Engine Builds - Must vs Should
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6th Gear
Joined: Jan 2022
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Engine Builds - Must vs Should
Hello All, I recently bought a 351w (D4AE-AA8) that came fairly well equipped. Holley carb, stealth intake, comp cam, DT5E heads. Since the engine was out of the car when he purchased it he had no clue of mileage or what it was out of. I will be swapping this into a ‘53 F250. Nothing show worthy. Just something fun for me and my boys to wrench on.
This is my first engine (re)build so I’ve been reading lots on here, watching YouTube, etc. and I’m finding an interesting dynamic. Most are saying that tolerances, finish, everything have to be perfect during the rebuild process. In other words take it to a shop. Then there are a few that point out those who run engines for hundreds of thousands miles without proper maintenance… and it still gets from point A to point B.
So the question is … What are the things that must be 100% correct when rebuilding an engine and what items can be “yeah, that’s close enough”? Keep in mind this isn’t a race engine running high rpm’s for extended periods. This will be driven, at absolute most, a couple thousand miles a year once the project is even rolling. Appreciate any insights from the deep knowledge base here!
This is my first engine (re)build so I’ve been reading lots on here, watching YouTube, etc. and I’m finding an interesting dynamic. Most are saying that tolerances, finish, everything have to be perfect during the rebuild process. In other words take it to a shop. Then there are a few that point out those who run engines for hundreds of thousands miles without proper maintenance… and it still gets from point A to point B.
So the question is … What are the things that must be 100% correct when rebuilding an engine and what items can be “yeah, that’s close enough”? Keep in mind this isn’t a race engine running high rpm’s for extended periods. This will be driven, at absolute most, a couple thousand miles a year once the project is even rolling. Appreciate any insights from the deep knowledge base here!
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Joined: Jun 2006
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From: Ottawa, Ontario
The bottom end rotating assembly tolerances really need to be spot on if you want a reliable long lasting engine, the heads and cam could be all wrong and it will still run and not blow up.
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6th Gear
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Hypothetical situation … if a piston to wall clearance is say 0.0015 what should the tolerance (+/-) be there? I’m sure you don’t want to be much, if any, under. If you’re .0005 - .0008 over (.0020 - .0023 for this example) is that way too much?
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