Stroked Ford 418ci V-8 Assembly - We've Got To Have Morrre Power, Captian!

With all the lifters in place, the head gaskets are checked prior to applying gasket sealer. A good-quality fiber/metal core gasket is not only important for a good seal; it's also impervious to gasoline, oil, coolant, and alcohol.

The synthetic fiber gaskets are clearly marked "front." Doesn't hurt to visually check to see that the water passages match. The larger water passages are in the rear of the head and block to help flow cooler water to the rear of the engine.

The water passages in the gasket are smaller to the front and the gasket is stamped with the word "front."

It has become our habit to use ARP chrome-moly bolts on each engine build. They are stronger than typical engine hard-ware and resistant to cross-threading and seizing.

Bill carefully slides the aluminum heads in place.

A torque wrench is set for 80 ft-lb of torque. Bill works in a continuous rhythm on each bolt in order to apply an equal amount of torque to each head bolt. This will help prevent head gasket leaks.

These stamped COMP Cams roller-tip rockers will provide an appropriate level of performance to our healthy stroked street engine. They're not the most exotic (nor are they the most expensive), but much better than stock.

The stock-length pushrod is 8.144 inches. The new pushrod is 8.500 inches. The end of the valve stem reveals that the roller tip is nearly centered. The best position is slightly toward the center of the valve stem.

The pivot ball and adjuster nuts are a small but important part of the valve train. They will need to be tightened to either hot or cold specifications.

Again, Bill applied plenty of pre-lube to the end of the valve stem and the rocker arm.

Do NOT use an air gun to tighten the adjuster nut--it's easy to gall the threads.

Adjusting the valve lash is an important operation that can prevent bending a valve stem at higher rpm. The cold setting is .008 inch; the hot setting on this valve train is .014 inch.

The .008-inch feeler gauge needs a little bit of effort to slide between the roller tip and the valve stem. For consistency, it's a good idea to create the habit of setting the valve lash cold. Otherwise you're guessing if the valve train is still at operating temperature as the head cools. It's recommended to insert the feeler gauge in the same direction the roller turns. Then tighten down the lash until just before the motion of the feeler gauge makes the valve stem move. Remember, you're supposed to torque the adjuster nut after the jamb nuts are set. And the valve lash will loosen up after the first time the engine is fired. The valve seats can take a good deal of abuse if the engine detonates.

After the valve lash was adjusted, Bill installed the intake manifold. First he checked the synthetic gaskets for proper fit.

This engine will be installed in a smog-exempt pickup. Therefore, these EGR passages will be blocked with gasket material.

The Weiand intake manifold was positioned between the aluminum heads for a pre-fit test.

Bill checks the head-to-intake manifold clearance. In some cases a little adjustment is required.

He also checks the gap between the engine block and the intake manifold.

Once Bill was satisfied the Weiand intake manifold would mount properly, he applied gasket sealer to the bare-metal surface of the heads.

With the knowledge of how wide the gap between the engine block and manifold was, Bill created a bead of gasket compound to fill the gap.

The intake manifold bolts were tightened to snug around the perimeter of the intake manifold. After they were snug, Bill then tightened them to the appropriate setting.

We selected a Rattler harmonic balancer from TCI Automotive. The timing marks are easy to read, and the black finish is a high-qual-ity coating.

The aluminum spacer will allow the crankshaft pulley to be mounted properly--not to interfere with the oper-ation of the harmonic balancer.

The last item of this part of the assembly was the addition of the Holley 830-cfm NASCAR/ Winston carburetor (PN: 0-805-09-1). We're ready to schedule some dyno time and see what kind of torque and horsepower this engine can make. We'll report on the results in an upcoming issue.