I decided to kick start the Monaro project by building the motor. Nothing like hearing the motor running to get you excited about hitting the track. Several years ago I bought an alcohol injected big block from a mate and I ran it in the Monaro for a while, best time 10.31 skating all the way. Its been in pieces for a while and it was time to put it back together. The block is a special "bowtie" casting that has 4 bolt main and can be bored to 4.6". It is currently at 4.375" which combined with a 3.76" stroke crank makes 452 cubes. Not a big motor but a high winding one. Unfortunately the bowtie block has badly scored lifter and piston bores and I'm on a budget so boring, sleeving, new rotating assembly etc is out of the question at this time. That block will make a nice 540 in the future. As it happens I bought a two bolt block some time ago with the same bore. I cleaned up the block, honed the bores and assembled the bottom end with a 427 steel crank 10/10, I beam rods and domed forged pistons with gapless rings.
Previously I've paid to have the heads set up but this time I invested in the tools to do it myself. The heads are a 1971 026 casting, rectangular ports, ported by a local guy called Dave Crane. Valves are 2.30 intake, 1.88 exhaust. I bought the matching spring set (springs, locks and retainers) and roller lifters for the Lunati roller cam I had, which was a 1.55" diameter, requiring the spring pockets to be opened up. CompCams sells a tool that machines both the inside and outside spring pocket, which registers on the valve guide and makes the job easy. Using a valve spring mic I set up all the valves at the specified 1.95" install height with CompCams spring shims. Valve seals are Viton. I did have a machine shop surface the heads and cut the valve seats as they had been sitting for a while and had some pitting. CompCams guides, HiTech 3/8" pusrods, ARP rocker studs, Crane steel roller rockers and stud girdle top off the top end.
Other odds and ends required to complete the motor:
- Cloyes Hex-a-just double row roller timing chain
- Cloyes aluminum timing cover with cam button
- ARP head bolts
- ARP main studs
- Gaskets
- Federal Mogul main and rod bearings
- Moroso high volume/standard pressure oil pump
- Moroso 7 quart oil pan and pickup
- ARP oil pump drive and oil pump stud
- Fluidamper harmonic balancer
- ARP balancer bolt
- Victor Jr Intake
- 1050 Dominator carb (Pictures show an injected setup on the intake at the moment)
