Water pump on.

Tonight’s garage adventure was to clean and mount the water pump.  

  

Next up is to put a new throttle cable mount on the intake and then set it down. 

   

Heads complete

Lots of progress already this week.  Last night I got the heads bolted on and torqued.  Tonight I installed pushrods, rocker arms, aligned the guide plates and set the valve lash.  Not only does she really start to look like an engine, she’s not bad looking either.  

I decided to go ahead with the Edelbrock pushrods.  I trust them more than most companies.  Upon further research, it appears these are chrome Molly, so they should survive.  I’ll just have to pay attention to the valve lash until it’s clear they are working out.  Definitely gun shy of a repeat on the pushrods.  

If I keep this pace up, I’ll be getting close to dropping her back in towards the weekend.  I’m trying not to rush.  If it happens, super, but not a requirement.  I’d rather not get ahead and miss something simple. 

 

New pushrods?  (Deja vu)

So here are the pushrods that Edelbrock provided in my cam kit.  It is the same welded ball pushrod that I bough from Comp cams that ground themselves at the Rocker Arms.  

I’m sure I simply got a bad batch from Comp, but since the spring pressure has gone up nearly a hundred pounds with the roller cam, I’m thinking that some hardened push rods may be a good idea.  Problem is, until I get the heads bolted down I can’t test one of the pushrods for length to confirm I would not be better with pushrods a fraction bigger or smaller.

That may not leave me enough time next week to get a set of pushrods ordered before the next weekend.  It will also leave me with two full sets of unused pushrods.  I’m thinking a garage sale may be coming.

 

Oil pan is on

It’s so much easier to do the simple job of bolting on the oil pan while on the stand. So much better than on your back and straining.

Next up is to prep the heads and lay them on the block.

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As long as it’s out…

We might as well get our money’s worth. When I did a cam swap originally, I had gone with a traditional flat tappet. This time around I’ll go with a full roller cam, so ordered up a 2209 cam from Edelbrock. It will build a little more horsepower, but horsepower only comes at the expense of low rpm band torque, so I did not go crazy on the lift and duration. Still, I expect we will be well north of 300 horsepower. Should be a great combination for a Jeep.

The roller cam wants a higher open pressure on the valve springs, so time to order new springs and a valve compressor tool.

ZZ4 short block

imageThe short block arrived inside of a week from ordering. I went down to pick it up at the dock as while the shipping was included, it did not include lift gate service.