What's it going in?
Nothing at the moment. It will be run on the stand and dyno. We just want a successful first project. Some that keeps the kids excited and puts a W on their mental scoreboard.
Why a SBC? Wouldn't a (insert engine here) be better?
Probably, but local machine shop has offered my students a preppedSBC block and free machine shop services if we go that route
What is your budget?
That's complicated. We have less than $100 in our account. Anything donated, fundraised or funded through the school (unlikely) has to be spent with a school approved vender, which Summit, Jegs, etc. are not (yet). So, we are going to do it ourselves, one piece at a time. Like Johnny Cash, but with less theft.
What do you guys have then?
Aside from the promised block and assistance? A brand new Edelbrock chome air cleaner, a couple dozen assorted cheap air filters, a corner of the farm shop to work in, promise of the use of an engine stand, plus my truck and trailer to haul stuff around. We have the willingness to work and determination. It will be enough.
What's your plan?
Find a tired old 5.7 Vortec somebody pulled out to LS swap and harvest heads, crankshaft and whatever else can be salvaged. It'll cost a couple hundred bucks if I can't make a barter deal. The kids may have to chip in. Some of them have more disposable income than I do.
I'll post pictures as we go if there is interest.
If it were me, and I'm not a sbc expert, but I would start with a complete motor out of something with a carb from the 1980s. Complete is the key word. But anything to put a v8 is going to bring a bit of a premium no matter where you're located.
Have you considered trying to find a complete car instead ? Doesn't really matter what it is. I know you have the offer of free machining of a sbc. But the machining doesn't teach the kids much. Where as with a complete car your local parts store might donate brakes. Then 5 kids can each do a brake job on the same corner assembling and disassembling the same parts. Same with a strut or shock replacement...
Its great you're trying to get kids involved in cars, there are many fundamental and transferable skills learned from working on them. Kudos to you.
Why ground up build instead of making something run?
Basically, the future. I'd like to have know quantity longblock that we can experiment with and some of my request for funding tie into adapting an engine to do various things
Wouldn't a whole car be better?
In many ways. But if someone were to give us a car, it would become the property of the school and I would not be able to control it's fate. I could see being forced to destroy it over some administrators concerns over liability
A complete running vehicle is always better than an engine on a stand with students. Even if it's a piece of crap. You can always fix it up slowly bit by bit, but you want the instant reward of something that runs and moves right now.
Then build a motor and put it in.
Paint it, even. Even quick and dirty with un-thinned Rustoleum and a roller. They see gargantuan progress, and quickly.
Most kids don't see the "potential" in a project, and cannot think "long term." You need to think "22 minutes plus commercials" for attention span.
Mind you, I teach high school, I'm not sure your intended age group is.
Whatever you do - document it here. I want to live vicariously through you! (grin)
(I never register donated cars, but they eventually get so badly destroyed by the kiddies that they eventually get sent to the great parking lot in the sky)
SkinnyG (Forum Supporter) said:
A complete running vehicle is always better than an engine on a stand with students. Even if it's a piece of crap. You can always fix it up slowly bit by bit, but you want the instant reward of something that runs and moves right now.
Then build a motor and put it in.
Paint it, even. Even quick and dirty with un-thinned Rustoleum and a roller. They see gargantuan progress, and quickly.
Most kids don't see the "potential" in a project, and cannot think "long term." You need to think "22 minutes plus commercials" for attention span.
Mind you, I teach high school, I'm not sure your intended age group is.
Whatever you do - document it here. I want to live vicariously through you! (grin)
If wish my average student had TV show attention spans, these days it is closer to one of those TikTok videos.
At the same time, these are interested and motivated kids. They are exited to get started with anything. I've spent the last three months looking for something, anything I could possibly get in for them to work on. I've come close a couple times. I don't have any money to spare, but I've come close a couple times to working deals trading my own tools, guns, parts, etc. just to have a project for us to work on. This isn't an auto shop class. There isn't a budget or supplies. This is a student organization, just bunch of kids that are primarily interested in motorsports and I'm doing what I can with my rather meager skills to facilitate.
We had our first junkyard crawl on Monday. We have our pick of several likely Vortecs. We'll be going back again early Saturday. It was great day. So much learning. This is going to be such a good time.
Look what I found in the couch cushions!
