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Well, a buddy of mine form work (Dan) is wrapping up his build today. He has a hugger orange 88 IROC that came with a 305. He has saved up $6000 since his first job to buy all parts brand new. He is now a senior tech at Valvoline at only 18, so that is where funding has come from.
A friend of ours, Nick, has a black 96 T/A M6 with a cam swap, K&N FIPK, Pacesetter longtubes and ORY, and flowmaster catback. A few days ago, we were putting Dan's top end of his motor back together. He needed the rockers adjusted properly, so Nick having experience went ahead and tightened them down. The problem is, he overtightened them after thinking they were hydraulic, so he did one full turn after snug instead of a 1/4 turn as they should be. She wouldn't start that night, so a couple days passed until another guy from work (Henry) could come over to help.
Yesterday, Henry and I are messing around with everything with Dan. We primed the motor, put the valve covers on, hooked up the distributor, and she wouldn't turn over. We found out the starter was wired backwards, so we fixed it and got the motor to turn over. She fired and ran on 6 cylinders, spitting fireballs out of the carb, so that obviously told us the timing was off. It sure is loud as hell, though. Stock car loud, coming out of the currently open headers. Because the timing was off though, we shut her down and opened the valve covers to readjust the rockers. When we went to loosen them, Henry noticed it was far too tight since it was impossible to even turn the motor by hand with a ratchet to get it back to top dead center. A few lucky bumps of the key landed the motor at TDC, so we started adjusting. Dan gets to a cylinder and feels for the pushrod to finger tighten it, and finds that there is nothing there. We popped off that rocker and found the pushrod had dropped down, indicating it was probably bent. We found another like it on the other side of the motor. A magnetic rod pulled the pushrod out and we actually found that two of them were broke. Dan was heartbroken and angry since spending that kind of money at 18 is very hard.
Today at work, Henry brings in some pushrods from his old 383 project, and the IROC is back in business. I am leaving right now to go help get the new pushrods, get the motor to fire on all cylinders, idle her for 10 minutes to break her in and seat the piston rings, and then we're hitting the road. I'll get pictures if I get the chance. Wish us luck!
Here's what we're working on:
1988 IROC Z Hugger Orange
383 Stroker w/ some forged pistons (not sure what he used, he's keeping some things secret), comp cam, comp cam pushrods, crane cam rockers, edelbrock heads and intake, edelbrock carb (soon to replaced with Holley). I don't know much more than that. He's Mr. secretive about this. I know he's expecting more than 400 at the wheels.
Turbo 350 Transmission rebuilt w/ manual valvebody, B&M T-Handle shifter and B&M trick shift fluid
Weld draglites with Mickey Thompson Sportsmans and Skinnies
Racing seats
ShiftLite dashmount Tach
Much more to come as I find out! I have a few f-body friends that haven't yet joined the community, so more is to come!
A friend of ours, Nick, has a black 96 T/A M6 with a cam swap, K&N FIPK, Pacesetter longtubes and ORY, and flowmaster catback. A few days ago, we were putting Dan's top end of his motor back together. He needed the rockers adjusted properly, so Nick having experience went ahead and tightened them down. The problem is, he overtightened them after thinking they were hydraulic, so he did one full turn after snug instead of a 1/4 turn as they should be. She wouldn't start that night, so a couple days passed until another guy from work (Henry) could come over to help.
Yesterday, Henry and I are messing around with everything with Dan. We primed the motor, put the valve covers on, hooked up the distributor, and she wouldn't turn over. We found out the starter was wired backwards, so we fixed it and got the motor to turn over. She fired and ran on 6 cylinders, spitting fireballs out of the carb, so that obviously told us the timing was off. It sure is loud as hell, though. Stock car loud, coming out of the currently open headers. Because the timing was off though, we shut her down and opened the valve covers to readjust the rockers. When we went to loosen them, Henry noticed it was far too tight since it was impossible to even turn the motor by hand with a ratchet to get it back to top dead center. A few lucky bumps of the key landed the motor at TDC, so we started adjusting. Dan gets to a cylinder and feels for the pushrod to finger tighten it, and finds that there is nothing there. We popped off that rocker and found the pushrod had dropped down, indicating it was probably bent. We found another like it on the other side of the motor. A magnetic rod pulled the pushrod out and we actually found that two of them were broke. Dan was heartbroken and angry since spending that kind of money at 18 is very hard.
Today at work, Henry brings in some pushrods from his old 383 project, and the IROC is back in business. I am leaving right now to go help get the new pushrods, get the motor to fire on all cylinders, idle her for 10 minutes to break her in and seat the piston rings, and then we're hitting the road. I'll get pictures if I get the chance. Wish us luck!
Here's what we're working on:
1988 IROC Z Hugger Orange
383 Stroker w/ some forged pistons (not sure what he used, he's keeping some things secret), comp cam, comp cam pushrods, crane cam rockers, edelbrock heads and intake, edelbrock carb (soon to replaced with Holley). I don't know much more than that. He's Mr. secretive about this. I know he's expecting more than 400 at the wheels.
Turbo 350 Transmission rebuilt w/ manual valvebody, B&M T-Handle shifter and B&M trick shift fluid
Weld draglites with Mickey Thompson Sportsmans and Skinnies
Racing seats
ShiftLite dashmount Tach
Much more to come as I find out! I have a few f-body friends that haven't yet joined the community, so more is to come!
357ci LT1, cammed, stalled, and driven. 
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