Bad news on the demon, turned good news?
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The Forum Tyrant
Joined: Mar 2004
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From: Puttin' Detroit City back on the map.
Bad news on the demon, turned good news?
So, when we bought the demon, we were mostly just concerned with the car itself. It came with an engine which was laying on the floor, and a couple trannies, and TONS of other extra parts. We were told that the guy kept oil in the engine and he said that it would turn over with a wrench, but he was unsure of any specs on the motor. Although we have a 360 block pretty much ready to go, it would be a nice surprise if this engine, which looked completelty stock from the outside, would be good enough to clean up and use in the demon...
well, my dad got it apart a few days ago, and as soon as he got the first cylinder head off, he saw that this was no stock motor. unlike the stock flat top pistons, this engine had a very high dome piston, (which signifies lots of compression)...also a very expensive set of pistons; probably 600-700 dollars..where as cheaper pistons cost about 23 bucks a piece. unfortunately when he took the other cylinder head off, he found that there had been enough water in the engine to rust up the cylinder walls, and in the number 8 cylinder, the water froze and burst through the cylinder wall. there is so much rust in the other cylinders that the pistons are hard to get out, but as my dad has time during the day, he pisses around and wiggles them out...so far, he has gotten 4 of them out, and they appear to be in good enough shape. we have our fingers crossed for the other 4, and once the motor is stripped it will go to the machine shop to see if the motor is fixable.
for those who dont know, the mirada is a freak. unlike most cars running similar times with a small block, running high compression engines on 100+ octane race fuel, the mirada is only about 9 to 1 compression, so it runs on 87 octane. this makes racing very cheap because while many guys pay 6-10 bucks a gallon for race fuel, we only pay 2.09 (now). My intention with the demon is to have a motor that will run on regular pump gas, so no more than 10:1 compression...so if these pistons are good, they will be going into the mirada, and the mirada will have to be run on very high octane fuel...but it will have much greater potential for power. i called Federal Mogul, who made these pistons, and turns out they are 13.28 to 1 compression with a 62 cc cylinder head!
so it seemed that we might luck out and get a good set of pistons, and maybe a "good" block once i have it sleeved...but today, he found something else interesting. he had been trying to figure out what crank it was, as it was not a stock 340 crank. turns out, the engine was a stroker motor, and the crank and rods are in good shape. he found some numbers on the crank and checked them out, and we have found that this 340 is actually a 340 block, 30 over, displacing 361 cubic inches thanks to the stroker kit...
so, should everything be usable, the mirada will no longer be a low compression 340, but rather a high compression 361...
if the crank, rods, and pistons need more reconditioning work than we are willing to deal with, i will just buy decent new pistons and sell the stroker setup to someone who wants to put the effort into it, but the boss said that upon his initial inspection, the bottom end appears to be in very good shape.
well, my dad got it apart a few days ago, and as soon as he got the first cylinder head off, he saw that this was no stock motor. unlike the stock flat top pistons, this engine had a very high dome piston, (which signifies lots of compression)...also a very expensive set of pistons; probably 600-700 dollars..where as cheaper pistons cost about 23 bucks a piece. unfortunately when he took the other cylinder head off, he found that there had been enough water in the engine to rust up the cylinder walls, and in the number 8 cylinder, the water froze and burst through the cylinder wall. there is so much rust in the other cylinders that the pistons are hard to get out, but as my dad has time during the day, he pisses around and wiggles them out...so far, he has gotten 4 of them out, and they appear to be in good enough shape. we have our fingers crossed for the other 4, and once the motor is stripped it will go to the machine shop to see if the motor is fixable.
for those who dont know, the mirada is a freak. unlike most cars running similar times with a small block, running high compression engines on 100+ octane race fuel, the mirada is only about 9 to 1 compression, so it runs on 87 octane. this makes racing very cheap because while many guys pay 6-10 bucks a gallon for race fuel, we only pay 2.09 (now). My intention with the demon is to have a motor that will run on regular pump gas, so no more than 10:1 compression...so if these pistons are good, they will be going into the mirada, and the mirada will have to be run on very high octane fuel...but it will have much greater potential for power. i called Federal Mogul, who made these pistons, and turns out they are 13.28 to 1 compression with a 62 cc cylinder head!
so it seemed that we might luck out and get a good set of pistons, and maybe a "good" block once i have it sleeved...but today, he found something else interesting. he had been trying to figure out what crank it was, as it was not a stock 340 crank. turns out, the engine was a stroker motor, and the crank and rods are in good shape. he found some numbers on the crank and checked them out, and we have found that this 340 is actually a 340 block, 30 over, displacing 361 cubic inches thanks to the stroker kit...
so, should everything be usable, the mirada will no longer be a low compression 340, but rather a high compression 361...
if the crank, rods, and pistons need more reconditioning work than we are willing to deal with, i will just buy decent new pistons and sell the stroker setup to someone who wants to put the effort into it, but the boss said that upon his initial inspection, the bottom end appears to be in very good shape.