Pics of my Dana 60 14BFF Install

[THUNDERUSONE]

Thanks for all the kind words guys. Here are some pics of the latest progress. I can't start work on the house until we get the rest of the bids in and get a decision from the SBA on whether we will be able to get a low interest loan to rebuild. So, I am trying to finish the motor since I am at a standstill on the house.

I lapped all the valves (notice the nice gray line at the base of the valve and shimmed my springs to an install height of 1.900. Ck out the cometic gaskets going on.

 

[THUNDERUSONE]

Got the heads on and torqed to spec. Checked my pushrods for straightness old school by rolling them on a piece of glass. Upgraded all the hardware to ARP. I am getting ready to lash all the valves so I can put the intake on. I spent 2 hours last night alone getting my pushrod length correct and my valvetrain geometry correct.

 

[Teck]

Motor is looking real good. Reminds me of my buddy's pro stock pulling motor, 485 that makes about 1000 HP.

Good Luck with the house.

 

[y5mgisi]

Dangit thats awesome!

 

[USSkoval]

I'm no expert, but your attention to detail is amazing

Do you assemble engines for customers? Just wondering.

 

[THUNDERUSONE]

Made some headway tonight. Took the intake and valve covers outside and washed them with mineral spirits and air dried them. I made some block off plates to cover the heat exchanger holes (see pic). The have a tendency to create burns in the intake gasket over time since the intake does not have provisions for the heat exchanger and can cause intake leaks. These are the only performance aluminum head for a big inch motor that I have seen in a long time that still have these provisions. The Dart and Brodix I normally use are just solid where this thing has the exchanger provision. I installed the intake and installed the new gear on the distributor (to make my new cam happy). I installed my distributor and got it shimmed for proper clearance. (something gm did not do). I am installing my new super duper HEI upgrade kit tomorrow with built in rev limiter and I will put the distributor in for good. I have to make the decision if I am going to custom piant the motor before I go any further and put the headers and serpentine on it. I was going to paint it for sure....but I dont know if that is what I need to be focusing on with the shape my house is in (thanks 500 yr flood). We'll see.....I may try to get on the dyno next week as well. I can't wait to see what she kicks out compared to gm's number. I know my torque is going to be much better with a MUCH broader lower rpm power band. I dont know if the motor will like my compression increase enough to keep the hp at 620ish with me going down in cam size. We will know before too much longer!!

 

[sweetk30]

wow looks like you did a hell of a clean up on the shop after the goooo.





oh ya and nice motor.

 

[Teck]

Very nice job so far.

 

[brandoneh]

Re-Read the thread again! Such a bitchin BURB!

 

[THUNDERUSONE]

Ok, I got the harmonic balancer reinstalled. I primed the engine. Shimmed the distributor, put my new gear on the dist and then started taking it apart to put the new msd ultimate hei upgrade. Popped the rotor button and it was welded to lock the dist out at 36 degrees of timing all the time. That is a drag race set up and not to make a 572 daily driver, 4 wheeler, tow vehicle etc. So I order a whole new dist setup that will be here tomorrow and I repackaged the other crap back up to take back.

I made the decision to not do the custom paint right now due to all the work I am going to have to do to my home so I am tearing into the serpentine accy system. I just finished painting the water pump so I am going to start the install. Here are a few pics of the system layed out getting ready to put it together.

 

[THUNDERUSONE]

Ok, I got the serpentine system installed. This is what a 572 talldeck with serpentine and AC looks like. It was fairly straightforward. If it had been for a sbc or regular bbc the instructions would have been dead on. I had to modify some brackets and cut some tabs off for the tall deck and the instructions were basically non existent. I have put on a ton of marine systems so it wasnt too bad.

I will get the new distributor tomorrow and set it up and install it. The plug wires should be in from live wires this week....and I am going to completely go through the carb. If the carb is set up like the distributor was, I might as well re do all of it too. I think it is going to look pretty cool with the coated headers on it and the rest of the plumbing done. I wanted to get the accy's on before I plumber the fuel system. I also need to stub up the oil system. I can lay it all out till I get it in the truck. I think you guys will like the fuel system and lines I am going to put in the truck. I am going to put pickups and lines capable of 1000+hp just in case I need to put a 3.3L whipple and turn the wick up on this thing.

I will throw the headers on it tomorrow night and take some pics....I am going to bed!

 

[dfl701]

Beautiful! That's all I can add right now while I'm drooling

 

[rdn2blazer]

just in case I need to put a 3.3L whipple and turn the wick up on this thing.!

Yeah, cause you will possibly NEED a whipple charger on a built 572! Have not peeked in here in a long time. Very nice motor build.

 

[dhcomp]

Looks AWESOME. Surprised you aren't going injected though....but i'm sure its way easier to setup a carb on something like this.

Any smog issues in TN to deal with? I know you couldn't do this in CA.....

 

[cuervo]

Looks AWESOME. Surprised you aren't going injected though....but i'm sure its way easier to setup a carb on something like this.

Any smog issues in TN to deal with? I know you couldn't do this in CA.....

Could imagine the look on the smogs face when he pull up in this thing?

 

[THUNDERUSONE]

I do alot of EFI. But I can also tune a carb to where it will run like efi. I just worked with this since I had it. If I had done my usual 598 build, I would have done EFI. I have a 2 channel wideband O2 and every jet and air bleed and power valve made for holley carbs. It is actually going to get dual 3" high performance catalytic converters on it. Where I live, they dont plug into the ecm on this year model. They look under the truck with a mirror for cats and stick a probe in one of the tailpipes. Right before I go, I will put some more timing at idle (I usually pull over right before I get there with my snap on timing light) and I will lean the air bleeds down to where it will barely idle. That way it will pass....(I hope). I have done this before on a 509 and it worked like a charm. If it doesnt for some reason, I have a piece of property up in east TN in a rural county that does not do emission testing. I will just register it up there if it won't......but I am 99% sure I can make it pass. I even have a dummy O2 sensor that I screw in where one of bungs goes that I use to tune with on my wideband sensor. I put the bung in a semi-factory location so they can see it with thier mirror....then just run the wires to nowhere.

 

[Teck]

I do alot of EFI. But I can also tune a carb to where it will run like efi. I just worked with this since I had it. If I had done my usual 598 build, I would have done EFI. I have a 2 channel wideband O2 and every jet and air bleed and power valve made for holley carbs. It is actually going to get dual 3" high performance catalytic converters on it. Where I live, they dont plug into the ecm on this year model. They look under the truck with a mirror for cats and stick a probe in one of the tailpipes. Right before I go, I will put some more timing at idle (I usually pull over right before I get there with my snap on timing light) and I will lean the air bleeds down to where it will barely idle. That way it will pass....(I hope). I have done this before on a 509 and it worked like a charm. If it doesnt for some reason, I have a piece of property up in east TN in a rural county that does not do emission testing. I will just register it up there if it won't......but I am 99% sure I can make it pass. I even have a dummy O2 sensor that I screw in where one of bungs goes that I use to tune with on my wideband sensor. I put the bung in a semi-factory location so they can see it with thier mirror....then just run the wires to nowhere.

That was what I had to do to mine back in the day to get it to pass here in Texas. I think after next year when I get it running it will fall under classic vehicle category, so they just do a saftey and visual check. But I do know somebody that does inspections.

 

[THUNDERUSONE]

That was what I had to do to mine back in the day to get it to pass here in Texas. I think after next year when I get it running it will fall under classic vehicle category, so they just do a saftey and visual check. But I do know somebody that does inspections.

I think I have to be in that 77 year range to get out of it.

 

[THUNDERUSONE]

Ok, here are some pics of the new distributor. It is a really nice unit. It is taller than the old dist so I no longer have clearance issues on the vaccum canister hitting the manifold since this is a tall deck. It also has the built in rev limiter. I tried to take a pic of it...but it would not focus correctly. It also has a larger shaft than stock which is good insurance for the oil pressure that I will be running.

 

[THUNDERUSONE]

I put the headers on so I can get an idea on how I am going to run my fuel and oil plumbing. The only part I am lacking to be able to hit the dyno is my Livewire spark plug wires. They should be in later this week. I have a another set that I can throw on it if it does work out where I can go this week. I swear I will stop posting pics of this thing....I am just really excited now that it is almost done. You guys would not believe how much time have in building this motor. It was way more than I expected due to all the gen 6 bowtie tall deck issues I ran into with all the crazy one off features this thing has. Like machining the front of the motor for 8+ hours so I could run a nice true double roller timing chain...and then the cam bearing debocle...and the serpentine brackety modifications....etc..etc. But I am ready to make some noise with this thing. God I have alot of work to do in the truck. I still have to solve the tranny situation and rework the whole fuel system in the truck......ahhh the joys of hotrodding....oh yea.....I gotta rebuild my house during the middle of this and work my azz off at my day job.....what is wrong with me?????