Ken's Engine Project... Part IV - 2004

[rrubel]

Wouldn't they exacerbate the arcing? Aluminum is a pretty decent conductor...
[RICHR]

 

[Ken]

The boot fits inside the aluminum housing, Rich. I think the idea is that the heat is more evenly dispersed with the shield.

 

[rrubel]

Ah. Makes sense... Wonder if I'm going to need these with the headers I'm adding. I guess this is why people wrap their headers?

What you need, Ken, are some of the tiles off a Space Shuttle orbiter . I watched someone take a blowtorch to one side while holding his hand against the other. Essentially no heat leaked through, and they cooled down very quickly.

Thanks.
[RICHR]

 

[kenwa]

Ken, are your headers ceramic coated? If not, they might pay for themselves in solving your heat problems.

On the other hand, I'm you probably have little desire to yank out a set of headers.

Ken

 

[Ken]

Yeah Ken, they're coated.

 

[WhalePirot]

I am off to Muldoon Shell, Ken. The guy has soon really cool cars parked there in summer months, day after day. The $8/each, Taylor, nomex boot wraps only WORSENED my arcing problem on #7. What a waste!

I added another ground strap when changing to the new starter, today. Runs right to a starter bolt from the frame. I may add more, as is suggested, as they are cheap and I am tired of changing boots every couple hundred miles. This strap was for past starting issues, but more ? Will they help the spark go the right place? Dunno and I don't see why, but it may be worth a try.

BTW, my starter expert, Chris at www.hitorque.com said the ground wire to the battery should never get warm. If it does, from conducting juice, the car is seeking ground and more straps should be added.
I have #7 and another plug arcing. headers are coated AND wrqapped. The wrap made now discernable difference, this time, to power, and added mass (read added cooling time) while reducing the air gap (read cooling airflow) between the boot and the header(wrap). Never again. Next time, it'll be angle plug heads!

 

[Ken]

Next time, it'll be angle plug heads!

I still can't remember why we made the change, and I went from my initial choice of the Victor 23° Heads for roller cams, which are

... ideal for racers looking for an affordable head that makes maximum power, the Victor Jr. 23° heads are designed for competition and ultra high-performance street small-blocks and accept standard valvetrain hardware. They have a 530-580 hp potential, out-of-the-box, for a cost effective, race-winning set-up. Combustion chamber sizes include 70cc or the new 64cc version that is ideal for entry level racers or high-end street. The 64cc combustion chamber yields around 10.2:1 compression in a zero-deck flat-top 350-inch engine, and about 12.5:1 when used with a 12cc domed piston. Both versions of the Victor Jr. 23° head feature high-flow 215cc intake ports with CNC port-matched entries, .300" raised exhaust ports, hardened, ductile iron valve seats and phosphor bronze guides. A 9/16" thick deck surface provides superior gasket retention. Match with an Edelbrock Super Victor #2925 manifold for maximum power.

and went with the Performer E-Tec 200 Heads, which have:

... 200cc rectangular intake ports and 78cc exhaust ports. They outflow the “fast burn” aluminum heads by 10% on the intake and 17% on the exhaust , making power up to 6500 rpm. 64cc combustion chambers produce approximately 10.2:1 compression when used with flat-top pistons in 350-inch engines. E-Tec 200 heads come with 2.02" intake and 1.60" exhaust valves.

Will must have wanted the smaller intake port size for increased velocity, because everything else except for the plug angles is the same. The Victor Jr.'s are also cheaper.

The E-Tec heads have straight plugs while the Victor Jr.'s have angled plugs.

I also had to modify the Mini-Ram to accomodate the Vortec-style cylinder heads. :eyerole

 

[JHL]

Hi Ken,

After going through 4 sets of wires in no more than a few hundred miles I bought these Accel wires and also some heat resistant sleeves for the ends as a bit of extra protection and the work ok for me almost all my initial problems getting my car to run good turned out to be ignition wire burning out or arcing. Not cheap but good quality, might be worth a try.

J.

http://www.jegs.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ProductDisplay?prrfnbr=2521&prmenbr=361

 

[bossvette]

I still can't remember why we made the change, and I went from my initial choice of the Victor 23° Heads for roller cams, which areand went with the Performer E-Tec 200 Heads, which have:
Will must have wanted the smaller intake port size for increased velocity, because everything else except for the plug angles is the same. The Victor Jr.'s are also cheaper.

The E-Tec heads have straight plugs while the Victor Jr.'s have angled plugs.

I also had to modify the Mini-Ram to accomodate the Vortec-style cylinder heads. :eyerole

the later style or "Vortec" Heads have a different shape combustion chamber sort of heart shaped as opposed to the old style chevy or the D shaped in smog heads, although they were developed to meat stricter emission standards they also make more power which makes sense if you burn your fuel more efficently you will get more power.
I think you will find most of the newer GM heads use this "Heart shaped" combustion chamber.

 

[WhalePirot]

Al, at Muldoon Shell was quite nice to chat with and his spouse drives her C-4 year round, in Anchorage. We jokes about her spoiler and snow plowing.

They host an annual car show with many more cool rides than one would every imagine, so far north!

Al suggested trying snowmobile plug terminations,but I am going with Bakelite 'boots' from a local hot VW shop, first. I used them ages ago on my LS-6, 454, with good success. I have not decided if I will reinstall the Taylor heat wraps, but I think I'd rather let the air pass, for cooling.

 

[Ken]

... I am going with Bakelite 'boots' from a local hot VW shop

How much of an air gap do you have between the tube and your spark plug Mike? How much room does the Bakelite boot need? ...And what about those "snowmobile plug terminations." :confused

 

[Ken]

Well, so far, so good...

Every time I open the hood now I feel that I must explain why I have all that blue under there now. The fact of the matter is that when I finally figured out what to do with my intake ducting, I had a choice of blue or red, so I got some blue hose. Then, when it came time to get new wires (I wanted to be sure that my wires were good. ) I got blue because I figured that since I went with blue hose I should use blue wires. :L

And no wisecracks about ricers and all that!







Click 'em and they'll get bigger.

 

[Ken]

Oh yeah, almost forgot. I used some adhesive-backed 2000° tape (not that there's any adhesive left on it :L) around the header where the #7 plug is giving my boots the hotfoot. Seems to be working; at least, I haven't fried this one yet!

I still have a minor high-speed miss that I haven't figured out yet, but it ran fine today going to Long beach and back. Ran like a champ! I can't wait to get it fully dialed-in - man, it's gonna scream! :J

As a matter of fact, I got myself kicked out of Harbor Chevrolet's parking lot because of all that horsepower. I knew as I was going there that I would do a burnout or two for the guys - gotta show off, right? :L

Anyhow, I laid down about twenty feet of black stripes, and then I parked it and opened the hood while we stood around talking about it.

Next thing I knew I see the service manager heading our way... "Who just did that?"

Me: "C'mon now, you know I did it."

Him: "Leave the lot." Turns and starts walking away.

Me: "Are you serious? No harm done."

Him: "You have to leave the lot, now." Starts walking away again.

Me: "Okay. What's your name?"

Him: "John So-and-so, service manager of Harbor Chevrolet."

Me: "Okay John. Have a nice day." :eyerole

Someone was on a power trip this morning, and mustn't have liked my Corvette's power intimidating his. So I laid down a couple of more sets (twice) as I pulled out of the lot. :L

Seriously though, he had to have been on some kind of power trip. We don't do that often in that lot, and anybody else would have come up and said something to the effect that we shouldn't do that on the lot due to insurance reasons (or something), and warn us that if we did it again we would be forced to leave. What's wrong with that approach?

Boys will be boys when it comes to their toys.

 

[kenwa]

Ken, your engine looks awesome. No need to explain. You want blue, go get blue. Where did you get the intake ducts?

Ken

 

[BigRed]

I'll second! Looks great! I just keep running into red parts every time I do something! I actually would have gone green/blue and yellow but good luck finding parts!

And yea! where DID you get that hose!

 

[Ken]

Thanks for the compliments guys. :cool

I picked the hose up at Baker Precision Racing here in Long Beach, CA. They offer several variations of the hose: the reducers such as you see at the throttle body, straight lengths of hose in 1' increments, elbows, etc., and it is available in several diameters as well.

 

[cablexpert]

The motor looks great Ken....i'm bettin Mr. Serv. Mgr. was jealous his demo didn't squall tires like ur vette :L

 

[bossvette]

Is that a GM serpentine belt system or aftermarket?

 

[Ken]

Craig, I used the bracket that's sold through Mid America and the other aftermarket suppliers, for the air pump replacement bracket, and for the air conditioner replacement bracket, I simply modified the original by cutting away what I didn't need. I then routed the belt around the tensioner the opposite way from the way it was originally routed.

I had to go to the auto parts store and measure different belts until I got one that fit properly.

 

[bossvette]

It does look good, someday I would like to do that to mine, but as long as I keep the revs down I have no problems with mine.