304 355" build thread

[someguy360]

I think when I did the math on them a 355 needs to hit like 7,800rpm to make them worth the extra air flow, that's for their race head port, they have smaller ports available.

Yeah, as far as I'm aware the standard EFI heads with the bowls cleaned up a bit should flow 500hp at the fly.

Thats more than enough for me, I'd be too worried about the 2 bolt mains pushing it much further and my 5/16 rocker studs to rev it high enough to make serious numbers.

 

[keith reed]

My turn. Most of what I have done has been done for many years. The efi motor was fitted in about 1999. Not sure when the stroker motor was fitted but would have been at least 10 years ago. The engine had the rear pontiac seal done about 2-3 years ago. The 2'02 inlet valves were fitted about that time.

car vh sle.

Motor. vp 355 stroker. Holden rods.
dished pistons
pontiac rear seal conversion.
arp main and conrod bolts.
rts high volume sump.
powerbond balancer.
come racing oil pump.

Top end
port pocketed efi heads. 2.02 inlet valves
planed heads 10.1 comp
comp cam beehive valve springs
camtech ct 248520 hydraulic cam.
yt adjustable roller rockers
arp head studs.
come racing twin throttle body manifold

Standard rebuilt 4160 box.
3.45 vl lsd
Power 215 rwkw.

VX gts front and rear 4 pot callipers.
front and rear koni's
Pedders front coilovers
18" ANZ wheels
re003 235 40. tyres


The car is on club rego and only gets taken out every couple of week. It is only intended as a cruiser and does a pretty good job. I will only take to the drags if there is a special event like the QLD auto spectacular. The event was cancelled last year due to the weather and there has been no mention of an event so far this year.

 

[Deuce]

could be same as what i noticed with the oil holes on my LS as the factory just drills straight so a 90 deg turn is two straights with a sharp inner corner, i got a dremel down in there and took out all the sharp edges and corners smoothed out helps the most

So oil comes in from the right of screen, needs 120° turn to get to #1 main and I don't see any way to get in there....
It then continues up and 90° turn forward then 90° back down to feed LH gallery and cam bearings, and all the other mains, and RH gallery.

 

[Deuce]

* 234/244 108LSA Hydraulic cam.

More details please. It sounds right down my alley.

 

[someguy360]

It's the Crow 4649, one of the newer grinds from Crow with a modern split duration pattern.

Chose this one as it's about as far as I feel comfortable in terms of lift with single valve springs and 5/16 rocker studs etc. And will have the characteristics of what I want from a cam, good duration, good LSA, lots of overlap for carpark/show and shine wank and will work well in my stall converters optimal range which is mid range torque.

Yella Terra doesn't recommend taking the rockers I have past about .520 lift, the rockers themselves are bulletproof and would take as much as I throw at them, but because they use the factory 5/16 bolt rather than a screw in chunky stud like the adjustable ones, they are worried thats the weak point.

My current cam is 230/230 @ 109 LSA and .495 lift, but it's not grumpy enough for me.

 

[Deuce]

Could you please talk more of why you made the choice?

I'm thinking of stroking my VS, I'm looking at the SCAT gear over the COME gear due to price only.

I read an old post from AV8 and knight engines (someguy360's machinist) said scat would be good up to around 7500rpm and 550hp. COME crank is good for over 8000rpm and 600hp.
Great, I definitely want the come crank as I want more RPM!
Except it is almost twice the price of the scat, plus exchange rate and shipping from aus.

What rpm limit is safe for my rocker arms and studs? What rpm is reasonable for whatever lifters I end up with (which is another discussion all together). If I move the power band too far up the rpm, how will it be in traffic?

I decided 7000 or 7200 max shift point will suffice. And a 480-520hp target seems reasonable. So why do I really need to spend double on a crank? Save that cash for possibly going roller cam instead of flat tappet.

That's my thinking.

I'm looking at rods and pistons next.
Probably SC2-ICR6000-716A 6" rods, as they have the 7/16 arp2000 rod bolts.

 

[someguy360]

What rpm limit is safe for my rocker arms and studs? What rpm is reasonable for whatever lifters I end up with (which is another discussion all together). If I move the power band too far up the rpm, how will it be in traffic?

With a decent RPM conveter you'll find it will be pretty tame to drive in traffic etc.

For any cam over about 214 duration I'd be going at least a 2800 stall minimum, once you get to the high 220's you'll want to go up to around 3000-3200, and the tighter the LSA the more that will be needed too due to low vacuum at idle, but I much prefer tight LSA's to wide LSA's for N/A applications they are much more responsive down low.

My current cam has a power band of around 2800-5600RPM and with a nice loose stall it's great around town (the lack of dynamic compression makes it a bit doughier down low but thats a limitation of the current engine).

I'd happily drive mine in peak hour, I've only done it once or twice however. The reason I don't is more that I don't trust peak hour drivers, not that I don't trust the car.

 

[Deuce]

My turn. Most of what I have done has been done for many years. The efi motor was fitted in about 1999. Not sure when the stroker motor was fitted but would have been at least 10 years ago. The engine had the rear pontiac seal done about 2-3 years ago. The 2'02 inlet valves were fitted about that time.

car vh sle.

Motor. vp 355 stroker. Holden rods.
dished pistons
pontiac rear seal conversion.
arp main and conrod bolts.
rts high volume sump.
powerbond balancer.
come racing oil pump.

Top end
port pocketed efi heads. 2.02 inlet valves
planed heads 10.1 comp
comp cam beehive valve springs
camtech ct 248520 hydraulic cam.
yt adjustable roller rockers
arp head studs.
come racing twin throttle body manifold

Standard rebuilt 4160 box.
3.45 vl lsd
Power 215 rwkw.

VX gts front and rear 4 pot callipers.
front and rear koni's
Pedders front coilovers
18" ANZ wheels
re003 235 40. tyres


The car is on club rego and only gets taken out every couple of week. It is only intended as a cruiser and does a pretty good job. I will only take to the drags if there is a special event like the QLD auto spectacular. The event was cancelled last year due to the weather and there has been no mention of an event so far this year.

That's a good write up.

So going over my build thread in summary:
I picked up a VN short block with eagle rotating assembly about 11 years ago. It had done about 5,000km in a VK (early heads).
I cc'd the pistons at about 12cc from memory.
This gave me low 9's compression.
I threw in a crow 4502 that I already had for the 5.0.
Swapped over my 590 heads and ported banana Mani with 70mm t/b.
It was all in the car 10years ago this month.

Added bigger headers later on, and then the COME TTB Mani.

Set rev limit low 6k. But it has been high 6 on one (or two) occasion.

So round two I'm after:
- More RPM, at least 7k
- An extra 100hp (engine)

This obviously requires:
- More compression,
- More camshaft,
- Stronger bottom end (4-bolt)
- Further oiling mods to support rpm (#1 crossover and single pipe mod).

That's a summary of what I hope to add to this thread.

 

[shane_3800]

With a decent RPM conveter you'll find it will be pretty tame to drive in traffic etc.

For any cam over about 214 duration I'd be going at least a 2800 stall minimum, once you get to the high 220's you'll want to go up to around 3000-3200, and the tighter the LSA the more that will be needed too due to low vacuum at idle, but I much prefer tight LSA's to wide LSA's for N/A applications they are much more responsive down low.

My current cam has a power band of around 2800-5600RPM and with a nice loose stall it's great around town (the lack of dynamic compression makes it a bit doughier down low but thats a limitation of the current engine).

I'd happily drive mine in peak hour, I've only done it once or twice however. The reason I don't is more that I don't trust peak hour drivers, not that I don't trust the car.

I know you know your stuff, but I will post this video as it's a good refresher for us all.
This is a video from a guy that takes us to Boss Hog TC's, they actually explain that TC selection should be done by the converter shop, this is mainly from what I see as 4 variables can be chosen, so they can adjust the TC to suit the application.
We as a community should strive to stay away from one fit all TC recommendations.
No attack on you, I just thought it would be appropriate to mention this often overlooked fact.

 

[someguy360]

I know you know your stuff, but I will post this video as it's a good refresher for us all.
This is a video from a guy that takes us to Boss Hog TC's, they actually explain that TC selection should be done by the converter shop, this is mainly from what I see as 4 variables can be chosen, so they can adjust the TC to suit the application.
We as a community should strive to stay away from one fit all TC recommendations.
No attack on you, I just thought it would be appropriate to mention this often overlooked fact.

Oh yeah for sure, I definately agree with you, I had my converted specced when it was built. I don't like off the shelf units.

However I do know the rough RPM of stall that certain camshafts for Holdens really like (mainly because I play with them all the time). But the rest is down to the converter shop to spec accurately for the application, including the way it's set up internally for certain levels of drivability. And of course not forgetting gear ratios are a big factor too so yes, it's always best to get the converter shop to spec it specifically.

At the end of the day, I said to mine "I want it to stall in my desired range for my application, and I want it slippy as hell" I like very loose converters, the type you need to give it some throttle to get going in carparks etc, theres something very satisfying rolling around car shows etc on the throttle making noise to do 8km/h.