Experience with burnishing lifter bores?

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Uncle Bob said:
I've already assembled the bottom end so can't do that. Also the machinist said they hone after shot peening the block. He also said he recently had to let a guy go so that guy might have slacked off on my job and not done a good job on the lifter bores.

I just now went out, chose a bore that isn't hanging up, stuck the ball in and pushed and it slid in to about the bottom. Then I had to push a little harder and it popped right out the bottom. I was able to just pull it back out.

So where I kept thinking I would be "banging it through" in reality it's going to be more like "tickling it through with a tiny little hammer"

There was something it kind of caught on but I wasn't looking to notice if it was the opening to the galley or not. I'll do the rest of them soon; there were 4 holes that were hanging up.

Like I have said all along, if it does nothing but give me peace of mind, it's worth the price.

I've got a 440 on deck to build too, and this fits BB, SB, or /6.
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How much was it. You have me thinking now. When I tube a block I have to peen the tubing so the lifter will go in. Even after I peen it I have to gently relieve and high spots with a carbide burr. Now you have me wondering if I could use this tool. Hmmmm
 
pittsburghracer said:
How much was it. You have me thinking now. When I tube a block I have to peen the tubing so the lifter will go in. Even after I peen it I have to gently relieve and high spots with a carbide burr. Now you have me wondering if I could use this tool. Hmmmm
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On the previous page. $44 for the burnishing ball, $99 for the ball and slide hammer.
 
pittsburghracer said:
How much was it. You have me thinking now. When I tube a block I have to peen the tubing so the lifter will go in. Even after I peen it I have to gently relieve and high spots with a carbide burr. Now you have me wondering if I could use this tool. Hmmmm
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It worked a treat on the factory bores. Are the tubes thin like the original bores are? I know you know, but for anybody else there's a photo up there ^^^ that shows the original bore is paper-thin.

All this thing does is make the bores round again, it doesn't remove any material. Actually, it can't. It's smooth as a baby's butt.
 
pittsburghracer said:
How much was it. You have me thinking now. When I tube a block I have to peen the tubing so the lifter will go in. Even after I peen it I have to gently relieve and high spots with a carbide burr. Now you have me wondering if I could use this tool. Hmmmm
Click to expand...
I still had to hit the copper tube with a sand roll, but it didn't take much.
 
Mopar Sam said:
I still had to hit the copper tube with a sand roll, but it didn't take much.
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Yours was the only video I have found on tubing the blocks. Here is the link to the one that shows the tool being used. Thanks for making those videos. I bought that burnishing tool after watching this video.

 
mopowers said:
This is interesting! I'd imagine that little ball is pretty hard?
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It's likely made out of tool steel so after hardening/tempering would probably be in the 50 RC range? Hard, but drawn back enough to not be brittle. Something like this is very easy to make if you have a metal lathe. I usually use O-1 or W-1 material and small parts like this can be reliably hardened with a MAPP or Oxy/Acc torch and tempered in your oven. I have a small ceramics furnace that goes to 2200 degrees F for larger parts or something I need to control the ramp on. Now, is it worth your time to make it rather than buy it, that's up to you. But if you have the machines, it usually means you don't want to be tied to the supply chain. Looks like a nice little machining project for this winter.
 
I thought it was standard practice to run a small ball hone thru the lifter bores before the final block cleaning, at least thats they way I have done it
 
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