BBR's 83GT - 552 BBF version 3.0 (at least)

[DanStokes]

I'd like to rent one of those! Don't think I'd use it often enough too own one but it would come in handy from time to time.

[BBR]

How much does it weigh??

This much.

[BBR]

Going back in! Ran out of time today though!

[BBR]

Since I am going down the front exit exhaust rabbit hole, I needed some small mufflers to maybe knock the edge off the sound. There are a lot of bullet type mufflers available, but I didn't think they would probably offer much in the way of sound dampening. I decided to go with a small chambered muffler, so I bought some Flowmaster knock-offs. They are 12" total length, 3" offset inlet, centered outlet.

The plan is to route the left header to the right side with the muffler being under the frame rail and fender area. The right header goes to the left, so the offset inlets will allow the pipes to pass one another and the fender outlets should be in the same place on each side.

[Captain]

On the Shaggin Wagon, with the 460 V8,
my experience.....(they never crap out at home)
at first I thought that with the Alternator mounted where it is at was bad engineering.
But other than laying on your back and using a Motel Parking lot Curb as a Lift, getting one out is relatively easy. (If that long bolt hasn't had time to electrolysis weld to the spacer yet)

Nice mount plate with the OEM water pump
Missing.

[BBR]

Cardboard aided design version 2.0!

I looked at a bunch of 460 alternator mounts last night and It seems like every one of them was flat and used a bunch of spacers to move the bracket out to the alternator's mounting plane. I didn't particularly like any of them.

After I made the cardboard version, I cut this one out of a piece of flat steel with my bandsaw. Then I bent it in the vise with a big hammer. Kapow.

This one is not finished and I'm not sure if I'm going to leave the adjustment arm in that position, but you get the idea.

[BBR]

Yeah I know. Mounting to the front of motor is fine. I wish they would get a little more creative with the pump motor placement, like rotate it 90 degrees up to make them more compact.

Moroso makes on that is a bit more compact, but dang they are expensive.

[SuperBuickGuy]

Balancer and water pump are on. Valve covers and engine mount are getting a new coat of paint. Man, I wish companies would make an electric water pump that does not stick 3 feet off the front of the engine.

I also started looking at how I want to route the fuel lines. Previously I was feeding the rails as a loop. In one rail, looping around to the other, then to the reg. After checking the plugs a few times, it really seemed like the plugs on the second bank were leaner than the first bank. This time, I am going to Y the feed line and feed each rail independently.

they do make remote kits for them... problem is where would you put it beside the front of the motor?

https://www.meziere.com/Products/Cooling-System-Products/Pumps-Electric/Remote-Mount.aspx

[BBR]

Balancer and water pump are on. Valve covers and engine mount are getting a new coat of paint. Man, I wish companies would make an electric water pump that does not stick 3 feet off the front of the engine.

I also started looking at how I want to route the fuel lines. Previously I was feeding the rails as a loop. In one rail, looping around to the other, then to the reg. After checking the plugs a few times, it really seemed like the plugs on the second bank were leaner than the first bank. This time, I am going to Y the feed line and feed each rail independently.

[BBR]

Same manifold. FRPP Victor I bought from Lem Evans. I opened it up to a Dominator flange in 2013 and I installed the bungs when this engine was in the yellow truck back in 2019.

[cstmwgn]

Well that earlier pic looks like a Mafia manifold yet the later ones appears to have your injector bungs installed. Is it a different manifold or did you drill out the cast blanks and install your own bungs?

[BBR]

Big block picstory.

545 - This was a great engine. It ran awesome and made good power. TFS 290 heads, Herbert solid roller. 11.6:1 CR. Ran my first 10 sec. ET with this engine. Ran 10.40's all day long. Changed to a Lunati solid roller and broke it.



552 V.1.0 This one ran even better. TFS 325 heads, same Herbert cam. 10.8:1 CR due to the larger bore and CNC'd chambers. Ran 10.teens easy peasy.



552 V.2.0 This one was a bit disappointing honestly. Stock D3 heads. The 9.5:1 CR and tiny Lunati hyd flat cam and tight converter worked good in the yellow truck with a turbo, but that combo was not so good n/a. It made a supertanker load of torque, but that did not equate to low ET's. Ran bottom 12's on Raceweek. Never ran it at *normal* elevations though. Haha.



552 V3.0 This one should be fun. FRPP Super Cobra Jet heads, Comp XM288H hyd flat tappet cam. 11.6:1 CR. I expect this one to be very much like the original 545, just a little friendlier version with the hyd flat cam and EFI.

[BBR]

More to-do's became ta-dones! I ground off the tips of the injector bung screws that protruded into the bungs, installed the intake, cleaned and installed the timing cover and the engine mount plate.

I also added some tabs to the engine mount bar that bolts to the heads. I wanted them so if I ever needed to pull the timing cover, to change cams, fix a leak, or whatever, the engine could still be supported by the bar.

The OG Motorsport SVO valve covers are making a return appearance. That notch makes it so much easier to access the valve cover bolt by the brake booster.

[DanStokes]

The port blending on the flange looks pretty good. I'm no head porter but it looks like gasses could make that transition easily.

[BBR]

Today's episode of Thirty Minute Mechanic is pretty boring. All I did was bolt the adapters to the heads and replace the set screws that lock the injector bungs in place with allen-head bolts. Really more of a peace of mind thing than anything. I just kept thinking one of those set screws was going to come loose and eventually drop into an intake port.