Low-buck Daily Driver

Today, horsepower is helping out the guys from trucks

and air tank, all kinds of body parts, even a steering column, man, they've got a lot more work to do than us. Just check out this bed,

the front clip don't look too good either, but at least they got a blast. So you know what they got to work with.

Well, our mission on horsepower today is to rebuild a motor for this oc 10, nothing fancy. Just uh

basic small block for what hopefully becomes a classic daily driver.

You know what, those guys and trucks are gonna owe us big after this.

Kevin and Ryan brought it in a few weeks ago, pulled the old motor, shortened the frame and bed powder coated the frame and installed an air ride suspension system.

Hey, you don't have to guess where the motor went.

We completely tore down the old 283 last week, first draining the floods, then removing accessories, water pump

intake and of course, valve train.

Then after the oil pan came off, we removed the timing set.

Next, we pulled the cam out, removed the rods and pistons and finally the crank shaft getting it completely ready for machining.

All right, buddy. You brought the 283 back for trucks. Now, what all did you do to it down at the shop? Well, once we got it down here we cleaned it.

I bought it to the piston

honed in the clearances, then cleaned it again, painted it and brought it back. Did you run in any surprises or anything during the machine?

Everything worked really good on this one. In fact, it still had the GM bearings in it. Cool. Well, let's put it together. All right,

all the bearings for this rebuild came from seal power.

And first we're using the installation tool to install a cam bearing

and don't forget to line up the oil hole in the bearing with the oil groove in the block. And here's our rotating assembly, including the original crank that we had turned

and balance for our pistons and rods. Oh, and speaking of that, our original rods before

and after that is after reconditioning and resizing with new A RP bolts. Now, we did have to spring for new rings and these seal power pistons flat top aluminum pieces

to hang the pistons on the rods and heat up the piston a little bit.

Then the small end of the rod,

now the wrist pin slides into the rod pretty easily.

Ok. There is a front and back to every piston and rod. Now on the pistons' will either be marked with a little fa notch or an arrow.

Once you determine where the front is and you know what cylinder is going in on a Chevrolet motor, the bearing notches will point down.

Ok, rod bearings are next. Now, if these happen to be high performance or racing bearings,

there is an upper and a lower, but these being standard, there is none. So they go in any location.

So you line up your bearing thing

and bearing thing on the rod. Put it in

same thing with the cap.

Ok. After installing your rod bearings, you want to check your clearances between your rod bearing and your crane shaft. When I was doing the machine work on these already did that.

Your clearances should be 2 to 3 thousands.

Ok? I'm working a piston to do my triangulation from my oil ring.

Your expander ring

will go on this mark

when you install it, make sure the two gaps stay together

and your other oil ring will start down here on this other line.

Put the bottom one on first.

Ok. Your second ring will have a dot That goes up. Top ring will also have a dot That also goes up and that's it

over here. The rear main seal can go into place

and after thoroughly cleaning the saddles, I'm ready to install the bearings

and some assembly lube.

And finally, we'll drop the crank into place.

Now with the bearings and lube on the caps, we can drop them on.

Now. This isn't a high performance engine. So we're using stock main bolts,

remember, always torque from the center out with graduated torque settings

in our case from 30 ft pounds to the final 75.

Well, with that, we can go ahead and install our rods and pistons and hey, you don't have to have these plastic bolt boots to do the job. In

fact, a couple of pieces of rubber hose will do the trick. In fact, even

masking tape in a pinch. Here's a tip though, make sure the hoses are pointed outward.

It'll guide onto the crank a lot better.

All right, buddy. Thanks a lot. Sure.

Ok. Remember dot Facing forward

and she's ready to go home

and we turn it over.

All right, we take these off. I think I'll save them.

Well, now these rod caps can go on and you know, you got the match right? If these numbers here match.

Ok. How about a little similarly

lo there, brother,

so we can get your proper torque.

Ok, then that's going on next.

And buddy, the tort

Meister goes to work and you know what the specs are 40 ft pounds. Sure. Absolutely.

Thanks Joe. Now you go sit down

and I'll finish up with the pistons

and when we get back from the break, we'll finish up this 283.

Hey, welcome back. As you can see, I'm still here. But Joe and Mike took me to literally and they went to sit down somewhere together,

but that's ok because I'm gonna go ahead and show you how to finish this 283 up because after all, I'm the brains behind this operation. Just kidding.

But I'm the best looking. And as you can see, I'm fast too. This is our bypass valve with the new O ring.

Then the oil filter adapter plate,

our oil pump from Summit comes with a pickup already welded in place.

Then after we clean out the holes to prevent leaks, we can install the freeze plugs.

Now, the front oil galley plugs can go in

and here's a tip, use a hammer and a chisel to stake the plugs in place.

Now, I'm heating up the timing gear for a few minutes

and that way it slides right into place

since our Edel

bra cam is a flat tap at hydraulic. It needs plenty of assembly

lube and some oil in the journals.

Our timing set also came from Edelbrock, including its double roller timing chain

if you're into saving money and who's not these days? Here's something that might surprise you. It could actually cost more to reuse these old stock iron heads than buy a brand new pair like the stock replacements we're gonna use from world products.

That's when you take in all the machining and parts it would take to use these. Oh, by the way, these are brand new, that's gotta be a good deal.

Hey, handsome. These are heavy. Come on, help me.

Now with Velcro gaskets laid down, these heavy heads can go in place

then a little sealant on the A RP head boats before we tore them down.

Hey, Mr Brainiac, you want me to soak these in oil or go ahead and lube them. Let's go ahead and leave them because we're gonna go ahead and frame it later, ok?

These lifters came from Metal Brock

and we're using the same assembly lube we used on the camshaft and plenty of it.

Now, once these guys are in place,

I can install this original Valley Breather with a few taps of a hammer,

ok? After cleaning the old push rods or installing new ones, you always want to look right down through the center hole and make sure there's no obstructions because if there is, you'll have rocker failure

and don't forget to lubricate the lifter just prior to the push rod going in.

Also, don't forget to lube the tips of the push rods because if you don't, they will squeal like a pig.

Now, we can install these summit rockers. They have a 15 ratio and a full roller. I Tron. Now make sure when you install them to have the flat up.

Ok. Valve adjustments. Next, the easiest way to do this is rotate your motor over

until either one of the valves start to open.

Let's see. In this case, it's the exhaust. So our exhaust starts to open.

We're gonna adjust our intake.

You can see how much it rocks back and forth. You want to adjust the nut down. So there's no more rocking,

then go three quarters of a turn tighter,

tighten up your set screw

and then tighten them both up together

and that will lock that one down.

So I'll go ahead and rotate the motor over.

The intake starts to open,

catch it on the backside when she starts to close,

do the same thing to the exhaust. Ok. Usually the machine shop will put these oil galley plugs in, but if they don't just put some ceiling on them and then install them.

All right. Right. Now, I'm taping off the block so we can go ahead and paint it Chevy orange and now buddy's gonna install the timing cover.

This duplicate

engine enamel can withstand heat up to 500 degrees.

Now, the intake gaskets are held in place with the little silicone on the ends.

Then of course, a generous be on the end pads.

Now, we can set this Edelbrock performer eps intake manifold down.

We're giving our silicon a workout here on the intake bolts.

Kevin brought us these old cast that Brock valve covers and he did a pretty good job painting them to match the block.

Next. It's time for this harmonic balancer from summit

and using some lock tight retaining compound and a good old block of wood we hammer in a new oil filler neck.

Finally this factory valley breather that we're reusing.

When Kevin and Ryan get their motor back, they're gonna run this Edelbrock mechanical fuel pump.

Now, we're not gonna need it since we're gonna run the motor on the dyno. So I'll just install this block off plate. Now. Right now, we have to take a break. But when we get back, you're gonna see this motor finished off in the dyno room and then we'll go ahead and make some poles.

We're back and almost ready to run this small block. We just built it be interesting to see what this little 283 little better in stock

will put

out.

I say 252

with

you.

After machining the original block, we gave it a stout yet. No frills bottom end

with new and refurbished rotating assembly components.

Then new yet economical iron heads, a flat tap and hydraulic cam and valve tray.

Mike and buddy applied their artistry with new orange paint before installing a new dual plane intake and harmonic balancer.

Ok. We're gonna use a proform electric water pump. The cool is 283 and the guys at trucks will take care of the accessory drive. Now we already primed them for oil pressure. So we're getting really close to running this now to feed it. We're gonna use this Edelbrock 600 CFM four barrel. Now it's got air valve, secondaries and an electric choke.

Now we can bolt up a set of the summit headers to the block,

install an Excel distributor

along with a set of their header plugs

and to finish up in here, a set of Taylor thunder vault wires.

Most people probably think that leaded fuel went out with the eight track,

but it's still rarely available, but only in a race fuel which costs a lot more than unleaded fuel. One of our advantages by using the heads that we chose is it has hardened seats which allows us to run any kind of unleaded fuel we want today, we're running this one on 87 octane.

Here we go. Motor fired up on the first strike

and after the usual warm up we're all set to

make,

well, almost

needs more timing,

man. 264 horsepower, 297 ft pounds of torque. That's pretty impressive about this little 283. I think it's about time we get Kevin and Ryan over here and let them see what it's worth.

Is that nice

of o

Yeah.

Sounds good too. She, here she goes.

Yeah.

Cross

your fingers.

Yeah.

So what do you think? I'm guessing 262 horses?

Think

that's my guess

I'd

say.

Yeah,

I'd be happy with either one, you know.

Yeah. Really?

Well, it did a lot better than I thought 270 horsepower and 301 ft pounds of torque at 3600 better than I expected.

That'll make a great little engine for that truck. A little stock rebuilt. 283. Shoot, that's all we need. That.

Nice

little pumpkin. Well, give him the di

run sheet.

We keep that and

got another sheet of paper for you. That's your bill. Oh, yeah. Right. Put it on our tab.

Unless you know, we need a favor too. For that price. It comes installed, doesn't it? Yeah,

I bet that bill disappears.

Yeah, it'll get lost. Uh, just like that horsepower file almost. Did? You'll see what we're talking about in a minute, man. That's pretty good. Yeah. Not bad at all.

I was surprised

I'm gonna show you something that's been seen by a few people before.

We've had a dozen years of projects on horsepower. Some took a day, some took several days. But there was one project.

It's been unfinished for a year

here

in the horsepower files.

Hey, any chance you recognize this car?

Well, you're about to.

No, it's not just another late model Mustang GT. It's actually a project car. We called Stroker Stay

last year

and it's finally back for a big power payoff. Now, we'll tell you why it took so long here in a little bit. But right now let's get you up to speed.

We broke some new ground by installing a Stroker kit on a late model Mustang

that is after a baseline run with the stock 4.6 L engine making 265 horsepower at the rear wheels.

Then the motor and transmission came out from the bottom.

Later at Huntsville engine and performance, they line hon the mains, hone the cylinders polished and ported the heads and machine them for a three angle valve job. Back home. We installed the Stroker kit, an eagle iron crank, eagle rods and aluminum pistons. For Mary's,

we also installed new cams from crane and as a bonus added under drive pulleys and long tube headers from BBK.

Finally, we bolted up a new twin disc clutch from Zoom underneath. We installed a lighter for Danza dry shelf

for even better breathing. We added a throttle body, a cold air kit and a shorty X pipe with cats from BBK

plus mid pipes and mufflers from Magna Flow for better shifting. We installed a profi O super shifter to cap off the project. We had the lower GT sitting on spoke cast wheels from the tire rack and Yokohama ad advances for rubber.

This mustang handles really well. Now it does have I box springs and Milstein shocks plus larger wheels and tires. The real kicker is all the power. This +3023 valve is put into the ground.

Ok. Once again, you get to have all the fun, right? That's how it usually goes. Well, we're finally gonna get to see what this Ose GT does on our chassis, dyno.

And hey, how you like our new aluminum portable ramp.

Anyway, the reason it's taking so long is this when we first fired it up after those upgrades made a terror

racket. So we sent it back to the owner at Eagle and here's what the problem was. The factory cam phaser wasn't working with the bigger aftermarket cam. So major timing issues, bottom line is aftermarket cam equals aftermarket cam phaser.

All right. Well, at last we get to see how this Mustang handles in corners like a thoroughbred. Plus

it made 378 horsepower, 374 ft pounds of torque. Well, finally we get to close the case on project Stroker. ST

older hot rods need to exhale to make good power and they also need to sound tough to make a good impression. Now magna flow makes performance exhaust systems like this one for a G MA body. Now they factory test them for a proper fit and they come with everything you need for an easy install like manual bent tubing to prevent restrictions and a straight through stainless steel muffler for a good tone plus all the right hardware. Now, the price is pretty right too starting at about 655 buck.

If you've got an appetite for some weekend drag racing, here's a hearty way to feed your high performance race motor

is a 1432 CFM car from B LP products

that it comes with a radius profile in large throttle bores, billet metering blocks and fully adjustable fuel circuits. But here's the cool part,

a complete jet kit that allows two steps up or down for all those changes you have to make at the track.

Now it comes slow, tested and ready to go offer a price of about 1550.

Well, speaking of carbs, next time, we're gonna show you a budget friendly way to upgrade a single inlet street carb and you ought to join us. We'll see you then.