General Reccommendations... Starting to accumulate parts for the winter tear-down and rebuild. 1) are all double roller timing chains created equal? (provided they have steel gears) PAW is $30.00 or so, Ford Motorsport is over $75.. 2) if I have TRW forged flat-tops is the vavle relief(s) large enough for the Edelbrock RPM heads with the 2.02's? (they say they will not work with STOCK pistons, do these count or more fly-cutting) 3) moly rings still the way to go? street/strip motor, n2o on occasion 4) cam bearings have "only" 5000 miles or so. Do I need to re-do them? Block will not be tanked. YES, I am doing new rod, main bearings.. 5) Running roller-tip arms. Time to go to full roller? If so, best deal for the dollar out there? I am sure there will be more to follow.. Thanks Scotty P
Timing sets Prices vary on whether you get a "true roller" or solid link chain. True roller = less friction and wear. Link diameter can vary from .200" - .250" diameter. Larger is stronger. Sprockets can be cast iron or billet steel, hardened or non-hardened. Steel and hardened is stronger and wears better. Number of keyways for more precisely timing the cam can add cost, some sets have only one keyway, many have 3, some have 9. Some small block Ford sets only work with a 2-piece fuel pump eccentric or a 1-piece, some sets will work with either. There's a guy on ebay called mad dog that sells Rollmaster timing chains very cheap. Rollmasters are made in Australia and use special proprietary Swiss made chain. I recently bought a set w/ hardened billet steel sprockets, .250" true roller chain and 9 keyways for $69 from him. When I priced the same set at other places online the selling price was over $120!
To be absolutely sure of all clearences, mock up the engine with one piston in the bore without it's rings. Put head gasket on with one head, snug down then install rocker gear with a solid lifter set to zero lash. Roll engine over then look at the valve relief area. If it shows contact there is a problem. When that is taken care of do it again and check min piston to valve clearence with clay and for relief clearence. .575 is a high lift so you need to go through all this to be sure. Then the next step is to check the roller tip travel on the valve stem tip for possible push rod length change to get it right. Remember to leave enough clearence to be safe with juice use that will heat the engine a little more than normal.
That's right. I forgot about the cam. I run keith black hypers with a .200 dome and the reliefs are deep enough. I don't know if that will help, but there you go.
Ray, are you runnng 1.94's? I am thinking I would be quite happy with the 1.94's and not the 2.02's Anything special about installing gapless rings? i.e. total seal as mentioned above? Scotty P
Scotty. Mine are 2.02's. As for the gapless rings, I ran big gaps for nitrous, so I don't know about them. Funny thing is, I never did go for nitrous.
Ray, I have nitrous also but last trip to the track told me I am running fine without it..Think I will stay with the 1.94's .Still not sure on the gapless, they look like a pain to install. maybe I can talk one of the local shop to assemble the short-block. (yuck, paying someone to do what I like to do...)
That's the same that happened with me. I installed a nitrous system on my car when I first put it together. Never tried it (lots of self control) untill I went to the track, where I had a couple of simple problems with it. Throttle switch bracket not quite right, bad ground. Anyway, I decided rather than screwing around trying to get the nitrous to work, I'd just learn how to drive the car down the track. When I saw how fast the car is, I decided I'm really not interested in nitrous after all. hmm... By the way, look for my post in the parts for sale section.
