Quote:
Originally Posted by JSeery
Now the next question, and GOSFAST already brought it up, is who set the spring height and pressure and how did they do it?
"I'm assuming you haven't gotten anywhere near the spring hgt/pressure requirements yet? I've posted up here many times against using the Chevy length valves and am in the middle (still) of setting up an "adjustable spring-seat-register" to deal with this very issue. Comp Cam's is holding us up at the moment with mfg the necessary spring seat locators for the Flathead guides."
The only reason I bring it up is if your going to all of this trouble with the clearance issue might want to be sure the spring height and pressure is correct.
I have never heard of anyone recommending used lifters on a new cam. The used lifters might explain your variation in lifter height. Used lifters can be resurfaced but I thought they were not a flat surface and had a slight curve to them. I'm not a used parts (in this area) type of guy, need an engine builder with used lifter experience to jump in on this one!
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Ok, so I wasn't trying to turn this into a shop-bashing thread. There were a handful of things that were overlooked, and the general quality of the work was not the best, and some of the advice given may not have been right. I've had to take the block/crank/rods into a different machine shop to have a some of the work redone. To be fair, I really screwed up, and told the first shop that price was a primary consideration and the car was a "build to sell". This has ALL been a big learning curve for me in what not to do when you build an engine.
As for the lifters, they HAVE BEEN resurfaced. That said, they are all over the place in terms of height, but when the initial valve install was done, the valve stem lengths were matched (sort of) to the lifter lengths I have in the engine. The majority of them are within a few thousands, and that's why I was able to help my valve adjustment by switching a few of them around.
The springs were single springs with a progressive wind sourced from Egge, and I was charged $40. I can't find ANY spring set on Egge's site for $40, so
I'm not sure what I have. I asked for Zephyr springs, as I'd read a few articles that THAT was the hot setup for a street flathead with an Isky 88. I've read a few sites that say the same, but they ALL mention shimming the spring for a 2.00" installed height, and these springs have NO shims. I will sort all of this out.
I've had to scrap and start over so much of this project at this point, that I'm probably nearing $5,000 in for parts and machine shop fees on a basic street flathead that's still in pieces. I'd like to not scrap the valvetrain at this point, if possible. There's a lot that's NOT ideal on this build, but it will work, and work well. Example, I've got four ring pistons and the heavy wrist pins that Egge sells that add almost a pound to the total reciprocating weight of the engine...should have read the book FIRST! But now I've got a crankshaft balanced to those heavy parts, so I'm NOT going to do that over.