Thread: 283 Build

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Nice set up Mike! Good old-fashioned go fast stuff!!!

Hi Mike and Cade, I have just read all 4 pages of this thread as I must of been alseep when you started it and I had missed it. Oh so coll that you are taking the time with your little man to teach him the art of engine building. I am envious of the relationship you have with your Grandson and the time you send out in the workshop together. I remember my step father wouldn't give me much time to help me whenever I had to work on any of my engines in the cars I owned. I remember my first head job, he would say from the kitchen table what order to remove things etc. and then expect me to remember how to do it out side and he would get fustrated with me if I had to go back in and ask him something else. Funnily enough, he was in charge of teaching the young apprentice engineers at the Aluminium Smelter where he worked and I always thought he needed to be more patient with us young guys. Anyway, enough about my screwed up up bringing and back into the interesting story so far.

Well Monday was a Monday. I had some time so I decided to get some of the pistons in (I had planned on doing 6 and leaving 2 for Cade and I to do Sunday). I got one bank done and decided I’d check deck height…..WTH ……the pistons were so far down the bore it would echoed if you talked around it. Pull out the depth gauge and they are .145 down in the hole. Running the numbers real quick showed I’d have a compression ratio a bit below 7:1.

I picked up the pistons over 20 years ago and they have been sitting on the shelf ever since. They only had a couple of hundred miles on them and had come out of a 283 that the block had cracked on (the guy didn’t get anti-freeze in it before a cold snap). I never thought to check/compare the pin height on them.

Anyway a look thru the parts catalog and I’ve got a new set of pistons coming with .106 more pin height on the way. Now that I have the deck height figures, I’m debating taking a bit more off the block to tighten up the quench a little more (on paper it comes out to .054 right now).

On a side note the pin diameter and height are a match a 307 small block, but I’ve never heard of anybody making forged piston (let alone there being a demand for) for a 307……who knows, maybe these were marketed as blower/turbo charger pistons?????

Anyway now that they are pressed back off they will probably go back on the shelf (properly marked) for another 20 years……the grandkids can worry about what to do with them after the estate sale


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Maybe for the Tunnel port iroc z 305??????????lots of forged stuff

The new pistons came in last Thursday so I was able to get them pressed on and six installed before Cade came over today. The new pistons were .005 taller than advertised and running the numbers with the new pistons compression comes out to just a bit over 8.75:1 which I’m happy with.

I left the last 2 pistons to do today with Cade and we checked ring gap and bearing clearance, installed the rings and got the last 2 holes filled. I was a little amused at Cades reaction when he found out that you had to get your hands oily and greasy lubing the cylinder walls, pistons and putting assembly lube on the bearings.

I showed him how to torque the bearings in steps using both the click-over torque wrench and the old beam wrench. I even turned him loose to check over the rod bolts one last time with the click-over. He tried to check the mains but as expected he’s got to add a little more muscle for that.




After a lot of looking I finally settled on a cam. I picked one of the Summit house brand split lift/duration ones with .421/.444 lift and 278/288 duration. The 305 guys seem to have good luck with it so I figured I’d give it a shot. The numbers are based on the stock 1.5 rockers I’ll be using and I figure if I want to try more cam I can always switch the rockers out for 1.6 units.

The Cam and the lifters should be here Tuesday so with any luck Cade and I might be able to pretty much button this up the next time he comes over.


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Is there anything more precious than a young lad building memories with his grandpa..........................even if he doesn't realize it yet?

Originally Posted by Bob Parmenter

Is there anything more precious than a young lad building memories with his grandpa..........................even if he doesn't realize it yet?

Yep, when the lad is 70 and talking to one of his buds....."yeah, I remember building my first motor with my grandpa back in '14"......

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That cam is a good choice for 283. It should have a nice lope to it but still be street friendly.

Nice work. It is coming together nicely. I'm sure Cade will remember this for ever.

Very cool, Mike. Reminds me of my first engine rebuilt with my dad.

Cade’s seen me install cylinder heads before so I didn’t figure it was a big deal to go ahead and get those put on while he wasn’t around. I also went ahead and installed the valve train on all but one cylinder to speed things up a bit today.

I want to break the engine in on the test stand and for Cade to hear it run. The HEMI for the 37 Dodge is currently on my old run stand and since one of the storage stands I had built to store the HEMIs on is now spare, I decided to turn it into another run stand. The extensions for the radiator can be unbolted so it can be turned back into a storage stand again if I want.




I went ahead and got the long block on the stand before Cade got here today. It’s actually a better height for Cade to work on but it’s hell on my back. Fortunately sitting on the old milk crate makes it a good height for me to supervise from so I guess it’s wasn’t too bad after all. Anyway this is where we started today.



It was mostly getting the rest of the valve train in and adjusted, and finishing up installing the rest of the parts. Cade got to adjust the last valves, put the balancer on, (he surprised me a bit and was able to muscle it almost all the way on) and use a line wrench to get the fuel lines on…..I suspect there will be a set of his own line wrenches in his Christmas stocking this year.









By the time we quit for today this is where we were at. I walked him thru what I’ll have to do to prime it before start up. Over the next couple of weeks before he comes over again, I’ll get the gauges in the engine stand prime it and break the cam in and re-torque the heads.





With luck I’ll have a video of him running it in a couple of weeks.



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Looks awesome Mike and I bet Cade will be excited to hear that little beauty running.

Very cool! I bet he's super excited to hear it run! That is an iconic looking SBC too sir!

This is just fantastic - every time I see an update it underscores (at least to me) the importance of grandparents! I love my grand kids and there's nothing like time spent with them - especially on projects. I've yet to build an engine with any of them (we're more at the birdhouse stage) but I look forward to having my grand kids help more in the garage as they get a bit older.

You're an inspiration my friend!!
Glenn

Over the last couple of weeks I got the engine and stand wired, did the cam break-in and re-torqued the heads. I’ve been dialing in the carburetors and timing and it actually sounds pretty good.

This is what it looked like when Cade got here this morning.




I walked Cade thru how to start and shut down the engine stand then asked him if he’d like to hear it run. He was a bit nervous, but did good (I had put a throttle stop on it just in case he got a little over exuberant). He was pretty impressed and happy (and admittedly so was I). Anyway here’s the video of it running.

Cade Running 283 - YouTube

All in all a pretty good day.


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