Had to pull the carbs to get it in.
She's finally home and now that my leg is out of the cast I'm about ready to start work on getting it all back together.

Nothing like a bunch of car porn to get your workweek started. It looks absolutely stunning!!!
I'd be calling in sick if I had that in my garage.

be careful,that suv don't have those optional roof mounted wheels so you can drive them when they flip over...lol....

Thanks for the photos. I will be pulling my original 400 back out this weekend and mounting it semi-permanently to a wheeled engine dolly for prosperity.

The problem was that my new "universal" dolly did not have any provisions to bolt the engine to it, so your stand there showed me some excellent mounting locations/methods.

Shes Stunning

RA V? I don't see round port heads. Even though, that's still a wonderful sight. Your a lot farther along than I am.

No round ports... Humph!
Hey Tom...

LOL

tff ho428!

can i ask what the cost involved in that engine build was? looking into doing the engine while winter hits. that way im one step closer to getting things rolling again. with or without a front clip and interior!

That looks awesome. Who built it? What's under those tall valve covers? Can you post your build stats?

Man you hit the big-time, saw-weet mota'!!!!

I want one i want one

I don't have everything with me but here's the specs I recall:
RA-V 4 bolt 3" main block
Forged 4" Stroke Crank
Eagle H beam rods 6.635"
Custom BRC Pistons dished to get 9.8:1
#48 RA-III 72cc heads, Ported extensively
SS Valves
Comp Roller Cam
Comp Hyd roller lifters
Roller chain
Roller 1.5:1 rockers
MSD Distributor, fiber gear
Melling 60 PSI oil pump
Edlebrock dual quad intake
Matched Carter 500 cfm carbs
Mini Starter
Aluminum Water pump
Hays Flywheel
On the test stand it winds up really quick. Very responsive for a big engine.

I already had the engine, I used my block, heads and intake. We replaced everything else. Kens Speed shop in Tampa Fl built it for me.
Cost? Under 8 grand, barely.

According to the desk top dyno here's what it should do.
RPM----HP----Tq
3500---358---538
4000---416---546
4500---467---545
5000---507---530
5500---519---495
6000---512---448

I love that cross over at 5000 RPM, with the M-22 and 4:11 gears, this is gonna be fun.

WOW.
Now what is a possible 0-60 time on something like that?

Is the crank Eagle as well? Just curious, I'm thinking of a complete rotating assembly from them for my WT block.

These forged stroker cranks are sold under both Scat or Eagle names I think. They're made in China at the same foundery no matter who's name is on it though. One thing I ran into is the balance on mine was off a good bit. Ken said he's seen a few that way. Most times the diameter tolerence is spot on but I had one rod journal width that was a tad narrow so we had to re-check rod side clearance.
They don't just drop in either, a slight notching of the block is required and they use BBC rods which can require custom Pistons depending on what rod length and bore you choose.
I went with the 4" stroke, that gave me a Bore Stroke ratio of about 1:1 and the rod length I picked gave me a Rod length to Stroke ratio of 1.65:1 that made for a very balanced engine. Longer rods and strokes are available though.

why don't y'all just buy a funny car?

Not all Firebirds were meant to be 350 2bl automatics with vinyl tops and hub caps.

But that's just me.

DAM SKIPPY!

Your gon'a have a every time you drive it.
Depending on the cam and rear gears, you'l have a hard time keeping rpm's down.
4" cranks rock!

[censored],i love to go down the 1/4 mile track in 9 seconds.anything less is a waste of money.either race or drive.

Pulled a valve cover last night, just looking things over so I took a pic. I hope I can get back to working on it soon, to much vacation residue to get caught up on right now. Then I'm going to a Skip Barber Racing session Saturday at Road Atlanta, working at the ski lake Sunday, maybe next week?
Being free of that cast means I don't want to sit still very long.

Another question Gordon. Do the roller rockers require the roller cam? I like what I see, and since I'm doing a head swap...

I have a set of fresh #48's with stock springs going on when I have all my chickens lined up.

Roller lifters are required with a roller cam; roller rockers can be used with any cam.

If you're just gonna do a head swap I'd just add the roller rockers if you want them, you can get 1.5, 1.6 or 1.65 1.5's worked better with my cam, they also make a better screw in stud instead of the tapered stock one. I forget which he said it was though.
For a nice warmed over street engine I'd just use a Hyd flat tappet cam though. I wanted a roller for the torque curve but I used hydraulic roller lifters for ease of maintainence. Boy, those lifters are expensive. Jeez! You could almost buy the tappet cam, lifters and rockers for about what the Hyd roller lifters cost alone.
Putting the 48's on may play hell with your compression, but sounds like you may do a new short block anyway. Butler told me I could get away with 10:1 with 93 octane, Ken said he feels better about it at 9.8:1, not that much difference but either required a dished piston. Do your 48's have the hardened seats installed?

Now, I have one more major decision to make. Headers or RA Manifolds?

With today's new oil issues due to the elimination of the zinc additives, there is a new significant reason for going to a roller cam for today's engine buildups.

It was the last nail in the coffin of a flat hydraulic cam for me.

I am just about to break in my new engine and if I wipe the hydraulic cam, I'm going roller immediately. Too many horror stories as of late about doing everything right and ending up with scrap.

Make sure you put in the GM EOS oil additive that everyone keeps talking about.

I now have a # 16 and a # 62 head on my YT '69 400. The motor isn't original to the car of course, being a documented 4spd. Both these heads are 72 cc as well as the #48's. So no changes there. And it ran fine while running on Sunoco 94 oct.


The reason I'm replacing the heads is I had two exhaust manifold bolts break off on one head. And since I don't know a thing about this motor, I'd wanted to open it up and see what else is inside. Oh, yes new valves and seats were installed on these fresh #48 heads.

I was looking for the hybrid stamped steel roller rockers, but they're only making them for SB Chevy and Ford. I may just wait for roller rockers for the WT build.

Gordon, seeing your mill makes me want to get started on mine. But that's one of those long term projects.

Long term? Tell me about it.
I originally built the engine using SD bottom end parts in the late 70's. Parked the car in the early 90's when life got in the way. Decided last summer it was time to build it the way I always wanted, so a complete restore/build was in order.
I was hoping for a 1 year build, I'll be real lucky if it's done in 1 1/2. The goal is our big indoor show in March.

Started mocking everything up Sunday, Carbs and linkage, waiting on the clutch, new motor mounts and RA manifolds and then install it.
Not sure the breathers will fit under the hood, but I had them. I'll use them for testing until I figure out exactly what I want.

I noticed in the Year One catalog it said the long branch manifolds needed an Oil filter adapter unless you had a RA III engine. What made them fit the III? Did the RA-III in a Firebird come with the adapter from the factory?
A D port head is a D port head. I ran the angled GTO filter housing to clear my old headers, RARE told me I'd have to go with a straight housing and adapter to fit the manifolds.
Any insight here?
Anyone have a straight housing to part with?

I got one off of ebay. I believe they are pretty standard on there... the adapter I got from RARE in Chicago, but you will need it!

Go with 1 3/4 primary/3" collector hedders minimum.
If it's a high rpm engine, 1 7/8 would be better.
But harder a** bolting them up to cyl hds.

Every factory RAIII i've seen had the adapter that kicks the filter out and angled back.
Even if the filter fits, i would use one do to exhaust heat.

Thanks, that's kinda what I thought. I talked with RARE, that's what the guy said there as well, it was just confusing the way Y-O worded it.
The guy at rare did say the had a 10 hp dyno loss using the Long branch over headers on a 475hp engine.
I want the manifold for the looks but also to cut down on engine noise up front.