406 install- f i n a l l y
 

Motor's in. Runs strong. Choppy idle, you might say. I'm ordering a vacuum can tonight.

Some specs:

406 block decked to 9.0 inches
Enginetech composite head gasket
Scat 9000 crank
Scat Forged end cap rods
KB dish (12 cc) hyper-whatever pistons (I can't say worchestershire, either.)
WP Sportman2 heads (2.02/1.6) polished, lite porting
Proform roller rockers 1.5:1
Comp tech pushrods, stock length
Stealth-like intake (port matched to head) I forget what it is, for now.
Stock carb- Q Jet for now. Looking very seriously at Jet perf stage 2 800 CFM spread bore with mechanical secondaries.
Comp cams 240 @ .050 on 104 lsa (please refer to comment above about vac can & choppy idle)
OLD flowmaster long tubes 1 5/8 primaries, 3" collectors (Temporary. I'll run 'em til they rust through, which oughta be about next week.)
New headers are 1 3/4, 3 1/2 collectors Hedmans for heads with angle plugs.

Started at 3 p.m. on Saturday. Had it bolted in by 1 a.m.
Painted most of the brackets and re-used stuff. (You'll see that the water pump is GM blue, while the motor is Chevy blue. Don't care, I'm switching out the pump for an electric model later. Wire brushed all the steel lines and replaced or wiped down rubber hoses. Scraped out 24 years of sand, mud, oil from cross-member under engine.

New plug wires coming, when I get the new headers on. New headers are 5" longer than old. Exhaust wouldn't fit. Put on old headers. Had to torch/dimple #1 primary at #3 spark plug, to make room for shorty plugs. (Accel 276S)

Had a lot of trouble keeping it running although it fired right up. Pretty loud on open headers. Now, through mufflers, it pops car alarms everywhere. Not loud, but growls.

This engine is NASTY. Coming from a 305, this thing far out-shadows that little blue gem with two plug wires off. Idle is bad, hard to keep running. Needs lots of tuning, now that it's in. Mostly, it needs a bigger carb than the model that sat on the 305.

Now the fun begins.

And so the pix are coming. Images are too big & I'm too tired to fix 'em right now, but I wanted to get this up.

I'm looking for carb input. I didn't want to spend money now, because I'd like to go with an IR system later. The 800 CFM Jet is an affordable amount of CFMs w/ mech secondaries.

Thank you for all of your help over the years on getting this project together. (Jim, I think you're right, the 104 LSA is really tight for a street engine, maybe too much.)

Re: 406 install- f i n a l l y
 

:cong: it aught to be a beast. 104 is a little hairy for the street but it will be fun:cool:

RJ22...:)

Re: 406 install- f i n a l l y
 

Thanks, RJ. Yes, it's nasty and lumpy. Wants to GO. I feel like the pied piper driving around town with the car alarms. Blip-blip. Blip-blip.

Almost peed my pants when I first fired it up!

I'm laying off for another 300-400 miles.

I drove it home from Spring Grove. Only one small, easily-corrected leak at the tranny cooler line. No other leaks. Ran at 160 degrees, went up 10-15 more in rush hour in Philly. Got about 17 mpg? (700R4, 2.73, staying off the gas pedal)

Thanks-

-Todd

Re: 406 install- f i n a l l y
 

Congrats!! Bet it feels good to get it in & running, I can't wait to get my 383 dropped in. We're gonna need more pics & a sound clip ya know!!!:lol:

Your driveability will be much improved once you get a higher stall converter and ditch those 2.73 gears. That cam will want at least 3.42's & 2200-2400ish stall. Don't be too nice to her during break in either, I'm a firm believer that you need to "beat" on it a little to get the cylinder pressures up to properly seat the rings (no max rpm runs for awhile though).

Re: 406 install- f i n a l l y
 

Already there wiith the converter. I'm running a level 2 BTO 700R4 w/ a 2500 stall. I'm also talking to Crossy about a 3.42 posi for my stock-height tires.

I did get on it a bit, on the way home (just one evasive acceleration). Goes from 55-80 in a blink.