Thread: My Pat Mccarthy Engine

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Well folks I've got a little story to tell. I bought me a pretty nice 55 Chevy



trouble was it came with a pretty anemic 305 Chevy and a Turbo 350. Ran really great but it was a pig when it came to performance, another words it didn't have any performance. I had a small block in the shop that I got with another project and didn't use. It was a pretty much stock engine with a cam and that was it. Motor came with geneic set of 76cc heads, so I also had a really good set of 186 heads 2.02/1.60 valves ported and most of the goodies. So I decided to do a quick down and dirty engine swap on the cheap. Use my heads and the short block from the 350, bolt up a Muncie or Borg Warner tranny and run it tell it broke. Tech was nice enough to do his Computer Guru thing and recommend a good and pretty healthy cam to go along with this package. I followed Tech's advice got the cam, freshned up the 350 bolted on the heads and was adjusting the rockers when low and behold the dude who did the Head work for me had really screwed up on the screw in studs and guide plates. There was no way to install the push rods and have them not hit the heads and the guide plates, even the nuts on the rockers were in such a bind that the socket wouldn't even come out of the rocker after it was tightned down just a few turns.

I talked to the head guy he comes and looks and agrees that they are so screwed up that he will buy and do me another set of heads. Says it will take a couple or three weeks. I wasn't really happy about the time frame as I was into this swap.

So I decide to just buy a crate motor and be done with the whole deal. I'll use those heads and short block somewhere down the road. Started looking for a crate motor, and since I am going this way I really wanted a full roller motor. Tech and Pat Mccarthy both had advised me to go this way in the begining but I didn't want to spend the extra money that the Lifters Cost. But now sense I'm going with a complete engine why not??

I looked around some and couldn't find a Roller Crate motor. Jegs and Summit had a ton of GM crate motors but all seemed to be flat tappet cams. So I thought man pat Mccarthy builds engines lets just see what he has. Turns out Pat had in his shop a Short Block that he had for sale, we talk and Pat gives me a price to complete this motor with a Roller Cam and a set of Dart Pro 1 heads. We agree on a price and I tell him I would like to have it as soon as possible, Pat says fine with him and he gets the Heads and Cam and such. I didn't want to ship it so I headed that was Sunday and we met up at his shop on Monday loaded it up and I headed home.

It was a long trip 1,600 miles but man oh man was it worth it. Pat is one Hell of a nice guy, his shop is not like any other machine shop I have ever been in. I mean you can eat off of any of his work benches or the floor. This engine is a work of art, I could never ask for more.

Went to work finishing it up today Intake Manifold, drop the dizzy in and installed the Muncie on the back. Tomorrow it goes in and fires up, cool deal all the way around.

Thanks Pat for the kinda Rush I was in............