Wow! Lot's of good advice while I was away!
Rich, see you Tuesday
Tony and Rex. does Tuesday morning, or lunch time on Tuesday work for you?
I appreciate all the replies! Thread, silicone, Hylomar (which we use) are all good ideas. Dry decking it would be nice, but it looks to be an extreme amount of work for the odd shaped water passages, Look at the first pic- How would you guys go about plugging these passages?
I'll discuss dry decking the block with Don- it does seem to be the absolute to the issue.
We tore the engine down Wednesday night, and I was surprised! The bearing looked great- no signs of flex or movement! The front bearing showed just a touch of possible flex, I believe due to the blower drive.
We couldn't be totally drama free, however- on 5 cylinders, the lifters had backed themselves off, and we had valve lash in the ,250-.300 range! luckily, only two lobes on the cam showed any damage as a result. Even those lobes will clean up with a quick polish.
We didn't finish until 4:30 a.m., so we're a little shy on pics- good thing there wasn't any carnage!
So, next week I'm off to deliver the block to Don, cam to Dema, and see if we can make some gains with flow. My goal is to try and pick up 30-50HP through additional porting, tweaking the head chamber design, and a new cam.