I hope Archie or someone with similiar knowledge can help me out here. Like the proverbial elephant I've been plodding slowly but surely toward a V8 Fiero project. It was set back due to geting rearended at a stoplight in my Fiero GT, but I've purchased a parts car and am moving forward.

Anyway, I bought a all aluminum Rodeck SBC block on ebay for the car. It's a nice looking piece, sturdy splayed main caps, extra webbing around the cam valley, etc. I got this instead of a LS6 because I want the light weight V8 without the electronic complications.

The machinist told me he cannot convert this block from a dry sump to wet, there's 6 studs for the rear main cap (!). He's done the conversion to other race blocks, but there's no room on this one due to the stud configuration.

My question is this: is there room using Archie's kit to mount a four stage dry sump pump? FYI the tranny is a 4 speed.

Thanks,
Bruce

Welcome to the forum!

Anything's possible. You will have to mount it on the "drivers" side (front when in Fiero) because the axle will be to close on the other side. I'm guessing you'll either have to move the engine over and spend $$$ on custom axles, or make room for the extra belt by cutting a notch in the frame. You can cut the frame and then reinforce it with no problems.

Post some pics of that thing.

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Hi Bruce,
You lucky duck! I had a 350+ but sold it to help pay for a Porsche. I bought it off Kinny McCarl, a well known outlaw sprint car driver here in Iowa. It was wet sump but Kinny had used it with the dry sump setup so I bet you could get the correct cap for it to convert to wet sump. I would contact Rodeck in California.

Thanks for the advice, I'll DEFINITELY check out Rodeck, hopefully they'll be able to help me go with a wet sump. I really doubt the added expense of a dry sump is required, don't think I'll be turning .90 g on the skidpad.

The block is out of town at Kendrick's Automotive of San Antonio, I'll post pics of it once I get it back.

By the way, since the bore is a 400 size I'm thinking of destroking it with a steel 350 crank for a high-winding 377 running 6" rods. Also looking at DART 220 heads and single plane itake. This is intended to move the powerband up the rpm scale, to save the tranny from a huge hit of torque. Is this the way to go?

quote Originally posted by Sportscar_Bruce: By the way, since the bore is a 400 size I'm thinking of destroking it with a steel 350 crank for a high-winding 377 running 6" rods. Also looking at DART 220 heads and single plane itake. This is intended to move the powerband up the rpm scale, to save the tranny from a huge hit of torque. Is this the way to go?

I did just that(destroked) on mine except I used a 3.25 stroke custom billet crank custom rods and pistons and set of Air FlowResearch 220's with a Victor Jr. Man did that motor scream! My best time was a 9.42 quarter mile in a z28. I wish I could have kept the motor for one of my many Fieros :-). I would definately go for the high rpm route over the torque one especially in a Fiero with the weak trans thet is inherent with it.

[This message has been edited by Erik (edited 07-05-2003).]

http://www.airflowresearch.com/articles/article03/A3-P1.htm

400 bore, 327 stroke = 347 cubes with 6.209" rods