Very nice. It will be interesting to see to what it boils down with the new cam. That one will definitively have a poor idle.

Just been taking the measurements of how far below deck my pistons sit. With a bit of luck the deck machining will be minimal.

So, you have been running that engine for four seasons. Respect!
Nothing broken and steady improvement. Nice.

If you find time and you are willing to share some pic of the heads and combustion chambers - that would be nice.

 

When I get the heads disassembled and cleaned up I'll take some photos for you. AFR heads have CNC machined ports and combustion chambers and lightweight stainless steel valves (2.05" intakes). They are a thing of beauty.

 

Here's some photos I found on the AFR web site of my heads. 195cc SBC Street Cylinder Head Mine are the 65cc P/N 1034.

 

Oh nice heads. Too bad not available for the V6. Gives you compression in the 10:1 range I would guess, depending on the pistons.

 

My pistons are 4cc valve relief flat tops and they are 0.020 down in my standard deck height block. CR comes out to 10.3:1.

Been doing a bit more work over the holidays. Trial installed my new cam and checked for cam lobe to big end of rod clearance (necessary with 383 stroker) - it was 0.040"+ (I cut/made a conveniently shaped cardboard shim with a handle out of 2 layers of inserts used behind carbon copies in notebooks - 0.020" each). I then installed (weak) "checking springs" on #1 intake and #1 exhaust valve, put head back on with a couple of bolts/old gasket, installed a couple of lifters/pushrods/1.5 rockers, and checked piston to valve clearance by turning degree wheel to indicated position, setting dial indicator to zero, and depressing the valve until it contacted piston before reading the clearance. Then moved crank 2° and did it again and again throughout the known valve clearance problem range.

The piston to valve clearance per dial indicator with checking springs on my new cam and adjusting valves to 0.024" cold (cylinder #1 only) is as follows. I'll check all exhaust valves
before I am done:

Exh
15 BTDC = 0.176"
13 BTDC = 0.169"
11 BTDC = 0.163"
9 BTDC = 0.160"
7 BTDC = 0.160"
5 BTDC = 0.162"
3 BTDC = 0.166"
1 BTDC = 0.173"

Int
1 ATDC = 0.070"
3 ATDC = 0.062"
5 ATDC = 0.059"
6 ATDC = 0.056"
7 ATDC = 0.059"
9 ATDC = 0.068"
11 ATDC = 0.080"
13 ATDC = 0.092"
15 ATDC = 0.105"

A little tight on the intake valve, but should be OK as valve is chasing the piston at a time when the valve won't be floating, and a solid lifter cam will never pump up the lifter. If a spring breaks - all bets are off anyways! sure am glad it's not a hydraulic cam. 0.056" is not much room for lifters to pump up before mass destruction occurs.

 

Checked my rod and main bearings and there seemed to be some surface fatigue (per Mahle bearing diagnosis guide). Note the irregular spots of missing bearing material from cracking and then flaking off. These were cheapie King bearings that came with my rotating assembly from Eagle. Had the crankshaft polished and then went back together with new Clevite HN series bearings. Left the pistons in the bores and spun the crankshaft in, so not to disturb the position of the rings.

 

Cleaned up the ports and combustion chambers and valves with a nylon (for aluminum) or brass scrub brush (for valves) and solvent. yeah, I know I used the brass brush in the aluminum chamber a little. Checked valve face sealing with blue machinist's dye. Checked spring height to make sure was 1.800" under the spring retainer. Installed new valve seals. Installed only outer springs (this is the BEST valve spring tool in the universe) to lower spring pressure for camshaft break-in.

Next to degree the camshaft carefully and check intake valve to piston clearance on all cylinders.

 

Thanks for the update.
Nice heads. Interesting, that we end up on the same spots. I use pretty much the same pistons for my build. 0.020 below deck with an 0.027" MLS gasket will yield me 10.3:1 compression. I hope that the deck only needs minimum machining, then the compression should end up being 10.7:1. Should produce a nice squish even with the OEM heads. Too bad that only BRODIX makes aluminium heads for the V6 which are a direct fit. The Brodix heads have way too big ports for a low rpm torque engine.

Nice detail. What do you use as a plastic cap for the valve stems? I guess you push the valves through the valve seals with this not to damage the seals?

Interesting that one of your intake valves sits so much higher (away) from the piston. Old re-cut seat?

Nice work!

Have a good start into 2019!

Cheers

Marc

 

Yes, you use the plastic protectors to protect the seals from the grooves in the valves. I got a couple of the protectors from my machine shop. I think they come with sets of seals. Unfortunately I bought mine individually and didn't get any.

If you are talking about the photo with the valve with the height gauge, it's just an optical illusion caused by cheapo cellphone camera.

 

im curious about the front springs youre running. I have a 89 S10 set up very similar to yours. Right now im in the process of upgrading the front suspension, tubular upper control arms, drag shocks, solid lower bushings... My question is what moroso part number are you using?