Fired my POS today!

[cool 84]

After nearly three years. I was doing the final check on everything and it all looked good. I was planning on firing it tomorrow during the daytime when the neighbors are at work (breaking in the cam with open exhaust) but I couldn't help myself tonight. I cranked it over and got a nice pop out the exhaust and killed the ignition. That was all I wanted, just to hear it make noise again. The garage smells like racegas again, just like it should. I'll break in the cam tomorrow and should be filling the kill section by late January.

 

[Way2QWK]

Good to hear. Been following your progress the last few years. Hope to see some track numbers soon....... This summer I fired up my 74 challenger for the first time in 2 1/2 years. Built the entire car by myself in parents garage. Engine, trans, suspension, brakes, wiring everything. It was weight off my shoulders when I heard that motor fire after all that time and work.

 

[cool 84]

You're right about the weight being off my shoulders. I was so nervous starting it the first time. Kind of off topic, but do you know my dad by any chance?

I broke in the cam today without too much going wrong. This 4.1 is quite a bit louder than the 3.8. Could be the extra compression, displacement, or both. Definately no street driving with it this loud. No smoke out of the breathers, I love total seals. Oil pressure was 90 cold but the big surprise is while I didn't drive it around, I let it sit at 190 degrees for 20 minutes and the oil pressure never dropped below 60psi. While I'm sure the oil didn't have as much heat as it would if I drove it around, the old motor never had this much pressure after running that long. I was actually worried I might have water in the oil. This thing revs faster than I've ever heard a stock block GN rev. It revs like my old motor with the torque convertor disconnected. No noise from the motor, at least from what little I can hear with open exhaust. The TA64 could never be heard before just from revving the motor. Now I can hear it spool so hopefully the extra displacement and compression are going to help spool like I was hoping to.

Now all I need to do is get the front end aligned, new front tires, downpipe remade, wategate welded in, and a ton of little misc. things.

 

[WFO]

The extra compression is the noise you're hearing.That's where the extra throttle "snap" is coming from too.I'm actually leaning towards building all of my future motors with 9:1 just for the better driveability of higher compression,and less boost to get the same cylinder pressure.

I think all I'm gonna do to mine this winter is pressurize the throttle body and I've got a bigass slp maf I'm thinking about trying.

 

[cool 84]

I still can't believe how much extra snap it has. It will go from idle to 5K in what seems like a second. I think I made a good choice going with the extra compression but we'll see once I hit boost. It's still weird to feel heat coming off the motor.