This is a photo documentation of my '08 429 cj racing engine. This engine is bored .030" and has a piston to wall clearance of .009". The bearing clearance is .0028" om the mains and .0035 on the rods. The pistons are flattop Ford Racing/TRW, with a single valve relief for the intake valve. The block is a D1VE fully crioed and casting flash removed. The 1970 429 crank has a 3.59 stroke that we bullnosed and wedge cut. There is about 20hrs of prep work in the block. All the oil galleys have been drilled out to .500". In the lifter valley we installed two new oil drain backs and funnelled them to speed up oil drain to the pan. The 2 new oil drains at the front of the valley are positioned one to drain on to the Dist. gear and the other on to the timing chain. There are two oil drains in the heads through the block, that in most cases are half blocked. The first step is to place the particular heads that you plan on using for the build on the decks and install two inner head bolts on each head. Now you can run you .500" drill through the drain on the head and about a 1/2" into the block. Once all four hole are done make sure the heads are marked, so they go back on the same side. Now un-bolt the heads and remove them. Now blend and taper the oil drains so there are no ledges or steps in the drain. Now you can remover the small amount of casting flash in the lifter valley, the holes right above the cam. You want to make sure they are smooth and rounded. The next step is to flip the engine over to blend and taper the oil galley at the oil pump, as in stock form there is a ledge or step that reduces the flow by 25%. Next I focus my attention on the oil filter base. I blend and smooth this area as much as possible, then there is the threaded boss. You need to remove it from the block and place it in the vise and increase the inside diamitter by about 25% also.

On this build I used passanger car rods, that I smoothed, drilled, floated the pins and installed cj/football head rod bolts. You can see the cj/truck rod next to the worked rod. You can also see the oil hole that is trapperd to help in the oiling process. And then cleaned each rod with paint thinner in multiple stages and blowing dry.

Well now we installed the crank, these cranks are very heavy so it is a good idea to get some help. You don't want to nick or damage the crank at this point in any way.

Now I baught these pistons used so it is very important to check them over very carefully and to also check the ring to piston clearance. It is very important that the rings float in the ringland. I always smooth or round all sharp edges on new or used pistons.

Well here we are installing the cam shaft. It is very important that you do not nick the cam bearings. We apply prelube very libreally here as we want to protect the cam as much as possible. It is IMO best to have a long shaft that screws onto the cam to give the installer extra leverage. Remember to go slow and steady. Once the cam is installed then you can put the cam thrustplate on. Now you install the extra long cam gear drive pin. Now you can degree your cam shaft in acording to manufacturer specs. Now install the timing gears and chain  and the one piece performance fuel pump execntric and torque the bolt down.

We are now installing the oil pan. We use the late model one piece oil pan gasket, that we have to drill the end hole to 5/16". These urathane gaskets go on dry mostly, but I always put a small dabat the corners. So now we have a completed short block.

Well somehow I forgot to take pics while installing the Heads, but some things to remember while installing them is one make sure the head gaskets are on the deck correctly, you set the head down on the gasketgentally as not to damage it and make sure you put the right head on the propper side so that the oil drain holes line up perfectly.
Being I am using a flat tappet hyd cam preload is very important to ensure the valves close all the time. You may think tighter preload would help ensure the valve will close but it is the exact oposite. I only run an 1/8 of a turn of preload. The springs are on the heavy side for a hyd cam. We are 135lbs on the seat, the spring presure and the amount of preloadkeeps us from floating the valves.

Now I hope you all know there is quite a bit more involved than what I have posted here. There are clearances that have to bechecked and double checked. This is an abreaveated build.

good job

You aren't too far from me, who did you use to balance the rods? I don' tknow that I would trust anyone who took liberties with my rod bolts...

good point

good point

Trust me I did quite a bit more when I saw that. They were informed of the problem showed the problem and they replaced the ARP bolts in the rods and rebalanced. Now this engine was running fine after the 7th heat race and ready for more. We will see how everything fared today when the engines internals get inspected.

Wow they replaced your cj/football head rod bolts with ARP.

Nice upgrade

2sav

All the rods I do end up having ARP bolts in them. And that is what they destroied, so that is what they had to put in. That is another story, but I will make it short. About 6 years ago you could get pass ARP rod bolts now it seems you can only get cj rod bolts.

Yes those Rods SUCKED! lol.

Hmmm install the cam before the other stuff where have I heard that before..... 

just razzin lol