Yes this started 8 years ago and trading for the stroker was a lucky deal for me. I'd talked about doing a stroker for my Jeep back in 2006-7 with some of my Jeep club members.
Getting divorced like most times was a good thing it just took a while to recover from the financial hit. Actually still recovering since she totally SCREWED my credit. The health issues I can say 4 years ago I didn't think I'd see 65. And now I'm ready to push for 85+ if I can.



Well today was a BUST. I was so CLOSE but then it all went to HELL. The first time it was me not paying attention but then I kept getting weird readings. So after messing with it more I've come to the conclusion that I need to come up with a better system to get my reading from the lifter. On one video the mechanic had welded a old push rod to a old lifter. So I may try that tomorrow. First I've got to find my old push rods and hope I didn't throw them out.



So my intake lobe center is suppose to be 104* and I was at 106* so it should have been really simple to change..... Never works out that way for me it seems.

 

A local friend of mine ran into that same issue with the cam on a 460 he's building. I think his came from comp cams (I can't remember where you got yours now), but he got lucky enough to be able to adjust it at the crank. He had a 9 slot (I think) crank sprocket for adjustment.

Glad to see more progress.

 

Mine is a Comp Cam also so I was a little shocked when it didn't come in spot on. I'll be back at it today and see what I can come up with. I have a 9 position crank sprocket also. I need to move it 2* advanced which is 4* at the crank because it's half the distance at the cam.
I've just got to find a better solution for my dial indicator so I stop getting these erratic readings.

 

YAHOOOOOO finally got it DONE... I headed out to the garage this morning with some ideas and a positive attitude that I was going to get this done today. First thing I did was take a lifter apart and removed the spring and then shimmed it up with a couple of washers and put it all back together. Then I worked on setting up the dial indicator stand in a way that would hopefully allow me to get a accurate reading. I decided to swap out the analog dial indicator for the digital one I'd bought just to see if it would work any better.

Decided since I was trying a new indicator I'd go back to 0* with the crankshaft sprocket and start over. First reading I got was 105* lobe separation so I pulled the timing chain back off and advanced the crank sprocket 2* which moves the cam 1*. Took readings again and this time I got 103.5*......... HOT Dang... I'll take it.





So to further check everything I rotated the engine until I was on the base circle of the cam and zeroed the dial indicator and then continued to rotate the engine until I was at .050 BTDC on the intake lobe which put the degree wheel at 5* BTDC which is spot on.




Continue to rotate the engine until it reached .050 ABDC and the intake lobe was closing and the degree wheel was at 31.5* ABDC which is close enough for this job.



Timing card where you get all this information from.

 

I was asked about the timing chain I am using in this build. The crankshaft sprocket has 9 key ways in it so that you can degree the cam in spot on or DANG NAB close. I'm glad I decided to buy this timing chain set instead of going with the old one I had that only had 3 key ways cut into it. As you can see I am at 2* advanced on the crankshaft sprocket which moved the cam 1* advanced which got me to 103.5*.



They other slots cut into the sprocket.







No I can move forward with the engine assembly. I've got some parts that I need to media blast and get cleaned up so I can paint them and then tape off the block so I can paint it also. Then I can move forward with the assembly and get the heads installed and measure for the proper push rod length I need. I don't want to say the hard part is done because then I'd just jinx myself.....

It's moving forward.

 

I bet its going sound really good when its done.

 

I really hope so. I've been toying with the idea to try some of the short tube headers out to see if I could use some instead of the block huggers I have now. Not much of a difference but they are a little longer tubes.

 

Got all the tools for doing the cam degree but away and then started to get the block ready to be painted. I wiped it all down with acetone and then installed the front cover and oil pan before I taped everything up for painting.
Then I laid down two coats of primer today and will do two more tomorrow before I paint it in the color I've picked out.

 

Started laying down the base color today. I have 3 costs of it applied and IMO it's turning out to look really good. I went with a flat color as I am really not a huge fan of shiny paints. Guess it has something to do with being around flat colors for 28 years on vehicles.



This is with it wet but once dries I think it'll look really good.



Here it is dried. I really think I like this flat paint color as opposed to the Hemi Orange.




After 3 costs of the paint I let it dry completely and then sprayed on some flat clear to hopefully protect the paint a little more.




So at this point I think the flat clear doesn't affect the color at all. We'll have to wait a while to see if it does help with cleanup and stuff.



I've got 2 coats of the clear on the block so far and am not sure if that is enough or if I should put 1 or 2 more coats on.

 

I always did 1 coat etch primer, as many coats as filler primer to get the block smooth (my OCD lol), 3-4 of the base coat, and then finally 3-4 of clear sanding the final two coats