. Better was the change to the 160 deg. thermostat. The motor loves that.

Did a vid today, don't know what setting I put in, but the vid is huge, like 3+ gigs, so am editing and reducing.....
Still needs a lot of tuning before I am happy with this motor, but I am not a tuning guru, just fuss with it until it is better....
More later,
Willy
 
OK guys, this is kinda an experiment, lemme check this out with you, not sure I should post this, but want to see whatcha think.....

The video I did is a half hour casual drive from my house around my area, through the towns of Hailiimaile and Makawao, and back to my house. It is huge, so I cut it up into 7 segments. Nothing exciting here, just a ride in a noisy, clattery, fast rust-bucket, with a big motor, and where I was cruising, no way I could open it up. Segment #5 if probably the best one.

So I put all 7 segments on youtube. There's not much exciting going on there, but if you like it let me know. It does give a bit of a tour of the area of Maui where I live. Segment #1 is the view of Maui from my house and a bit of my yard. Kinda personal, but thought I'd put it up just for laughs, and to give you an idea of where I live....

These are "unlisted" postings on youtube, but these links will work for anybody who has them:

segment #1, my yard and the view from my house,
http://youtu.be/76lj4ejVN1Y

segment #2, from my house to the Pukalani Shopping Center,
http://youtu.be/1qN0BYVfqzs

segment #3, loop thru the Pukalani Shopping Center,
http://youtu.be/oaCWel-rXTs

segment #4, from Pukalani down Haleakala Hwy to the Hailiimaile turnoff,
http://youtu.be/TJrNYEmyGeo

segment #5, through Hailiimaile and up Baldwin Ave., The first part of this clip probably has the best run footage....
http://youtu.be/isRRN-9sJmg

segment #6, through Makawao to Pukalani,
http://youtu.be/5YPFiMxxPTg

segment #7, back to my house in Pukalani,
http://youtu.be/zmmpUOtiFU8

I probably won't leave 'em on YouTube for long, just thought I'd try it out....
Pretty Boring, actually....

Our next race is on the 20th, I hope my buddies can get some decent race video footage there. I plan to just do "test & tune", need to get some race seat time in this car before actually competing....
Aloha,
Willy
 

Most interesting to see where you live Willy, your a lucky man! I watched almost
4 of the videos, thanks for the trip!

Do you know if that 55 Chevy was sold new in Hawaii by a dealer or did it get
shipped over and sold as a used car ???

 
Don't really know, it sat in a back yard here for over 20 years before I got it, the plates and title were place in DMV (Dept Motor Vehicles) "storage", when I acquired it I had to go through a process to get it out of "storage" at the DMV and get fresh plates assigned to it. It was loaded in every nook and cranny with red pineapple field dust, so I assume it was used to go to work in the pineapple fields before it got parked. Most probably a local car, most sold here had the heater delete option, with the plate where the heater controls usually go, this one had that, I still have that plate.
 
I also kept the original six and three speed. Not sure what I might do with it but just hesitate to toss an old piece of history like that. I drove a 235 and 3 sp just like it in a '54 ragtop from '57 to '67, sold it when I moved to Maui, shoulda kept it!!!
 
Some of the pix I had posted earlier in this thread of the "rebuild and reinstall" got accidentally removed. So I put them back up on my own website, you can view that page here if you want:
LINK to the 2Loose 55 gasser website....

Here's a couple of those pix:
Putting the motor back in:
55GasserTearDown%2061s%20Sep%202012.JPG


Shortening the clutch fork pivot to get clearance for the clutch fork and the pressure plate:
55GasserTearDown%2063s%20Oct%202012.JPG


I just ran across those clutch fork pivot ball pix so put 'em on the website....

Been driving 'er a little every day, she's loosening up a bit, feeling better all the time! Getting set up for the drags this Saturday.
Test and Tune only this time around....
Willy
 
At the track today:

Test and Tune session was running really slow, for $25 they told us we could get in five runs, during the two hours between 2:30 and 4:30 pm. Guess I spent too much time adjusting and timing, only got two runs in before they shut it down! But each time I would go line up to run, it took an hour before I got my run in! Only got two runs!

Both runs it did not run strong! Ran smooth, I hit my shifts, both times forgot to turn on the camera, my buddy who was supposed to show to help me didn't, so was by myself essentially and too late to call somebody else. My two runs were 13.0 and 12.9, at 108 and 109 mph. Not good. Not good at all !!! am glad I didn't record those pathetic runs! Am thinking although they sounded like solid runs, in rethinking how the sounds were, I think they sounded like the timing was way retarded! I am using an MSD system that backs down the timing on boost, and have it set at 2 deg per psi, so 10 deg retard at full 5 lbs boost. Need to figure a way to log it and look at it later to try to see what is happening. The recommendation was that at full boost on pump gas it could detonate if I don't retard it enough.

Didn't even sign up for the racing, have done tons of racing in the 12.90 category, don't need to go there, wanted to go 11.90 or even 10.90, so I packed it up and came home. Guess I will have to go to my "secret spot" and do some private "test and tune" of my own. Am betting I am just retarding it too much on boost.

More later, but probably not for awhile....
Willy
 
if your experience and your cars like mine youll be sitting there thinking about it and suddenly youll remember to check a few things you never thought about or assumed were correct just in case they were the problem ...knowing they could not be..... but during the check and verify process youll find the seemingly unrelated problem.
I remember on my 1968 vette with a 13.7:1 COMPRESSION 496 BIG BLOCK ,I WAS RUNNING crower MECHANICAL INJECTION ON, I once got to the track, and the car would barely run, when I checked the return restriction jet number and found Id some how forgotten to even install one, the last time I took the thing apart to clean it , effectively making the car run super lean, Im sure youll locate the problem once you start verifying every adjustment

viewtopic.php?f=55&t=4502&p=21483#p21483
 
Acquired a pair of Holley 4150 Ultra HP series 600 cfm carbs set up for a blower application. Will be putting those on. As I can't get the tuning parts I want from Demon, those are going back on the shelf for now. These are double pumpers, mech. linkage, no choke tower (not really needed in Hawaii), nice looking carbs, and I can get the tuning parts I need. Hopefully they should be pretty close as is, and will only need minor tuning.....
510-0-8080XBK.jpg


Forgot that my Demon fuel lines won't hook up directly to the Holleys, different threads, so now am chasing the right parts to do this hookup.

Did one more run up hill nearby, 3rd & 4th full boost run with the total timing backed off to 35 and the boost retard backed off to 5 total, so on boost I had 30 deg instead of 28, and the boost retard came in slower and later, and it seemed to like that a lot. Will be playing with that more after the Holleys are on.

I was looking at the linkage for the secondaries, looks like they start to open when the primaries are at about 1/3 open. Was looking at the possibility of modifying then so the secondaries would not open until later, like maybe 1/2 open or even later. I am sure others have already thought this through, any direction I should look at to learn more about this?

What fun!
Willy
 
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