Lets talk "Preping a Block"

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RAMM said:
Why not? I roto-blast and it is far more destructive than sandblasting --if you don't know what you're doing. J.Rob
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What medium are you using to roto-blast? A friend of mine sandblasted his block prior to having it hot tanked. Ended up with sand embedded in the main/rod bearings.
 
Plymouth 65 said:
What medium are you using to roto-blast? A friend of mine sandblasted his block prior to having it hot tanked. Ended up with sand embedded in the main/rod bearings.
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Then a plug was not removed and it still wasn't clean. J.Rob
 
Yes rram is right , cleaning and recleaning is key , but I think the original question was what to do before machining so cleaning all passages and so on should all be redone after machining anyways...
 
W-Edge said:
Yes rram is right , cleaning and recleaning is key , but I think the original question was what to do before machining so cleaning all passages and so on should all be redone after machining anyways...
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Cleaning is a never ending process and consideration for the machinist/engine builder. Washing, re-washing, cleaning, blowing, wiping etc.. are pretty much an ongoing ordeal right up to final assembly. J.Rob
 
Yes , I am one of the last ones still on that team and am very good friends with (lets call him Mr. A) but that doesn t mean I share all his views. Lets just say we have friends in common in summerstown.
I know who you are , I met you like 15yrs ago you were driving a silver aspen or volare , I really liked that car , do you still drive/own it?
 
I thought the topic was chocolate cake? Yeah I like chocolate cake too. Lol
 
W-Edge said:
Yes , I am one of the last ones still on that team and am very good friends with (lets call him Mr. A) but that doesn t mean I share all his views. Lets just say we have friends in common in summerstown.
I know who you are , I met you like 15yrs ago you were driving a silver aspen or volare , I really liked that car , do you still drive/own it?
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I was driving my silver F-body around 2004-2007. Forgive me if I don't know who you are. Mr. A is doing well I hear. J.Rob
 
I assume the shot blasting is done for stress relieving. At what level of performance does it give usable benefit? I would expect that the vast majority of rebuilt blocks out there never get this and do just fine for their application.
 
nm9stheham said:
I assume the shot blasting is done for stress relieving. At what level of performance does it give usable benefit? I would expect that the vast majority of rebuilt blocks out there never get this and do just fine for their application.
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It's the equivalent to sandblasting but with little tiny steel ball bearings. I don't do it for stress relief, I do it to get a perfectly clean starting point. That being said I have roto-blasted valve springs and oddly enough they pick up a little rate afterwards. J.Rob
 
RAMM said:
It's the equivalent to sandblasting but with little tiny steel ball bearings. I don't do it for stress relief, I do it to get a perfectly clean starting point. That being said I have roto-blasted valve springs and oddly enough they pick up a little rate afterwards. J.Rob
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Odd indeed. Perhaps it is hardening the outer surface..... I assumed the shot blasting being referred to is the same or similar as has been used for quite some time on rods and cranks for stress relief. Or it is much smaller shot without the weight to really pummel the surface?
 
72Dart6pack said:
I thought the topic was chocolate cake? Yeah I like chocolate cake too. Lol
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I love chocolate cake too. This is exactly what I was hoping for when I posted this thread. Information and opinions from the guys who do this on a regular basis. Thanks J.Rob and everyone else.. Keep posting, lots of knowledge on this site.. Yellow Rose, thanks for all your input as well.
 
I picked a 360 block cheap that's been blasted all over including lifters, mains and cam, pretty much everything. Is it junk now or just additional machine work required?
 
avf383 said:
I picked a 360 block cheap that's been blasted all over including lifters, mains and cam, pretty much everything. Is it junk now or just additional machine work required?
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It's fine. They should be decked and line hone anyway.

The lifter bores WILL have a lip on the top and probably the bottom that needs to be dressed and those bores will need to be honed as well.
 
If the cam bearing bores are beat up, I am not sure how you could fix that. Were the cam bearings in place?

If the lifter bores were beat up, then be careful with the hone.... honing too much will make the clearances too big, with excess leakage.

Question: What is this engine going to be used for? Pure race? Street? 600 HP or 300-400 HP? If a lower performance application, where you don't need to make everything perfect by machining to the nth degree, it will probably be cheaper to just get another block.
 
Cam bearings in place, nothing hard hitting, just a run around for a small pickup running on propane.
 
OK, then new cam bearing ought to fix that. I could not tell from your original post if you we talking about items like the lifters themselves or the lifter bores, for example. If it is the bearings themselves, new ones.

BTW, for a low HP pickup engine (if that is what you mean by 'pickup running on propane'), I would not ever worry over decking or the crank bore line. Is this for a stock level rebuild and adding propane?
 
Some new pistons to get compression up, run a mixer instead of carb, and run on propane. I'm down under so going in a ute, ie a small pickup. Already have propane running on a 318 with about 7:1 comp, has no guts
 
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