Building a 434 Small Block Chevy

UPDATE: After calling Compcams two times and leaving messages for the guy (Mark) that I talked with, he never called me back (again, no surprise here). I called one more time the following week and asked for the same guy and he was at lunch so I didn't leave another message but talked to another sales rep and told him the problem. He said that he would take care of the stud that was suppose to be shipped with the other parts and put it in the mail that day. The wait continues... On another note, I've got some hardware that I'm working with. These are adapter flanges that my headers will bolt to. These are made by Dynatech and are 5/8" thick 6061-T6 Aluminum. There are two lefts, two rights and two centers that bolt to the heads and come with special bolts.

The two counter-bored holes are for the special bolts and will be used to attach the adapters to the heads. The two other threaded holes have steel inserts in them. The steel inserts are there so you can bolt on and take off the headers without worry that the threads will strip-out. And because the heads are Aluminum too, this will be a good investment. The large hole in the middle is where the exhaust will pass through but are smaller than the head so some machining will have to be done.

7/18/03 Speaking of machining, I'm going to port match the heads. That means that the heads will match the gasket that will be used.

Here you can see the gasket in place. I used a red marker to outline the square area inside the gasket. This will serve as reference to where I need to remove material.

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