400/450 stroker....Cheap parts, lotta work.
Here is a crappy picture of the burette I use to cc cylinder heads.
I used water as a medium for measuring the volume for years because that is what Dad used as I was growing up. Then I noticed that I was gradually getting rust speckles inside of the burette. All the grinding in the shop was getting iron particles in the air and some of it was falling into the burette and the water was causing it to rust. Maybe I should have rinsed it better, I don't know.
Then in 2010 I was working on an engine collaboration with Chenoweth Speed and Machine in Morton, IL. At their shop they were using rubbing alcohol with, I guess, a food color in the alcohol. Since 2010 I have used the alcohol and food coloring and no more rust in the burette.
If you spill alcohol it evaporates fairly quickly. So I wondered if evaporation out of the burette would effect the volume I was reading as I measured the cylinder head. What to do?
I know, I'll fill the burette, drain it from 0 at the top down to 84 cc's and see how many cc's evaporate over time and how much time it takes. I come back in a few minutes and it reads 83.8 cc's! There is more volume left in the burette than when I first checked. A few minutes more and it now reads 83.6 cc's. It isn't evaporating and giving me a reading of 84+ cc's, it's going the other direction! What if I wait a few hours? Still 83.6 cc's. I did not lose medium...I've gained it. Where is it coming from?
Well I'm slow, but I'm not at dead stop. I figure it's draining down the inside of the burette and slowly filling the burette back up.
I call the burette manufacture and ask how long I have to wait before I read the burette before I get a accurate reading?
"Nobody has ever asked that before."
"Well, how long?"
"I don't know."
I now wait until I have drained the first combustion chamber, cleaned the plexiglass and valves, blown the sparkplug dry, and set up for the next combustion chamber and then read the volume for the last combustion chamber I measured.
.4 of a cc might be critical someday.
Here is a crappy picture of the burette I use to cc cylinder heads.
I used water as a medium for measuring the volume for years because that is what Dad used as I was growing up. Then I noticed that I was gradually getting rust speckles inside of the burette. All the grinding in the shop was getting iron particles in the air and some of it was falling into the burette and the water was causing it to rust. Maybe I should have rinsed it better, I don't know.
Then in 2010 I was working on an engine collaboration with Chenoweth Speed and Machine in Morton, IL. At their shop they were using rubbing alcohol with, I guess, a food color in the alcohol. Since 2010 I have used the alcohol and food coloring and no more rust in the burette.
If you spill alcohol it evaporates fairly quickly. So I wondered if evaporation out of the burette would effect the volume I was reading as I measured the cylinder head. What to do?
I know, I'll fill the burette, drain it from 0 at the top down to 84 cc's and see how many cc's evaporate over time and how much time it takes. I come back in a few minutes and it reads 83.8 cc's! There is more volume left in the burette than when I first checked. A few minutes more and it now reads 83.6 cc's. It isn't evaporating and giving me a reading of 84+ cc's, it's going the other direction! What if I wait a few hours? Still 83.6 cc's. I did not lose medium...I've gained it. Where is it coming from?
Well I'm slow, but I'm not at dead stop. I figure it's draining down the inside of the burette and slowly filling the burette back up.
I call the burette manufacture and ask how long I have to wait before I read the burette before I get a accurate reading?
"Nobody has ever asked that before."
"Well, how long?"
"I don't know."
I now wait until I have drained the first combustion chamber, cleaned the plexiglass and valves, blown the sparkplug dry, and set up for the next combustion chamber and then read the volume for the last combustion chamber I measured.
.4 of a cc might be critical someday.
