View Full Version : Some upgrades while the tranny leak's being fixed
ehansen007
05-10-2012, 06:15 PM
The weekend of the HB show was awesome but it was a whirlwind. Being part of Factory Five now brought a whole new meaning to the show. Stack was in town and I knew I'd be putting him to work on Sunday so when he got in on Friday, the least I could do was take him on a ride and feed him. So we headed up the Ortega Hwy for lunch at Hell's kitchen and met Jeff Miller and his cobra on the way into Orange County for the show. The next day we had the show and most of you know how that went. But the next day it was back to the barn to tear Stinky apart. He's been leaking from the tranny and the engine paint was chipping off so it was time to freshen him up a bit. Mark was the right guy for sure! We ripped that engine out and replaced the cam and roller rockers in under 8 hours. Then I repainted it the other day and I've had to completely disassemble the tranny to get to the leak. Thanks Stack for all your help! Can't wait to drive it with the new cam and lifters with the correct timing setup!
http://i897.photobucket.com/albums/ac177/ehansen007/IMG_1444.jpg
http://i897.photobucket.com/albums/ac177/ehansen007/IMG_03742.jpg
http://i897.photobucket.com/albums/ac177/ehansen007/IMG_03762.jpg
http://i897.photobucket.com/albums/ac177/ehansen007/IMG_1446.jpg
http://i897.photobucket.com/albums/ac177/ehansen007/IMG_03792.jpg
http://i897.photobucket.com/albums/ac177/ehansen007/IMG_1465.jpg
http://i897.photobucket.com/albums/ac177/ehansen007/IMG_1466.jpg
1fastsedan
05-11-2012, 10:27 AM
Looking great Erik...barely up and running and already upgrading, sounds like you got bit by the mod monster.
No head upgrade? Dude, you were there. Stock springs going to be O.K. with your new cam and rockers?
Olli
ehansen007
05-14-2012, 10:34 AM
After my HB show expenses, I couldn't and didn't want to spend the money on the heads just yet. Besides, it would have meant a possible clutch and tranny upgrade, etc once it got over 300lb/ft torque since I'm running a 90 WC T5. Seems like many look at HP for this match up but from the tech articles Torque is what breaks trannies. My plan is to see where 300HP 300lb/ft takes me. I'm not drag racing it. and when I want more, I'll bolt some Trick Flow heads on to match the cam and go till the tranny falls out. Then I'll pull the motor and rework the whole thing.
It's been a fun project thus far with the exception of the tranny leak. The lower cluster assembly, front bearing race was leaking. Trivia- does anyone know why you especially don't want this one to leak? :confused:
stack
05-15-2012, 10:07 AM
The weekend of the HB show was awesome but it was a whirlwind. Being part of Factory Five now brought a whole new meaning to the show. Stack was in town and I knew I'd be putting him to work on Sunday so when he got in on Friday, the least I could do was take him on a ride and feed him. So we headed up the Ortega Hwy for lunch at Hell's kitchen and met Jeff Miller and his cobra on the way into Orange County for the show. The next day we had the show and most of you know how that went. But the next day it was back to the barn to tear Stinky apart. He's been leaking from the tranny and the engine paint was chipping off so it was time to freshen him up a bit. Mark was the right guy for sure! We ripped that engine out and replaced the cam and roller rockers in under 8 hours. Then I repainted it the other day and I've had to completely disassemble the tranny to get to the leak. Thanks Stack for all your help! Can't wait to drive it with the new cam and lifters with the correct timing setup!
http://i897.photobucket.com/albums/ac177/ehansen007/IMG_1444.jpg
http://i897.photobucket.com/albums/ac177/ehansen007/IMG_03742.jpg
http://i897.photobucket.com/albums/ac177/ehansen007/IMG_03762.jpg
http://i897.photobucket.com/albums/ac177/ehansen007/IMG_1446.jpg
http://i897.photobucket.com/albums/ac177/ehansen007/IMG_03792.jpg
http://i897.photobucket.com/albums/ac177/ehansen007/IMG_1465.jpg
http://i897.photobucket.com/albums/ac177/ehansen007/IMG_1466.jpg
Erik
Text me that first pic
stack
ehansen007
05-21-2012, 10:24 AM
Wooohooo! Everything's back together and "she" runs great. It's a bit hard to tell by seat of the pants if she's faster but she is definitely smoother throughout the RPM range. The cam sounds great and gives it a nice lopey idle too. The best part is, no leaks thus far! And, she runs clean now so I don't smell like gas anymore when I get out of the car. The problem had to be the timing. It was way off. I think what happened was that was when I had the guys over to help me start the car initially, my alternator bracket setup was impeding the vacuum line output on the distributor so it wouldn't rotate and I just forgot and never fixed it. FYI, I'm using the HEI distributor so it's larger and more cumbersome. So, "her" name is no longer Stinky and I'll start calling her a "she" since she is more fun to deal with than a 1 year old, smelly, temperamental, boy of a car. :)
I also took the time to change my alignment settings to 7 degress of caster and it seems like it's slowed it down a bit and made the power assist less twitchy . I'll need to get it on the freeway to do a real test though.
Thanks again to Stack for your help and guidance. Couldn't have done it without you bro. I've learned so much just in the last month about this motor and it's been awesome. Funny story, my best friend in High School helped me start wrenching on cars at 16 and we basically rebuilt my 69 bug from the ground up. His name- Mark! So I guess if you need help on your car and you can find a Mark, chances are he knows what he's talking about. :cool:
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Tom Veale
05-25-2012, 09:35 AM
Hi Erik, What cam did you end up using with the new rockers? My Challenge series car had iron heads and stock cam initially. Later I changed to the E303 cam and roller rockers. For that engine, it wasn't so much that it added lots of Hp or Lbs-Ft but that it spread out the power band considerably over the stock cam. If memory serves me right, that engine went above 200 Hp at around 3800 RPM and fell below it at around 5200 rpm. With the E-303 it went above 200 Hp at around 3400 and fell back below it at around 5800. So, while I did gain some Hp and Torque (around 250RWHP and 300 respectively) it was the "drive-ability" of gaining nearly 1000 rpm above 200 Hp that was really sweet. On the race track is where it was most noticable as the improved flexibility of the motor allowed for less shifting.
That said, my '33 has aluminum heads, roller rockers and the same E303 cam. It has a similar profile to the Hp and Torque, but makes around 300 each. That's enough squirt for a 2250 Lb car on "street" tires. The E303 cam does give it a nice lumpy idle and also some excellent burble when engine braking down hills at around 1500 rpm!
Have a great Memorial Day weekend with the Mistress (formerly Stinky). I think this is the opening weekend for a car get-together at the local bowling lanes here in Elkhart Lake, so I think I'll take mine over for Show and Tell with its new louvers and shocks.
Best regards,
ehansen007
05-29-2012, 09:55 AM
Yup, that about sums it up Tom. It's basically still creating more HP through the RPM range rather than topping out at 4K or so and is very smooth. The cam I put in is the trick flow which is pretty similar to the e-303. I do think that some new (or used) heads will make a ton of difference. We'll see what pops up on Craigslist. :)