Rich-L79
Jun 5th, 04, 9:59 PM
I'm working on a friend's 396 and we have found it contains an Erson 1500 X camshaft. I cannot find any data on this cam on the Mr. Gasket website. BTW, the Mr. Gasket website is one of the worst to navigate I have experienced!
We pulled his engine today for a number of reasons but the ultimate goal is to get the engine in decent street trim. We hope to use the long block as is without tearing it down because it is suspected to be sound. The parts we have confirmed on the engine:
-820 heads (big oval, open chamber, 113cc chambers, 255/114 ports), no porting, strongly suspect the valves are the original 2.09/1.70 sizes.
-Engine codes out (CLA on pad, indicates an LS3) as having originally been a '71 396/402, 240hp (net) 4bbl engine for a manual trans, never been decked, unknown if it's been bored, pistons unknown but it runs on pump gas and burns no oil. Until we pull the pan we won't know if it's a 2- or 4-bolt block not that it really matters. But being a '71 block (and heads to match) it would appear to be an unleaded engine so hardened seats are not a needed item since they should already be there.
-Engine codes out as a '71
-Intake: Edelbrock Torker II 2-0.
-Carb: Edelbrock Performer 1411 1352, 750cfm, electric choke.
-Ignition is Mallory Unilite, no vacuum advance.
-Erson aluminum 1.72 ratio roller rockers, single springs (spring specs unknown), 1500 X solid lifter cam.
-The engine also has an Erson gear drive with a quick-change front cover which is very nice but which had absolutely no gaskets on it!
Considering the way it ran recently, I assumed it is a slightly modified engine with a way-too-big cam. I found some Ford small block specs for the 1500 X and they didn't sound too wild but I don't know how that relates to the specs for the BBC version of the cam.
I did discover the electric choke was never hooked up so this may be why it never ran very well when it was warmed up (it ran better when first started). The plugs were black. The inside of the engine looked pretty good, the cam and lifters look to have little wear and it appeared to be wearing well and not have many miles on it. The cam bearings look good. The valve lash was set at .024.
Even if we bolt the engine back together in the same configuration it still needed to be pulled to fix two broken starter bolts (!!!) and re-gasket the thing since it is leaking like mad. It also needs a new flywheel due to severe heat cracks and a new balancer just because we don't know anything about it and it is very small. Much of the exterior of the engine components were shoddily attached with hardware-store bolts (and a few missing bolts) and two of the clutch pressure plate bolts were only finger tight as was one of the flywheel bolts! I think we got it out in time.
Once we can nail down the specs on the cam we can determine if it is a good match for the rest of the engine and proceed with the freshinging process.
We pulled his engine today for a number of reasons but the ultimate goal is to get the engine in decent street trim. We hope to use the long block as is without tearing it down because it is suspected to be sound. The parts we have confirmed on the engine:
-820 heads (big oval, open chamber, 113cc chambers, 255/114 ports), no porting, strongly suspect the valves are the original 2.09/1.70 sizes.
-Engine codes out (CLA on pad, indicates an LS3) as having originally been a '71 396/402, 240hp (net) 4bbl engine for a manual trans, never been decked, unknown if it's been bored, pistons unknown but it runs on pump gas and burns no oil. Until we pull the pan we won't know if it's a 2- or 4-bolt block not that it really matters. But being a '71 block (and heads to match) it would appear to be an unleaded engine so hardened seats are not a needed item since they should already be there.
-Engine codes out as a '71
-Intake: Edelbrock Torker II 2-0.
-Carb: Edelbrock Performer 1411 1352, 750cfm, electric choke.
-Ignition is Mallory Unilite, no vacuum advance.
-Erson aluminum 1.72 ratio roller rockers, single springs (spring specs unknown), 1500 X solid lifter cam.
-The engine also has an Erson gear drive with a quick-change front cover which is very nice but which had absolutely no gaskets on it!
Considering the way it ran recently, I assumed it is a slightly modified engine with a way-too-big cam. I found some Ford small block specs for the 1500 X and they didn't sound too wild but I don't know how that relates to the specs for the BBC version of the cam.
I did discover the electric choke was never hooked up so this may be why it never ran very well when it was warmed up (it ran better when first started). The plugs were black. The inside of the engine looked pretty good, the cam and lifters look to have little wear and it appeared to be wearing well and not have many miles on it. The cam bearings look good. The valve lash was set at .024.
Even if we bolt the engine back together in the same configuration it still needed to be pulled to fix two broken starter bolts (!!!) and re-gasket the thing since it is leaking like mad. It also needs a new flywheel due to severe heat cracks and a new balancer just because we don't know anything about it and it is very small. Much of the exterior of the engine components were shoddily attached with hardware-store bolts (and a few missing bolts) and two of the clutch pressure plate bolts were only finger tight as was one of the flywheel bolts! I think we got it out in time.
Once we can nail down the specs on the cam we can determine if it is a good match for the rest of the engine and proceed with the freshinging process.