Sidewinders

[watermelon]

nice thread, good info here

i can’t add to it because i haven’t been down this road before


watermelon

 

[Glenwood]

 

[threewood]

View attachment 620601

Haha! It's hard enough when the stuff is in your own country but it must be worse living up north.

 

[Glenwood]

Haha! It's hard enough when the stuff is in your own country but it must be worse living up north.

it's par for the course, but it's typical with Mancini and some other vendors unfortunately. Summit and Jegs are very fast, even sending up waaaaayyy up here. lol Too bad they don't sell shims or I'd be driving the 64 by now!
They are probably stalled at the border as the fees are sometimes COD. The tracking is ridiculous though...here's the record where the f*** is the shipment?

Tracking History
June 22, 2018
In Transit to Next Facility,

June 21, 2018
In Transit to Next Facility,

June 19, 2018
In Transit to Next Facility,

June 19, 2018
12:19 pm
Arrived at USPS Facility,
CHICAGO, IL 60668

June 19, 2018
12:15 pm
Arrived at USPS Regional Facility,
CHICAGO IL INTERNATIONAL DISTRIBUTION CENTER

June 18, 2018
3:39 pm
USPS picked up item,
CLINTON TOWNSHIP, MI 48035

June 15, 2018
Pre-Shipment Info Sent to USPS, USPS Awaiting Item,

 

[Glenwood]

if my great, great, great great, great, great, great grandfather had just stayed in Connecticut, I wouldn't be having this problem!

 

[kiwigtx]

Haha! It's hard enough when the stuff is in your own country but it must be worse living up north.

Now you know how I feel.

 

[threewood]

I have an unused set of shims I could send you USPS in the meantime and we can see which one gets there first!

 

[Glenwood]

Thanks for the offer Mark. I'm hopeful the dogsled will pull up any day now.

 

[Glenwood]

Look what big brown brought me
I know what I'm doing tonight, honey-do list be damned!

 

[Glenwood]

Nope, not from Mancini...almost 4 weeks, no tracking updates, no response to my messages, nothing. Gave up and ordered from Hughes before the entire summer is gone which uses UPS, 3 days no issues. Just ridiculous. While I can't blame Mancini for USPS related issues, the customer service needs some work imo. Now let's see if I can get a full refund...

 

[coloradodave]

For those who don't read Hot Rod magazine there is an interesting article in the September 2018 issue on the subject you all are discussing, starting on page 78. More information is always a good thing, and it involves a 440 Mopar!

 

[threewood]

For those who don't read Hot Rod magazine there is an interesting article in the September 2018 issue on the subject you all are discussing, starting on page 78. More information is always a good thing, and it involves a 440 Mopar!

September 2018? I don't have access to the future...synopsis of the article?

 

[Glenwood]

Well this is been a fun process so far. The hughes shims moved the scrub pattern forward as expected. Measured for pushrods which worked to be about 9.1" with the adjuster out only .300" from the rocker.
So I figured it was time to put the intake manifold on. I trial fitted the sandwich of gaskets and valley pan...no way it would fit. The bolt holes are off 2 to 3/16s. This set was bought from Marsh as well and were supposed to be .015 gaskets but are actually .030. I removed the top gaskets and retried the fit and it will work. Frustrating not getting what I asked for. Wrong springs, wrong gaskets even the 12 point intake bolts too short at 1". The RPM needs 1.5 to 1.75". Such is life.
What is everyone using to seal the intake? Finding .015 gaskets locally is impossible. Has anyone just used the valley pan without paper for alum to alum? From what I understand the main issue with aluminum parts is getting a good crush to seal. Could a spray sealant be applied?
Is rtv under the ports necessary to keep oil from being drawn into them? Seems like a fitted pan to eliminate the old style pan might be an option. Anyone try them? These require a head to be removed and both head gaskets be trimmed of the center tab. These cometics have a brass ring to tie the layers together, so I'm not sure if trimming it causes any issues. Back to the honey-do list while I wait for more deliveries grrrrr.

 

[Officer Higgins]

There is a fellow on here who has a picture of a degree wheel as his contract photo i read older post he wrote regarding geometry of the valvetrain, seems very knowledgeable. Seems like there is always a caveat to different heads and rockers on big block mopars or maybe the many who run them successfully just don't post. Always concerned me about changing to much from stock. But if i had more funds it would be awesome to build crazy old mopes for fun.

 

[Ski 61701]

Superperformance gaskets is a great guy to deal with makes quality gaskets in all different thicknesses. Ive had to buy felpro gasket paper and make intake gaskets in a pinch. What I use to cut intake bolt holes and the corners of intake opening is various different caliber of spent shell casings. After I get my basic outline of the gasket cut I'll take a 9mm casing and use it as a punch and make corner cuts. Super simple and nice and crisp edges.

 

[Glenwood]

okay, the beast is alive again. I pulled the heads to clearance the pushrod bores and still found they were tight after doing it twice. It looked like adding some shims to better center the rockers also helped move the push rods away from the bores.
The new pushrods are up close to the rockers at 9.120" long and the adjuster balls out approx .300". It was tricky adjusting the preload because I found that some of the lifters have bled down and the lifter springs will compress easily. Using the twist method of tightening the adjuster while twisting the pr until it tightens won't work. The up and down method while watching the lifter closely seemed to be the way to go. All were set to approx .040" preload or one full turn, which is within the range specified by Lunati.
Before starting I pulled the distributor and gear to prime the engine, turning the crank to look for oiling at the rockers. The right side looked good, the left seems too dry. The engine started easily and had good oil pressure at 75psi down to approx 50psi after it warmed up, maintaining at 190 degrees. What a difference in under-hood temperature with the new shroud and ceramic coated headers. Night and day. Before changing from hp manifolds and no shroud, I could barely put my hand to the carb to adjust the mixture screws, as the air coming off of the fan/rad was so hot it felt like keeping your hand in a hot oven too long. Now seems normal to me, warm but not hot at all.
Oil seems to weep okay from most of the rockers to the valves and pushrods, but the #7 intake seems too dry to me. I'll have to pull the shaft again to see if any of the passages are clogged. The shafts are banana grooved, but I'm wondering if the shaft oil hole and rocker groove could be misaligned.

Here's a few pics and video.

 

[Glenwood]

video

 

[miller]

Maybe just me, Glen, but wow...those adjusters sure do look high in the rockers.

 

[wyrmrider]

you want the ball as high as you can get it without hitting
we've even gone to FORD balls instead of the small Mopar balls or even cups with ball pushrods
oil through the pushrods using Magnum or AMC lifters helps on ball wear
not to worry with spring pressure used here and expected rpm
just make sure your balls get plenty of oil or they smoke

 

[threewood]

Glen, looks and sounds great! On the ones you said looked dry, did you try reving the motor up a bit around cruising rpm to see if they oiled with increased pressure? I think as long as the pushrod cup doesn't hit the rocker arm that the length looks good.