Induction came courtesy of a World Products Merlin dual-plane intake and a Holley 850 vacuum-secondary carb (the OE carb spec'd for GM 502 crate engines). The venerable MSD Ready-to-Run distributor, 8.5mm Super Conductor wires, and NGK plugs comprise the simple yet robust ignition system. Oil is pumped to all the right places via a complete, tried-and-true Milodon oiling system.
Putting It Together
Don't be afraid to assemble the short-block yourself if you've got access to the proper tools and a clean workspace. From cheapest to costliest, you'll need a piston ring expander, engine-cleaning brushes, Simple Green, a dead-blow, plastic-face hammer, and a tapered ring compressor. Optional are ARP's trick aluminum-rod bolt protectors.
Before you clean the bare block, do yourself a favor and run ARP's thread chasing taps through all the holes, espe-cially those that restrain the cylinder heads and are often corroded and packed with dried-out sealant. This step is required for accurate torque readings when you're reassembling the motor. In our case, we cleaned every accessible oil passage in the block using Milodon engine brushes saturated with Simple Green, then blew the passages dry with compressed air. We wiped each bore with a series of ATF-soaked paper towels. Now that the block was really clean, we painted it and began assembly. We used proven Federal-Mogul pregapped moly piston rings and Com-petition-series bearings, which are high-quality and reasonably priced. ARP studs replaced the factory bolts, ensuring the caps stay put and allowing the Milodon louvered windage tray to bolt up. No, we didn't check the alignment of the main saddles after installing ARP's studs-although you probably ought to-but since the crank spun nicely after installation we figured the caps had to be close enough.
Coating each bearing shell and journal with STP helped prime the oil system and guard against galling. We lubed other metal-on-metal sliding surfaces (pistons, rings, and cylinder walls) with 20W-50 oil. Possibly the most critical metal-on-metal contact is the cam lobe and lifter interface, and we used two blister-packs of Crane's gray moly assembly lube on these areas. Before you bolt the heads onto the motor, have a close look at those stock head bolts and decide if you really want to reuse them. We didn't, so we picked up Milodon's engine fastener kit, which includes an assortment of engine bolts and studs, as well as the company's trick head bolts featuring stronger, rolled threads. The entire bolt kit costs less than most quality aftermarket head bolts alone, so it's still appropriate for a budget build. Before we installed the intake and carb, the Holley vacuum-secondary pod was swapped for its ingenious quick-change kit. The quick conversion makes spring changes a simple two-minute affair, perfect for tweaking at the track.
Wiping out the bores is especially important if you've honed the block-honing dust can wreak havoc on a set of rings. | 
As installed, our stock piston/rod combo measured 0.015 inch below the deck-not great for quench, but typical for a stock GM-delivered configuration. |
Before the Crane dual valvesprings were installed, we lubricated the guides with red assembly lube and pressed the Teflon valve seals over the guides using a deep-well socket. Ask your machine shop for a few extra seals-they're easy to mangle. | |