Super tuning car runs good shooting for great

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I will never again let someone talk me into an align-hone, on a block that is known to let the crank spin free with new bearings.
I spent an entire morning fitting the rods into that crooked beast. At least they got the decks sorta mostly in the right place. but the rods were all over the place. And the best I could do was get the pop-ups into a range of about .003 from highest to lowest.I did find out one thing tho; KB107s are within about 2 tenths of eachother. That's .0002; Nice work boys.
 
AJ/FormS said:
I will never again let someone talk me into an align-hone, on a block that is known to let the crank spin free with new bearings.
I spent an entire morning fitting the rods into that crooked beast. At least they got the decks sorta mostly in the right place. but the rods were all over the place. And the best I could do was get the pop-ups into a range of about .003 from highest to lowest.I did find out one thing tho; KB107s are within about 2 tenths of eachother. That's .0002; Nice work boys.
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rod length-piston dome heighth-crank throw stroke, .003 ain`t all that bad ! unless it`s all on one side. but I`m sure u know that.
 
AJ/FormS said:
I had that issue on my 367 after I allowed a really well-respected engine shop to align hone my block,against my better judgement. Turns out their BHJ fixture, if they used it at all, changed the geometry so bad at the rear mainseal, that the factory seal would only go about 2000 miles before the rubber wouldn't contact the crank anymore, and the oil would blow out in the same location as where you are having trouble. while on the other side, the rubber was nearly worn out. I didn't catch it the first time either, thinking I had made a mistake during the install. But 2000 miles later it did it again. So when I pulled the second seal out, I had a really good look at it, and that's when I saw it. So I went back to my tool box where I had deposited the earlier failed seal, and sure enough it was the same.So I took the problem back to this well-respected shop, and showed him what was going on. And I kid you not, he said to bring him another block, and he would give me a free line-hone. Ok,wait, what about all the other machining? Um,no we didn't screw that up. Despite the truth in that statement, it was ridiculous.
Anyway, I went back to my parts supplier and it turns out a 383 rope seal fits in there with minor trimming, with the sharpest razor-blade in the pkg,lol. But no, the leak continues;just less profusely. I am on my third rope-seal, cuz it seems they are really tricky to install, and they are a little fat now that my block is all messed up back there.And yes, my bellhouse had to be moved up to recenter the tranny pilot to the new crank location. And all the Housing bolts had to be relocated as well.
Since you are having similar issues, I suspect this is also your case. The ropeseal is the easy answer, but it is not the best. Mine continues to seep and dribble. Oh yeah, I should mention, that with a new ropeseal and a 4 psi pressure test, it does not leak at the time of the install. The leakage begins later.
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sorry, there's no way an align hone caused that issue on your block. an align bore possibly, but not an align hone. and you don't use a BHJ fixture for a hone.
 
Well yeah, I had that same shop straighten out a previously botched decking. That's what I brought it in for. The two decks were declining in opposite directions and also were not at the correct angles from side to side and one deck was lower than the other. I mean it couldn't get any worse. When I originally put the engine together, the pistons were a bit down in the holes, so I didn't care about them being a little uneven. But with the straightening out of things, they popped up. So now with an .039 FellPro I was rapidly running out of Squish. So things became a lil tense on the morning of the reassembly,lol.At least the intake fit now.They charged me for an align-hone;what they actually did,I wasn't there for. But the end result is that I now had a leaker and it was obvious why; the crank went up into the block, as proved by the bellhouse re-alignment required and the obvious seal problem. So My conclusion is the same; if the crank spins free on new bearings, I for one, will not let anyone talk me into saddle work,period.
I did not include the shop's name on account of there's always an off-chance that I was one-time event. They were after all a well established outfit, and there are plenty of racers in the province, running on their work; as was the first shop, that botched the decking all to kingdom-come,lol.
So was I cursed? IDK, but it's all working pretty good now, except of course the underside of my car gets automatically rust-proofed on a rather continuous basis,lol.
 
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AJ/FormS said:
Well yeah, I had that same shop straighten out a previously botched decking. That's what I brought it in for. The two decks were declining in opposite directions and also were not at the correct angles from side to side and one deck was lower than the other. I mean it couldn't get any worse. When I originally put the engine together, the pistons were a bit down in the holes, so I didn't care about them being a little uneven. But with the straightening out of things, they popped up. So now with an .039 FellPro I was rapidly running out of Squish. So things became a lil tense on the morning of the reassembly,lol.At least the intake fit now,yahoo.....
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That's good you got it straightened out. The decks on factory chrysler blocks are horrid. Unfortunately many shops don't take the time to really measure things and get them right unless there using something like a rotter machining center. I switched careers and half to farm out my machine work now instead of doing it myself. It's been a complete headache. I plan to start picking up equipment in the near future, may take several years to get everything I need but that's my plan.
 
If I run the 360 with factory dowel pins how hard will it be on an automatic trans.

Thinking the right thing to do would be to run my stocker 318 until I have the funds to redo a good block.
 
Lakewood makes a dowl kit to center up the bell housing. Not a big deal at all to fix. I'm seeing some crazy bad info in this whole thread covering a variety of topics from vacuum advance to leak down numbers. By the way I run vacuum advance on my 10 sec bb roadrunner street car.. :thumbsup:
 
skep419 said:
How does this kit work?

I had the 21 kit and it wasn't enough.
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Drill the holes (in the bellhousing), grind them, whatever it take to get the bell housing centered. Then you weld these half circle guides on the bell housing over the locating holes while it's centered and tight on the engine. I had to do this on my hemi's bell housing. Pretty simple, mine was way off too. Most likely the bell housing itself is off (and maybe the block a bit) them things are jacked. I've milled a ton of the things just so the mounting face is parallel to the block. And it seems like the're rarely close to centered out of the box.
 
68 HEMI GTS said:
That's good you got it straightened out. The decks on factory chrysler blocks are horrid. Unfortunately many shops don't take the time to really measure things and get them right unless there using something like a rotter machining center. I switched careers and half to farm out my machine work now instead of doing it myself. It's been a complete headache. I plan to start picking up equipment in the near future, may take several years to get everything I need but that's my plan.
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I always thot Chrysler blocks were way closer to being right than chevys. I had two hemi`s and they were perfect, my 67 440 block only reqired .003 to make sure it wasn`t warped. the chevys I`ve had, took a bunch of everything to get right.
 
Chevy's arn't usually that bad, you'll have a few here or there. The ford blocks are about the best. Now all the newer stuff is great. No matter who makes it. Of course if you looked at the ratio of chevs and fords I've machined to mopars it isn't real good statistics.
 
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Top seal, passenger side is messed up.
 
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Well, I didn't want to point a finger, but that had to happen before or during the install.
And I still cannot imagine how :(

But since the engine is out, This is the perfect time to revisit the LeakDown test, but this time with the rocker shafts removed.
 
bringing other block in to get prepped. should have just done it in the first place.
 
Not a big fan of white grease for assembly lube. Clean the bores out with Marvels Mystery oil or WD-40 until a white towel comes out clean. Use a SMALL bit of real assembly lube on the skirts (maybe the size of a dime) and spread it on the skirts. That's lol you need on the Pistons.

That white grease makes heat. It also packs in the bearing grooves and cuts off oil.

I'd stop, take it apart and clean it all and start over.
 
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