Now remember one important thing about this combination: the pistons had small domes and the cam just over a half-inch of lift. If you have a lot of compression with a big dome on the piston and a .650 lift cam you will have to do all of the degreeing and checking we didn't have to. Ditto for installing the lifters, push rods and rocker arms. I just lubed everything up well and installed them. If you've got high-dollar solid lifter stuff there will be a lot more work. Since putting the engine into the Vega and racing it, Jok told me he basically hasn't touched anything in the engine -- although he did say that he felt so guilty that he actually took the valve covers off once and ran the valves just to make himself feel better.

We had the engine almost completely assembled when we discovered that we had few extra Allen head screw-in plugs left over. I had forgotten to install the two threaded plugs that go behind the timing chain assembly so I had to take that stuff back off and screw those plugs in. We also had a little brain cramp and got the upper and lower bearing halves confused and had to re-do that job.

I figure things like that are just part of the deal when you are doing it yourself (at least when I'm doing it). It taught me to check everything at least twice. After those two speed bumps the rest of assembly process very smoothly...sort of. We did have a problem with having enough hardware and gaskets.

I had no idea that gaskets, especially those Fel-Pro blue gaskets, were so expensive or that manufacturers no longer include hardware with their parts. If you are building an engine from scratch you better set aside time and money to buy all the nuts, studs bolts and fasteners required. I had to make several runs during the process to buy head bolts, head studs, bolts to install the intake with, bolts for the pan and headers, and an oil pump shaft.

Despite those minor glitches we had the motor assembled and ready for Jok in just two days.

Once the engine was bolted into the Vega it performed better than we had expected. Jok put a Barry Grant alky carb that we had used on the Project 4-Link dragster onto the Dart intake, hooked up the MSD ignition that came with the Vega when we bought it, and went to the track. Early testing saw the Vega run the quarter-mile consistently in the high 10.50's at 125+ and the eighth-mile in the 6.60/100+ range.

Jok thinks that with a small roller camshaft from Isky in the motor the Vega would run 9.90's easily. In the meantime the engine the way it is with a hydraulic cam that limits the engine to 7500 rpm will probably last for a very long time before it needs any maintenance.

Jok and I had budgeted about $13,000 to build the Back to Basics Vega project and that included the engine. As it turned out we probably got close to that figure, but just barely. We have about $4,500 worth of parts in the engine based upon the retail prices and made an alky burning, single four-barrel, 383-inch mouse motor that has pushed our 3,000 lb Vega project car to consistent 6.60/104 laps on the eighth and a best of 10.59/125.60 in the quarter. According to our charts the engine has to be making about 520 hp.

What I learned from this was that you can build a "budget" engine using off-the-shelf speed parts that will make plenty of power and that you won't have to sell the kids into white slavery to finance the project. The secret, if there is one, is to trust what the manufacturers, your local speed merchant, and machinist tell you. Buy and install the parts they recommend and stick to the basics.

SOURCE BOX
Ohio Crankshaft 5453 SR 49 Greenville, OH 45331 800-333-7113 www.ohiocrank.com	Isky Racing Cams 16020 S. Broadway Gardena, CA 90247-9990 213-770-0930 www.iskycams.com	Dart Machinery 353 Oliver Drive Troy, MI 48084 248-362-1188 www.dartheads.com
Moroso Performance Products 80 Carter Dr Guilford, CT 06437 203-458-0542 www.moroso.com	Don Kulash Precision Engine Service Glen Carbon IL 618-288-3779	Bill Weckman Weckman Racing Engines Granite City, IL 618-876-1762