KB 191's in my 360

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metallidart

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I just got a VERY good deal on a set of KB 191's, .040+, for my 360. I have an extra block lying here, rods, crank, x-heads. Here is my question...
What kind of machine work is generally required to use these quench-type pistons? I don't have them in my hands yet, so I can't look at them, but I'm just curious as to what I need to do to use them properly. I'm leaning very low buck high compression 360, a voodoo cam, single plane, 4-speed, etc in the valiant. Someday. In the meantime, I'd like to do some planning with machine work costs, etc. Thanks guys!
 
Sorry but this gets wordy...To get the total benefit of the quench effect, there's a lot of work to be done. The chamber is sand cast and not that well... What that means is depth of each chamber, and shape, and the height of the surface features are all different chamber to chamber. The way to get proper quench distance regardless of head or piston is to first align hone the mains, then square deck the block (indexing the deck height to the now perfect crank centerline). Then the crank and rods need to be checked for stroke length and rod center to center length. These commonly vary from exactly the same to blueprint spec plus or minus up to .010 each. I've seen strokes off .008, and rod lengths in the same set .010 different from longest to shortest. You have to have every hole the same. When that;s done, you mock up the short and clay all eight holes. You do that to get the deepest chamber. Then you make all the chambers the same size, usually by polishing the flat where the piston's quench pad comes up close to. Once they are equal and flat, you mill the head to get the quench distance correct. It has to be less than .050", and the tighter it is the more effective it is against detonation. I typically set this between .030 and .040, depending on the bore size and piston compression height. On a 360, I'd be looking at setting it at .030. Once the heads are milled, you can use the formula to mill the intake flange side to allow the intake to fit and you're done. It is MUCH easier to just do the first and second parts (square decking and stroke indexing and length matching) because they are part of the normal blueprinting steps. The rest is repeated on and off with the heads, and a lot more hand labor. Those pistons are designed to have the dome trimmed to achieve the proper quench, but you still have the issue of differring chamber depths which as I said could mena your quench would be either too wide, or too close depending on which chamber you use to calculate the thickness of material to be removed from the piston. this might be why they are for sale cheap...
 
I run them in the 360 bracket car. 0 decked the block and hand ground my head chambers to .038 on all 8 chambers. spent 1 whole summer worth of spare time just getting the heads right. with a 565 585 split cam with a victor and 750 dp it ran 11.20s in my 72 swinger with all glass and full body. ps. I would never go this route again. from now on i use flattops and o deck and shave the heads for desired compression.
 
ran a set in a 360 with J heads cut down to 59 cc and weiand xcellerator intake/ 750 holley dp....hughes 256/265 cam... 69 barracuda ran a best of 10.77 in the cool air of las vegas...
 
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