[1969GPSJ]

Originally Posted by Cliff R

"428 HOs didn't have special pistons."

The last 428 that I built here was a 390hp version. It had special exhaust manifolds, oil filter adapter, and something different about the harmonic balancer (maybe much wider than the standard variety?) and the big valve heads with screw in studs. It had the same crankshaft, rods and pistons as the 360 and 370hp engines nearly as I can remember. I know for sure they were dished and far as I know that engine had never been apart before I got to it.

I'll add something not well known about 428 engines. They made several different crankshafts for them, early were Arma-Steel, later were "N" cranks. One of the casting numbers is prone to cracking, pretty sure it was the one used on the 1969 360hp engines. I broke one here, and in my search for a replacement (they weren't easy to find 30 years ago) I found several others cracked in exactly the same place. One I obtained looked just fine and when I took it to the machine shop they spun it up and it was wobbling ever so slightly. The machinst hit it with a BFH and it broke into two pieces right in front of us!

He didn't act surprised at all and said he'd ran into a number of them over the years with that issue......FWIW.......

Thanks for the Reply Cliff! Your replies pretty much put together all of the pieces that others had mentioned, and likely helped me come up with an improved "anti knock" interim plan for my 428. The pros vs the cons of thicker head gaskets discussion helped. I am going to change the cam, so far I am leaning in the direction of the 744 or 041 cam. The 068 just seems a little too light, and I really liked a crane cams (RIP) energizer 288 that I used many years ago - it was kind of in between the 744 and 041 spec wise. The heads have to come off anyway, so I'll change the springs, upgrade the studs to BBC style studs, add an adjustable valve train, and that should suffice until I do my more extensive engine build. By the way, Cliff, look at my reply to 242177P's post and you will see why I had thought that the 428 HO pistons were supposed to be flat tops (without the dish). '69 Service manual led me astray - check page 6-40. Thanks go to Cliff, HWYSTR455, Gach, and everyone else who contributed to this thread!

[1969GPSJ]

Originally Posted by Gach

I put it on my buddy’s 70s judge he calls me, hey this thing is pinging, ok Mamaluke ….did you fill the jug..LOL Greg…oh you have to keep adding water..LOL yes Greg Don’t you remember me telling you keep a gal jug in the trunk.

Moonshine (with a little water) or Vodka also worked.

[Gach]

Originally Posted by 1969GPSJ

Thanks for the Reply Cliff! Your replies pretty much put together all of the pieces that others had mentioned, and likely helped me come up with an improved "anti knock" interim plan for my 428. The pros vs the cons of thicker head gaskets discussion helped. I am going to change the cam, so far I am leaning in the direction of the 744 or 041 cam. The 068 just seems a little too light, and I really liked a crane cams (RIP) energizer 288 that I used many years ago - it was kind of in between the 744 and 041 spec wise. The heads have to come off anyway, so I'll change the springs, upgrade the studs to BBC style studs, add an adjustable valve train, and that should suffice until I do my more extensive engine build. By the way, Cliff, look at my reply to 242177P's post and you will see why I had thought that the 428 HO pistons were supposed to be flat tops (without the dish). '69 Service manual led me astray - check page 6-40. Thanks go to Cliff, HWYSTR455, Gach, and everyone else who contributed to this thread!

Very good plan.

[Dragncar]

Water injection today is not the same as the old Edelbrock Vari-Injections. Technology always moves forward.
I doubt the folks running these modern water-meth injection are saying "don't waste your money".
There is some interesting new systems out there, most made for boosted engines. You have to look for old school NA carb water-meth systems.
But it does work, dyno proven .
https://prometh.com/collections/carb...ts/mist-a-carb

https://www.summitracing.com/search/...ection-systems

Here is a MT article on a boosted 302 in a 65 Mustang.

https://www.motortrend.com/how-to/ho...onation-blues/

428 Pontiacs, that 390 HP 428 had the highest horsepower of any Pontiac production engine.
With D port heads and cast pistons. It should have been in GTOs and Firebirds. Chevy had 427s but we could not have 428s ?
And just think is we would have been allowed to fight fair with high CR 428s and 455s with forged rods/pistons and RAIV heads and the rest of the goodies ?

[Gach]

Originally Posted by 1969GPSJ

Moonshine (with a little water) or Vodka also worked.

They do make 120 Proof Vodka..LOL just carry gal of distilled water and a fifth of vodka. Its funny with todays marketing they can sell to allot of still wet behind the ears. It did work pretty good on my buddy’s Chevelle. Long enough to make to next package store.LOL. Funny guy saw the bottle in his trunk he said. No No I’m not a alcoholic.

[Dragncar]

AEM has multiple NA systems. The page would not load earlier but just loaded for some reason.

https://www.aemelectronics.com/produ...h_compression/

[Gach]

Hey quench your thirst

[HWYSTR455]

Those Snow Perf systems are defacto for the GN crowd, they do work. Not cheap.

I ran those Crane 288 cams, pretty sure that's what was in my 9.98 engine, or next step up. That was the last of the 'dancing days' for me, went aluminum.

I posted a pic of all the cam cards of cams I've used in the past, I had them tacked to the wall in my garage.

Ok, found some, the one that I was running was a 284-HiT, 228/236. But did run some of the 278 & 288 cams.



.

[Dragncar]

Guess who is a huge fan of water injection, David Vizard

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jextyKc2UN4&t=85s
Its about 40 some minutes and worth the watch. In it he speaks about a idea for a gas mileage engine. I always wondered why they never tried a small 4 cylinder engine that has very high CR and uses water injection. But he takes it one step further. Instead of a cylinder every other stroke, it skips a normal cycle and uses heated steam to push the piston down. Which also cools so you can delete the radiator.
Heat= energy and the heat energy that is wasted could be used to push the car forward.
Most of the early research on water injection came from WWII. He mentions P-47s, Corsairs(the best IMO) and the P-51.
Water injection has come a long way.
Here is the company he recommends. A UK company.

https://aquamist-direct.com/aquamist-all/

This is the forum for that site which looks exactly like the defunct PZ site.

http://www.aquamist.co.uk/forum2/vbulletin/