Hello everyone, I'm back after a three year tour of Europe, Scandinavia, and the sub-continent... (Cab Calloway Blues Brother's quote...)
I've had some delays in getting back to the series, but am going to try to continue as I have had many people state that they are using these articles to help them build their engine and have decided to do it themselves after reading them instead of having someone else do it for them... I appreciate the feedback and that is the purpose of me writing these articles... I believe it's better to build it yourself and make sure it's done right, rather than have someone else do it for you that may not take as much care as you would on your own engine... I promote doing it right and not taking any short cuts and quality is important, do not compromise on quality and build it right the first time so you won't have to do it over later...
I have named this article 7a because it is not necessary to assembling the engine as a first time beginner, but is the next step to becoming a more advanced builder as you improve on your engine assembling skills... That is why I say it is optional, it is not needed to put the engine together, but is good information to help plan the engine and make sure it is within your goals for the engine...
Verifying the compression is important to picking the proper camshaft that will work for your intended purpose for the engine... The camshaft will determine the best type of intake to pick for your engine to accomplish your power and torque goals...
In this chapter I am going to go through cc'ing the pistons in the block to help determine compression... In the last chapter I showed you how to install the rods and pistons in the block... Now it's time to check the volume of the air above the piston to the top face of the block to help figure out what your ACTUAL compression will be... This will help you determine what head volume and head gaskets to use to get to your target compression...
This is the next step to continue after Sections 1 - 7... If you missed them, you can find it here...
How to Rebuild a Small Block Part 1: Block Prep
How to Rebuild a Small Block Part 2: Cam Bearing Install
How to Rebuild a Small Block Part 3: Install Water Jacket and Oil Galley Plugs
How to Rebuild a Small Block Part 4: Pre Flight Inspection After Machine Shop Before Assembly
How to Rebuild a Small Block Part 5: Crankshaft Install
How to Rebuild a Small Block Part 6: Installing Rings on Pistons
How to Rebuild a Small Block Part 7: Install Pistons in Block
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Hello everyone, it's Krazykuda here to show you how to rebuild a small block... This article is to help any newbies through rebuilding a small block Mopar LA engine, but may have a few tips that some of you seasoned builders may find useful... If you haven't ever built an engine, I will show you what you need to know to do it yourself...
The goal of this series is to show what you can do at home in your own garage... Go at your own pace and ability and then take it to someone knowledgeable for what you are not capable of doing yourself or don't have the proper equipment/tools for...
Keep checking back in from time to time as this is a work in progress and I plan to keep updating it as I build more engines and can show you more variations...
I am going to break this into sections that you can follow along with and make sense to do in 'stages' when you build... Plus you can then jump to the section that you are working on to help keep from sorting through one very long thread to find what part that you are working on when you are doing it....
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*** Important Note *** Sometimes things may not go right and you will run into a snag/road block... Do not get in a hurry to finish and take short cuts that may compromise your build...
Step back, take a break, and think about it for a while... Or seek help from other experienced people or professionals to overcome the problem... Do it right and don't take any unnecessary chances that may compromise the integrity of your build...
If you don't fix the problem correctly, it may come back to haunt you and cost even more time and money than if you took the time to think about it and research it to fix the problem correctly...
This has been a public service announcement from krazykuda....
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Now that you have the pistons installed in the engine, it is time to measure the volume above the pistons at TDC (Top Dead Center) where the piston is at the highest point in the rotation of the crank shaft... This will be needed to be used with the volume of the head gasket and head combustion chamber to determine the compression of your set-up... If you haven't picked your heads yet, this will let you determine what volume you will want to use for your desired compression...
First you will need to find TDC... To do this you will need a dial indicator and base to mount it to the engine... Any cylinder should work as they should all be the same as long as the parts are made correctly, so I will use cylinder #1 as that is the most used cylinder for reference including setting the ignition timing when tuning...
Attach the mounting base to the engine and get the indicator pin to be as close to perfectly perpendicular to the piston face as possible... As close to being exactly parallel to the axis of the piston travel in the cylinder... Here's an angle of a bird's eye view of the needle to the piston...
Here's a side view of the indicator where the piston is at TDC...
Now that you have found TDC, you need to get some clean axle grease and smear it all around the piston diameter to seal around the top of the rings and on the top of the block to seal between the block and cover plate...
Grease:
Smear the grease all around the gap between the piston and the block and around the top of the block around the cylinder...
Thin it out a little bit...
Now remove any excess from the top of the piston, leaving the gap between the piston and bore filled with grease to keep any water from leaking through the ring gaps... Leave a thin layer around the top of the block to seal the cover plate and not let any squeeze into the cylinder... Use just enough to seal the cover plate to the block...
If you don't have a cover plate to use to measure the block and head volumes, refer to my article on how to check compression to walk you through how I made mine... This will also walk you through the math needed to calculate the compression...
How to Check Compression
Attach the cover plate to the block and verify that none of the grease has squeezed into the measuring area to affect the volume...
Now fill the cylinder with water to measure the volume above the piston to the top of the block head deck... Fill the graduated cylinder to a convenient level to make the math easier... I use 200 cc and then subtract what is left after filling the cylinder to determine the volume...
This picture shows it better...
Now fill the cylinder and record how much liquid is left in the graduated cylinder and subtract to get the volume...
Now you know the volume from the top of the piston to the top of the block deck to use to calculate the compression for your engine combination...
You can use this information to calculate the volume needed for the heads to get the final compression for your engine if you haven't determined what heads you are going to use... If you already have your heads picked out, then measure them and calculate the compression of your engine... This will be helpful to determine the proper camshaft for your application... You need the proper compression to work with your camshaft for the best performance...
Use the cover plate to measure the volume of the combustion chamber of your head...
The volume for the Fel-Pro Permatorque head gasket that comes in the Mancini Racing complete engine gasket kits is 12.5 cc... Use that to calculate your compression as explained in my how to check compression article...
How to Check Compression
Now you are ready to proceed to the next article on installing the camshaft and timing gear...
I've had some delays in getting back to the series, but am going to try to continue as I have had many people state that they are using these articles to help them build their engine and have decided to do it themselves after reading them instead of having someone else do it for them... I appreciate the feedback and that is the purpose of me writing these articles... I believe it's better to build it yourself and make sure it's done right, rather than have someone else do it for you that may not take as much care as you would on your own engine... I promote doing it right and not taking any short cuts and quality is important, do not compromise on quality and build it right the first time so you won't have to do it over later...
I have named this article 7a because it is not necessary to assembling the engine as a first time beginner, but is the next step to becoming a more advanced builder as you improve on your engine assembling skills... That is why I say it is optional, it is not needed to put the engine together, but is good information to help plan the engine and make sure it is within your goals for the engine...
Verifying the compression is important to picking the proper camshaft that will work for your intended purpose for the engine... The camshaft will determine the best type of intake to pick for your engine to accomplish your power and torque goals...
In this chapter I am going to go through cc'ing the pistons in the block to help determine compression... In the last chapter I showed you how to install the rods and pistons in the block... Now it's time to check the volume of the air above the piston to the top face of the block to help figure out what your ACTUAL compression will be... This will help you determine what head volume and head gaskets to use to get to your target compression...
This is the next step to continue after Sections 1 - 7... If you missed them, you can find it here...
How to Rebuild a Small Block Part 1: Block Prep
How to Rebuild a Small Block Part 2: Cam Bearing Install
How to Rebuild a Small Block Part 3: Install Water Jacket and Oil Galley Plugs
How to Rebuild a Small Block Part 4: Pre Flight Inspection After Machine Shop Before Assembly
How to Rebuild a Small Block Part 5: Crankshaft Install
How to Rebuild a Small Block Part 6: Installing Rings on Pistons
How to Rebuild a Small Block Part 7: Install Pistons in Block
*************************************************************************
Hello everyone, it's Krazykuda here to show you how to rebuild a small block... This article is to help any newbies through rebuilding a small block Mopar LA engine, but may have a few tips that some of you seasoned builders may find useful... If you haven't ever built an engine, I will show you what you need to know to do it yourself...
The goal of this series is to show what you can do at home in your own garage... Go at your own pace and ability and then take it to someone knowledgeable for what you are not capable of doing yourself or don't have the proper equipment/tools for...
Keep checking back in from time to time as this is a work in progress and I plan to keep updating it as I build more engines and can show you more variations...
I am going to break this into sections that you can follow along with and make sense to do in 'stages' when you build... Plus you can then jump to the section that you are working on to help keep from sorting through one very long thread to find what part that you are working on when you are doing it....
*************************************************************************
*** Important Note *** Sometimes things may not go right and you will run into a snag/road block... Do not get in a hurry to finish and take short cuts that may compromise your build...
Step back, take a break, and think about it for a while... Or seek help from other experienced people or professionals to overcome the problem... Do it right and don't take any unnecessary chances that may compromise the integrity of your build...
If you don't fix the problem correctly, it may come back to haunt you and cost even more time and money than if you took the time to think about it and research it to fix the problem correctly...
This has been a public service announcement from krazykuda....
*************************************************************************
Now that you have the pistons installed in the engine, it is time to measure the volume above the pistons at TDC (Top Dead Center) where the piston is at the highest point in the rotation of the crank shaft... This will be needed to be used with the volume of the head gasket and head combustion chamber to determine the compression of your set-up... If you haven't picked your heads yet, this will let you determine what volume you will want to use for your desired compression...
First you will need to find TDC... To do this you will need a dial indicator and base to mount it to the engine... Any cylinder should work as they should all be the same as long as the parts are made correctly, so I will use cylinder #1 as that is the most used cylinder for reference including setting the ignition timing when tuning...
Attach the mounting base to the engine and get the indicator pin to be as close to perfectly perpendicular to the piston face as possible... As close to being exactly parallel to the axis of the piston travel in the cylinder... Here's an angle of a bird's eye view of the needle to the piston...
Here's a side view of the indicator where the piston is at TDC...
Now that you have found TDC, you need to get some clean axle grease and smear it all around the piston diameter to seal around the top of the rings and on the top of the block to seal between the block and cover plate...
Grease:
Smear the grease all around the gap between the piston and the block and around the top of the block around the cylinder...
Thin it out a little bit...
Now remove any excess from the top of the piston, leaving the gap between the piston and bore filled with grease to keep any water from leaking through the ring gaps... Leave a thin layer around the top of the block to seal the cover plate and not let any squeeze into the cylinder... Use just enough to seal the cover plate to the block...
If you don't have a cover plate to use to measure the block and head volumes, refer to my article on how to check compression to walk you through how I made mine... This will also walk you through the math needed to calculate the compression...
How to Check Compression
Attach the cover plate to the block and verify that none of the grease has squeezed into the measuring area to affect the volume...
Now fill the cylinder with water to measure the volume above the piston to the top of the block head deck... Fill the graduated cylinder to a convenient level to make the math easier... I use 200 cc and then subtract what is left after filling the cylinder to determine the volume...
This picture shows it better...
Now fill the cylinder and record how much liquid is left in the graduated cylinder and subtract to get the volume...
Now you know the volume from the top of the piston to the top of the block deck to use to calculate the compression for your engine combination...
You can use this information to calculate the volume needed for the heads to get the final compression for your engine if you haven't determined what heads you are going to use... If you already have your heads picked out, then measure them and calculate the compression of your engine... This will be helpful to determine the proper camshaft for your application... You need the proper compression to work with your camshaft for the best performance...
Use the cover plate to measure the volume of the combustion chamber of your head...
The volume for the Fel-Pro Permatorque head gasket that comes in the Mancini Racing complete engine gasket kits is 12.5 cc... Use that to calculate your compression as explained in my how to check compression article...
How to Check Compression
Now you are ready to proceed to the next article on installing the camshaft and timing gear...
