How to Rebuild a Corvette 454 Engine - Part 8 - Page 2

Here's the new Moroso oil pan I ordered. It's their kicked-out sump version which increases engine oil capacity from 5 quarts to 6 quarts. The increased sump capacity will reduce the chance of the the sump being pumped dry and will help keep engine temperatures down.

One nice feature of the Moroso pan is the baffle they install at the bottom of the sump. It prevents all the oil from rushing forward and prevents oil pump starvation under heavy braking. I would have liked to buy the version with the full windage tray, but the extra cost just wasn't in the budget.

With the oil pump in place it was time to check the pickup to pan clearance. The problems associated with having a very small, or very large, clearance is obvious so the actual distance must be measured. To complete the check I taped off the bottom of the oil pump pickup and placed a 1/2" ball of putty on the pickup. I then installed the oil pan gasket and lowered the oil pan into position.

After removing the oil pan I measured the thickness of the putty. Moroso recommends between 3/16" and 3/8" of clearance. I ended up with about 1/4" so I didn't have to do any modifications, it sure is nice when things work out right on the first try! (although the clearance was checked at this point the oil pan was left off for now)

Last on the odds and ends list was installing the oil filter adapter along with a new gasket. Pretty simple...

So here it is, the new camshaft! It arrived a few weeks ago and has been waiting around ever since. It looks like I'm finally at the point where I can install it.

The photo below illustrates the difference between the new hydraulic roller cam and the stock hydraulic flat tappet cam. With the cams side by side the difference in the shape of the lobes is fairly obvious. The stock flat tappet cam lobes are more of an egg shape whereas the roller cam lobes are more box shaped. The box shape causes the valves to open much more quickly and, as a result, they are fully open for a longer duration than with a flat tappet cam - and that means new horsepower! Of course the new roller cam also requires new roller lifters, but I'll get to those later on.

Prior to installing the cam I thoroughly cleaned it with mineral spirits, blew it dry with compressed air, gave each cam lobe a liberal coating of engine assembly grease and then coated each bearing journal with clean motor oil.

As you can see I bolted on the camshaft timing gear onto the cam to make handling it a bit easier. Installing the cam would have been simpler with a few extra hands, but it's possible to do it with one person provided you work very carefully. The trick is to move slowly and deliberately. You don't want to accidentally knick or damage any cam lobes or bearings.

Continued on Page 3