Parameters: Goal is a great running, stock, cruiser motor for a ragtop. Stock exhaust planned, no racing here. Used cam looks good, new lifters planned. Had my local, highly reccomended shop check the block before doing anything. Pressure test showed no leaks or cracks, cylinders measured .003-.0038" out of round, one main bearing housings was in spec. and the other 4/5 were measured to be out of spec. Used crank cleaned/measured to be straight, journels good and only polishing planned for good measure. Cam bearings planned although the ones in there do not show any problems, decking cleanup suggested although flatness was not checked yet awaiting cleaning, line boring (?) main bearing mount positions reccomended, boring and honing cylinders reccomended. Shop reccomends boring/honing .020" over and replacing pistons but keeping rods that were on crank. What do "yous" think "needs" to be done to this block? Any advice on pistons is greatly appreciated!
I'll leave the main bearing bore/hone issue for Tom to answer... The Buick spec for bore out-of-round is 0.003", bore taper is .005", so an overbore would be recommended for you. For pistons, Egge are not recommended (do a search here). Keith Black/Silvolite have a lower compression height that will reduce compression, but you could make up for it by decking the block more. Russ Martin has a supplier he's been satisfied with, but I'm unsure of the brand. Durabond makes a nice set of cam bearings. If you do replace them, they need to be honed to size, or use an old cam modified to work as a cutter to size the bearings. Another option is to have the shop polish the cam journals to fit the bearings, but that may make future cam replacement (if needed) a problem.
Russ Martin's pistons look pretty good, and they are made by Kanter, but there's no way to buy them directly, so ask Russ to get them. Or ask Tom what'd be his choice! As for cam bearings, I got Clevite with finished size from Summit. Some little "scraping" was needed, so the cam could spin happy.
I have 4032 FORGED pistons I have made up 5 orders at a time to get good pricing. Includes pins, fitting & standard/conventional rings. Moly top, cast 2nd. & a quality oil rin in 1/16" or 5/64" depending on bore size. Tom T.
