Cole - My son is a Top Gear fanatic so maybe I could make it for him?

The evil grin is 'cause he doesn't want us to bring many of his things, like his sword collection, since they don't go with the decoration plan for their house. Somehow I don't think a Ford M-block table would fit the scheme either. On the other hand he would have found a place for the Ferrari crank that was on display in their store in Florence, IT. It was beautiful.

 

Are you sure? I mean, everybody needs an M-block in their living room right?

I got a 400 short block for free this summer, but I'm not making it into a table just yet haha it's going in the 66 as soon as I get it rebuilt. One thing great about 4h, I was talking about engines with my friends and a guy walked up and said, "Hey, anybody want a free Ford 400?" and of course I jumped on it

 

My son called just after I responded and agreed with my assessment - he would like it but it was never going to make it in the house.

As for the 400, I got a good deal on mine at $40 but you got an even better deal - free.

 

Ah, too bad. And yeah, it's nice when you are a poor 17 year old and people give you engines to play with haha.

 

My .060 over 400 wasn't stamped anywhere internally. The pistons didn't say .060, and the crank didn't have an undercut stamp either.

I only noticed the overbore when I took my caliper to the chambers and pulled a 4.058 or something like that. Upon cleaning up the block later, I noticed that the actual block was stamped twice. On that famous 351M/400 "bridge" next to the distributor, I found a small 40 stamped into the face. Then on the opposite side of the block, on another "bridge" by the rear intake gasket mounting surface, I found a small 60 stamped into that face.

Maybe your block is also stamped the same way along with the internal stamps?

 

Shaun - The bridges aren't stamped, but the block has been bored .030" over as you spotted with the 30 on the pistons.

I got the #4 piston out today, cleaned up the walls as best I could with just a wire brush. Here's a picture, but I have to tell you this is R rated and not fit for many gearheads:


And that pretty much says it is time to make this block into a table since, from what I can tell, TMI's pistons are only available in .030" over size.

Also, I did some measuring on the crank. Turns out the mains have not been turned but the rod journals have been turned .010" - as confirmed by this:


And, there are a couple of dings on the rod journals. Here's one:


And last, here's a shot of some of the casting flash. The one at the hole is .100" tall and .600" long. So, there's lots to clean up.

 

Wow! The cylinder walls on my .060 400 look perfect compared to that #4 cylinder!

That gash on the rod journal looks pretty interesting. What did the bearings from that rod look like?

 

The bearings weren't bad. I think I may have done that getting the pistons out. I have to admit I forgot to put hose on the rod bolts so may have done done that.

Yes, #4 looks awful. It would probably clean up at 50 over, but I don't see Tim's pistons in that size. However, there are stock, low compression, pistons available in that size so the block isn't a write off, although it won't work for this build.

 

What about a sleeve. I have had a few motors with sleeves in them and never had an issue. To be honest, a couple of them I did not even know they were sleeved until I tore them apart.

They generally bore that cylinder to get it back smooth then add the sleeve and bore it to the size of the rest of the cylinders.

https://search.yahoo.com/r/_ylt=A0oG...s/viewall.html

 

Kyle - Could do, but I'd rather just use Dad's block. Gives me more reason to say "Yep, that's the original engine. Did a few hot rod things, but it is the original engine." In truth, it looks like 10 things will be the same: block, 8 rods, and the pan. Truthfully there will be a larger number of things that aren't original, but I'll calculate originality based on mass.

 

How can any car enthusiast not like TG, unless you can't stand the English, then maybe. But hey, I know some Scots who like that show, so no one has an excuse!

And I saw something similar in the Ferrari store in London, some random part I can't recall now, but I do remember the price... £20,000 And there was another part from a F1 car that was more expensive!

 

 

I like TG, and I'm not put off by the Brits. Well, maybe some of them. But, I've worked for and had many work for me that were super. (Uh, I just remembered an episode of a fairly recent Britcom, which shall remain nameless, that seemed to use that term a bit.) But, I'm not into it like my son is.

I was curious where the Ferrari Store in London is as there wasn't one when we lived there, so Googled it. Talk about convenient! Kids toys on one side of Regents Street in Hamley's and big boy's toys on the other side in Ferrari's. And only 6 blocks from where I worked on the back side of Selfridges. Tonight is a lot of reminiscing as we just watched the new Sherlock and it always shows a view I had every morning on the way to work. 221B Baker Street is beside Baker Street Station, which is where I went into each morning and then came out walking down the same street, Baker Street, to work.

Anyway, back to Fords, I'm pretty sure I'll used Dad's block and rods, but not much else. It has never been apart so the 30 over bore to use Tim's pistons will work fine. Now I just have to figure out where I want the work done and what work to have done. Maybe I can work on that some tomorrow.

 

Is it a new season with Benedict?

BBC or PBS?

Been waiting awhile for a new season.

 

PBS. Started Sunday night after The Abbey. We haven't gotten to watching the new season as we'd not finished last so are catching up. I think my wife's tired of me pausing it to see some aspect of London over again. Like the view down Baker St that I walked every day.