Chevy 400 Build

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Yes finger tight. CHECK AND MAKE SURE THAT YOU DO NOT BOTTOM THE STUD OUT ON THE BEARING. I cannot stress that enough. If your main oil pump bolt hole is drilled all the way through check it and double check it. If not then don't worry about it. On my 355 I just built, the hole was drilled clear through to the bearing. You could easily push the stud into the bearing wiping out that bearing and journal on the crank upon start up. So double check. Hate to repeat myself but I don't wanna see that happen to you. As far as torque I do not know the spec off hand but that sounds about right. Do not forget to have the pick up welded to the oil pump as well. I have seen too many in the bottom of oil pans after the car loses oil pressure.
 
A couple threads exposed is no problem. The problem comes when you go to torque it. It will turn the stud a touch and tighten it more, thus bottoming out the stud on the bearing. Loc Tite the threads going into the cap. The way I figured out how far to thread the stud in was probably the hard way. I had the cap off, screwed the stud in, counted how many turns in it went and counted how many more turns it went before it bottomed out. I then attached the main cap, put the stud in and screwed it in the amount of turns I knew and made sure when I torqued it that it did not go past the amount of turns I counted before it bottomed out. Might be the hard way but it worked for me.
 
Took the heads to another machinist hes going to pressure test the vortec heads and let me know how they are. Im still going with a 2.02 1.60 valves. Im still interested in the big mutha thumpr so i told him the valve lift which was .486 .500. This guy seemed to know alot about the vortec heads..he had a pile of vortec heads which were cracked...Why does everyone want vortec heads if alot of them crack easily?
 
I don't know what the tensile strength of stock small block chevy main cap bolts are but I do know the rear main bolts you are using now are only rated at 150,000 psi and most aftermarket main bolts start at 180,000 psi and go to 220,000 psi on average.
I know you have an odd rear main set up with that adapter plate and it probably takes an odd length but they are available from ARP and others.
I know I would not have those in any build of mine holding a main cap on, they were never designed for that application and since you would like to make 500+ horsepower and use nitrous and in my opinion I would change them out.
 
Was that place a hardware store? Not being a dick but they are the same bolts I can get at TSC for about 40 cents a piece. We are just trying to save you the headache of trashing your engine. We have all been there building something, cut a corner and it cost ya the whole build.
 
LilSpann601 said:
I dont know if im going to be making 500hp+. But those bolts are not stock. The place i got them specializes in bolts and said they were stronger than stock.

You may have bought them from a place that specializes in bolts but the bolts themselves are not special they are your standard corner hardware store grade 8 fasteners which are an upgrade from grade 5 but not an upgrade from a factory or aftermarket rear main bolts.
I use grade 8 bolts for my intake manifold and other external bolt ons, not for anything actually holding the engine together.
 
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