Mopar Muscle Association UK

Yep. Agree with you both. Been there.
Wow. This is going like ..... BANG !!!!......................damn.

Blue wrote:Rings need to be bedded in fast or they glaze and don't seal as well as they might. For that reason I only oil the bores with WD40 or ATF, you don't want too much lubrication, the rings will bed in in minutes.

Thanks Blue that confirms my method

Don't like all this talk of things going BANG!

Anyway onwards and upwards.

Cam went in Dot to Dot as there is 4 degree advance built in as you can see by the intake centre line and lobe separation figures.

Dialling in to check the cam matches the centre line of 106°. First I had to find true TDC, I used the dial on piston method rather than a bump stop.
Piston looks a little low to the deck as its not quite at the top of its stoke.

Then true TDC was found by rotating the engine forward and backwards until the dial zeroed when the piston was at the top of its stroke, then noting the degrees on the timing wheel and turning the timing wheel to split the difference of the two previous degree figures. Rotate again until the degrees match in both directions, this is true TDC and the dial gauge should read zero.

I used the .50° method to degree in the cam, but forgot to take pics I placed the dial indicator on a lifter at the same angle as the lifter for greater accuracy of the reading.

Once I had found true TDC I set the degree wheel to zero and rotated the engine until the follower was at max lift (Dial Indicator needle changes direction) I then zeroed the dial indicator, rotated the engine so the needle past the .50° mark then turned the engine back to the .50 mark, this is to take any slack out of the chain. Once on the .50 mark I took a reading on the degree wheel and noted the number of degrees. Repeated this procedure on the other side (past zero) of the cam lobe and noted the number of degrees. Add the 2 figures together and divide by 2 this will give the intake centre line which should match the 106° written on the cam card. If it does not you have to advance or retard the timing until you find the intake centre line.

Okay so satisfied with that, I moved on to check the Valve to Piston clearance. Inlet and exhaust vales. I put a lump of Blu tack over the piston valve reliefs, bolted head down using an old head gasket and set the inlet and exhaust valves up on number 1, setting the correct lash and rotated the engine a couple of times, bearing in mind the followers are new and bone dry. Removed the head to reveal just a tiny imprint in the Blu tack.

Time to check the oil pump. I poured a little engine oil into the sump, enough to cover the pick up and span the drive by hand, this is enough to see if oil is being picked up

If you have access to a die grinder, there's a worthwhile mod you can do to the pump outlet before you bolt it in. Cam looks a bit healthier, what was in it before?

Cam was Comp XE274 (230/236, .490/.490) so a little better.

Ah that's a shame I have bolted it all in and sump back on now. although it is ment to be a high volume pump, am interested to know this mod for future reference though Blue, cheers

Now time to put the rest together, oil pump on

Timing cover and sump

In my rush this idiot forgot to put the oil slinger on the crank before the timing cover I know it can be run without it but I believe it helps to keep oil away from the front oil seal. (No pic sorry) so off came the timing cover again.

Pic taken from internet for those who are not familiar with it

Cam Rear seal, I like to run some silicone around to help hold it in as well as stopping any oil dribbling out. No one likes a dribble.

Finally time to work on the top end.

Starting with the Rocker arm Geometry, the Roller Rockers I bought are Comps Ultra Pro-Magnum chromemoly steel 1.5 ratio, they can be used with oil through push rod but im using the stock oil through cam system so using solid ended pushrods.