New hope for my 302!!!

well, im sure most of ya are pretty aware of my plans for building a 302cid V8 for my IROC, the whole heratige deal and all, and my bitching about having to spend thousands of dollars on a custom one off crank to do it. Well, thank god i got frustrated and sent off a question to Chevy high performance, i was just flipping through the pages of the september 04 issue, when low and behold, there is my question in print. and a viable answer to my problems!!! turns out that chevy made a 4.3L V8 and put it in 94-96 B-body's as the base engine, known as the L99. well, the crank for that little V8 is a 3.00in stroke, with 2.100in rod journals, 2.450in main journals, and a one peice rear main seal to fit in my 99 tahoe 350 block!!!!!! the only downside is that the crank is cast iron, i would prefer a forged one, but i figure, so long as i proporly balance the rotating assembly, keep the rotating assembly as light as possible, stay around 450-500hp, and limit the revs (so much for spinnin her to 8k on a regular basis :( ) it will do the trick, and i can actually get this budget built engine started without sellin a kidney :evillol: that crank problem was really the only thing holdin me back, now i just gotta get home and hit up the salvage yards to find my crank :)

Nice work and good luck. Lol if you find more than 1 crank you may wanna grab them both up incase you snap one around 7000rpms. By the way, what are you gonna do for oiling up to 8000?

lol yeah thats probly not a bad idea, ill certainly think about it depending on cost, but im starting to spend alot of money lately, im buying up as many 9 bolt rear end parts as i can find, and researching them, and now ill be stock pileing 3.00in crankshafts lol. and on top of that, ive got an ebay bid that im sitting on that im probly gonna drop some dime on. ill tell yall if i win it. as far as oiling concerns, ill be running a blueprinted high volume oil pump, mobil 1 5w-30 synthetic oil, and be running a windage tray and crank scraper in the oil pan. sense im not gonna be running her at 8k for any extended periods of time, especially with a cast iron crank (even though they did it back in the 60's) im not on a race budget and cant drop in a new engine every week ;)

i bet that motors gonna be sick when your done. what are you hoping to run?

while you're scabbin parts for the 302, snatch the rods from the L99 too. they are 5.94", as opposed to a standard 5.7" rod (which your 350 has). the longer rods will allow you to run off the shelf 350 pistons with your 3.00" crank, as they are .24" longer than the stock ones. this will put your desired piston pin height right at the 1.56" you need. your pistons just got cheaper too. :grinyes:

Blueturtle, well, with tranny mods, a swap to 3.27 gears, my exhaust setup, and the engine, im lookin to run at LEAST mid 12's. after i finish puttin together my 8 speed 700R4, i hope to break into the 10's

GreaseDog, i am impressed, we got another techy here. you are absolutely right, however, i am going to be running longer 6.125in rods, for very short pistons to save as much weight as possible. the longer rods also have a power benifit, by running longer rods, you have a better angle on the crank, and transfer more of the force of combustion into rotating the crank which means more power, might only be 3hp or so, but hey, every little bit counts ;) and the weight savings will hopefully help keep my little cast iron crank alive longer.

oh and where are my manners, welcome to the forum greasedog

now if the 700r4 is a 4 speed overdrive how are you gonna cram 4 more gears in there? or is the overdrive a 5th gear so then u would cram 3 in there (i dunno much about tranny as you can tell im more into the engine part at the moment)

[QUOTE=89IROC&RS]after i finish puttin together my 8 speed 700R4,

what the hell is an 8 speed 700r4??? lol somethin your workin on??

*evil grin* *runs away into shed in backyard with a big TOP SECRET sign on the door* :evillol:

ok well all i know is that those 8 gears will all prolly be between 3.5 and 5.10 right tiny gears but hella fast

its actually pretty simple really, im just working out some details, mostly wiring and such, ill let yall know if it works ;)

well with a panitary gear set, you can have up to four speeds foward and two speeds in reverse, depending on what is gear is held,which gear is input and which one is output (for those of you who don't know what I am talking about, I am talking aobut the sun gear, ring gear and planetary gears.) in a four speed tranny, you have 4 planitary gear sets. one controlls reverse and foward, and three are for your speed gears. so, it is possible to even have up to 15 gears foward and 8 gears in reverse. However, it is impossible to do with a 700o-r4 tranny because, you would have to install different clutches and be able to somehow be able to lock the different clutches to the tranny case.


Hypsi87

hint: think outside the box.... aka the tranny case ;)

nothing is impossible dude. its actually already been done, and is quite easy, the complicated part im working on is the method by which i will be controling it. i havent completely ironed out how ill be handling shifting duities. the 8 gears come from the form of a gear splitter, a tailshaft housing unit from gear vendors.

Iroc's definately the resident mad scientist

hint: think outside the box.... aka the tranny case ;)

nothing is impossible dude. its actually already been done, and is quite easy, the complicated part im working on is the method by which i will be controling it. i havent completely ironed out how ill be handling shifting duities. the 8 gears come from the form of a gear splitter, a tailshaft housing unit from gear vendors.

ok so its like a dual range tranny like in a semi... never thought of that on an automatic


hydrluac solinoids that are activaited by an RPM switch, or a micro controller

lol awesome!!! :) guess the new name for the Z is gonna have to be franken'ROC :evillol:

dude if you pull this off i vote you build me one and i'll pay top dollar for it lol

lol, the whole thing? or just the tranny??

tranny as long as it can handle lots of power, lol i plan on in a year or so to build a nice 350 with a blower might even stroke it to a 383

do you have a name for your project man ....you have to get one and add it to your sig

Well, i asked my tranny guy at the dealership, the one who put it together with the B&M transkit, and corvette fist/second servo, said it should handle around 600hp max and 500hp on a regular basis, and the gear vendors unit should handle around 1200hp. so as long as youre lookin at power figures like im running, you should be fine.

as far as a name for her, she has been, and always will be to me, the She Devil. but for the sake of the project, we can temporarily call her franken'ROC like i said up top. what with me being a mad scientist and all.

how about the driveshaft you plain on getting a lighter one to decrease rolling mass??? (Im just trying to get involved forgive me if I sound like a fool) :)

well how much power do you think a 383 with a pair of nice heads and a 700 cfm holley 4 barrel carb with a blower would push out

actually kenwood, thats a very valid point, and yes ill have to have a custom aluminum driveshaft made because the gear vendors tailshaft is longer than stock. so a shorter driveshaft is needed. i could have the factory one cut down, but i figure i can score an aluminum one out of a fourth gen camaro, and have that shortened to work.

blue - very open ended question. depends on compression, cam, exhaust, all that, but id say that you would be pushing that 700R4 a bit hard, and might concider a TH350 instead. now, if you left that 383 naturally asperated, you could bring the power levels back down and run the 700R4 just fine. but if youre gonna do that, why not build a 302 like me and get better gas mileage to boot ;)

ahh I feel better now ( I dont want to get the mad scientist....well mad)

well thats true except by the time i get this project on the way i'll prolly have a bike so ide only take the maro out like 2 days a week

iroc, im dissappointed. i would expect more from you, being the moderator and experienced camaro junky that you are. foreshame, i would have sold the kidney for the engine build...

hahaha, naw im savin the kidney for the paint job ;)

paint job what color???

what im thinkin, is having it stripped down to bare metal, and having the whole body bondo'd and wet sanded like they do for high end street rods, primered, then sprayed with 2 or 3 coats of the factory copper/red metalic color, then a single coat of candy apple red metalic, and 2 or 3 coats of clear. engine bay will be glossy black. thats my vision right now though, by the time i get around to doin it, i might change my mind.

will you change your own mind or will money make you change your mind...Hell money makes me change my mind all the time:)

lol, thats where the kidney comes in, werent you reading ;)

ahh your going to keep it man

Black Cherry is a very pretty color. Flat black engine bay, makes the heart beat stick out.

actually yeah, i meant to say flat black, not glossy, my bad ;) and the engine is gonna be chevy orange, with all the aluminum parts left lookin silvery, and orange valve covers. just like the factory would have done it. back in the 60's.

i saw a nice engine in hot rod magazine the block was polished silver and the intake and heads were purple

lol, damn that sounds hidious, i think it was the mammoth wasnt it? a mopar engine? i guess to each his/her own, but ill stick with factory paintjob, just so it dosnt look too flashy

i saw a nice engine in hot rod magazine the block was polished silver and the intake and heads were purple
dont u mean purple valve covers not heads?

naw, they painted the heads if i remember right

how much is that paint job gunna cost you i was wondering howmuc a nice job would be

im just guessin here, but for that kinda work, anywhere from 3-5 grand is what im expecting to get quoted.

what im thinkin, is having it stripped down to bare metal, and having the whole body bondo'd and wet sanded like they do for high end street rods, primered, then sprayed with 2 or 3 coats of the factory copper/red metalic color, then a single coat of candy apple red metalic, and 2 or 3 coats of clear. engine bay will be glossy black. thats my vision right now though, by the time i get around to doin it, i might change my mind.

Unless the paint on there now has a real peeling problem or something like that IROC I would advise against stripping it down to bare metal especially if you paying someone else. Just sand the car's original paint really well.

I just did it to my Mustang(stripped to bare metal) and honestly after doing it I can say it doesn't make the paint come out any better at all!!!! It's just a lot of extra time and/or money for nothing. I will never strip a car to bare metal again unless it is absolutely necessary!

Also if you gonna use HOK Candies the most predominant name in them you really need minium 3-4 coats of candy or it will not cover well and look blotchy.

But your paint idea sounds awesome. I'm doing something similiar in that I'm painting my SHO the factory red and then laying the suggested 5-7 coats of HOK Candy Apple Red over it. Then clearing the whole car.

i can finger paint...

lol, hell yeah chevyracin ;)

GTstang, thanx man, like i said i dont know a whole helluva lot about body stuff, so all the advice i can get, or corrections to my ideas are greatly appriciated. As far as the condition of my paint, its typical factory third gen camaro paint, clear is peeling up in sheets and coming off, and the color paint is oxidized really bad in multiple areas. also, i am going to wind up having several body panels that are starting off as different colors. the nose is black now, the body is copper/red metalic (where its still colored and cleared) and the rear hatch is going to be a seperate color cuz im getting one from the junkyard with a rear window defogger and wiring it in. so with all those mulitcolored parts, i figured the only way to get it all to be the same shade was to strip everything down and start over. but if im wrong, hell, id rather not pay to have it done lol. as far as the number of coats of paint, again, i claim abundant ignorance, i just kinda guessed at somethin that sounded right :)