Bearings and Damper BBC
 

I just picked up my winter project! Which is a new engine for my 242 Formula. Yes, I finally gave up on the built small block idea. I found a 454, 4 bolt freshly race prepped block bored .060. The new rotating assembly is all forged and balanced. The crank is a 427 GM (3.76) So basically I have a 440 ci engine. Everything is new in the boxes so I now need to assemble it. I also have a set of 781 oval ports that I will be putting on this. The two things that I'm a bit unsure of is the harmonic damper and the bearings.

The damper is a Professional Products 8" Powerforce? I've never heard of these before. The guy I bought everything from told me that his race shop/ machine shop told him that this was the damper that they used on their race engine. Has anyone used one of these before? If so was it better, worse, or on par with other dampers. Or should I just sell it and buy a fluidamper? If this is a good damper i'd rather just use it.

The next question are the main and rod bearings. There Clevite P series. Which from what I can see are there middle of the road bearings. Again, should I use these or upgrade to a different bearing.

I'm going to have Bob Madara build the cam, so I want to make sure the rest of the engine is up to what his cams are capable of.

Thanks for the input

The Powerforce damper is made in China for Professional Products. Their stuff is low on the quality scale. If you use it you will probably be ok. Boaters don't turn their engines 8000 rpm and you're not building a long stroke engine. However, I would mark the balancer with a scribe to make sure the outer ring doesn't move. I have heard of that happening in drag cars. And make sure it is a good tight fit on the crank. If you want the best, get an ATI.

The P bearings are fine for almost all applications. If your crankshaft has large fillet radius then you need the H bearings. They have a large chamfer cut into them to clear the fillets. Some of the newer bearings are just narrower again to clear the fillets. If you are using an aftermarket crank, you will have to watch for this.

The crank is a new GM forged crank. The machine shop picked all the parts so I'm sure there the correct bearing. I was just questioning them because of the damper choice. Thanks for your help on this.

dampers
 

i have used the cheap/china made dampers before on a 454 w/a blower and havent had any problem yet.as said,mark your inner and outter shell and keep a eye on them.make sure they do not move.you should be ok.

Cool, more money for other things!

THat is going to be a cool motor. With that crank, you should be able to get some serious RPMS out of that thing. What is your comp ratio. Let that thing scream up to around 6500 or so.

It will be a cool engine.

With the oval ports its going to be just under 10:1. Yea, this thing should sound great ripping across the lake at 6500 rpms.

Your gonna need the rpms with that ratio.

Bob will probably like that set up as well. Use a 454-o intake on those heads. Maybe have the larger valves installed also. Port out the exhaust side of those heads. They will be screamers.

I want to see if I can get the compression down a bit. I would rather be at 9.5:1. I'm not sure how much a thicker head gasket would help with this. If I install bigger valves I know they have to also increase the chamber size a bit to help with the valve shrouding. In which case I will loose a bit of compression. First though I need to get the engine assembled and measure the piston to deck height and then CC the cylinder chambers. At that point I can be spot on, right now all I can say is that speed pro says my pistons will have a 9.99:1 ratio with a 119 cc chamber.

Ive personally broke 1 of those balancers and have abot 2-3 friends of mine that had them spin as well,
In my opinion while you have everything out your better off spending the money and getting a quality balancer
ATI's are great but there are better quality stuff out there for less money than the ATI
Pro Race makes a very nice balancer that is priced well also,

I would not run that balancer,
in fact you couldnt pay me to run that professional products balancer,
its junk,
I dont know why the engine shop would have picked it
while you have everything apart make sure you re measure and check everything
theres are a lot of engine shops that over look minor details that could risk the life of your motor,
and if they went with that balancer as their first choice that would be raising a flag to check everything else out

The machine shop was A Team Speed Shop in Tinley Park (south west suburb of Chicago) anyone heard of them? I don't want to look down on the shop, for all I know they guy I bought the engine from could have asked for a cheap but usable damper? From what I can see they've been around since '91. If they where a hack shop it would seem that they would be long gone by now. But who knows. I'll start a post and see if anyone knows anything about these guys.

Your not going to get it down to 9.5 in that space without milling off some of the piston, but those pistons probably can;t be milled.

10:1 is OK, just run 93 and keep the timing under control.
I ran one all last year without anything special in it at 10.5:1 and didn't have any problems with it.

I just get the ones out of the JEGS catalog.

Thats what I'm going to do. I looked in the the pro race and it looks like another Chinese product! If I'm spinning this thing at 6500 rpms I don't need the damper to fall apart and put a hole in my boat or even worse kill whoever is in the back bench.

I have ran the Powerforce Plus damper without any problems. They are a cheap copy of ATI. It gets really easy to $100 yourself into a $30,000 engine, and everyone here is spending YOUR money.

Pro Race is manf. overseas
but the quality in materials they use is far better than the pro products

I hope I didnt come off as bad mouthing the shop
I was just trying to state that you should check the clearances and setup yourself,

who know the previous owner might have said "yeah dont worry about the machine shop checked everything "
when in fact they didnt

I prefer to use the regular summit or jegs brand balancers over the Pro Products as well if im not using an ATI or Pro Race

Instead of the Professional Products I bought the pioneer one,Chris Straub had recommended it to me. Alittle more but its made in the USA and by a company that makes dampeners for all the big diesel engine manufactures.

http://www.pioneerautoinc.com/HB2002.htm

A Team is well known in the burbs and does a great job , Rob will build whatever your heart desires & wallet can handle ... perhaps who you purchased your motor from ran out of coin ....
We do a bunch of business with A-Team Rob and never had a problem .:drink: good luck on your build

The "ran out of coin" statement is exactly what happened. I picked this package up because the guy ran out of money and needed money. I picked everything up for fraction of what he had into it. Either way this should be a very interesting engine for the Formula.

hey strip poker.the damper on the left,is that a snap-ring on the damper and does the damper come-apart?just wondering

there both the same,yes it a snap,Im sure its a pressed fit, I figure its for safety,or rebuildable.To me it looked to be well made.

this is the manf for Pioneer
http://www.precisionparts.com.au/Pag.../powerbond.htm

Australia

i will take auzzi made stuff anyday over gook made chit