276 stroker from 35 years of parts

[GB SISSON]

Originally Posted by cas3

I believe you can just flip the cover of the oil pump over, to get a new surface. Check it with some 320 grit on a flat surface, like your fancy grinder or table saw bed.

Next, use your new toy...er, I mean lathe, and put a center on the crank bolt to use a puller for the gear....carry on

Skip, I see we were talking about two different things here. The cover I was talking about is on the back of the block and your plate is on the pump itself. I still need to take apart a couple of short body pumps I found so I will need this info real soon. I went down to the shop for a half hour to do some investigating now that I know a lot more about that gear. I did find two that were accessable without taking an engine off it's stand. Looks like 3/8-16 on the thread. Hoping to be done in the woodshop by 10 am and get a good day in on the engine project. Stay tuned for more questions for the council of experts.

[cas3]

GB, all fun tools are toys

[GB SISSON]

Got some nice gears yanked out for my woodie's engine. Welded up a quick slide hammer out of junk and it worked great. Pulled 2. One beauty one, one not so much. 2 good crank gears both good came off with a 2 jaw puller that I ground a back cut on so the hooks grabbed in past the teeth. Unfortunately I had a contractor stop by about a project and then one more visitor, so no other progress. Will look around for some of those cam gear bolts this weekend and hope to get started with valves. I see it's common to lather up the cam with white lithium grease. Is stay-lube assembly lubricant good enough?

[51504bat]

Originally Posted by GB SISSON

Got some nice gears yanked out for my woodie's engine. Welded up a quick slide hammer out of junk and it worked great. Pulled 2. One beauty one, one not so much. 2 good crank gears both good came off with a 2 jaw puller that I ground a back cut on so the hooks grabbed in past the teeth. Unfortunately I had a contractor stop by about a project and then one more visitor, so no other progress. Will look around for some of those cam gear bolts this weekend and hope to get started with valves. I see it's common to lather up the cam with white lithium grease. Is stay-lube assembly lubricant good enough?

Over 50 years ago when I built my SBF I used STP. No issues but it was a one off type of thing that worked for a 19 year old know it all (read know nothing) kid. YRMV

[GB SISSON]

Hey, It's sticky and slippery at the same time, sounds like a good choice, but I'd still have to take the hour to drive to town in the morning to get some. I'll probably use the assembly lube on the cam bearings and if I find that the lobes need something else I can paint some on there later. I guess the same goes for installing my lifters in the bores.

[cadillac512]

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Heavy liquid assembly lube is much preferred over any type of grease, which can dry out and restrict oil if not run soon after assembling. As for cam lobes, most likely with the low pressures we see the assembly lube will be fine, but my preferred choice is a moly paste brushed on the lobes and lifter bottoms.

[GB SISSON]

I tend to overthink at times, but I DO have a fresh tube of JD cornhead grease. My springs are at 40 lbs.

[Bored&Stroked]

I bet that ole' cornhead grease would be just fine in your situation. You don't have much spring pressure, so you'll probably be just fine. I use a special lubrication that is designed for cams (has a lot of moly in it) - but I also run a lot more spring pressure and have pretty radical cams for a flathead.

[GB SISSON]

This saves me the trip to town in the suburban. With our island gas prices hovering just south of six bucks/gallon I don't venture into the big city of Eastsound if I don't absolutely need to. There are times when I realize I haven't come down off Mt. Pickett for almost 2 weeks.

[GB SISSON]

My big valve day started out slowly. My valve face grinder came with an aftermarket electric submersible pump for the coolant. I tried it back when I got it and it whirred so I thought was good. Nope, took it apart 3 times, cleaned, inspected, motor spins, nice o ring seal, nylon impeller no damage. Won't pump a drop. So I go to the backup other sioux, same model. Belt drive pump but broken cast iron bracket and no belt. Wasted the morning. After lunch I rigged up a gravity feed. Was a pain refilling and messy. Used tractor hydraulic fluid. So, now I have them all ground and have questions.
Margins. I have read quite a bit but a lot of valve info is for overheads and stuff that's gonna be raced at 8000 rpms etc. Seems intake valves can have fairly thin margins as incoming air cools them. Exhausts want like .10" thick margins. These ar my two thinnest exhaust valves after grinding. I don't see that thickness, but somehow they seem ok. You can see I did a quick lap on one. One thing about the margins confuses me. Does a valve ever get ground around it's circumference to attain a thicker margin or is that self defeating. Seems a thick valve transfers heat to the seat better, and a thin margine burns easier. Do these valves look OK for exhaust valves? The intakes are all about this thick, but their stems measure a little bigger, generally .341 with exhausts .0005 smaller.

[petehoovie]

Originally Posted by GB SISSON

My big valve day started out slowly. My valve face grinder came with an aftermarket electric submersible pump for the coolant. I tried it back when I got it and it whirred so I thought was good. Nope, took it apart 3 times, cleaned, inspected, motor spins, nice o ring seal, nylon impeller no damage. Won't pump a drop. So I go to the backup other sioux, same model. Belt drive pump but broken cast iron bracket and no belt. Wasted the morning. After lunch I rigged up a gravity feed. Was a pain refilling and messy. Used tractor hydraulic fluid. So, now I have them all ground and have questions.
Margins. I have read quite a bit but a lot of valve info is for overheads and stuff that's gonna be raced at 8000 rpms etc. Seems intake valves can have fairly thin margins as incoming air cools them. Exhausts want like .10" thick margins. These ar my two thinnest exhaust valves after grinding. I don't see that thickness, but somehow they seem ok. You can see I did a quick lap on one. One thing about the margins confuses me. Does a valve ever get ground around it's circumference to attain a thicker margin or is that self defeating. Seems a thick valve transfers heat to the seat better, and a thin margine burns easier. Do these valves look OK for exhaust valves? The intakes are all about this thick, but their stems measure a little bigger, generally .341 with exhausts .0005 smaller.

[cadillac512]

Those margins will run just fine. I admit to having ground the diameter of a valve down to get a thicker margin, but only if the seat is low enough on the face to still be nicely placed. You're making me confess to things some guys would shudder at.

[GB SISSON]

Thanks for the vote of confidence. Maybe I should run down to the shop and install all the valve assemblies right now before someone suggests otherwise.
Yesterday when I grabbed the cornhead grease off the shelf there was a bottle of stp behind it. I mixed a cocktail of 2/3 JDC and 1/3 STP in a jar lid and have been applying with a broad tipped badger hair artist's brush 'borrowed' from my wife's hidden stash.
Upon seeing Pete's enlargement (thanks btw) I think I will switch to a finer grit of clover paste as I plan to lap each valve lightly to assure my old equipment is in order and I'm using it correctly..

[Bored&Stroked]

Your seat width looks quite wide on the valve that was lapped. Are you doing multi-angle seats - such that you can control the width and placement of the 45 degree seat?

You want the seat further away from the edge of the valve on the exhausts (similar to the one shown) and the widths should be different between intakes and exhausts.

I shoot for about .060 to .070 on the exhausts and about .045 or so on the intakes. You need a wider seat on the exhaust seats so they don't burn and also to transfer heat. The valve shown has too wide of a seat for my liking.

Typically, you'll see folks talk about 3 seat angles to control location and width - the standard is 15, 45 and 60 - though on flatheads I'll use maybe 30 degrees on the top to set the outer seat location on the valves.

[GB SISSON]

Originally Posted by Bored&Stroked

Your seat width looks quite wide on the valve that was lapped. Are you doing multi-angle seats - such that you can control the width and placement of the 45 degree seat?

You want the seat further away from the edge of the valve on the exhausts (similar to the one shown) and the widths should be different between intakes and exhausts.

I shoot for about .060 to .070 on the exhausts and about .045 or so on the intakes. You need a wider seat on the exhaust seats so they don't burn and also to transfer heat. The valve shown has too wide of a seat for my liking.

Typically, you'll see folks talk about 3 seat angles to control location and width - the standard is 15, 45 and 60 - though on flatheads I'll use maybe 30 degrees on the top to set the outer seat location on the valves.

Thanks, and strangley enough I just came up to the house and read this as I finished lapping all the intakes and labeling them. I thought all the intakes looked much narrower than that one. In fact I was worried they were too narrow. Wife and I are running to town in a few minutes, but I'll get a pic of the 8 I just did and get it off quickly. I kept womdering why that one was wide. Les told me he did a 3 angle valve seat. BRB.

[GB SISSON]

So I noticed that earlier pic WAS an exhaust valve. Here's this morning's intakes, completed 15 minutes ago.

[petehoovie]

Originally Posted by GB SISSON

So I noticed that earlier pic WAS an exhaust valve. Here's this morning's intakes, completed 15 minutes ago.

[Bored&Stroked]

Those valves are perfectly fine . . . carry on!

If you have a lathe, take some 800 grit black/carbide sandpaper and polish the stems. Or use a high-speed drill.

Put some good lubrication on the stems when you put them together - I like a heavy assembly lube. If all you have is corn-head grease, I'm sure it will work just fine.

[GB SISSON]

Originally Posted by Bored&Stroked

Those valves are perfectly fine . . . carry on!

If you have a lathe, take some 800 grit black/carbide sandpaper and polish the stems. Or use a high-speed drill.

Put some good lubrication on the stems when you put them together - I like a heavy assembly lube. If all you have is corn-head grease, I'm sure it will work just fine.

Will do, I have the lathe, the sandpaper, the JD cocktail sauce and the stay-lube assembly goo.

[GB SISSON]

'Adventures in used parts' The saga continues. I found I had a few guides that while they fit the valve nicely, the guide was somewhat loose in the block. 12 were a push through with hard thumb pressure or a few light taps, 4 would pass through with gravity. Following a youtube video by 'Bored and Stroked' I knurled the 4 loose ones in my lathe. There was a learning curve. It does not take much to get them too tight. On those I chucked them back up and with file applied gently, they were perfect. With all valves and guides tight I lapped the exhaust valves keeping the guides paired. The seats are nice and narrow, so maybe my experimental first try got lapped in an intake and an exhaust seat both. Next I found the old style Johnsons will compress down quite readily endwise in the vice to get them back to 40-60 in/lb torque. I have now done about 30 of them, but the 2nd one I did, I gave two oomph tugs on the vice handle instead of one. It was very hard to turn the wrench in fact I grabbed a longer 7/16 to crank. It just got tighter as I cranked it but figured I'd run it in and out a few times to break it in. But then a quite audible CLICK. Maybe I need to affix a 1/2" drive socket to the screw on my vice so I can crank it with my click torque wrench. I told you I overthink things. And finally, Once I got a valve assembly installed I realized I'd need a crank to rotate the cam as had been suggested. I had a galvy pipe cuttoff that was a loose fit on the gear. I slotted it two sides and shouldered it til an old muffler clamp fit. A sleeve of bicycle inner tube serves to protect that nice new cam gear and fill the gap. In retrospect the handle sould have been a few inches longer but it works well. Hoping some of these musings will help a future V8er someday.