Ed, No worries! Your stud puller worked great and is unhurt, unmolested, and just out of view on the other end of the table. It worked on 9 of the 10, but on the 10th one the threaded part of the stud broke off. I borrowed a collet tool holder from work to grab the un-thread part that was left and that is what you see in the picture. It didn't grab as well as your puller so I had to use quite a bit of heat to get things turning, but it worked. I'll finish up the cylinder puller this weekend and send it along with your stud puller Monday. Mark
I almost finished the welding today before the argon ran out again with about 15 minutes of work left. Oh well, of to the welding store in the morning and I should be on the mill by morning coffee break. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
The welding is DONE!!!! I added a little more in a couple spotwhere it seemed a little low so it took a little longer, but I wanted to be sure. After cools a bit it's on to the mill....finally.
I was unclear. It's the "direction" of the bore from the block top to the crankcase (z dimension), not the x or y positioning of bore or the precision of the circle. We want that piston going very straight up and down with respect to the crank, yes? Disclaimer: I don't know what I'm talking about.
It was take the baby to pictures day, so I didn't get a lot done today. After the welding was done I through the head on the mill and measured the stud and pin holes. Then I cleaned up the block a little bit before heading to the mill. The first thing I did was set the machine to 30 degrees using an indicator that reads in ten-thousandths of an inch and an angle gauge block. Then the block went on and I indicated the crank parallel to the table...so thought I was ready to go. It turns out when you go and weld the snot out of an engine block it doesn't stay particularly straight. I realized when I went to touch-off the fly-cutter to clean the weld off the deck that there was a bit of a bow in the deck. The whole block is bowed about .025" and the decks a little more....which didn't seem like very good news. After the shock wore off a bit I realize that it really isnt that big a deal. The center of the block bows toward the crank, which means to straighten the crank journals out metal will need to be cut in the center not he ends and that leaves the gears in front and the flywheel in back right where they were. The crank journals need to be line-bored, but I was planning on that, so the crank should be good. The ends will get cut on the decks, but since Im cutting the bores to fit the new liners and re-working the timing cover anyway it really doesnt make any real difference. The timing chain will want to get a bit shorter, but it already had to get shorter because the TR heads have a narrower valve angle than the 400 heads which puts the cam closer together. Since the timing chain is a chain shortening it just means cutting out a few links which is very easy to do. I think the decks will be fine too. I need to think a little bit about what order to do the cutting now ..I think I need to set the machine back to 90 degrees and cut the flat between on top between the decks. Then I can flip the block over to cut the pan side. Then set the machine back to 30 degrees and cut the decks and it should be right. A lot to do tomorrow. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
It does have to be pretty straight in that direction, but that is the easiest direction to make straight. Just set the block on the top and indicate the crank parallel to the table and cut the bore. The bore will be as straight as the machine is, it should be easily within .001". No worries there.
Mark, did you mean the block is warped .025", or .0025". 25 thou is a lot of warp, I really think you should try to have the block straightened before doing any rough cuts if its at all possible. My college of hard knocks taught me metal has memory, and it seems highley possible the block could relax once it begins to be heat cycled. Perhaps all your welding upset that theory a bit, but if that dude started pulling back on you after you had it running it could cause a nightmare. You could build some kind of brick block house to park it in, bolt it down to some heavy section of steel plate and cook it at around 450F with propane rose buds for about 6 to 8 hours while continually monitoring it at various locations for temperture, and tensioning it with shims or bolts to straighten it (as much as possible), then take the heat off and let it cool. This head guy I know who straightens heads told me that no matter how far they warp, he can usually get most of them within 2 thou of flatness. If your bowed 25 thou., just about any straightening (which would simultaneously anneal it) would be of great benefit.
Thanks for the pics and update ! ( Personally,..I find this project riveting ) Best of luck on the mill tomorrow. (your ever in So Cal, dinner and drinks on me,.... rock on.) -L
It's 25 thou. and it is a lot.....I've see worse. I thought about trying to straighten it a bit. I almost though it in the press last night, but after looking at the size of it I figured all I'd do is bend my press, the block is nearly 12" tall in that direction. Clamping it to a 2" or 3" plat of steel and annealing would probably work, but then it would be annealed (not a good thing) and I'd most likely pull the bearing saddles in strange ways. I don't know......
Mark, When I welded on my 330 block and 308 tranny, I had a fixture consisting of 1 1.5" thk cast table that the block main studs got thru-bolted during the welding and about 4 or 5 assorted braces so it would not warp. Gotta do a ton of pre-heating and reheating during cooling. On the tranny I removed all the studs from bottom pan area so I could insert bolts from under the 1.5" table and had large brackets with 2" steel shafts and bushings in all the bearing racesall supported on the ends I had no movement of parts
pics---oh---and a few helpful pics for your future todo list Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Mark, here is a take-off from a 330 head.... note that the numbers have a bit of a veriance since the holes are worn just a bit and out-of-round. Image Unavailable, Please Login
I spend some time cleaning up and pulling the studs off the bottom of the block. I was still a little confused about the best course of action, so I explained the whole thing to my technical advisor and let him think about it a bit. He suggested that I really need to measure at the crank not on the to surface. When I check that I found that it was only bowed about .012 in the one direction, but also had a about .003 of bow 90 degrees to the vertical. So not as bad as it 1st appeared. He also suggested I start by rough cutting the bores where most of the welding took place which should let whatever is going to move, move now. And lastly, the block is not as strong as the welding table that it should have been bolted to and it might be possible to use the strapping clamps to pull it back a little closer the straight. I think thats good advise. So Ill start by roughing the bores and punching in the stud holes. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
I think that's the same as the 400 block, so it wouldn't have saved any work using the earlier block after all.
I should have bolted it to the table, no question. I am going to try very hard to not weld the long spacers to the trans. I have to weldan extension on the pan section, but I don't see why I can't just bolt the rails on top - is there anything that pops into your mind?
Mike--rails--yes--tth surface there is thin and there are gears just below it on one side---can not bolt thru..
I think they have small studs there but be careful of the grears for putting bolts into there. also the rails will need to be 7 inches longer, so you will have to do some welding on the end anyway so might as well do it all. The area in the "highlited" area is all new metal... Image Unavailable, Please Login
I finally did some cutting. I cleaned off the deck a bit so I could tell what I was doing. Drilled the new stud holes and started drilling the oil feed/pin hole only to discover that ferrari did a most excellent job coring the block and my hole went into the water-jacket. So I need to seal that hole and move it over about 10mm in both block and head. I think the other one will be the same. I guess its probably time to figure something out for the oil returns too so if I need to do more welding I can do it now. I ran out of WD-40 that I like on the cutting tools, so I called it a night without getting into the bores. Tomorrow. Image Unavailable, Please Login
I'm thinking that I'm just going to weld a pan extension with a flange on top. Then the rails will bolt all the way across. Also, Im only planing to add 1.75 beyond where the pan flange currently is maybe 2, but at 2 I have about ¼ clearance from the timing cover to the passenger side shock. Ill double check everything once I get the engine assembled, I want to get as close as I can on the passenger side without being stupid about it.
Mark, im sure you know, but I think what Charles was eluding to, is that you will need to modify the passenger side end of the oil sump to mount to the back of the chain case/oil pump. As long as you have to do that, you could just as easily weld the rails to the gearbox, it aint ever gonna fit a 308 motor again anyway. Maybe you could torque the block down hard to straighten the crank bore under load before rough cutting the deck surfaces? Maybe then with heads bolted up on it the crank bore will be far closer to straight before align boring the crank saddles? I really believe the heads should be torqued on before align boring the crank. Good idea on rough cutting the bores to relieve stress. It looks good Mark, it really does. Just a quick question though. Are you saying that 330 heads wont fit that block either? So they wouldnt fit the 365 motor from the GT4 then either?
I took a look at the oil return problem and I find I have it. I look like I can mill a slot between the exhaust ports that will break into the bottom the cam cavity. Then I weld a thin plate between the exhaust flanges to form channel. On the block, there is an oil collection tube that runs the full length of the block so all I need to do is add a little bump to match the bump on the head and drill a hole. At least something looks like it will go easy. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
