Superformance MKII, Riverside Racer 289 FIA vintage race car

[blykins]

Make sure no organic discs at that horsepower level.

[1795]

Brent,

Thanks. I purchased the heavy duty disc, not the organic. Should be here tomorrow.

Jim

[1795]

Greetings,

Well, my Quarter Master clutch, HTOB and steel flywheel arrived yesterday, along with a new Lifeline fire system. The clutch, flywheel and pressure plate arrived all bolted together and since the engine is going out for a refresh and it was freezing in the garage, I decided to use leave it altogether for now.


They looked nice nd the HTOB has a nice feature in that there is a locking stud that prevents the HTOB from spinning on the shaft during install. My McLeod does not have that capacity and the HOB's do spin a little when you are trying to line up the input shaft with the bushing and bolting the transmission to the bell housing. Always wondered if my depth was correct after the transmission was installed and there was no wy to get a micrometer in there.

I did test fit the assembly on the input shaft to make sure that the correct disc was in the package and it slid on nice and tight (but not too tight).


Jim

[MAStuart]

Jim It looks like the flywheel in O balance. So that makes me wonder what you have for a crank in the engine? So I assume you have a 289 stroke steel forged internally balanced crank in your engine. What brand of crank are you using? Who did your motor?

[1795]

The engine was most recently built by Fitzgerald Brothers in CT, they did the conversion to Webers. The crank is an original that was magna fluxed and machined so that the internals were balanced.

I was going to use Brent for this rebuild, but you scoundrels have so tied up his time that he would not be able to get to it in time for next season's race schedule. I have found a local engine builder who I will be working with, he has built race engines and after having numerous discussions with him I think that it will work.

At the time of the original build I was going to go with a forged steel crank, but at that time they were out of production. The current build just told me that he has found someone that is making forged steel cranks for a 289, not cheap, but given that I am not spending $1,000 to ship the engine that does free up some cash. He was going to take a look at the existing crank to see how it looked before deciding on whether to order one, but I am starting to lean towards getting a new crank irrespective of how good the old one works just because of increased longevity.

Jim

[1795]

Things are starting to show up. The Dart block arrived yesterday. It is quite beefy. The main caps are substantial. A lot of machining to do on it. I have the heads and am getting ready to ship them out and have them ported and flow tested, the engine builder has a full machine shop, but does not do heads anymore.



Parts are hard to come by with businesses having been shut down for a while, hopefully I will be able to procure everything that I need.

Jim

[1795]

Well, it has been awhile since the last post. The heads were finally ported and after many calls to FedEx, they finally arrived today and I ran them out to the engine builder. Good thing that I was not building an FE with iron heads, as my right arm just came out of the sling yesterday after 6 weeks in in post rotator cuff surgery to basically re-attach my rotator cuff. Had to carry and balance the heads in my left arm.

I did not see the flow test in the container and have sent an email to the guy who ported them asking about it. When we talked he said that based on other heads like these that he has ported he expected that at .700 lift that they would flow 290 cfm, at about .600 lift around 270 cfm. Out of the box these heads are supposed to flow 265 cfm at .700 lift. So, what ever he did will be an improvement.



The crank is installed and one piston test fitted. Using Oliver rods and custom pistons from Diamond. The engine builder contacted several sources and Diamond was the only one who could manufacture them in any semblance of a reasonable time frame. The lightened crank was pretty spot on for balance and all that the engine builder had to do was lightly grind two areas on the counter weights and the crank was internally balanced.




The engine builder is going to measure the volume of the heads, test fit the heads for clearance with the pistons and valves (Erson 2.02 intake and 1.6 exhaust) and make adjustments as needed.

Still waiting on rocker arm studs and head bolts. Still need to measure and order push rods, which will hopefully not be too problematic to obtain, and test fit the custom headers that Georgie is making.

Rick Muck will be helping with the install, as I am not allowed to carry anything heavier than my cell phone for the next 6 weeks, and then I get to start strengthening exercises. Still hoping to be strong enough to race by early July.

The weather is turning nicer, except for a snow storm arriving on April 1 that is going to dump 7" of snow on us, and I am getting the itch to get out and race.

Jim