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I have the stock rail and an aftermarket rail, but I am not sure what brand/size the aftermarket rail is as it is with the engine at the shop so I am trying to figure this all out for my build and am collecting input from others.
After asking around, its pretty apparent that a single -8 is more than enough, so im gonna save myself the extra money from not having to buy a second Y adaptor and extra hose/fittings and just run the single feed, plus it will be much more aesthetically pleasing.
I was thinking about running the stock rail initially but once i decided on running an FFIM, i pretty much settled on an aftermarket rail, for appearances sake not to mention the ease of installation instead of modifying the stock unit to accept AN fittings.
If I may suggest so you can do the kind of fuel setup you want and won''t be hampered by the costs of fuel lines and fittings and if you are not yet using their products , check out anfittingsdirect.com . I believe they have the lowest cost for those parts as per my research.
Got a question for you . This might be something new for me to learn so am asking. You said you had 3% leakdown after your assembly. Does the crosshatch pattern on the newly honed cylinders not provide leakage ? Once the piston rings seals and all those crosshatches are gone , if you are getting 3% leakdown now, I will imagine your leakdown to be next to nil. Just kinda puzzled since at this point the rings hasn't sealed yet. Maybe I can do a leakdown on my newly assembled stock block to verify once I have the head mated.
If I may suggest so you can do the kind of fuel setup you want and won''t be hampered by the costs of fuel lines and fittings and if you are not yet using their products , check out anfittingsdirect.com . I believe they have the lowest cost for those parts as per my research.
Got a question for you . This might be something new for me to learn so am asking. You said you had 3% leakdown after your assembly. Does the crosshatch pattern on the newly honed cylinders not provide leakage ? Once the piston rings seals and all those crosshatches are gone , if you are getting 3% leakdown now, I will imagine your leakdown to be next to nil. Just kinda puzzled since at this point the rings hasn't sealed yet. Maybe I can do a leakdown on my newly assembled stock block to verify once I have the head mated.
Goodluck on the build !
Thanks man!
Im actually super OCD and am running all XRP lines and fittings. Super Nickel fittings, with black braided lines in the engine bay and stainless under the car. Im not the biggest fan of red and blue cheesey looking stuff in my engine bay... black and silver and factory-ish looking is how I like to do my builds. I live 10 minutes from one of the largest race-plumbing suppliers in the southeast so i get pretty good pricing on my AN fittings haha.
As far as the leakdown question goes... honestly, leakdown is really hard to gauge on a freshly built engine because as you said, rings havent seated yet. I do a leakdown on freshly built engines mainly to make sure the headgasket and valves have seated correctly, as a way to double check my work. I could imagine that I will have near zero leakdown after I break the engine in, but we wont know until we know lol. As a rule of thumb (on a engine post break in) ive been told less than 10% is very good, and raceable. and less than 20% is driveable... this coming from a 60 year old dude whos been building engines for the last 40 years lol
if you have a leakdown tester id say do the test... if anything it will give you added assurance that your work is good to go before you continue with the assembly.
I got the block and head back separately so I was able to look over everything really well before I put the 2 together and started re-assembling the motor... Ive done all the work on this project besides the bottom end and head machining and assembly.
I ordered a ton of parts over the past week and things are starting to trickle in.
Picked up 1-2 and 3-4 shift forks, bearing retainer and some other stuff for the R154, and its at the trans shop now. Turbo manifold, intake manifold, LS3 coils, new timing covers, fuel rail, engine mounts, oil filter re-location, and a few other little things are all in the mail and should have them between the end of this week and the end of next week, So I should have a hefty update coming soon!
LS3 coilpacks came in today so I went ahead and stripped, sprung, and booted them and did a quick mockup on the motor. I have no clue what im gonna do as far as a bracket to hold them in place considering the GE doesn't have the bolt holes for the GTE coil brackets which most people use to hold them in place with. Ill get creative... probably going to get a sheet of aluminum and try out a couple different designs till I find something I like, anyone have any ideas?
Turbo manifold came in today, mocked it up with the turbo to get an idea of what im gonna be working with.
Ended up going with the new CX Racing equal length 11ga manifold. It looks decent and the flanges are all nice and flat and its got a cast collector. Overall im happy with it... the welds are what youd expect from CX racing, but its a solid piece and should work just fine for me. Only real complaint is that the #5 runner turns down really close to the bottom exhaust stud and im probably going to grind the tip off the stud for clearance. Other than that, a solid 8 out of 10.
I still need to clock my turbo but heres a quick pic of what it looks like.... PLENTY of room for the distributor for those guys that are still using one with a full size cap on it.
Dan, she's turning out quite nice! Hey I might of missed it, but what color is that on your valve covers?
steve
Thank you sir! The color is some random old silver metallic that had been sitting in the paint cabinet at work.. sand blasted and hi-temp primed the valve covers, couple coats of color and a couple coats of semi-gloss clear. I had just enough to to the valve covers and the upper timing cover so at least the colors will match. When I blasted the covers, it exposed a bunch of pitting in the aluminum im assuming from age and being exposed to the plug wires and whatever else, I was too lazy to fix any of it so there are some spots that look un-even but its whatever... Im eventually going to swap to GTE covers so i can deal with it looking a little ghetto for a while lol.
Originally Posted by HiPSI
That manifold looks great! Any chance the stock intake / throttle body would clear the turbine?
Theres pics of the manifold on one of their cars on the CX racing website with what looks like a GT35 sized turbo and it seems to clear okay. The turbo sits pretty far back compared to alot of the other manifolds Ive seen... So to annswer your question I think the stock stuff would clear just fine as long as youre not running a gigantic turbo. If youre thinking about getting it, id call them though just to make sure.
Very informative and detailed write up. Your doing an awesome job. FYI ( and let these more experienced guys correct me if im wrong ) its probably a good thing you didn't try to correct the pitting on the valve covers. I heard the GE valve covers are made of a magnesium and don't like to be welded on. Like I said I may be wrong. And if I am I am sorry to spread false information.
Very informative and detailed write up. Your doing an awesome job. FYI ( and let these more experienced guys correct me if im wrong ) its probably a good thing you didn't try to correct the pitting on the valve covers. I heard the GE valve covers are made of a magnesium and don't like to be welded on. Like I said I may be wrong. And if I am I am sorry to spread false information.
Continue the great work sir.
You are absolutely correct on this.. I tried to have some fittings welded on the covers and it simply would not work. If you look inside the cover it will have a marking of "Mg". Which means Magnesium.. even tho they look to me aluminum, they are actually magnesium.
Got around to degreeing the camshafts, unfortunately didnt get any mid-process pictures because I tend to get in the zone and forget about pretty much everything else while Im working.
Specs according to my Cam Card for the Web Cams 440/441 Grind:
Duration @ .050"
Intake: 229
Exhaust: 231
01-07-15, 06:49 AM
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