Yesterday morning I hit the road at 4am to go get the engine from Steve. We finally got dug out from the 2' of snow we received (had 3ft on the north end of town).
After a good 9 hours in the truck (over 600 miles) I am back in the shop with the engine.....
As I had touched on earlier, the balance in the engine was detectably off. The larger skirts on L2300F TRW pistons made them a fair amount heavier than the original GM pistons. It so happened to be Steve had a set of original 67 L71 pistons. Almost a 30 gram difference between the two piston configurations alone. The L2300F's had not been balanced, nor were the rods. Once the rods and pistons were balanced, the crank still required 100 grams of heavy metal to be welded into the 6223 crank. All is good now.
The block needed nothing more than a fresh hone with a deck plate, pistons cleaned, the crank was polished (standard), and ARP bolts fitted to the stock rods. The valves and valve guides looked good, as was the valve stem / guide clearance. The valve springs were right on spec, and the replacement 143 cam / lifters all looked fantastic. The heads were lightly resurfaced and a "detailed" valve job completed. I am speculating the engine was rebuilt in the late 80's to early 90's (bearings were dated 1987).
So, here is the dyno sheet. As you can see, Steve spun it to 5500 and peak had already been established. This is one of those projects where the dyno is merely used to seat the new rings, ensure there are no leaks, make a few pulls to validate the combination, as well as confirm the AFR's. This was not an exercise to chase power with timing, carb, or lash changes. The carb is the original 3247 Holley that was refreshed by Phil earlier this year. Stock jetting and all. 2" primary dyno headers. 91 octane pump gas.
I was pleasantly surprised with the torque numbers / curve. I asked Steve where he placed the cam, and all I got was a stupid little grin.
Now I have some discreet paint work to complete. I want to hide the blue Fel Pro gaskets, and get some color on the reproduction freeze plugs (no printing or embossments). I have much of what is needed to start reassembly of the car. More updates to follow......