http://home.comcast.net/~christopher...n/teardown.htm

Right now the block and heads are getting hot tanked and magnafluxed. The shop I took my 401 to seems pretty expensive. They want just over $400 to do this. They say it's because I didn't take all the pipe plugs and cam bearings out of the block, and the price includes the dissassembly of the heads.

Over the phone they said $110 for the block if it wasn't completely dissassembled, and $70 if it was. The $70/$110 block cleaning / magnafluxing price wasn't including the heads, so this means they want approximately $150 per cylinder head to dissassemble and clean / magnaflux. Is this about right?

They also do not bead blast engines, nor do they use torque plate boring / honing, which I really wanted done. There are no other machine shops around here and this one seems to get a lot of business.

The crank, as indicated in the website above, is toast. The bearing was spun he said, and the caliper measured it was over 40 thou's off. They don't make rod bearings in 40 thou's undersize, so if anyone has a good crank or knows someone who does please let me know.

I want to run a cam in this engine that has some noticable lope to it, but will be good for 20% offroad duty. The other 80% will be street driving / casual racing (I hardly beat my vehicles). Will the Comp Cams 280H stick be good for this, with an Edelbrock Air Gap intake and some Comp Cams 1.6 roller rockers? I also have a Holly 650 4bbl, long tube headers (by BlackJack?) and plan on buying something like this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/401-A...18263563QQrdZ1

I can have the cam in that kit substituted with another one, as well as the timing set as I may opt to get the rollmaster anti-walk set. I just want to make sure everything is compatible.

The machine shop is also doing some mild head work, cutting new valve seats (size yet to be determined), new springs and supporting valve components. I will have a 3 angle valve job done, and mild porting, maybe even gasket matching. The heads will most likely need to be surfaced, and maybe material taken off. The block will probably also be surfaced, possibly taking material off... which leads to my number one concern.

My number one concern is if I'll have enough clearance with the stock rods / TRW forged pistons / 1.6 roller rockers with the moderately agressive cam that I want.

Other mods I plan on is an electric fan, electric water pump, electric fuel pump and a bulltear timing cover kit complete with new oil pump components. I have also mentioned to my machine shop that I want the oil valley line done, and I took in high quality color laser photos I got off this board to illustrate.

Thanks for all your help guys!
Chris