505 Stroker swap

[496polara]

It may be an unpopular opinion and likely not worth the extra $$$ unless you sold your 2" headers but I believe the 1 7/8 tubes with that cam size and the 4 speed would help with low speed/part throttle torque and drivability.
I realize a 505 will have torque to spare so maybe a moot point. Just a suggestion from my feeble mind.

[timmycharger]

It may be an unpopular opinion and likely not worth the extra $$$ unless you sold your 2" headers but I believe the 1 7/8 tubes with that cam size and the 4 speed would help with low speed/part throttle torque and drivability.
I realize a 505 will have torque to spare so maybe a moot point. Just a suggestion from my feeble mind.

I have been going back and forth about re using the 2 inch headers vs getting new ones. I will need to spend money in having them sand blasted and re coated which may be half the price of getting new ones. If I do need to get new ones, I was leaning on getting 1 and 7/8 ones as I feel the same about the low end torque.

The guy who helped me choose my cam didn't say anything about the headers.

[Kern Dog]

I am not surprised that Dwayne remembered me. He was really helpful to me over the years. I have a few topics going at the FBBO site and he chimed in there several times.
The cam you are using will probably not be much different from mine, though you're at 505 versus my 495 cubes. Idle is great, power is right where you need it. Idle vacuum is strong enough for power brakes and you'll find that it pulls clean right from idle. If you've ever had a setup that snorts, hesitates or is sluggish from idle and requires rpm to feel comfortable, you'll know how much better it is to be able to leave from a low rpm and just accelerate like you would in a newer car.
Good luck, man!

[timmycharger]

Spent alot of time cleaning up parts that I will be re using like the water pump housing, oil pan and the heads. The heads will be going to Dwayne Porter most likely for a valve job and installation of the new springs to match my new cam. 

Speaking of the cam, it has arrived along with the roller lifters, cam button and timing chain.  Got my 1990's era Hughes engines 1.6 roller rockers out of storage, they still look brand new since they have very low miles on them.

[timmycharger]

I spent some time this past weekend installing and degreeing the cam. This actually took a lot of time because I wanted to be sure I got this process right.

My Cam has a center line of 108 which is the number I had to get to.

At first I was getting numbers all over the place, didn't matter if I had the crank sprocket set to zero (dot to dot), advanced 2 degrees or advanced 4 degrees.  Then after watching many videos, I realized my method of finding TDC was not ideal. I was using a dial gauge to find TDC but what happens is the dwell issue, where the piston sort of hits the top but the crank/rods still sort of move some resulting in inaccurate measurements.

I ended up making a piston stop and using the method of finding 2 points on the degree wheel and dividing by 2 which gave me TDC exactly.

Once I had that established, i first set the lower sprocket of the chain to zero and just lined up the dots. This resulted in me getting a centerline number of 111.5.  I checked it at .050, .080 and .100

I then installed the crank sprocket at the 2 degrees advanced slot and re did the TDC and this time I was at 109.5. Getting closer. 

Lastly, I installed th3 crank sprocket at the 4 degrees advanced slot, re did the TDC (2 more times to ensure accuracy) and ended up with exactly 108 most of the time, few times 108.5, others 107.5.

I used a dial gauge on the intake lifter, just on the edge of it so I didn't have to use a pushrod, I still was able to get all the travel from the lifter for max lift before testing it at .050 before/after.

I think I feel confident that I got this process correct, just seems wild to me that it was off so much from just lining up the dots.