Beretta.net

So Tce is planning on making more double roller chains in the future?

Not that I'm aware of.

Well got some progress this weekend....

Removed all the casting flash from the block, Went really quick compared to what I though it was going to...

Before



One in progress



Lifter Valley





After

I then dug into the old motor today to look things over.

Front cam bearing was in fact extremely flush to the block which gave very little space for oil to flow out the thrust plate. Also this cam bearing set I never drilled the second hole in for the 1st bearing... Stupid me on that deal. Current chain was still in good shape, Not as tight as it was when I installed it but not loose enough to cause noise yet... And that was just a cheap Advance auto one I threw in last year sometime.







And now on to the bad news... But I think this will end well.

Time for a new cam.







Three lobes have markings of the cam face starting to disintegrate... Was nervous when I started pulling the lifters and saw some funky markings on a few... This explains the marks.

Oh WOT-Tech.... Time to spec me up a custom cam... And pushrods... And if I HAVE to I'll swap springs

This is going to sound very dumb.. The tce drtc we purchased will work on a 3500?

Of course. That's what I'm putting on mine. The timing chain didn't change till the 3900 I believe. Did you have your sprocket sent back to have the grooves cut in the back of it?

I did send it back when everyone else did. I haven't looked at it beyond seeing that the gears appear to be heat treated now. What do you tell your machine shop so they machine your crank for the new sprocket?

I can't really tell you how excited I am right now that I can go to a 3500 bottom... I thought they changed the chain set up.

Going to ask another dumb question.. do the 3400 head studs work also? I couldn't see 3500 studs on wot-tech.

I talked for awhile with wot yesterday. He mentioned they might be making up 3 bolt cams,and cloyes makes the double rollers already? That engine looks good...

For a rwd setup only, the cloyes doesn't fit behind the fwd timing cover. And 3 bolt cams are not are roller profile so they need flat tappet lifters and will only work on mpfi motors they don't have a cam sensor.

Z26_T wrote:I did send it back when everyone else did. I haven't looked at it beyond seeing that the gears appear to be heat treated now. What do you tell your machine shop so they machine your crank for the new sprocket?

I can't really tell you how excited I am right now that I can go to a 3500 bottom... I thought they changed the chain set up.

Going to ask another dumb question.. do the 3400 head studs work also? I couldn't see 3500 studs on wot-tech.

Ask yourself though... Why do you want the 3500 bottom end. They are very limited on performance parts vs the 3400... Honestly I wanted an easy bump in compression while keeping many other things the same to keep costs down. That is now not working out for me much with the bad cam news. Granted I'm still not dropping 1k on custom pistons for the 3400 to get the same CR but I do have a possible $800 price tag on a completely new valve train.

Head studs are all the same... the heads are interchangeable so the studs are as well.

Also the TCE sets were always heat treated... He just had them black hard coated before sending them back. Flip over the cam gear and look at the slots near the center hole, those were originally not there. And regarding the crank machining, just give them this print.

There's a few reasons I want the 3500 vs a forged hybrid. The stock 3500 bottom is obviously better than a stock 3400. They can also be found locally for 300. The money for forged rods and custom pistons for the 3400 or 3500 just isn't worth it to me.

Thank you very much for the diagram!

I was assuming the studs would work, but you know what they say about assume.

A few tidbits... The "obvious betterness" of the 3500 bottom end really isn't 100% proven... Granted it's a revised edition of the engine but it's not proven that it's any better or stronger than it's 3400 counterpart yet. Also 3400 rods are factory forged rods.... so in all reality no need to ever change rods unless your swapping from a pressed pin to a floating bushed one... but then again you can also modify and bush the factory rods to work with that. Availability of a cheaper engine though that will definitely sway a decision.

Did some head tear down last night... and CC'd the chambers. Came up with 32cc's... Original is 32.4 so not as much removed as I thought... May still have them shave just a bit to get them in the realm of 31.5 or 31cc's. Currently the setup I have picked will result in a 10.12:1 CR... Almost a full point over what I had in the past... around 9.2:1 using the same head CC's and the rest of the stock 3400 components. I gained over the 3500's 9.8:1 by going with thinner cometic head gaskets, .051 compressed vs .060 as well as the cometic gasket bore being 95mm or 3.74 vs stock 3.8". I may get the block decked .005 but I'm not sure yet.. that would put me at 10.26 but it brings the pistons and valves closer together... Not sure on clearance needed with whatever I end up with for a new cam.

CCing...


De-buring oil drain's on heads

Before



After

Are u going with the teflon bearings or don't u think their worth it???

Which Teflon ones? Cam? Because yes I have those and had them before. They worked out pretty good I guess. Didn't fall apart like factory ones.

Yes I was thinking the cam bearings since that what wot-tech offers.them for