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The plan comes together...

Joined
Oct 30, 2001
Messages
2,273
Location
Glen Burnie, MD, USA
Corvette
1986 Bright Red Coupe
Just ordered almost all the rest of the parts I need for my own "winter project." The upgrades look something like this:

1. Accel SuperRam intake, runners, base, mildly ported and gasket-matched by Les Schmader of Lesport.
2. Accel 74219 roller cam
3. Comp Cams retro-refit hydraulic lifters & associated conversion hardware
4. GM Performance 1.6 full roller rockers
5. Hi-flow water pump (forget the brand - Flowkool?)
6. Accel hi-output fuel pump
7. Pro Topline aluminum heads (200cc intake, 64cc chamber, 2.02/1.6 valve openings), gasket-matched and bowl-blended by Les Schmader
8. Stainless steel one-piece valves
9. Rollmaster Billet Steel timing set (9 position crank gear, full roller/pin chain, torrington thrust bearing)
10. ARP fasteners (12-point head bolts, 6-point everything else)
11. Dave Koldos 52mm throttle body
12. Victor steel core head gaskets
13. When I scrape up the $$, Ken's performance distributor and rev limiter kit
14. A rework of Jeff's custom chip
15. Rebuild of stock fuel injectors
16. 3.45 rear gears (maybe...)

Think that's it...

Haven't gotten pushrods yet; will need to measure the final length after assembly (thanks for those who informed me of that).

[RICHR]
 
Wow Rich! man that is gonna be a sweet setup! can't wait to help ya start doing it :)
 
Now, That's a Plan! :blow I was just thinking about posting a question on water pumps. Which one is it? I lost all my bookmarks I had been collecting on this stuff a couple months back when I crashed my HD. How did you choose which pump? I was wonering if there's am electric pump like the Meziere for the L-98's. What are you doing for the block and the conversion for the cam? And, do you already have a D44? This must be costing a mint:BOW
 
I'll get back to you on the pump; I'm at work right now. It's nothing impressive but back when I bought the car it needed a new water pump (seals leaked on the old one) so I found a good deal on the 'net for a heavy-duty pump. However, it didn't arrive in time and I had to use a regular OEM one instead. Now that I'm opening the engine again it's time to use what I really wanted...

There is an electric pump; I was thinking about that one but at the time it was way out of my budget.

Not doing anything to the block right now except making sure that it's decked OK and that the pistons still look decent. When everything's apart (I'm trying not to take the motor out) I'll see if anything else needs to be done. For the cam conversion (because 86 was the last flat tappet year), I'm just using the retrofit roller lifters that were designed for this purpose. They're paired by a tie-bar to keep them from rotating, but other than that they don't look much different from stock roller lifters. Next to the heads, these were actually the single most expensive component. And yes, I do have a D-44 - it's a 4+3 car so that was standard.

Pricewise, most of what I bought was either new-but-unwanted (the whole intake setup plus springs, cam, seats, locks, etc came from Lingenfelter, but I bought them for about half what he charges from someone who was doing what I'm doing but never got started). The heads were only $700/pr for bare ones, but these flow nearly as good as Trick Flow's out of the box (and better at higher lift, which I won't be seeing). Most of the rest came off eBay (roller rockers were time-0... installed but never run, for example). I think I'm in for about $3k in parts, bought over the last year or more. Some things actually surprised me how cheap they were - the pistons, for example: a set of 16 premium pistons were only $70 on special. The head gaskets were only $14 each. $58 for the head bolts. The extreme-duty multi-adjustable timing set was only $10 more than the basic Cloyes roller set. Valve seals were $14 for the set, I think. I wound up with many of the internal parts being a higher grade than I need because it was only a few bucks more to go better.

Now... were I to do it again, I think I'd have not bought the springs/seats/locks from the guy I got the intake from. They're all LPE, but I could get identical stuff from Competition Products for MUCH less. Their titanium seats were a third of LPEs price, for example, so even though I didn't pay retail I still could have saved. Live and learn...

I'll be happy to provide part numbers and prices and such if you want.

When I'm done, I'm hoping to be in the 425-450hp range with at least 400 lb-ft of torque, but with the torque still low in the range (hence the SuperRam over the MiniRam). That should be good, with decent tires, for low 12's, I think. And then I'll have a brake upgrade to do, and then I'll probably be done except for maintenance (how long WILL a 4+3 last with this power going through it...).

[RICHR]
 
I assume you got the full seal kit for the engine?

What are the cam specs, is that still the Lignefelter cam, I don't recall it being accel?

Hope the heads flow good for you. I spent like $1500 on mine exchange, hoping for a really good job from a good name. I like the car except for the skweeks.
 
some say that the lifter bores need to be machined for the retro fit lifters to work correctly.

My first rebuild was standard and the lifter bores were left alone.

On my second rebuild (which was voluntary and I wanted more power) the shop machined the lifter bores to work correctly with the retro fit lifters. I think crane cams has info on the web page that can explain it better than I can....something about the angle of the lifter bores and how flat tappet lifters are designed to spin and move n such...

But there are others who run retro fit lifters on stock motors w/o any problems that I have heard of and some who have had problems with retro lifters and stock lifter bores.
 
Sothpaw, yes the 74219 is the Lingenfelter cam. But it's made by Accel (turns out a LOT of their stuff is; they just remarket it and you can find it cheaper elsewhere). Let's see. 219/219, .56 lift, 112 LSA? This is from memory.

Regarding the heads, those Pro Toplines were recommended over the DART Pro 1's that I was originally looking at because they are supposed to flow well out of the box, with nothing more needed than a little bowl blending and gasket matching. I'm not looking to tweak every last single HP out of the car, so if I'm missing a couple CFM here and there it won't bother me - and at $700 for the pair (plus another $100 or so for the work) it's worth it. The money was better spent on other things.

Finally, what did you mean by "full seal kit"? The intake and plenum gaskets come with the SuperRam, the valve cover gaskets are re-usable steel/cork, I got the timing cover gasket also, and I don't think there's anything else I need. Maybe the oil pan gasket, but I'm told you can do the cam without dropping the pan if you're careful.

TNT, I'd talked to a couple people on another Corvette "forum" who've done the conversion without issue. Likewise, the people at Competition Products said there wasn't anything else that needed to be done. Hope that's the case... I thought the problem with the conversion was that flat tappet lifters did NOT rotate, but hydraulic ones do, and that's why there are the tie-bars on the retrofit kit.

[RICHR]
 
Rich--

Yes, I mean a full gasket kit for the engine. Paul had to drop the oil pan, headers, etc. Charged me for the gasket kit, I figured it would be a small number (that's why I didn't bother to pre-order it), but it was not with mark up. Of course, then I wasted the oil and antifreeze also.
 
Well, I know I'll be draining the oil and antifreeze anyway...

Didn't get exhaust header gaskets; shouldn't be too much for those just locally. And I'd have ordered an oil pan gasket already but I don't know if I have a one-piece or two-piece rear main seal. And that makes a difference.
[RICHR]
 
I can't remember Rich, were both still available in '86 ? I know the one-piece seal was introduced in 1986, but is the seal like the aluminum heads where not all Corvettes had 'em? :confused
 
I was told by the techie at Competition Products that '86 was the crossover year for that part as well, but he was pretty sure it didn't follow the iron/al head configuration and started at some random point during the year... I need to check with my mechanic, who changed it, and probably has the p/n on the receipt in his records.
[RICHR]
 
rrubel said:


There is an electric pump; I was thinking about that one but at the time it was way out of my budget.

If you are speaking of the Mezeire pump, it is made for the F-body, so the Idler Pulley on it for the belt does not align with the rest of the pulleys, but it does on the F-body. on the Vette it sticks out a bit further.
 

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