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The studs are finished and should be here this coming week. With that issue taken care of for now a new one presents itself. Block has been sitting on the stand, covered up in the garage since we brought it back. I went out to grease it up again since some surface rust was starting to appear on the deck and in one of the cylinders. In the process of wiping grease in one cylinder I noticed this little spec that's proud of the surface:
It's very small. I'm not sure as to whether it was there when I took possession of the engine... I definitely didn't notice it until now. I'm struggling to think what could have caused it; looks like a little flake of the wall just decided it'd rather be somewhere else. It's in the middle of the cylinder so I don't see how something dropped (like a file) could push material proud of the surface like that. It did drop below freezing a few times but I've never heard of that causing this kind of issue. My machinist friend thought it could be a hard spot in the casting, but I'd think that would have chewed up the boring head and hone stones.
Engine machinist said the mark isn't deep or long enough to cause sealing issues, and to remove the material proud of the surface (kiss with a die grinder for example) so it doesn't interfere with the rings and blend hone pattern with emery. Wanted to get some additional input before I do anything.
Word...keep a frigging die grinder out of that hole.....
Lol right? I was surprised he recommended that... Maybe not remembering that I don't have 40 years worth of fine touch like he does.
I was thinking rub it a little with a round file see how hard it is. Maybe wrap some sand paper around a short length of pipe and just slowly work it. Then mark up with sharpie near the end and go by hand until the high spot is knocked down, then blend with the hone pattern.
Maybe the least intrusive method would be holding a large round ball against the nib and pressing it into the surface with your hand. With luck it will bend back into it's hole. It might chip off but I doubt it given the malleability of the material.
I think i got it flattened... hard to tell with finger nail as it's hard to differentiate between an indent and a protruding feature at that small of scale. I suppose I'll have to insert a piston and see if it goes down without issue.
Originally Posted by JoshHefnerX
How far down the cylinder is that? Curious if the rings will be hitting that.
It's about 4.3-4.4" down from the deck.
Speaking of the deck:
The lapping process has been a huge success. Confident that I'll be able to run Cometic MLS gaskets without issues. Sure beats a massive machining bill for fire-rings.
Next step will be installing these and figuring out how to preload them accurately:
Some back and forth with the engineer at ARP... we thought installing them with loctite in block, snug them up with beplate installed, and let cure. After cure, set up dial indicator to measure stretch and tighten in stages until the desired stretch is hit.
Even though it's tedious this is why you chase threads before assembly. Most of this came from the head bolt threads... definitely don't want all this crap between the male and female threads in those critical areas.
That's just what the tap collected in the channels (rinsed with mineral spirits after every use). There might be more in the female threads but will get those with a bore brush during final wash.
Yeah I was surprised how much crud was in all the threaded holes when I rebuilt mine. And I made sure to buy a long tap for the head bolts when I did the studs !
