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Howdy, folks. I figured I'd drop in and say hello. I know it's been awhile, but I've been busy doing stuff in the garage and at the shop. I figured I'd share what has been going on in my garage since the corona virus shutdown and how I've been spending my "social distancing" time.
Long story short, the lack of zinc in today's oil killed the camshaft in my good 440. Thank you EPA.... UGH! However, I have a spare engine to run while I rebuild the good engine (this time, it will have a hydraulic roller cam) and have something to tool around with until I can put the big bullet back in. Unfortunately, the spare engine is a cast crank unit, not a forged crank piece. My Road Runner is equipped with a New Process A-833 transmission. Most all big block Mopars equipped with manual transmissions were also equipped with forged cranks. These engines were internally balanced. Cast Mopar B and RB engines are externally balanced and require a balanced flywheel. As I did not have a flywheel for a cast crank engine, concessions needed to be made.
Thankfully, McCleod offfers a solution. They make a flywheel that is neutrally balanced and can be fitted with a balance weight kit that will balance the flywheel to pretty much any A, LA, B, RB or Magnum application with a six-bolt crankshaft. Pretty cool, right? I thought so, too. So, I bought one for my 440. These flywheels are a bit smaller than the original 143 tooth piece that used an 11" clutch. The new 130-tooth plate supports 10.5" clutches, so I bought a new Ram semi-metallic clutch to go with the McCleod flywheel. Thinking into the future, this flywheel and clutch can be used on the internally balanced 440 simply by removing the balance weights. So far, so good.
Long ago, I purchased a used Lakewood scattershield and block saver for the Road Runner. They fit and worked great with the 143-tooth flywheel and an 11' clutch. Eventually I outfitted it with a Powermaster mini-starter. The entire combination was perfect and I had zero issues with it. The Lakewood bellhousing is set up with two starter mounting locations to accommodate both the larger 143-tooth unit and the smaller 130-tooth wheel. The starter location for the 143-tooth wheel is in the perfect location. However, the location for the 130-tooth flywheel is whacked. It doesn't line up with the starter OR the flywheel. A lot or research revealed that the Lakewood solution was to offer an adapter kit to relocate the starter. The kit is no longer available from Lakewood, separately, so I had to make one out of spare parts. Thankfully, every thing appears to be in proper working order and I was able to bolt everything together and drop it into the car.
I've got just about everything ready to fire up the engine and break in the cam aside from some wiring and break-in oil. I'm hoping to have it all up and running in the next week or two.
Long story short, the lack of zinc in today's oil killed the camshaft in my good 440. Thank you EPA.... UGH! However, I have a spare engine to run while I rebuild the good engine (this time, it will have a hydraulic roller cam) and have something to tool around with until I can put the big bullet back in. Unfortunately, the spare engine is a cast crank unit, not a forged crank piece. My Road Runner is equipped with a New Process A-833 transmission. Most all big block Mopars equipped with manual transmissions were also equipped with forged cranks. These engines were internally balanced. Cast Mopar B and RB engines are externally balanced and require a balanced flywheel. As I did not have a flywheel for a cast crank engine, concessions needed to be made.
Thankfully, McCleod offfers a solution. They make a flywheel that is neutrally balanced and can be fitted with a balance weight kit that will balance the flywheel to pretty much any A, LA, B, RB or Magnum application with a six-bolt crankshaft. Pretty cool, right? I thought so, too. So, I bought one for my 440. These flywheels are a bit smaller than the original 143 tooth piece that used an 11" clutch. The new 130-tooth plate supports 10.5" clutches, so I bought a new Ram semi-metallic clutch to go with the McCleod flywheel. Thinking into the future, this flywheel and clutch can be used on the internally balanced 440 simply by removing the balance weights. So far, so good.
Long ago, I purchased a used Lakewood scattershield and block saver for the Road Runner. They fit and worked great with the 143-tooth flywheel and an 11' clutch. Eventually I outfitted it with a Powermaster mini-starter. The entire combination was perfect and I had zero issues with it. The Lakewood bellhousing is set up with two starter mounting locations to accommodate both the larger 143-tooth unit and the smaller 130-tooth wheel. The starter location for the 143-tooth wheel is in the perfect location. However, the location for the 130-tooth flywheel is whacked. It doesn't line up with the starter OR the flywheel. A lot or research revealed that the Lakewood solution was to offer an adapter kit to relocate the starter. The kit is no longer available from Lakewood, separately, so I had to make one out of spare parts. Thankfully, every thing appears to be in proper working order and I was able to bolt everything together and drop it into the car.
I've got just about everything ready to fire up the engine and break in the cam aside from some wiring and break-in oil. I'm hoping to have it all up and running in the next week or two.
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