My Torana Rebuild

[ari666]

whats been done to the heads? from what i can gather they are pretty spanking for cast irons.

 

[383 hatch]

As far as i know, they've had the valve seats blended and the ports tidied up a little bit. Other than that they're straight out of the box DART iron Eagles with a 64cc chamber and 200cc intake runner. They're fully complete with screw in studs and guide plates, ready to bolt on. Only about 3 years old and done less than 5000k's apparently. I'll let you know more when i get them.

But yes, they should be a nice bit of gear and perfect for what i want. I was all set to buy alloys, but i just couldn't justify the expense for what will be a tidy street engine.

 

[ari666]

if you are up for a rant i can go into the reason i prefer cast iron to alloy i was all geared up to get a set of those iron eagles, till i realised 327 was the 253 of chev engines.

 

[383 hatch]

Na i think i'll pass on your rant... I'm pretty sure i know what your reasons will be anyway lol

I'm happy to run casties, i just wasn't prepared to buy a set of fuellies that will have a 99.9% chance of being cracked and be too small for a 383 anyway. But the iron Eagles will be fine.

How do you reckon your 454 will go against my 383?

 

[ari666]

not all that well your torrie must be what? just on the tonne maybe a shade over with a SBC, my impala would be pushing 2 tonne with all the bog on it, plus my 4fluffy4 will be lucky to push 400hp. if i gear the torque right it may be a fun race though

either way, i dont mind losing. so long as its not for pinks

 

[383 hatch]

Long time without an update...

Ok, well here goes.

So, i'll start with why this thread hasn't been seeing much action. I've been repairing an HG Monaro that has some rust in the usual spots, both rear 1/4's in front of the rear wheel, L/H cant rail/roof turret and a small bubble in the L/H door at the front corner. So far i've finished the R/H quarter, welded in the section in the L/H quarter and cut out the rust in the roof. Here are some pics...

The rust spots are a bit hard to pick up on camera.

R/H side all cut out

The inner was ok on this side apart from some surface rust, so i just cleaned it up, rust converted it and painted it.

Outer all cut and welded in

The section i cut out

L/H side cut out, the inner panel was rusted through so i cut it out.

Inner panel repaired

Outer all welded in. The section didn't quiet fit properly, it ran uphill at the back so i had to slice it open once it was welded, move it down and weld it all up again.

The section i cut out. Hmm, check out the sexy repairs....

The roof cut out

The section i cut out.

So, that's about where i am at right now.

Now, back to the Torana.

Righto, so i picked up my heads. They're in very good nick, complete with studs, guide plates and springs (these will probably get swapped for ones suitable for the roller cam). They've had some work done, not crazy port work, just the valve seats have been blended into the ports and the dags taken off the ports themselves. Basically a pocket port. These heads are pretty good out of the box, so what has been done will be fine. Overall, i'm pretty happy with them for the money.

I paint stripped and degreased one, i havn't had a chance to do the other one yet.

I picked up some extractors off Ebay (brand new, never used) for $150. They're castle auto headers (lol) so ofcoarse they need some customary mods to make them fit, but nothing i can't handle. For what they cost me, i'm happy to modify them a bit, it's not a big deal. However, if i paid the $990 they retail for from Castle, i'd be pretty disappointed.

Here they are fitted to the car.

I've cut the piece out that doesn't fit and i'll get a couple of mandrel bends and weld them in where they need to be.

I've ordered a Comp Cams hydraulic roller cam kit from the US, so that should be here in a few weeks hopefully. Once that arrives, i have nearly all the bits to screw the 383 together.

Onto the LX front panels. I picked up the LX front cut on the weekend. Turns out i won't be able to modify the UC radiator support to work, so i will have to fit the LX one and modify the inner guards. Luckily, the rad support has been replaced at some point (i'd say it's had a light hit) so there is absolutely 0 rust in it which i'm pretty happy about. I've already stripped the panels off the front cut ready to start cutting the support off.

The guards are good apart from some rust in the bottom of the L/H one, but i have a mint UC guard that i will cut up to repair that, no big deal. The nose cone it mint aswell.

It also has a mint dash which i'm going to put in aswell (sorry Reaper ). I figure if i'm going to do this, i'm going the whole hog.

Dash parts collection. Just need to chase down an SL/R cluster as i don't want to run Autometer gauges anymore.

So, that's about where it stands now. More updates soon.

 

[383 hatch]

Oh, and 1 more pic just because i like it...

2 of the best shape cars ever made IMO.

 

[ari666]

I've ordered a Comp Cams hydraulic roller cam kit from the US

part number? if no one else, im really happy to see cast iron going on a sbc where it belongs what sort of mods did the castle headers need? should i be shitting my pants with mine as per fitment?

 

[383 hatch]

The grind number is CS XR288HR-10.

The specs are:
Duration at .050" :236 int./242 exh.
Advertised Duration :288 int./294 exh.
Lift :0.520 int./0.540 exh.
LSA :110
RPM :2,500-6,000

It's not overly big, but it should be nice and make decent power. I'm chasing a street engine here.

The mods aren't a big deal, it's only 1 pipe on the secondries that doesn't fit on the passenger side. It hits the K frame. Overall they fit pretty good for Castle headers lol.

 

[ari666]

actually, im looking at a cam very similar for the 4fluffy4 should be really tidy. prolly a 'looser' lsa but same duration and same lift. trying to stick to stock converter and keep a little fuel economy... if that possible.

always enjoy your updates mate. your garage is a thing of beauty.