Oops. No. My mistake. He just wrote "351W" My autocorrect was the one that screwed up Windsor. Sorry. That was my mistake.
Hahaha. I had to look again just to make sure. But I know the cam shaft is relatively similar and will fit, but could that be a sign that they really messed up?
I'd send it back and ask for a refund, then pick an off the shelf grind. What they sent you was a dead ringer for an HO roller, that can be had for free.
Hahaha. You know. I feel like I forget sometimes too. But I'm probably gonna have them give me a refund or a regrind. If I do a regrind, do you think those spring will be strong enough or will I need to send those back too? So then I'm hoping to build a 302 for the street that has a nice solid bite to it that can beat my buddies 72 Camaro. I'm hoping to have at least 300 horsepower with a 10.5:1 compression ratio, slightly ported 289 heads and a lot cam with plenty of torque for the street.
And check this little note at the top: "Note: Fire Order = 1-3-7-2-6-5-4-8" All written in hand... I just noticed this.. Thats the firing order for a HO roller motor isnt it? That seems to be what i remember... Because they went with that so that the running mates would be 5 and 6 to cool down the engine and stop blowing head gaskets right?
That's the Windsor firing order, it makes a little more power than the older order by revising the stresses on the mains. Did you have screw in studs installed in those heads ?
I'm just guessing here.. but it's doubtful they will give you an outright refund.. and I would try and steer them towards the proper grind that you initially wanted for your combo in the first place. Now, about the springs. If they sent you springs that are spec'd for installed heights of 1.85?(you really need to confirm this).. then the guy you've been dealing with up to this point obviously has no idea what the original valve lengths are for those 289 heads. Major "spec'ing boo-boo" right there for this particular combo. Taller springs like that would only be applicable with after,arket heads.. the old factory rotators on the intake side of newer castings(or maybe it was the exhaust?.. ask baddad about that one if you want clarification).. and/or .600+ lift cams to avoid coil bind issues. To use those springs on these particular heads.. you'll likely need +.200 valves(5.1 inch) with aproximately .050 locators/cups underneath them to reach the 1.85 installed height that they recommend. Personally.. if they did in fact send you those taller springs?.. I'd also work that into the equation to better leverage the possible return of ALL parts for properly spec'd replacements. I'll be very frank with you here and no disrespect is intended. When an engine building "greenhorn" like yourself calls up and complains that you "got the wrong parts spec's"(and for gods sake never mention that some "forum members told you this or that".. because that'll surely cut off the only solid leg you have to stand on here).. you'll often be treated like a "woman who knows nothing about cars" at an auto repair shop. In which case they'll barage you with technical terms to befuddle you, get you side tracked just to wiggle thier way out of extra work. If you'd like.. and because I feel partially responsible for turning you onto them in the first place.. I'd be willing to make an initial phone call as your "brother from another mother" and act as a liason of sorts. Because of the hundreds of hours spent(quite literally) on developing those heads on my bench through the years.. I know them inside out, upside down, and backwards. I can still close my eyes and see that misearable damned short side radius which forced me to work so hard(laid back radius, squaring of its corners, heavy pushing of the roof and outside wall) just to keep them flowing and sounding well to about .525 lifts and beyond. lol And I also speak from experience using their cams with that particular head while speaking very fluent "engine builder to help make the proper case for you. PM me if you want.
The early 289 heads had one piece retainers, then at some point in 66 (maybe when the rail rockers showed up in April 66) they went to one piece retainers on the intake side and two piece (the rotators) on the exhaust. The early (pre April 66) heads had the shorter valve stems, the old hot trick was to use Chevy 327 valves here. The rail rockers got the longer stems necessary with the rail rocker tips. As for what length valves he needs, I'm in the dark, I'll defer to groberts on that. I'm just guessing, but I'd pick a cam in the 275 to 290* advertised duration with around a .500-.530 lift with a 108 to 100 LSA, with possibly more lift up to .550, all this dependent on the installation of screw in studs, guide plates can be skipped if he's got the pre April 66 heads as these had a narrow slot thru the head to guide the valves. I used to have a spare set of one piece retainers from a pre April 66 289, I've still got the rockers for one, a friend has another whole set of these rockers.
Yeah, the heads casting numbers are C5OE so that's well before april 1965. So then, i need 1 piece retainers? And since theyre screw in studs that are 3/8" i can just get aftermarket aluminum roller rockers right?
For a build such as yours, you definately want one piece retainers. If you had bought an off the shelf cam kit, you would have gotten all this with the kit: cam, lifters, retainers, locks, springs. You would still have to decide on valves. Then the pushrods would be the last piece of the puzzle once the heads were installed and the valvetrain geometry checked. Right on with the roller rockers. You can always though use the rockers that came with those heads (if you have them) til such a time as you can swing the roller rockers. These are the cast iron rockers, that aren't prone to flexing such as the later stamped steel rockers
I never got the rockers with the heads sadly. I originally wanted to use the rockers i had from my 302 but theyre the rail type rockers so i can't use them.. I'm looking for a set of roller rockers that are 1.7 ratio though, but theyre hard to find it seems for as cheap as the 1.6 ratio rockers..
