symptoms of flattened cam?

[c20pickup]

Originally Posted by 67 chevelle

If your buying heads for a small block , vortecs are the way to go , dart iron eagles are nice also , check your combustion chamber volume , the heads you listed are 72 cc[low compression , most performance 350 heads are 64 cc

ive been looking at aftermarket irons, and vortecs did cross my mind, but somewhere i thought i remember there being more to the conversion than just the intake and valver covers, i could be wrong though. i know im shooting for a 64cc head, because from what im told that will give me 10:1 comp with the flat top pistons i have. i just wasnt sure about intake runner size and all that good stuff

[GRX]

Originally Posted by Steeveedee

Lots of good advice! My take- I've threaded a head for an individual threaded stud in the past, but that was mostly on old iron, not necessarily something that had been to the machine shop. I'll be honest and admit that I've never heard of a hot tank being too hot, but even with some raised boiling point from the lye, the tank can't be hotter than 260º, which temperature I've seen even big blocks survive, if the coolant was kept liquid. I've had mine to 230º while towing my trailer up a long hill, with no ill effects. Both metals have essentially the same thermal expansion coefficient, though, so I have reservations about that one being a stud pulling reason.

Hot tank, no. Oven, too hot, yes. Most shops had to switch from lye tanks for environmental reasons. We did years ago. Sure do not miss the caustic tank. Have scars on my arms & missing nose hairs from that crap.

Boogered threads mean replace the stud. Puller tools can be bought, or perhaps you can borrow one locally. Drill and pin the new one as suggested above. And remember that factory style swedged rocker nuts are only meant to be used once. Buy a new one or go ghetto and smack the nut with a hammer or squeeze in a vise.

[biketopia]

Originally Posted by c20pickup

ive been looking at aftermarket irons, and vortecs did cross my mind, but somewhere i thought i remember there being more to the conversion than just the intake and valver covers, i could be wrong though. i know im shooting for a 64cc head, because from what im told that will give me 10:1 comp with the flat top pistons i have. i just wasnt sure about intake runner size and all that good stuff

Nope that's it, valve covers and intake are all you'll have to change. Both stock castings are good, the ones that come on some of the 2500 trucks got a bad rep for being poor flowering on the exhaust side because the "062" are that damn good, plus the internet said so and HotRod did a story claiming the "906" were were less superior than the 062 but that's not the case.

Here's a bunch of info on vortec's for you to read up on.

http://nastyz28.com/threads/vortec-c...e-guide.56505/

http://www.superchevy.com/how-to/97458/

http://www.superchevy.com/how-to/678...cam-355-build/

[GRX]

And don't forget the self-aligning rockers with Vortecs.

[biketopia]

Originally Posted by GRX

And don't forget the self-aligning rockers with Vortecs.

Yup, or guide plates. Depends on how fancy you want to go but I have a set of stock stamped steel rockers off the vortec's I bought that would be up for grabs. I'm putting on a set of the summit brand (made by crane) 1.6 roller rockers on my build.

[Steeveedee]

Originally Posted by GRX

Hot tank, no. Oven, too hot, yes. Most shops had to switch from lye tanks for environmental reasons. We did years ago. Sure do not miss the caustic tank. Have scars on my arms & missing nose hairs from that crap.

Boogered threads mean replace the stud. Puller tools can be bought, or perhaps you can borrow one locally. Drill and pin the new one as suggested above. And remember that factory style swedged rocker nuts are only meant to be used once. Buy a new one or go ghetto and smack the nut with a hammer or squeeze in a vise.

Interesting. I haven't built an engine since y2k. I don't know how the block and heads were cleaned. It may have been done in an oven, I don't know. All that heat seems like it takes a lot of natural gas(?), but I can appreciate the business with lye, I've been burned a couple of times, myself (but not in a machine shop- in a chemistry lab). I've hammered a rocker nut or two myself. Don't do it in front of the customer though. Ask me how I know!