I saw the picture of the torque plate. It appears to be a 1" thick steel plate that bolts to the top of the block with holes where the cylinders are. I'll ask about getting that done. I'm guessing that the machinist would have the torque plate for my block?

 

Yes, machinists who do it that way have those things.

 

plate is acutally around 3" thick. BHJ torque plate. In a perfcet world use the exact same head bolts on plate to simulate the torque sequence as possible. In the hi end nascar serious hrspwr world they torque up and pump coolant and simulate the actual engine temps they will see for a even more better honing. different stones and many other little techniques I don't even know of. catch you later. top end machine shop in sheridan wyo has a torque plate. If your machinist doesn't have one call and maybe the machinist work something out. i know and believe this is a very important procedure with the 351m/400 engines. after seeing the micrometer readings before and after, its a excellent idea. As excessive oil gets by promotes preignition/detonation depending on load of engine. If the cylinder isn't round oil will get by and the rings will hopefully seal. sometimes they have to make up as much as .002 cylinder out of round and will never completly seal. detonation prevention in cylinder hone. catch you later.

 

FWIW, and you've probably seen this already, but ring gap is critical on hyper pistons. Search it out and find some broken piston stories.

x10 on researching this first btw.

http://www.kb-silvolite.com/assets/kb_installation.pdf

 

yeah this is a big deal. can butt up rings if you don't set ring end gaps. Once they butt up they take out top piston ring in piston and have to pull engine apart. keith black has a guideline per application for their products. meaning if towing or if running nitrous or similar applications. they have a very detailed guidelines per bore size. get educated and you will do well. these pistons run very tight clearances on cylinder wall. usually in the .0015 to .002 on clearance. if you just bore engine and not torque plate can get a piston noise like a loose piston rattle in btm end. torque plate is a good thing to know an reccomend. also one good thing with tight pistons is ring control. the more the piston moves around not staight in cylinder the more difficult it is for the rings to seal. If piston is running straight up and down the better the ring control and better the oil control at rings. helps keep oil in crankcase instead of combustion chamber and possible detonation/pre ignition issues. just more stuff to loose sleep over at night. good luck. been using keith black for over 15 yrs and have served me well except when abused excessively$$$$$$$$$$

 

What does it mean to butt up rings? What is actually taking place and what causes this? I've heard this before but was not sure what it meant.

 

butt up rings is when a piston ring bind up and touch and then once this happens they bind up in piston groove in piston and against the cylinder wall. what usually happens is you take a chunk out of the piston and then it bangs around in your combustion chamber$$$$$$$$$$. when building a 400 ford for towing keith black has a claculation for a givin load/temps and bore size. if a 4.030" bore like in your situation its .026. towing. if the bore size is a 460 around 4.440 .060 over you would have a different ring end gap. when assembling your engine you drop rings in cylinder before assembly and measure with a feeler gage, grind ends to get a givin ring end gap. check keiths guidelines and the gap guidelines. Very specific specs per application. their is hrspwr to be had or lost with ring end gaps!!!!! On your better builds this is a procedure that is always done and fitted and check. its not hard to do but tedious. hope this helps. If you heat a metal it will grow per temp. so you have to build some end clearance to compensate for this growth. hope this explaines kinda whats going on. Just seen a 383 chevy with keith black and it over heated bad and the guy just kept driving it and it took a chunk out of piston. If he would of shut down it wouldn't have been a big deal but now its a big deal$$$$$

 

Ok, that makes a lot of sense. I had heard of this problem from my machinist but wasn't sure of what he was talking about. I understand now.

 

simple procedure but have to know the specs and have to be honest with what you are really gonna do with your application. All this info is in the keith black application and installation info. Pretty standard stuff. Just a tedious job. ring end gaps you can loose/gain power if not taken seriously. Any more questions drop a note. lost in wyoming and lovin it. the weather is gonna be nice for awhile so taking advantage of the outside stuff. been sand blasting my 1970 ford crew cab. Hope to be done this weekend with this process.

 

Here's another question. It looks like Keith Black builds about 4 different "categories" of pistons. There's the Silvolite, KB Performance pistons, motorcycle pistons, and forged pistons. Which category would the pistons that Tim Meyer sells that is designed for the Aussie 302 heads fall into....the Silvolite or the KB performance pistons? I can't find those pistons listed on the site.

 

Yeah, I hear ya on the weather. Last week was a pretty wet week. All the mountains in the valley are snow-covered now and it won't be long before the valley floor gets some too! I'm in the middle of building a sauna. It's all framed up and I'm hoping to get it sheathed, sided and roofed this week...assuming the weather does what the weather channel tells it to do.

 

gonna have to go to tim meyer for this piston. tim has got something figured out and I'm pretty sure he's done his homework on this combination. I use tim Meyer on some products also for my 400 stuff.

 

Yeah, I already talked to Tim about the piston. He simply got ahold of Keith Black and asked them to build a piston that works with the Aussie 302 heads. They build the piston and he sells them. When I asked for the specs on the piston, he didn't have them. The tech at Kieth Black that I spoke with, Glen, did have the specs. He read off some of the specs to me and I wrote them down. I've got an e-mail in to Keith Black right now to see if they have any diagrams with the specs on them that they could send me.

 

If you are close to Helena, I would highly recommend talking with a Ryan Clark (runs the machine shop at the carquest in Helena) He's a die hard ford guy, loves the 400 and he's the one putting my race motor together. The phone number is in the phone book, and tell Ryan that Cody sent you there, reasonable prices too.

 

Thanks Cody, I'll get in contact with him. I met up with a guy named Dave and traded him a late 80's lifted f-250 for his boat. He mentioned that same name, but that was before I was looking at building up this 400. I'll look him up. I live in Ennis.