Progress Thread '88 GT Hell Horse - All over the place

I have mainly been in the part collection mode right now. To start it off I was able to get a replacement exhaust valve from RockAuto, so that now I can give the machine shop a call to go through the heads. I plan to have the machine shop disassemble, hot tank, 3-angle valve job, install the new valve seals, and go over the spring pressures of the heads.

I also got in the last remaining piece I need which as a new heavy duty water pump. I will need to of course be painted to match the rest of the engine as well. Lastly, I can then cut a stencil of the cars logo I built a while back to put on the valve covers to be painted. So, I can then finish up putting together the long block of the engine.

I need to get back on the lower intake porting out the heads side, since I finished porting the top side. Need to get the bottom plate off the lower intake so I can then thoroughly clean the lower intake.

I got the heads dropped off at the Machine Shop yesterday. They said that I should get them back middle of next week, which works out since I was planning on working on the engine again next weekend. The plan this weekend if the rain holds out is to paint the water pump, and go over the Tractor Supply for some replace bolts for the water pump/timing cover.

Then I will have everything that I need to reassemble the long block, which leaves me to working on the lower intake porting and painting it with the upper intake.

Really haven't made much progress on the rebuild, since I got the call from the Machine Shop that we all never really enjoy. I got the "you need to get (2) more exhaust valves and new springs." I was quite surprised but then not at the same time. Whoever "built" this engine last time did some odd stuff along with clearly wrong installation of other items. So, in the end (4) exhaust valves are bad and (2) inner springs were broken.

I talked to the Tuner Guru, and what does he do... convince me that I need a new cam in the car, since I already have to change the springs. So we all know how it goes from here. I am getting K-800 Springs and retainers, Hardened Valve Locks, NX274HR-14 Cam, and FMS Lifters, and of course (2) more Exhaust Valves.

Oh the good news, I painted the Water Pump, so its ready to go as well. I know I know really exciting good news

So all of my packages came in today for rebuilding my heads: K-Motion Springs and Retainer, Comp Cams Hardened Valve Locks, and (2) Exhaust Valves.



I also reached out to Comp Cams about the necessary spring seat pressure needed for the new cam, so that the Machine Shop can set the correct Spring Height. They came back with needing 120-140lbs, so looking at K-Motions website for my springs it looks like I will be needing a 1.925 to accomplish 130lbs.

The plan is to be able to drop off the new parts at the Machine Shop tomorrow, so they can give me a new timeline as to when my heads will be done. Im hoping for Friday, so that I can get them before the weekend.

Based on there website its located in your Lafayette, IN where you are

The parts are dropped at the Machine Shop and are hopeful they will be done by Friday. If not thats fine as I will be working on finishing porting the lower intake, so I can paint the upper and lower intake. That will finish up all the parts needed to complete the engine build. I will need to pull the cam back out, so I can put the new one with with the new lifters as well.

I will then be focusing on the engine bay getting my plan together for the turbo install.

Well guys.....

I got that call again from the Machine Shop, and the springs wont work on these heads. The spring height needs to be set at 1.925" for the proper seat pressure for the cam. They are coming out at 1.8" which is WAY to short since it will push the pressure 50% above needed. So this took me down a rabbit hole that many of us have been down (please guys no finger pointing) of what do I do now.

1. Purchase springs that will would, which cost about $360 and save the current springs for another build. But these are just hogged out E7's we are talking about here and the spring package would be more than the heads are even worth.

2. I put the same package spring back on it again and run the blah... E cam that it had in it before. But thats not going to be much fun with the intended combo that is planned for the car

3. Get me and better aluminum heads for the springs that we already have. This one sounds to be a winner in my book along with I know someone that might have a set of Pro Comp heads with valves in them that just so happens to need a new set of springs to be installed on them.

I think that I am going to go with option #3. This is where the road goes down that rabbit hole we were talking about earlier so....

New heads = bigger valves
Bigger valves = bigger valve reliefs in pistons

This means that I now need to either:

A. Flycut the factory pistons, which this is a 92 so that means a hypereutectic piston

B. Need new pistons

I think that I am going to go with option B, but this doesn't end the rabbit hole now does it.

So we get the new pistons and that means we have to take apart the new shortblock that we put together to replace the pistons. We also should really balance the rotating assembly to do everything correctly as well. Well...

This is just a stock rotating assembly and I want this car to run on the road course at mid-high rpm for extended periods of time with 10-15 lbs of boost behind it. Hummm... this means a new rotating assembly might be a good idea instead, and I know the assembly that I would like to put together that will be internal balanced for the needed gameplan of the car.

So instead of tearing apart a fresh shortblock, I am going to just trade/sell off the shortblock and start over with a new block.

Here are the plans so far:

- RPM Crankshaft - Internal Balance
- 5.400" I-Beam Rod with ARP2000 Bolts
- +13.00cc Dish Piston
- 1.7 7/16 Stud Roller Rockers
- 210 60cc Pro Comp Heads

This will get me a 9.1:1 compression ratio, which should make for a very nicely built little combo.

Well, I know updates have been quite sparse on this thread, but work and virtual school for the kids have really eaten up most of my time. I was able to make a little progress with more goodies now on the way to kick this project off. I traded the long block and a digital dash to my uncle to get a replacement hatch for my black mustang that's rusting out, a stock block, and a rolling 91 GT Hatch body for my daughter that wants to build her 1st car.

The new block just got goodies ordered for it yesterday:
- RPM Crankshaft - Internal Balance
- RPM 5.400" I-Beam Rods with ARP2000 Bolts
- +13.00cc DSS Racing Dish Piston
- 1.6 3/8 Stud Roller Rockers

So I will be able to get all these over to the Machine Shop to get balanced and the block ready to go for installing the new goodies.

Lets get it off the ground at 10psi and then we all know it will be "boring" and need more

KZGUNS said:

Steve is such an instigator or should i say boostigator... lol

Click to expand...

I agree, which means that you are going to add that turbo to the blower right?

The goodies are starting to show up. I'm still waiting on the pistons before I can take everything to the machine shop.