Just got my motor back from the machine shop and started slapping stuff together and last but not least after putting in the #8 tried turning it over and seems the #8 skirt is hitting the relucter wheel, in the process of trying to find out the point of impact i guess the spot was nicked off and is turning over fine.....My question is should i send this back to the machinist and get the skirt clearenced/balanced again? or can i run it? my guess is at higher rpms this could be a problem, crank is a callies and pisons are diamond

 

Who is the builder, you, or the builder? Is it a stroker motor? Strokers need the #8 piston clearanced for the reluctor ring. That is the builder's responsibility. I think you must be calling the machinist the builder.
That little bit of aluminum won't make the piston need rebalancing. You should clearance it a little more than what it is now, I don't know how much though.

 

wow personally id send it back something isn't quite right. its easy to fix it now while its out rather than find out the hard way. but thats just my opinion.

 

My point was that it is not the machinist's responsibility to do stuff that requires assembling the engine. I would guess that this guy never did a stroker LS engine though, he would know about this issue.

 

Sorry meant machinist, I'm building it lol, yah I need to find out how much clearance I need from the Relucter to the piston skirt, if it's not much at all I can grind it or file the skirt down a bit and yes 408

 

Well he's a recommended builder by a good friend, supposed to know Ls engines, I'm sure he will correct the problem but I hate making that drive 1 1/2 away lol, if it dosent matter where the clearanced piston goes and I can take a small amount off in the area affected and still be reasonably balanced that would be wonderfull.... He numbered every piston for me and this is my first time building one myself, on top of all this madness I also ran into the double timing chain/melling oil pump deal where u gotta grind some metal off the front cover!

 

The clearance doesn't have to be as much as you think. I did a 434 SBC once, and only allowed .030 between the rod bolt and the block, and the rod bolt to the cam. It seems close, and you would think it will hit at high RPM'S, but it won't.

 

we took it out and filed down a lil bit, shall see what it does soon thanks guys

 

Who's pistons are you using? Most Piston manufactures, will clearance one piston for #8. Just wondering. -Adam @ Callies

 

I'm using diamond pistons, I called em and they said that the cleareanced piston is within 3 grams of the normal, so I took it back out after briefly looking for the correct cleranced one and not finding it! It's prolly in the motor just hard to tell which it is due to small difference....I just ran a file over the spot that was hitting until I had good clearance, it did not take much filing at all