BUILD THREAD “The Juggernaut”
- Thread starter Rktpwrd
- Start date
Thanks for the comments and compliments guys. Just wanted to add a couple things to some of the observations:
It wasn’t necessarily a matter of being anal, it was more so out of necessity. The pronounced curvature of the hood from front to back made getting the line right and straight with conventional methods extremely difficult, which is how it got all catawompus on me in the first place. By using the laser line, it gave me a nice straight line regardless of the curvature. It really was the right tool for the job, I should’ve used it right from the get-go to begin with.
Agreed wholeheartedly, 100%. You nailed it. After I had the additional material in place, it was a very slow painstaking process. Sand a bit off, stop and check the progress. Sand a bit more off, stop and check the progress. Copious amounts of discretion and not overworking it was the key factor here to get it back to where it needed to be.
Looking at it now though, it was definitely worth the additional effort. It really is perfect from front to back now.
Thanks Chris. Those are high accolades coming from you, I’ve seen the level of quality you turn out on your stuff. I’m flattered.
The center peak line actually has been there the whole time, it was just difficult to see in the pictures. It’s just much more defined and easier to see now. Helps immensely that it’s straight now too. 🤪
Thank you Jeff! Much appreciated as always.
It wasn’t necessarily a matter of being anal, it was more so out of necessity. The pronounced curvature of the hood from front to back made getting the line right and straight with conventional methods extremely difficult, which is how it got all catawompus on me in the first place. By using the laser line, it gave me a nice straight line regardless of the curvature. It really was the right tool for the job, I should’ve used it right from the get-go to begin with.
Agreed wholeheartedly, 100%. You nailed it. After I had the additional material in place, it was a very slow painstaking process. Sand a bit off, stop and check the progress. Sand a bit more off, stop and check the progress. Copious amounts of discretion and not overworking it was the key factor here to get it back to where it needed to be.
Looking at it now though, it was definitely worth the additional effort. It really is perfect from front to back now.
Thanks Chris. Those are high accolades coming from you, I’ve seen the level of quality you turn out on your stuff. I’m flattered.
The center peak line actually has been there the whole time, it was just difficult to see in the pictures. It’s just much more defined and easier to see now. Helps immensely that it’s straight now too. 🤪
Thank you Jeff! Much appreciated as always.
I'm adding this to my list of "Pro Tips" and will definitely implement it, thank you for sharing the idea.
I appreciate the compliment, but your work is quite a step above anything I’ve done in my career. Top notch work.
liquidh8
Comic Book Super Hero
Thanks Jim!
It’ll be a few more “springs” yet though before this beast is ready to terrorize the streets. I am starting to stockpile parts for the next stage of the engine revamp, which segways quite nicely into the next update.
Last week I received the first of a couple slated deliveries, this one from Summit Racing. Two of the three things I’m going to need to make this big block Olds fully rollerized: 1.6 ratio true roller trunnion and roller tip Harland Sharp rockers for my new Edelbrock aluminum cylinder heads:
And second, a full set of retrofit roller lifters from Comp Cams:
If you’re going to build a performance Olds 455, you better have deep pockets. These two items alone were over $1700 CAD after duty and exchange.
I haven’t decided on the hydraulic roller bumpstick for it yet though, the last thing needed to complete the trifecta. I have to try and allocate some time to contact a couple of cam companies and get their recommendations for my particular application. I would love to see HP and torque numbers around the 600 mark at the flywheel, but realistically I’ll be happy with anything over 500. It should be possible with the right cam and total parts combination with these heads.
And of course, what fun is it having new parts if you can’t play with them a little bit? I think they look pretty good and right at home on the second gen redesigned heads!
I hinted at a couple of other deliveries slated to arrive first thing next week, both of them from specialty Oldsmobile performance manufacturers. A composite cam driven gear for my MSD ProBillet distributor to accept the steel roller cam, a pair of 3/8” tall billet aluminum valve cover spacers to give me the required height for my stock valve covers to clear the new valvetrain, and some steel core neoprene gaskets as well to match.
I’ll post those up next week when they arrive.
Still lots left to buy yet too, head and intake gaskets, new header gaskets, camshaft, camshaft thrust button, the list goes on and on. It’ll be worth it though!
Who says all I know about is bodywork?
😏
D.
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You never stop, and you never cut corners, do ya? The more that I read the bigger the imaginary price tag got in my head, and I can only imagine what's yet to come. That's going to be epic, and of course we'll all be standing by drooling with envy.
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Those look great Donovan. Hopefully you don't have issues with the hydraulic roller lifters. A lot of Olds guys have switched to the Bam solid roller lifters with a hydraulic roller cam. Most cam cores except any melonized gear but I get you being cautious. The Harland Sharp roller rockers are very nice. I got Mark Remmel's version also very nice and red. Consider the Mr.Gasket or Mahle MLS head gaskets as well as the Cometic. Holley had the Mr Gasket MLS on clearance, I got a few sets. The Edelbrock and SCE are nice intake gaskets.
Nope, no corners cut on this one, this car is going to be the one flagship build of my lifetime. I may build others after this one, but they will likely all pale in comparison. No compromises, no mercy, no regrets and never settle. Good enough just isn’t good enough for me on this one. Price be damned, ya only live once.
Thanks for the appreciation and support.
I’m aware of the issues that some guys have had with the roller lifters, but as with anything, you never really know the details and full disclosure about their builds. Was the engine clean enough to begin with? The extremely tight tolerances they have cause them to act as excellent oil filters. How’s their valvetrain geometry? Did they bother to check pushrod lengths, angles and tip alignment on the valves? Valve guides worn? Lifter bores chamfered, bored or out of round? You get my drift. All these things can affect the performance of the lifters especially in a retrofit application where they were never designed to have them in the first place. I’m going to give these a try, the fact that they’re easily rebuildable was an attractive feature for me.
Regarding the distributor gear, do some digging and research on them. There is NO melonized Olds distributor gear currently available on the market today. Your options are the regular cast iron gears, bronze, or the one and only composite gear available from BOP Engineering. Bruce confirmed that with me. Hard to believe I know, but it’s true. I literally spent hours combing through websites, forums, threads, discussions and online parts just to come up with a dead end on every one. BOP makes the composite gears in two sizes, 0.491” for stock GM distributors, and a 0.500” version for aftermarket distributors like my MSD. I have the 0.500” version coming.
I currently have my eye on the MLS head gaskets from Cometic, but any MLS gasket is probably way overkill on a non-boosted N/A Olds application, even with aluminum heads. And especially if the machine work was worth a damn and the head and block surfaces are flat like they’re supposed to be.
IMO anyways. I’ll likely end up going with them anyways, just because. Just have to decide on a thickness.
I’ve never been a fan of anything from Mr. Gasket, too many bad experiences with them in the past. So that’s a no bueno for me. I am however, intrigued to hear that SCE has intake gaskets for the Oldses. I will have to look into that further, thanks!
Yeah, I hear you on the Mr Gasket stuff, these were so cheap, I snapped them up. Those lifters are supposed to have a solid lifter insert come available as well. I have only heard of one bad failure and who knows about the geometry of that build. I considered using them with my iron heads but I needed vlvesprings and either expensive roller rockers or drilling and tapping studs and getting geometry right. Problem is with the extra power, I don't trust either transmission I have, enter the super deal on a new Edelbrock/Comp cam. You are covered with the T-56, would love a 93 gearset. What are your cam specs and what will your compression be? Just curious what your goals are on this awesome car? You always seem to reach perfection, I had to settle for less.
