The first "Hawk-Rod" resurrection, Roadkill style

[qkcuda]

Hawk, my buddy who I used to race with in the 80's still has his 73 Runner. It was also a 340 auto car, and he is the original owner. He always used to kid me about how I should get a real car....a B body. He moved recently and this is the first time the car had seen daylight in about 20 years.

 

[Ghostrider 67]

:::::::THIS THREAD SHOULD BE A STICKY!!:::::::

 

[68gtxman]

Glad to know that you’re enjoying your retirement Hawk! @hsorman

 

[HawkRod]

Hawk, my buddy who I used to race with in the 80's still has his 73 Runner. It was also a 340 auto car, and he is the original owner. He always used to kid me about how I should get a real car....a B body. He moved recently and this is the first time the car had seen daylight in about 20 years.

View attachment 1075702

I like the blue and white stripe!
Looks like it is painted - tell him to get moving on it, the hard part is done!!!

 

[qkcuda]

It's now become a running joke. I don't know if he will ever finish it. All the sheet metal was replaced and the paint done at least 20 years ago.

 

[HawkRod]

(OK, starting to catch up here, so now the posts will go slower.)

The block still needs boring and honing. My hope is I can get to that next week but we will see how that goes.

Meanwhile, my Scat stroker kit arrived.

As I stated, this is a budget build, and for a car meant for the street. So the stroker crank is a 4.00" stroke but it is cast.
Gasp! What???
Yeah, guess what: a cast crank can easily take the 500 or less horsepower and 6000 RPM this street motor will see, so there is no need for a forged unit at a lot of extra cost. Crank looked nice with radiused edges. I haven't measured anything yet though...

Similarly, I have hypereutectic pistons. These will also do everything I need from a power and performance perspective. These are .030" over for a 340, so in other words for a 4.070" bore. With these pistons, I can probably go with .002" clearance between the piston and bores; forged would require .004" or so since forged pistons "grow" more with heat.
The pistons look nice. I did a preliminary weighing of the pistons and had a maximum difference of 1 gram between the lightest and heaviest piston. 3 of them were at the lightest weight, so I need to grind out 0.5 gram out of 2 pistons and 1.0 gram out of 3. (Later on, once I balance the whole reciprocating assembly, all these weights will become important. These are OK out of the box, but I will strive to make them even better so I get a super smooth and nice running engine.)

Finally, on to the rods. I measured the rods from the Skat stroker kit. WTF! They are over spec out of the box! There is no taper, however, so that is good, but they range from just at the high end of the spec to .0002" too loose. These would probably survive in the engine just as they are, but I DON'T WANT THEM .0002" too loose from spec!!! THIS is why you trust NOTHING and measure everything, even brand new stuff. As the saying goes, trust but verify...
So I will need to tighten them up a bit to get them where they need to be. Damn it. More work that shouldn't be needed, but it will likely be a bigger hassle to exchange them and hope for a better set.

By the way, besides the slight oversize, the rods look really nice with ARP fasterers and seem to be well made.

The kit also came with rings and bearings and other parts for the reciprocating assembly. However, I haven't spent any time looking at that stuff yet. Too soon!

Hawk

 

[Ghostrider 67]

View attachment 1075829 View attachment 1075830 View attachment 1075831
Glad to know that you’re enjoying your retirement Hawk! @hsorman

Stole all three....

 

[HawkRod]

OK, so one place where the budget took a bit of a hit...

I had originally planned to reuse my cast iron 340 heads. They had been upgraded to the 2.02 intake valves and I had ported them fairly extensively. They are actually decent heads for a small block. However, they still can't flow like a modern day aluminum head will flow, especially for 416 cubic inches, plus you get weight savings right out of the box.

So I pulled out my wallet and bought some aluminum heads. But, I went the cheap route, and bought some heads my father-in-law found made by a company called Renegade Racing Components. I can't provide any comparisons to Trick Flow or Edelbrock, but all in I should be able to build the Renegade heads for much less than the other two brands. So let's give them a try! Below are to quick pictures of the bare heads:

I threw in two valves to quickly check fit, and all looks good so far. Also, the machine work looks decent too. Of course, some more detailed measurements and work is in order to verify as they are assembled, but I'll post more about that as the build continues.

One important consideration, and this is why measuring EVERYTHING is important: Most 340 pistons come out of the deck of the block. Look at the quench area of these new heads. Forgetting about head gasket thickness, these heads would obviously not work as the top of the piston would hit the head. Once we get further along, a piston and rod will need to be mounted into my block and checked carefully. From there, it is likely that I will need to shave the top of the pistons to get the compression ratio I want, along with the clearances I need. Too early yet to know what will be needed; first we need to measure and see what we got once it all starts coming together.

Hawk

 

[kiwigtx]

:::::::THIS THREAD SHOULD BE A STICKY!!:::::::

It is now. Another epic Hawk build in the making.

Don't forget the payback for becoming sticky.. ...

 

[HawkRod]

It is now. Another epic Hawk build in the making.

Don't forget the payback for becoming sticky.. ...

Crap. Now you guys are putting pressure on me!

OK. I promise I will do the best I can!!!

Hawk

 

[Builderguy]

 

[HawkRod]

In post #16 I talked about getting the deck height the same for all cylinders. This gauge is used to check deck height.

The big "T" at the top sits on the top of the block, and the rod extends down to the precise 2" solid metal bar that extends through the mains. Moving the gauge back and forth until you get the smallest measurement (meaning the end of the rod is at the top of the curve of the bar). All should be the same. Per se, the actual measurement is not important, although it can be easily achieved by measuring the distance with the gauge and adding 1" (half the bar diameter). The Mopar small block deck height is 9.60". Mine measured at approximately 9.586", or about .014" below spec. This is OK and expected once you deck a block.

 

[HawkRod]

Unfortunately, I was unable to get my block bored this week. They have been doing major work on the intersection outside my father-in-law's shop, and they had to turn all power off for about 1/2 a day. So I didn't have time to bore the block.

Here is a bit of what is coming:
First, the bore and piston sizes are of course related. In my case, I ordered .030 over pistons for a 340. A 340 has a 4.040" standard bore, so .030 over is 4.070". If you look carefully at the picture below, you can see .070 etched into the piston.

So what actual size are the pistons? They can't be the same size as the bore or there will not be sufficient clearance between the bore and piston.

In my case, I have hypereutectic pistons. These can have a tighter clearance than a forged piston; some say as tight as .0015". If you look at the picture you can see a "dot" where there is no black coating. There is one on the other side too. This is the general place you want to measure piston width. Since these pistons have a coating on them, they provide a handy spot to allow for an accurate measurement.

An initial measurement of one piston measured 4.0675" (they should be very consistent, but this will be verified as we go further).
Doing the math: 4.0700" (bore) - 4.0675" (piston) = .0025". Two and a half thousands clearance is ideal for my build, so this confirms that the finish size of my bore should be 4.070"

Getting the bores of my block to that size requires both boring and honing. These are two separate steps. So first the block will be bored. Boring will be done by this machine:

This is a fairly simple and unassuming machine, but it very precisely bores cylinders based on the deck of the block. This is why (in post #16), we worked to get the block completely square, flat, and with consistent deck height for all cylinders. Bores in a block are supposed to be perfectly orthogonal (90 degrees) to the crank and deck surface. In actuality, they can be off a couple of thousands, depending on the operator and/or the machine on the day it was bored.

My father-in-law likes to hone the last .005" in a block. So we will bore my block to 4.065". Since my block has a (worn) standard bore, we will be cutting .025" using the boring machine (4.040" + .025" = 4.065").

Once the the block has been bored to 4.065", it will need to be honed. Honing puts the nice, smooth crosshatch pattern into the bores. More on honing later.

Hawk

 

[zyzzyx]

So Hawk, I see that you have a nice little Quick-Way there! Been looking at those for awhile
but everyone wants a fortune for them! Do you have a power hone, or are you going to do it by hand?
I have a Sunnen Heavy Duty AN hone and have honed engines before, but I hate it when I'm right in
the middle of doing a cylinder and I go too deep and hit a main gusset! OUCH! Didn't know your
Father-in-law had a shop! Lucky Guy! Sounds like you've got everything under control. Good luck!
We'll all be watching!

 

[HawkRod]

So Hawk, I see that you have a nice little Quick-Way there! Been looking at those for awhile
but everyone wants a fortune for them! Do you have a power hone, or are you going to do it by hand?
I have a Sunnen Heavy Duty AN hone and have honed engines before, but I hate it when I'm right in
the middle of doing a cylinder and I go too deep and hit a main gusset! OUCH! Didn't know your
Father-in-law had a shop! Lucky Guy! Sounds like you've got everything under control. Good luck!
We'll all be watching!

Yes, my father-in-law has a full speed shop; he's been in business building high performance engines since 1968. I am merely an apprentice, so I'm learning as I go along. While I do that, I am posting on this thread.

All the machines I am using are at his shop. He has a large power hone that will hone on it's own. I am not sure yet of the specific setup for that, but it assures (when setup properly of course!) that you do not go too deep. More on that to come once I get to that part of the build!

 

[Mopars & Missiles]

I can see Hawk's new career taking shape now......

Father-in-law teaches Hawk all his tricks of the trade,
Father-in-law eventually retires completely from work,
Hawk buys into Father-in-laws machine shop,
Hawk has new career in performance engine building now that he's retired,
Hawk's new business is formed......

Hawk's Mopar Performance Engines




Sign me up, I'll be your first customer!

 

[HawkRod]

I can see Hawk's new career taking shape now......

Father-in-law teaches Hawk all his tricks of the trade,
Father-in-law eventually retires completely from work,
Hawk buys into Father-in-laws machine shop,
Hawk has new career in performance engine building now that he's retired,
Hawk's new business is formed......

Hawk's Mopar Performance Engines




Sign me up, I'll be your first customer!

Haha - thanks, but let's not get ahead of ourselves!!!

First we have to see how this little stroked 340 will run!

 

[Builderguy]

Hawk,
I just moved my '73 340 out of my shop and over to the shop where I was going to rebuild it. BUT; since you have access to all these professional tools and experience (and you need practice to hone your skills), to what address would you like me to ship my motor to? No rush mind you, two months from now would be just fine. I want to be the first customer for a "Hawked up motor"!

 

[Mopars & Missiles]

......I want to be the first customer for a "Hawked up motor"!

Sorry, better get in line, I've already got "Dib's" on first customer!

 

[HawkRod]

Hawk,
I just moved my '73 340 out of my shop and over to the shop where I was going to rebuild it. BUT; since you have access to all these professional tools and experience (and you need practice to hone your skills), to what address would you like me to ship my motor to? No rush mind you, two months from now would be just fine. I want to be the first customer for a "Hawked up motor"!

Sorry, better get in line, I've already got "Dib's" on first customer!

I appreciate the confidence, but I have to hone (no pun intended) my skills first! I'm not sure which part of apprentice engine builder you two missed!!! I am nowhere near an expert - just learning, and I'm trying to suck up all the knowledge I can!

Note also that I am getting the family special price for the use of the shop. That also means that from a priority perspective, my engine is low on the list! So expect some updates to this build to be slow...