Small Block Chevy Engine Build - Swingin' On A Shoestring...Budget

The Holley valve covers are next on the list.

Things are speeding up finally as we add the K&N oil filter...

...and Professional products damper to the small-block.

The short-styled polished Weiand water pump goes on next.

In preparation for the HEI distributor, the spark plugs are gapped to 0.50.

Comp Cams makes this nifty tool that primes the oil pump before the distributor goes in.

Attach it to your power drill and spin the oil pump to get everything ready for its first start.

Finally, the HEI distributor from Performance Distributors, is installed, and the wires are loomed.

Here is what the whole engine should look like. Not bad-looking for a budget engine build, eh? You may notice that a few items like the headers are missing. Those are still on the old engine that sits in the wagon. When we pull that engine out, we will reuse the Hedman headers and save a few bucks by not having to purchase new ones; or we could reuse the old rams horns exhaust headers. A small-block build in Super Chevy wouldn't be worth its salt if we didn't provide you with some hard numbers to digest. In the interest of time and space, we hope to have some dyno numbers for you in the next issue.