Trainman's Ultimate NA Build

SD2005Dustin said:
Jerry,
You mentioned some issues post-build. I'm curious if there's anything that was an issue with what was done at A/C or if you feel this all just comes with the territory? I've heard mixed reviews over the years.

I was possibly going to take mine out there for a few things, but I'm also considering taking it to Dan Cragin's shop. Your thoughts post process would be of high value.

Overall, I've loved your posts over the years and highly appreciate everything you've done to contribute to the forum and my own personal learning. Congrats either way on an impressive rig. :congrats:
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No issues with A&C, the problems were with the power steering rack, which was the original, truck was bought new by me in 2004, it now has 70,000 miles. The small lines were leaking at the fittings, we finally last week put in a rebuilt steering rack. hopefully problem solved. As far a A&C there was so much custom work involved with the install, clearance for the custom valve covers, reworking the race headers to fit in the chassis, a full true dual 3 1/2" exhaust system, and the 1 of a kind twin throttle body air intake....on and on....they, Todd, Eric and the whole crew were fantastic.
 
Trainman said:
No issues with A&C, the problems were with the power steering rack, which was the original, truck was bought new by me in 2004, it now has 70,000 miles. The small lines were leaking at the fittings, we finally last week put in a rebuilt steering rack. hopefully problem solved. As far a A&C there was so much custom work involved with the install, clearance for the custom valve covers, reworking the race headers to fit in the chassis, a full true dual 3 1/2" exhaust system, and the 1 of a kind twin throttle body air intake....on and on....they, Todd, Eric and the whole crew were fantastic.
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That's good to hear the feedback. My lines just started leaking about two months ago as well (haven't driven her in 3+ months). I always discount when people are quick to complain or say something negative in those conversations, yet they don't have a specific detail that would make it valid. It seems to point more to personality, egos, etc than quality or craftsmanship.
 
Trainman said:
11-24-2014 Update time:
When this started about 1 1/2 years ago it was going to be a simple Heads and Cam modification. I spent countless hours researching parts, builders, specialists as I wanted something special. The build was always going to be NA only, and I have not changed from that goal. I had wanted to do Striker heads and cam, so I could keep my ported intake and existing headers. When Strikers were no longer available I had to move on to the Gen IV heads. I contacted Greg Good first about the possibility of porting some Gen IV's, since I knew he had experience with both the Strikers and the Gen IV's. From there the project evolved. Justin at JMB got involved (at my request) when we were trying to decide on a custom intake manifold. Eventually we settled on a Gen V plastic intake with twin 80mm single blade TB's and mechanical linkage. At this point A&C Performance was my go to guy for the install and assembly.

I was going to bolt on the heads and intake along with a custom cam on the existing stock short block. But since it had 68000 miles, I reconsidered and felt it would be wise to rebuild a forged bottom end. Todd Abrams got excited about the project and it evolved into a Big Bore wet sleeve for even more power (now we're going from 505 cu. in. to 536 cu. in.). We had lots of time to consider various cams and compressions. I kept getting positive updates on the flow numbers of the ported heads by Greg Good. At first we were looking at about 375 cfm, then as Greg developed more ideas, short radius, etc. , the flow approached 390 cfm, then it made 405 cfm , and finally settled on 427.5 cfm on the intake side at .700 lift. Things are getting crazy at this point.

Fast forward to about 1 month ago, and Todd decided to get Kevin Singleton from Exotic Engines involved (just about the Best there is in the Viper world). The block and heads were shipped to Exotic and Kevin was really impressed with the quality of the work at that point and got excited about the ultimate NA build. Nobody had really done a big bore AND a stroker ( most of his big bore builds had gone de-stroked for higher revs). Since this was for a truck (although I'm lighter than most) he wanted to design a stroker motor, which he says will probably be the most powerful pump gas motor they have ever built.

Most of you have probably be following the progress (however slow it has been) over in the performance section under "Heads and Cam......." . I thought I would get some of the highlights and photos from that section as well as the great video that SRTBrad did when we did the baseline dyno and interview with Todd at A&C Performance.

The specs as of this date are as follows:Bore 4.15, Stroke 4.15, cubic inches 561, compression 11.5:1, forged pistons, Oliver Ultra Lite Rods, Gen IV heads ported by Greg Good, 427.5 cfm intake , 279 cfm exhaust both at .700 lift, Gen V plastic intake with 80mm single blade TB's custom made by Justin at JMB. Engine will be built by Kevin @ Exotic Engines in Reno. Tuned by Chris Jensen, installation and custom work by A&C Performance, custom headers 1 7/8 race tubes 5 into 1 by American Racing. Bill Hickock Race Cars is doing the roll bars and ladder bar suspension.

I will try to post the video and all of the picture I that are in the other section, along with 5 new photos of the block, rods and crankshaft that I just received fro Kevin.:rock:
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So..... Does this mean you are now three years into this build? Holy crap... I would never have the patience. Since this started I have changed jobs, moved twice, gone bald, and pretty soon I'm going to have grey hair on my nuts.... Is there any new progress to report? I'm dying to see some quarter mile times from this beast!
 
stealth78 said:
So..... Does this mean you are now three years into this build? Holy crap... I would never have the patience. Since this started I have changed jobs, moved twice, gone bald, and pretty soon I'm going to have grey hair on my nuts.... Is there any new progress to report? I'm dying to see some quarter mile times from this beast!
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My build would make you lose the few spoty patches of gray hair you have left on your nuts then.
 
stealth78 said:
So..... Does this mean you are now three years into this build? Holy crap... I would never have the patience. Since this started I have changed jobs, moved twice, gone bald, and pretty soon I'm going to have grey hair on my nuts.... Is there any new progress to report? I'm dying to see some quarter mile times from this beast!
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Getting close, I had a strange noise starting while I was backing up. A sound I had never heard before, thought it was in the rear end or brakes, a real grinding sound only in reverse. Turns out the left front wheel bearing had failed. Fixed today, going to call Chris Jensen for final street and race tune as soon as he is available, truck is running a little rich.
 
Trainman said:
Getting close, I had a strange noise starting while I was backing up. A sound I had never heard before, thought it was in the rear end or brakes, a real grinding sound only in reverse. Turns out the left front wheel bearing had failed. Fixed today, going to call Chris Jensen for final street and race tune as soon as he is available, truck is running a little rich.
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Better now that when your going through the traps.

Sent from my SPH-L520 using Tapatalk
 
Trainman said:
Getting close, I had a strange noise starting while I was backing up. A sound I had never heard before, thought it was in the rear end or brakes, a real grinding sound only in reverse. Turns out the left front wheel bearing had failed. Fixed today, going to call Chris Jensen for final street and race tune as soon as he is available, truck is running a little rich.
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mopars running at willow springs today, did you go??

had to scrap all my plans for MATSLV, Willow Springs and Spring Fest due to changes in job. hope to be able to reschedule everything next year
 
NukeGM/Ford said:
mopars running at willow springs today, did you go??

had to scrap all my plans for MATSLV, Willow Springs and Spring Fest due to changes in job. hope to be able to reschedule everything next year
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well hell, i got my weeks mixed up, mopars running at willow springs on the 21st with a meeting of chrysler engineers and stuff on the 20th at 2pm THEN Spring Fling friday-sunday
 
NukeGM/Ford said:
well hell, i got my weeks mixed up, mopars running at willow springs on the 21st with a meeting of chrysler engineers and stuff on the 20th at 2pm THEN Spring Fling friday-sunday
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I won't be at Willow Springs, I only drag race, no curves for me. Hope to get the final tune in the next week or so, waiting for Chris Jensen to give me a date for tuning.
 
Going to meet with Chris Jensen for final 91 octane street tune and MS109 race tune on Saturday May 7, 2016 in Santa Fe Springs at 1pm. Hopefully SRTBrad will be there to video the results. We will be using a DynaPack dyno.
 
Do they not have real drive on dynos around there? It's freakin Cali, all that money and use a Dynopak? Most inaccurate style dyno out there imo. You should be on a loaded Mustang type dyno for accurate tuning.
 
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VENOMOUS1 RACING said:
Do they not have real drive on dynos around there? It's freakin Cali, all that money and use a Dynopak? Most inaccurate style dyno out there imo. You should be on a loaded Mustang type dyno for accurate tuning.
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Chris says he likes the Dynopak because he can load the truck throughout all the rpm ranges. It's his preferred method for tuning. I trust him.
 
Trainman said:
Chris says he likes the Dynopak because he can load the truck throughout all the rpm ranges. It's his preferred method for tuning. I trust him.
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Ahhh Hahh! Here you are :D

So, my friend, CAN YOU STILL SHIFT after your surgery back when?? :dontknow:
 
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