Mechanical gauge is cool, better than the factory light or factory "L" "H" indicators Plastigage is still used and actually quite accurate for us "garage guys" unless your a machinist and know how to accurately use and read calipers. Use the GREEN plastigage
I think you meant to say dial bore gauges, calipers are more of a reference tool than an accuracy tool that can measure inside and outside dimensions and some can measure depth. But not as accurate as other tools like micrometers for outside & depth dimensions and dial bore gauges for accurately measuring hole diameters. Using a dial bore gauge instead of using plasti-gauge, the bearings are installed and torqued in the block without the crank and the bore gauge is used to measure 90* of the parting line because side to side will have more clearance built into the bearing than top to bottom. Then the crank's main journals are mic'ed(measured with micrometers) after which the corresponding main bore measurement gets subtracted from the journal measurement to get your clearance. When using plasti-gauge as well it needs to be placed 90* from the parting line(as close as you can eyeball it to the 90* anyway) to get an accurate reading. Just incase anyone wanted to know? Machinist Derek :grin:
I wouldn't lose any sleep over it if in I were you, most people that don't use those tools for a living have less of a clue what they are or do than you, at least you know what calipers are. :TU: Derek
always was one to get in a hurry, that's why i'm in the boat i am now. wanted to pull it all down to see if i hurt it earlier in the year when it was running out of fuel under WOT. live and learn todays adventures. pulled the oil pan, no metal to be seen, a spot of fiber or teflon tape looking material about the size of a dime on pick-up screen. i had marked all the rods and caps before it went to the machine shop, rods and caps were matched up but rods were not in order, does this make any difference? checked all pistons to see how far down the hole they were and got .053-.057. all pistons had same numbers (552cp) except that one, they were just in a different place than the other 2. what i did notice is that all the pistons were about .002 taller on one side of the piston then the other (intake side of 1,3,5,7--exhaust side of 2,4,6,8) i don't know if pics of intake ports are good enough but all ports were wet and smelled of gas, the bearing pics are of #2 main and #3 rod cap, all are typical of those. the small motor mounts in the middle are the v6 ones that call for different ones side to side, used those when motor first went in, the larger ones are for the 350, same part # for both sides. the pass. side v6 mount you can see the rubber starting to tear, cause of vibration maybe?
Only a guess because I can't see the rod side of the rod bearing, but it looks like some detonation due to the lower half of the main has the crank coming into contact with it (getting knocked past the oil film) in both directions of load, the lower rod shells seem to show the caps being pinched inwards, leaving only the eccentricity of the bearing without contact. Any chance the rod side of the rod bearing has a shiny spot in the center? What is coating the intake valve faces that we can't see (port side)?
The damp intake ports are normal, the fuel is still "wet" going into the port, it hasn't gone BOOM yet. The V6 mounts may be the cause of your vibration, I read there was some difference in the mounts to try and subdue the V6's inherent shake, even on the "even fire" V6's Use V8 mounts. I mark my rods and caps on disassembly, when I get 'em back from the machine shop, the proper cap is with its rod, and I assemble it that way, 1 3 5 7, 2 4 6 8, mark on the piston forward, simple Did the machine shop assemble it for you? If the big end of the rods was machined, I don't think it makes much difference, but I could be wrong, but in practice I like to put stuff back were it came from.
Did you get balancer rebuilt? If not get it rebuilt to eliminate the 40 year old elastic from possibly being an issue. I would not think the mounts are the issue but move up to poly mounts to get rid of the soft v6 ones.
i'll get a look at the rod side bearing and try to get a piece of material off the valve face i pulled the motor apart thats why they were marked so that the machine shop knew which was which so i guess it didn't matter or they didn't care. the little dimples on the rod caps face each other correct? i will get a new balancer from TA along with numerous other parts and run the beefier v8 mounts
so i pulled #7 rod cap and the bearing halve of of rod and posted the pics the left side is rod side, rt. side cap side also pics of #7 piston and head and i don't see any signs of detonation, your thoughts? checked clearances on #7 rod and #2 main and got between .0015-.002 i really value you guys opinion and advise on what i should do from here should i have the crank balanced?, new bearings?, shave the block how much?, hone it and re-ring it? i will have the heads re-done, should i shave them also?, get all the valve tips the same height? or just run adj. pushrods. plus i'll have many more questions as i go through this process. i couldn't get a good pic of the stuff i got off the face of the valve but it was soft and easy to remove, smelled like gas and for lack of a better word looks like pipe resin thanks for all the help!
Looks kind of like the left side bearing has or was beginning to contact the crank, tough to tell without actually being there. Did the bearing fall out or remove easily? If the 'spring' to the bearing is gone, that's a sure sign. The lack of contact in the center of the insert is kind of a mystery, was this crank not ground? With fairly tight clearances like that everything really has to be squared up nicely and details such as good oil flow are paramount. The lack of pressure at cruise might be indicative of trouble. What's your local machinist say?
If you're planning to bring compression up, taking the material off of the block instead of the heads is always a better idea. If you haven't already its always a good idea to have your new rotating assembly balanced to the crank, so yes have that done with your new harmonic damper and flex plate/flywheel. Seeing that you're going to get the deck milled you're going to need new pushrods anyway, so either get the adjustable ones now or you'll need to wait until the heads are bolted on to be able to measure what length you'll need to order. If you want to use solid pushrods, it makes it easy to measure what length you need if you have at least one adjustable pushrod so you can order that now so you have it when its time to measure.(dealers choice) GL Derek
the only machinist within 75mi. is the one that did the rebuild and i'm not going to have him do the new work i need done. i'll ask the new machinist when i take him everything. i was told when it was rebuilt that all they had to do is polish the crank. yes the bearings came out pretty easily i plan on doing what i need to do for better oil pressure how much should i have milled off the block? the pistons sit .055 down, what would be a good cam to run? the gas here is only 91 octane and i sit at 6000ft elev.? i will get the new balancer coming so i can take the block, heads, crank, flywheel, and balancer all down at once, will be making at trip to Albuquerque to find a good machine shop. there is one there that does all the motors for the local drag racers at the track
I should of wrote non-adjustable, then again if you have a pre-1970 sbb 350 then it will have solid pushrods IIRC. Derek
Its been a while so I can't recall but I don't think so. IIRC the solid lifters have a different cup size but don't quote me on that. TA Mike should have an answer for you I would think, unless someone here chimes in with the answer. If all else fails I think the older valve train components can be converted to the oil thru pushrod style?? I think I have read that being done before for the BBB engines, I'm not sure about the sbb engines though. Something to look into anyway. Derek
I run those same pistons, they sat .055 in the hole in my block also. I had my block decked .050 I also had my heads cut .030 I have no idea what my comp. ratio is, BUT I've had no issues with detonation on 93 octane with my 310 or 413 cam. My new roller I'll find out how she does:shock:
I would get as close to zero deck on the piston at this point and then if you ever step up to the alum heads you can take advantage of the closed chamber head and quench area. Not a big deal with the stock heads as they are open chamber but build it so you can grow into it...
As far as how much to shave off block you should get your measurements and put them into a compression calculator. But based on what you have said at .020 down hole ,58cc head and fel pro gasket you can assume about 10.1 compression. Zero deck is about 10.4. So how high do you want it. At 10 to 1 and higher the TA 413 and 310 cams are a good choice. But need more converter.
thanks, i'll give Mike a call, need to place a big order anyway i don't want to go to high, maybe .005 in the hole, with only 91 octane gas and living at 6000ft elev. i have to go up before i can go down in elev.
