Short Block On Stock Ford Engine - Late Model Boss Part Two

10. With one piston in the hole, the camshaft is installed with plenty of heavy lube to protect the lifters during the break-in process.

11. The camshaft retainer plate is bolted into place.

12. During block prep, several additional holes were drilled into the lifter valley. This is to help get extra oil onto the camshaft to protect it instead of allowing all the oil to drain down the back of the block. Charlie's only does this for flat tappet race motors.

13. The timing chain is a Ford Racing Hy-Vo unit that uses an extra strong chain design. They are more expensive than most other timing chain sets available, but they do an excellent job of maintaining proper valve timing.

14. Robert Long degrees in the camshaft and also checks piston height at TDC.

15. Late Model Stock usually has no compression rule, but requires a flat top piston and a minimum of 62 cc's in the combustion chambers, so Robert measures the piston height at TDC and fly cuts each piston for the cylinder it will go into (if necessary) to get each between 0.008- and 0.010-inch in the hole at TDC. After that is complete he's ready to begin installation. Here, he lubricates the piston skirts with oil to minimize the chance of scuffing at start-up.

16. With low tension oil rings, it shouldn't require much force at all to get the pistons in the cylinder bores.

17. Robert has already checked bolt stretch in the rods and knows the proper amount of torque to get between 0.0055 and 0.0070 of stretch.

18. Remember how we said these were Chevy connecting rods and pistons? Chevrolets use a different rod offset than Fords, so the offset on the big end of the rods need to be turned down in a lathe (using a custom fixture) so that they won't rub the cheek of the crank. This also means that the inside of the pin bores often needs to be massaged to keep the pin end of the rod from rubbing. It's a labor-intensive process, but one Charlie says pays off in both power and durability.

19. Here's one real advantage Ford race engines have over Chevrolets. The 10-degree valve angle means no valve pockets are necessary. So on this engine with a 62cc combustion chamber, a compressed gasket thickness of 0.030, the piston 0.008 in the hole at TDC and no valve pockets, the compression ratio will work out to 11.46:1.

20. A look at all the rods in place with the four-bolt mains holding everything down.

21. Robert finishes up the short-block by bolting up the front cover and the balancer.