Oliver 88 puller

Hi, new here. I have been pulling a stock 88 in the 5500 lb. for a few years now. A couple years back we got a 1949 rowcrop 88 that had been sitting for a couple of years and I pulled it out of the woods and pulled the motor. Decided to get it running. The plan is to shoot for the 4000 lb. class w/ driver. So anyway I opened up the motor and relized this had just been rebuilt 10-15 years or so back. They put in a 3 3/4 pistion kit in and it looks great. The plan was to put in a 3 7/8 kit in but that is now changed. So I"m looking for more horse power and here is what I have planned. 3 3/4 pistions, shaved head, valves gone through, 1650 carb intake and exhaust manifold, and a k&n throught the hood. I"m bringing the head to a motor shop to have the vales gone through and the head shaved. I already asked about port and polishing it and they wont do it. How much do I get shaved? Thats all the questions I have about the motor. I can"t do a stroker crank cause I do have a budget but any other advice would be appreciated. Thanks
 

You need to first decide if you want to run 87, 93, or 110 octane fuel. This will determine what compression ratio to shoot for and how much to shave off the head.
 
Thanks for all the replies. That is exactly what I wanted to hear. So if I wanted to run 91 octane fuel how much should I shave off. What would the comp. ratio be also. I want to keep the engine work under a grand. The guys at the motor shop said a little under $300 to go through it and shave the head. Thanks
 
You will have to do a little research on it but I THINK that 91 octane is good for 10:1 to 10.5:1.

http://www.rbracing-rsr.com/compstaticcalc.html
Enter all of your engine data in this formula to find out your current compression ratio.

http://southeast.kctcs.edu/en/Academics/Programs/Automotive_Technology/Automotive_Formulas.aspx
Use this link to access many good engine formulas. There is a formula a good ways down the page on how much to mill off.

We built two 77 motors that are quite similar to what you are doing. My motor is slightly different than my brothers but they both are pretty similar Horse Power.

Some thing I would do: Get friendly with a die grinder, carbide burrs and stones. Before sending out the Head I would match port your manifolds. I would also clean up the combustion chambers to remove any casting roughness.

I would use the Super 88 Valves. I can't say as though it makes a huge difference but it can't hurt.

The 1650 carb will have a pretty big throat compared to the vertical section of the new intake manifold. That can be bored out to match. There is a fellow with the handle of chucksoliver77, I believe he had an extrusion process on his done where they forced sand through it and it opened up the runners and everything.

I would send the cam to get reground. My brother and I both used bullet cams. You will want to talk to Sonny Daniels. I believe it was around $260 when it was all said and done. Some guys will tell you that you need to know all the info on what to order as far as your durations and degrees, I am sure there is merit to that and you may be able to fine tune your engine. On both engines we just told Sonny what we were building, how we were running it and the parameters and he said I've got just the thing. I've been happy.

I've been reading recently that guys are sending their lifters out to get machined flat. It sounds like a good idea, I'm not sure why I didn't on mine.

I would run 10% over on the RPMS. These motors love RPMS.

If your near a junkyard snatch us a set of rocker arms from a Super 88. I believe they will be a bolt on application. There is no performance gains here but I think they oil way better than the fleetline style.

Head Gaskets: we both used copper head gaskets that were .030 Thick. I got mine from Hussey Copper who I think is now out of business.

I don't claim to be an expert or authority on engine building by any stretch. Feel free to pick and choose any of the above information.
 
ii would just use for fuel 89 octane is what we use or else in some of our other pullers we use racing fuel what requires some changes in engine
 
Wow. Thanks for all the time you spent on writing that. I looked at those websites and they were very interesting. I still can't figure out how much to mill off. These formulas aren't making sense since they are not incorporating the octane or anything to do with fuel for that matter. What do they mean by new displacement? I'm not changing the displacement. Maybe someone on here has figured this out before? All I need to know is how much to mill off. Using 3 3/4 pistons, stock 4 inch stroke, and 91 octane fuel. How do I know if it has been plained before? When it comes to porting is there quite a bit of material to work with in the head or does it get thin in spots? Thanks for everyones input.
 
E85 is great for power, but there are a couple issues. Getting good quality E85 from the pump is now impossible where I live (have to buy it from racing gas company). It gets finicky below 50 degrees or so. You will need a bigger jet and a dyno to fine tune it. Good luck.
 
For a grand you might be able to find a power unit motor to bolt in,if you are in oilfield country, easy way to get30 more horse
 

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