Dicking Around . .

[BC847]

Hope everyone got some time off for the Labor Day holiday. If you didn't, thanks for holding the fort down.

I recently broke my block and with finding a replacement and finally having it machined, I got on with cleaning it up.

Chased all the bolt thread stuff.





Bottom-tapped the head for 12mm studs.





Bottom-tapped the main-bearing bosses for 14mm studs.





Used the rifle cleaning kit to thoroughly clean all the lube-oil passages. They were nasty.





Removed all those stress-risers that I could find.
Typical of the passenger's side main-bearing boss webbing:





Made all of that go away. (All cutting/grinding/sanding was done inline with the webbing. All corners/edges are rounded).





The driver's side wasn't much better.





I'm glad I checked because I found five instances where there was a sharp "ding" in the webbing, just where it meets the main-bearing boss.
Typical:




Made those go away by blending with the adjacent surfaces.





Then cleaned up the rest of the driver's side.

[BC847]

Cleaned up all the casting-flash where the lube-oil cooler's boss meets the cylinder bank.





Sanded bright all the machined surfaces.





Then pressure-washed the **** out of everything. Then scrubbed everything with a strong Sodium Hydroxide solution. Then pressure-washed the **** out of everything again.
After drying it all, masked and applied two coats of matte Dark Gray.








Now, on to test-fitting stuff.

[12valve95]

Whats the point of removing the "stress-risers"?

Never heard of this before.

[12valve95]

Originally Posted by 12valve95

Whats the point of removing the "stress-risers"?

Never heard of this before.

Okay, so I looked it up, makes since in theory, how nessasary is this practice?

Sorry if this is dumb but this is literally the first I've ever heard of it.

[Begle1]

Originally Posted by 12valve95

Okay, so I looked it up, makes since in theory, how nessasary is this practice?

Sorry if this is dumb but this is literally the first I've ever heard of it.

It's just the way this BC dude does things. He's very thorough.

[WUnderwood]

Great work!

[biggy238]

Originally Posted by 12valve95

Okay, so I looked it up, makes since in theory, how nessasary is this practice?



Sorry if this is dumb but this is literally the first I've ever heard of it.

I don't have a way to gauge how many performance engine builders do this in our industry.
Fractures always initiate at stress risers, so if you do FEA on all these fractured blocks, I'm sure you can point the finger at one of them.

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[Signature600]

If you find a way to stop the tappet cover from leaking let us know!

Nice work, attention to detail is awesome!

Chris

[biggy238]

Originally Posted by Signature600

If you find a way to stop the tappet cover from leaking let us know!

Nice work, attention to detail is awesome!

Chris

Have you guys tried the loc-tite Aviation sealer on one? Seems like I used it on my 12V but I can't recall now.

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[mhuggler]

Originally Posted by biggy238

I don't have a way to gauge how many performance engine builders do this in our industry.
Fractures always initiate at stress risers, so if you do FEA on all these fractured blocks, I'm sure you can point the finger at one of them.

Sent from my motorola one action using Tapatalk

X2. You can actually remove the beginnings of a crack and not even know it by removing stress risers.

[Signature600]

Originally Posted by biggy238

Have you guys tried the loc-tite Aviation sealer on one? Seems like I used it on my 12V but I can't recall now.

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We use that stuff on everything. Helps, but they still seem to leak

Chris

[mhuggler]

Originally Posted by Signature600

We use that stuff on everything. Helps, but they still seem to leak

Chris

Are you guys talking about indian head gasket shellac? I only use The Chief if the situation calls for him or I know for sure that I'll never be the one to have to take it back apart!

[Signature600]

Originally Posted by mhuggler

Are you guys talking about indian head gasket shellac? I only use The Chief if the situation calls for him or I know for sure that I'll never be the one to have to take it back apart!

No, the Permatex No. 2 Aviation form a gasket

Chris

[BigPapa]

We talking stock tappet cover or a billet cover?

[Red Sleeper]

I was wondering what you’ve been up to. Nice progress.
Will we see a stroker engine? I heard it’s the hip/new cool thing to do.

[Red Sleeper]

Originally Posted by Signature600

No, the Permatex No. 2 Aviation form a gasket

Chris

That goop has been holding down my tapper cover gasket for at least 3 years strong. Works great.

[BC847]

Thanks for the kind words, folks.

Originally Posted by Red Sleeper

I was wondering what you’ve been up to. Nice progress.
Will we see a stroker engine? I heard it’s the hip/new cool thing to do.

Nah. Like everything else I've broken, beef it up some. In this case: Perhaps better optimized pistons, stress-relieving, a girdle, better fasteners, balancing, etc.

It's just a little 12mm VE.

[mhuggler]

Originally Posted by Signature600

No, the Permatex No. 2 Aviation form a gasket

Chris

Yup, that's the stuff. No.2 sealer and indian head are the same thing in different containers. Nasty stuff but it's tried and true.

[Snedge]

Damn that's a lot of work. Good work, but tedious. I'm guessing you have a bunch of kids running around the house, a nagging wife, or a cocaine habit.

[RacinDuallie]

Originally Posted by Snedge

Damn that's a lot of work. Good work, but tedious. I'm guessing you have a bunch of kids running around the house, a nagging wife, or a cocaine habit.

He likes powdered jelly doughnuts.