Stroked 383/438" on the dyno

Dave6T4 said:

I have read that a double pumper is not a good choice for a car that will mainly be street driven? Nice thread on the work and results of your dyno pull.

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Double pumpers work just fine on the street with the right converter and gear ratio...

I love it when reactions to old threads appear in my inbox.

So after the whole engine building episode was over, we brought my friend’s car to my house so we could put the engine in. This was the plan all along and we were both looking forward to it.

Getting the car to my house was an adventure. It was barely running. It was also parked in a cramped, subterranean parking garage in the city and it had to be coaxed outside and pushed onto the rented trailer from behind with a van. We used hockey goalie pads to protect the car tail panel and the van grille. Ridiculous.

To top it off, 10 minutes from my house some idiot stopped short in front of me to allow people standing on a sidewalk to cross the street and I rear-ended him. Yes, my fault but his maneuver caused it. Hard to panic stop 12,000 lbs. from 35mph within 15ft. No airbag deployment and little damage to the SUV in front but my entire front end was pushed in. Eventually I managed to limp the truck home and somehow got the car into my garage. Not a fun day.

A few days later I put it up on the lift and realized the car was absolutely wasted. Rust was literally raining down on my head. I’m not exaggerating when I say it should be in a junkyard. I knew it was rough but it was way worse than I anticipated. I put a hole in the rear floorboards just tapping it with a hammer. The whole rear clip was just gone.

After that assessment it occurred to me that putting a 450hp engine in this car was a bad idea. My friend doesn’t know his *** from his elbow so I felt that I needed to dissuade him from following through with the plan to put the engine in the car - it was unsafe at a minimum and irresponsible to not only him but his wife and possibly others on the road around him. I told him
I wouldn’t do it.

What happened next was really upsetting because that decision basically ended a 30+ year friendship. He went off on me as if I was his worst enemy. In 5 minutes he trashed me every way you could think of. This was all happening without understanding that I was trying to keep him safe. I tried to explain but he wasn’t hearing it. I get that it was a tough pill to swallow and maybe not my place to make that call but you figure a real friend would at least discuss it and understand it was coming from caring about him.

But that didn’t happen. He accused me of ripping him off and pulling the rug out from underneath him. My wife was shocked and really sad as the whole attack came out if nowhere and was totally unhinged. This is after spending the better part of two years of him coming to my house so I could teach him how to build the engine, giving him my time, space and use of my tools, almost $1K worth of parts free of charge and eventually wrecking my truck while carting his shitbox to my house. I was the one who suggested all that because I thought it would be something fun to do with my friend. Apparently he didn’t see it that way.

After that, I stuck the motor and trans in the car and told him to get it the **** out of my garage and that I wasn’t helping him
do it. I left the converter in the back seat so he couldn’t drive it. He found someone to come take it away and we didn’t talk for over a year.

Word got out to our mutual friends and noone could believe how it all unfolded. Eventually he came groveling back to me in tears and apologized. We buried the hatchet but things were different. I won’t ever offer my time to him again.

A fee months later I heard through the grapevine that he found someone local to him to finish the job and they got the car running. I’ve seen him driving it since and it seems OK. The valvetrain is noisy but I could care less what happens to the engine now. He has done nothing to address the rust or any of the rotted running gear. He sort of jokes that it’s all fine but I won’t ride in the car and apparently his wife won’t either. Chances are nothing bad will happen but I’d rather not be around to experience it if it does.

Funny how life works sometimes.

rmchrgr said:

I love it when reactions to old threads appear in my inbox.

So after the whole engine building episode was over, we brought my friend’s car to my house so we could put the engine in. This was the plan all along and we were both looking forward to it.

Getting the car to my house was an adventure. It was barely running. It was also parked in a cramped, subterranean parking garage in the city and it had to be coaxed outside and pushed onto the rented trailer from behind with a van. We used hockey goalie pads to protect the car tail panel and the van grille. Ridiculous.

To top it off, 10 minutes from my house some idiot stopped short in front of me to allow people standing on a sidewalk to cross the street and I rear-ended him. Yes, my fault but his maneuver caused it. Hard to panic stop 12,000 lbs. from 35mph within 15ft. No airbag deployment and little damage to the SUV in front but my entire front end was pushed in. Eventually I managed to limp the truck home and somehow got the car into my garage. Not a fun day.

A few days later I put it up on the lift and realized the car was absolutely wasted. Rust was literally raining down on my head. I’m not exaggerating when I say it should be in a junkyard. I knew it was rough but it was way worse than I anticipated. I put a hole in the rear floorboards just tapping it with a hammer. The whole rear clip was just gone.

After that assessment it occurred to me that putting a 450hp engine in this car was a bad idea. My friend doesn’t know his *** from his elbow so I felt that I needed to dissuade him from following through with the plan to put the engine in the car - it was unsafe at a minimum and irresponsible to not only him but his wife and possibly others on the road around him. I told him
I wouldn’t do it.

What happened next was really upsetting because that decision basically ended a 30+ year friendship. He went off on me as if I was his worst enemy. In 5 minutes he trashed me every way you could think of. This was all happening without understanding that I was trying to keep him safe. I tried to explain but he wasn’t hearing it. I get that it was a tough pill to swallow and maybe not my place to make that call but you figure a real friend would at least discuss it and understand it was coming from caring about him.

But that didn’t happen. He accused me of ripping him off and pulling the rug out from underneath him. My wife was shocked and really sad as the whole attack came out if nowhere and was totally unhinged. This is after spending the better part of two years of him coming to my house so I could teach him how to build the engine, giving him my time, space and use of my tools, almost $1K worth of parts free of charge and eventually wrecking my truck while carting his shitbox to my house. I was the one who suggested all that because I thought it would be something fun to do with my friend. Apparently he didn’t see it that way.

After that, I stuck the motor and trans in the car and told him to get it the **** out of my garage and that I wasn’t helping him
do it. I left the converter in the back seat so he couldn’t drive it. He found someone to come take it away and we didn’t talk for over a year.

Word got out to our mutual friends and noone could believe how it all unfolded. Eventually he came groveling back to me in tears and apologized. We buried the hatchet but things were different. I won’t ever offer my time to him again.

A fee months later I heard through the grapevine that he found someone local to him to finish the job and they got the car running. I’ve seen him driving it since and it seems OK. The valvetrain is noisy but I could care less what happens to the engine now. He has done nothing to address the rust or any of the rotted running gear. He sort of jokes that it’s all fine but I won’t ride in the car and apparently his wife won’t either. Chances are nothing bad will happen but I’d rather not be around to experience it if it does.

Funny how life works sometimes.

Click to expand...

Sad to hear of a deterioration of a friendship, over a f'ing car.

Damn , that was a tough read

An engine

Car accident

Friendship

Yes , my valve train is noisy with that camshaft also

Thanx for the update
Best of luck going forward

Dave6T4 said:

Sad to hear of a deterioration of a friendship, over a f'ing car.

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Like I said, we've since patched things up but that episode will always be a stain. Sometimes relationships with people are one-sided. It was probably against my better judgement to encourage him to go through with the whole idea in the first place but like I said, I just thought it would be something fun to do with a friend. I enjoy sharing my knowledge but I'm afraid most of what I taught him went in one ear and out the other.

This guy is not someone who really has his **** together. He didn't (and still doesn't) understand the cost of the car hobby and was always trying to cut corners. That was a real problem and made things difficult when we were gathering parts. Getting him to understand the benefit of buying decent things was like pulling teeth. That was part of the reason I ended up giving him so much stuff because I wanted the project to turn out OK whether he understood that or not.

This guy and his wife have no kids and he still lives the rock'n'roll lifestyle into his mid 50s as he's a drummer in bands. He can barely boil water so the there is a real disconnect with him and anything mechanical. He lives in the city and has no garage and none of his own tools so in a way he had no business doing anything this involved. I think he was trying to impress his hipster wife who was into the rat rod scene and used to hang out with these tattooed, pseudo-greaser types. Those clowns and their half-assed shitboxes don't impress me at all but I guess when you don't know any better they might seem like heroes.

I do think the motor turned out OK for what it was. It wasn't built to get every last bit of power out of it. I was surprised that it went to 6,000 rpm. The torque curve was flat which is usually a sign of a decent running combo. Being lean in the mid RPM range didn't really seem to have too much of an effect on it overall. Not my problem either way as I was done with it after he went off on me.

If it were my build, I would have started with a 400 block. He wanted a 383 though so not my call. I would have also measured for custom pushrods, used a bigger hydraulic roller cam vs. a flat tappet and would have paid for more involved machine work like an align hone and having the block decked (if needed). And like I said back when I posted this thread, this combo would have been a good candidate for a Holley Sniper system. His budget just didn't allow for those details though so you work with what you have. It's more than enough for him and he loves it so mission accomplished.

Quite an adventuristic lesson learned.

HEMI-ITIS said:

Quite an adventuristic lesson learned.

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LOL. It was. I just refer him over Benny Beans now.