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64 Vette….Rebuild 2.0

I would say radial then.
When the teeth of the starter are engaged with the flex plate, a .050 drill bit will slide in easily (spec is .020-.035) No shim used, instructions say to mill the mounting block.
The distance between the teeth and the flex plate when not engaged is about .200 (spec is .100-.250)
When engaged the depth of engagement is about .300 (spec of .250-.375)

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I would mill the mounting block then, because otherwise you risk prematurely stripping the flexplate teeth with not enough engagement. I can mill it here if you don't have someone local to mill it, local would be easier obviously.
 
Should be able to shave a few thou off the starter with 60 grit and a belt sander id think :dunno:.
Unless you have a someone close that can actually mill it down.
.002-.005 would make a big difference probably.
 
Is that .002-.005 how much it would be to close that gap .015-.020?

And is that going to make the binding on release worse?

I have a bench top belt sander I could use
 
The engine starting should kick the gear back. As heath stated it may stay out when it's not actually starting.
Given That the starter is lower than the Centerline of the crank, a few thousandth up on its centerline, could make a difference twice that or more on the diagonal.

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Thanks, Good drawing….it helps.
Ill try to sneak up on it a couple thou at a time.
 
We can do the math and figure out exactly, but I say just put a shim in it and see how much further it moves away, then you'll know approximately how much you have to move it up to go the other way. If a .015" shim moves it .030", then you know the approximate ratio is double, that's just a made up example don't use that.

I don't know if I would use a belt sander, unless you are positive it will remain flat, you don't want to create any high spots or stress areas because it's not flat and then you bolt it to a flat spot.
 
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@folkenheath …so a flapwheel is out of the question?
My benchtop sander has a belt and disc both w tables and guides. Ill try a scrap piece first for assurance of parallel surfaces.

@AgDieseler I was fortunate enough to have a decent 35mm camera to take some pics of things back then. Something about flipping through a photo album that adds to the nostalgia of it all.
 
Put headers gaskets in tonight…one of the header mounting holes was off just enough I couldn't get a bolt to grab the head. It must be the DART head because they bolted up to the double humps w no issue. So I slotted the hole slightly to get the bolt lined up. Farted around just putting gaskets on for 1-1/2 hrs. The gaskets are compressible sandwiched aluminum and are almost 1/4 thick before tightening down the bolts. Well the ARP header bolts are short ones and you can only get a thread or a bit more to grab before compression. Had a brilliant idea of making a couple studs to hang the gasket on and hold the header in place while trying to get the header bolts started. Had to cut off a couple bolt heads, deburr, rethread the end, ya know, another 1/2 hour f’ing with those, but worth it to hold the header up.

Checked the height of the distributor w/o a gasket and it sits flush, so pulled it out, indexed it for #1. and bolted it down.

Then messed w the starter mounting pad fitment.
Took the pad off and measure it, 3.621-3.655.
I sanded off .005, and the thickness is tighter tolerance than Powermaster had.
It took about .005 off the engaged teeth gap.

Ill try to get that finished soon, then its powering up the starter, ignition box, coil, and distributor. Putting a mechanical fuel pump and fuel line on it.

Im not putting water in the block but, I’m Not sure if I should run cooling lines from the back of the heads to the front to prevent a hot spot on the rear of the heads?….when I get it together in the engine bay again.
I didn’t run those lines on the RPM AIRGAP and iron heads and never noticed a hot spot, but I want to take no risk of it.

Yellow lines are for the coolant lines, red lines are for coolant flow from back to front to thermo to radiator.

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When you do that you let some coolant flow bypass the head. I don't think you need those hoses.

Just let most of the coolant go to the back of the block and then up into the head and then through to the front of the head and out the intake.

Are you running no thermostat or a 160? Do you use the heater? If not I don't think you need a 180. I like the all brass high flow kind.

Don't run that engine too long at all with no load and no coolant, still not sure it's worth it.
 
Silly question, is there a lot of paint on the starter mounting area of the block? Maybe just removing paint would help starter engagement.
 
@folkenheath
I use the heater system and run a 180* thermostat.
I didn’t know if the flow would just get stagnant at the back of the head?
I’ll skip the hoses for now, and when its in the car and full cooling system, I can do a temp gun check to confirm no hot spots.
All of my engines have been run w no load for flat tappet cam breakin with no issues. The last 3 have been moly rings and forged pistons. Perhaps I should hookup the cooling system too? I only plan to run it for 30 seconds or so.

@fastazz81
I don’t think enough paint to be of concern. I will surely have to remove more material than the paint would make up for.
 
76zimmer said:
@folkenheath
I use the heater system and run a 180* thermostat.
I didn’t know if the flow would just get stagnant at the back of the head?
I’ll skip the hoses for now, and when its in the car and full cooling system, I can do a temp gun check to confirm no hot spots.
Click to expand...
The coolant flow holes in the block are usually larger at the back, but not always. You can check this comparing your pictures of the block, head, and gasket you used. Sometimes the middle holes in the block look huge but then they are restricted in the head and/or gasket.

76zimmer said:
All of my engines have been run w no load for flat tappet cam breakin with no issues. The last 3 have been moly rings and forged pistons. Perhaps I should hookup the cooling system too? I only plan to run it for 30 seconds or so.
Click to expand...
30 seconds load probably won't matter, as no load isn't going to make a lot of heat in that short time.

76zimmer said:
@fastazz81
I don’t think enough paint to be of concern. I will surely have to remove more material than the paint would make up for.
Click to expand...

You don't want paint between the starter and the block because that's where the starter gets it's high current ground path.
 
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folkenheath said:
The coolant flow holes in the block are usually larger at the back, but not always. You can check this comparing your pictures of the block, head, and gasket you used. Sometimes the middle holes in the block look huge but then they are restricted in the head and/or gasket.


30 seconds load probably won't matter, as no load isn't going to make a lot of heat in that short time.



You don't want paint between the starter and the block because that's where the starter gets it's high current ground path.
Click to expand...
Or through a cable from battery to starter mounting bolt the way the factory wiring has it? That’s how it was setup before. I can get some lacquer thinner and clean off the block for a bigger grounding area too.
 
If your ground cable is connected directly to the starter housing then your starter will be good, but then you may not have a good ground to the engine block and elsewhere through the paint. If you are worried about corrosion put a little dielectric grease layer between them.
 
Being that the bolt head and cable are in contact, as well as the bolt threads in the block, IM thinking good to go?
There is also a ground strap that runs from frame to engine at the motormount. Being a Fiberglass car it requires a ground connection at just about every location you can think of.
My progress today amounted to: I ordered an alternator belt, put plugs in it, and put the sparkplug wires on. :cool::dunno:
 
Is there a ground cable from the battery to the frame? I guess you get what I'm saying, I wouldn't rely on the bolt threads as the ground, I would want a surface, so if you have paint between the starter and block, you need a ground from the battery to the starter, battery to frame, and either block to frame or block to battery to complete it.

I did put my man ground directly to my starter on the blazer last week, but I also made sure the paint was scraped off under the starter.

I know what you mean with the fiberglass, its like working on a boat, but a boat has no metal frame to use for ground.

My ski boat has the battery in the left rear. Then there is a master cutoff in the right front. So the factory made the starter cable, and ground, go all the way up to that front cutoff, then they had the cutoff switch, then a ground block, then both the starter cables went from there back to the engine! I was having issues even after checking a lot of this stuff, new battery, new starter, check all connections, still issues. Finally I just said fock it and bought a painless battery relocation kit with 16 ft long + and - cables, and I isolated everything but the starter motor and ran two 1 AWG cables directly from the battery to the starter positive and to the starter housing. Then I added a + stud nearby so everything else that needed power back there was still switched with the master cutoff. It has started faster than it every has since then. I made sure to route it very safely and protected the + cable everywhere, as that one cable is not shutoff by the master switch just like a car, but everything else is.

Then I recently used the leftover cable to make new battery cables for the Blazer.
 
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How to wire the distributor?
The ignition control box is in the glovebox still, semi permanently.
The coil is on the firewall still, easily removable.
The distributor gas this two wire harness.

Do I need the ignition box to run this dizzy (no internal coil)?
Wiring as follows (correct me if I’m wrong)
4ga Battery Pos to starter post.
10 ga Battery positive to remote on/off switch
On/off to push start button
On/off to Ign terminal on starter
Switched positive to coil +
Coil + to dizzy (orange stripe)
Coil ground to block
Dizzy black to block ground

Is that correct for wiring?

Or do I use an HEI unit and go w that.

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