 Comp Cams Endure-X solid roller lifters. EDM oil fed and precision sized bearings. |
Before anyone runs out and has this cam made for your engine, though, be aware that some very specific attention to detail is required to make all of these parts of the engine work with each other and I am really on the “edge” as far as piston to valve clearance. During mock up I found with “0” valve lash I have a minimum of .080” piston to valve clearance on the exhaust side ,which is plenty, but on the intake side of things it gets a little closer. At TDC on the intake stroke I have .080” P to V and then the piston is being chased down by the valve and I have around .035” P to V at the closest point. This will be fine as long as the valve springs keep things under control at 8000 rpm! This little “Hemi-eater” should sound pretty nasty if nothing else!
For lifters I am using Comps’ new design “Endure-X” solid rollers (#838-16) which feature an EDM process that allows oil to directly feed from the oil band in the lifter body to the axle and bearings of the lifter. This is much better than older designs that rely on only “splash” oiling to lubricate the roller bearings. Also, the bearings themselves are matched for size more precisely than in the past to help make sure the load from the valve springs is distributed as equally as possible among all of the needle bearings ,which will make the lifters last longer.
To finish up the bottom end I installed a Moroso windage tray (#22930) after performing some surgery to the sides of the unit to make it fit over the Moroso main cap girdle (#22928). As the picture shows, the tray is not designed to be used with the cap girdle but I made it work, at least what’s left of it! I then attached the Moroso pickup tube (#24516) to the Melling M68HV oil pump and bolted them down along with an ARP heavy duty oil pump drive. I cleaned up a stock Ford timing cover and installed a new seal.
 This is the Moroso windage tray as made. |
 Here we see the modified Moroso windage tray, custom oil pickup, and Melling pump. |
To finish up I installed a trick oil pan from Moroso called the “Eliminator” (#20516). This is Moroso’s drag racing pan for “Fox” chassis Fords and is a side kick-out design that holds 7 quarts of oil. It should do a good job of keeping the oil away from the spinning crank counter-weights to reduce windage and increase HP! The oil pan fit great! I did not have to “modify” one single attachment hole, and the end rails seal up nice and tight to the one-piece Fel Pro gasket. The bolts that attach the pan to the passenger side of the block are “hidden” and are inserted through some access holes in the pan by using a long socket extension. I made sure to tape the socket to the extension to avoid having to retrieve the socket later. I have learned some things over the years!
 This is the Moroso Eliminator oil pan. The access holes for the bolts are on the bottom and you can also see the large kick-out in the pan. Nice! |
When all the attaching bolts are installed you plug the access holes with the special O-ringed Allen head plugs that mount flush in the pan. Now that the bottom end was done I flipped the engine upright on the stand and gave it a “roll-over torque test.” I always do this as part of my “Yay! I finished the short block!” ritual. It doesn’t have any real technical purpose, but after building enough engines over the years with different piston ring designs, sizes, and shapes along with cylinder wall finishes and bearing clearances, I have a pretty good idea in general of what the engine should take to “break away” and start turning, along with the amount of torque it takes to continue turning. In this case it takes about 13 lb. ft. on my trusty ol’ Craftsman “beam” torque wrench to get the assembly turning and only about 5 lb.ft. to keep under way. This is the only thing I use the old beam wrench for and it does it well. I’m pretty stinkin’ happy with those numbers for a “off the shelf” short block with “normal” 1/16” rings.
What that translates into for a “hands on” reference is I can grab the dampener with one hand and fairly easily turn over the short block. Some of my best racing short blocks don’t register on the beam wrench and I can turn them over easily with just the crank snout as a comparison. But over all this is a pretty easy to turn assembly and should run well.
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 Here is a finished view of trigger assembly along with the TCI Rattler and billet pointer. |
Next up I installed the TCI Rattler harmonic absorber (#870007) which is a 6 ¼” 28 oz. external unit. It is a neat looking unit that actually “rattles” at low engine speeds because it has moveable weights inside that are allowed to move freely and under centrifugal force they find the proper position to absorb the engine harmonics and eliminate them. This is a design that has been used in the aircraft industry for years and has been patented for the automotive industry by TCI. I had previously balanced the rotating assembly with the TCI elastomer style dampener (#872007) because the Rattler was delayed in getting to me at the time. Hopefully, and expectedly, the Rattler will be identical in its amount of counter weight and I won’t have any vibrations. I found true TDC by using a dial indicator on the #1 piston and then assembled and installed the trick TCI adjustable billet timing pointer (#871007) with the included fasteners. This pointer is a really nice looking piece and it is adjustable so you can really dial in the actual TDC of the engine.