Well I'm long over due for an update...busy with work and that means more money. More money means more car parts. So I finally purchased some heads. A set of Trickflow Twisted Wedge's to be exact. After all my research they seemed to be the best bang for buck. Excuse the ****ty pictures. All I had was my iphone 5. I bought a Nikon D7100 to take pictures of this project and forgot to bring it with me this time around. Much more to come!
Suspension is done:
Pulled the old motor out and started buying parts as quickly as possible.
Heads were the latest, I sent the block off and had it hot tanked, honed and had new cam bearings installed as well as ARP rod bolts and main stud kit.
With the heads I bought ARP head bolts. My "budget" built motor now has ARP bolts from the oil pan to the intake. Cost of the build this far is as follows
Engine used: $100
Machine shop bill: $260
Hardware (ARP bolt kits with thread lock, sealant etc.): ~$400
Heads:$1200
TrickFlow Stage 1 cam: $260
Gasket kit: $140
Engine bearings: $60
I assembled everything myself and sit at $2420 so far. A lot more than I was expecting that's for sure. Engine building is a slippery slope. The whole "well I'm in here I may as well do this..." really gets you. Glad I did it this way though. It's the best way. I cheaped out on the heads a little to keep costs down but they are by no means "cheap" in quality nor performance and will dance circles around GT40 cobra heads.
Wasn't really planning on dropping it in for awhile but I figured what the hell, I'm excited. Tossed the valve covers on to keep things clean. I have a set of Scorpion roller rockers on order yet and hardened push rods coming as well.
Clearance on either side will be okay I think. Tight on the driver side for sure.
It sits SO much lower than I had originally thought. This is just dandy as far as I'm concerned, if its an issue raising it will be easy.