The last few weekends I’ve been smoothing the crankcase. It’s taking longer than I expected it to but no biggie as I have plenty of time left to do it. I softened the bottom edges on the piston skirt and bottom of the oil ring groove before I coated them. My thought process was that the sharp edges on the skirt could scrape oil off the cylinder wall especially on the major thrust side. I am thinking about putting a chamfer/softer edge on the bottom of the liner like what’s at the top to possibly help reduce skirt wear. I also softened the edges on the top and bottom of the lifter bores along with the openings inside the lifter bore to the oil passage. My thought process was that it would help prevent oil shear and scraping the lifter. I also noticed on my old lifters that they were worn/scratched from the sharp edges on the bottom/top/oil passage opening so that was another reason for it. Hopefully we’ll be measuring the lifter bores this weekend. It’s getting close!!!

 

I saw a video on powernation tv about this. They were building a 408 stroker but before they built it they smoothed all the edges like you were saying. Its extra work but there is some good logic behind it. I may end up doing it on my engine refresh when it comes time.

 

Yeah I feel like it’s all worth messing with and could add some life to the parts and oil flow.

Spray bars installed....now to tinker with the ports and floor design

 

that looks awesome!!

 

Lifter bores check in at a average of .0026” which is what is recommended for iron blocks not aluminum blocks. One is a bit large at .0051” clearance...I wonder if GM machines all the blocks the same?

 

Almost done wire wheeling and polishing every bolt/stud for the engine:




Putting the final touches on the valvesprings...chamfer on both ends of each spring...that’s 64 ends total!!! This prevents the springs from digging into the seats/retainers and creating metal shavings/wear. I have another tool to chamfer the inner diameter as well to complete the process. Titanium galls easily so the coating helps prevent galling and the chamfer is another failsafe.

 

How is your file holding up to the Ti?

 

No filing of the Ti retainers just the springs

 

Testing pressures on each spring was bringing up differences of +/- 8lbs so I ran each individual spring down to coil bind and waited 1 minute before releasing it. I then pressure tested them again and got more consistent results. I matched each spring to get 178 or 180lbs @ 1.800” height. This netted a consistent 200 or 202lbs @ 1.740”

Not quite done but you get the idea....roughly 24% increase in open area to compliment the 18% greater flow rate of the Melling 10296 pump.

 

Hydroboost and 1 1/8” bore master