Rebuilding an engine - what precision instruments to do measurements

[stutaeng]

^ is that after the mineral spirits?

Lots of really good advice in here! There's many ways to skin a cat, I like the guy in the video that Erik posted for garage rebuilds and that is a good video for you at this point. That said, it depends on you on how much further you want to go, its real easy to spend more on block prep than it would be to just buy a crate engine.

You will need to decide how far you want to go with this. Since you have it already its a great learning experience for you! Just don't think that you need to go 'Full Race' on this engine to get a good running reliable engine.

But also, don't cut corners where you shouldn't... since you don't know the full history of this block. I would at the very minimum get it magnafluxed by a machine shop first to make sure there aren't any hairline cracks waiting for you that you cant see. And that would be my very first step before buying any tools or anything since that is a direct go/no-go analysis for the block.

No, that's before I dunked them in the bucket, LOL. They've sitting in my garage and I do woodworking on-and-off, so they are pretty dusty.

Yeah, I haven't taken a closer look at the block recently. I have been just browsing FBMK, I've seen complete engines, blocks, parts, etc. Not building a race engine. Just want to learn the process of overhauling an engine. And who wouldn't want an extra 6.0 LS?

 

[Teddygraham]

Where I worked here in New Hampshire we sold LS engines for around 1500 or so. Most had a 150k or less. Including ecm, harness, gas pedal ect. Makes it really hard to spend a lot of time and money on rebuilding an ls from scratch.

However my ford 292, won’t find one of them around, nor a rebuilt for the cost of having my block machined and me doing the labor

 

[stutaeng]

I haven't really started anything on measuring the bores, but the other day I saw the pistons from across the garage and never had paid attention that these are the Gen IV (was told engine was 2005, so late Gen III) rods with floating wrist pins? Is that what you call them?

Anyways, I decided to dunk them in a bucket of mineral spirits to see if they clean up:

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Looks like they'll clean up just fine.

 

[Supercharged111]

If just "ringing" the engine, use a dingle-berry hone (FlexHone) to break the glaze. Don't use an expandable hone (3 stones like a big brake cylinder hone). Also, use ONLY iron rings, NOT moly for a re-ring. Moly rings are tougher but generally have seating issues unless it's a fresh bore.

I can agree and disagree here. I used a 3 stone hone on a re-ring and it sure told a story about the cylinder walls on a ~60k block. It missed some low spots, but I figure then so would the rings? I used moly because I wanted longer life. I must have made 30 or 40 pulls on the Dynojet, damn LT1 would only return 248whp. I took it racing anyway, Target was 260whp and they usually have to be restricted to that. A few laps into warmup and suddenly the car is pulling like a freight train. I redyno'd after that weekend and it made around 270whp. I choked it down to 260 and ran the season. The next year it was back up to 267 or so. I choked it down to a point and it jumped back to 270 again so I had to choke it down even more. To my knowledge, I run the smallest restrictor in the country in my race class to make 260whp. Point being it took FOREVER to break in with moly rings and a 3 stone hone, but it did break in and now I have the longevity of the moly rings.

 

[stutaeng]

I can agree and disagree here. I used a 3 stone hone on a re-ring and it sure told a story about the cylinder walls on a ~60k block. It missed some low spots, but I figure then so would the rings? I used moly because I wanted longer life. I must have made 30 or 40 pulls on the Dynojet, damn LT1 would only return 248whp. I took it racing anyway, Target was 260whp and they usually have to be restricted to that. A few laps into warmup and suddenly the car is pulling like a freight train. I redyno'd after that weekend and it made around 270whp. I choked it down to 260 and ran the season. The next year it was back up to 267 or so. I choked it down to a point and it jumped back to 270 again so I had to choke it down even more. To my knowledge, I run the smallest restrictor in the country in my race class to make 260whp. Point being it took FOREVER to break in with moly rings and a 3 stone hone, but it did break in and now I have the longevity of the moly rings.

What did you agree with? The hone or the rings?

I was planning on finding a 3 stone hone per that video that was posted. I don't think this engine has a lot of miles, but that's not really relevant at this point, LOL.

I'll be checking the block here in a bit. At this point, I'm just cleaning and inspecting things. I haven't decided on on anything, and it could be that I'm just wasting my time with this thing, LOL.... I'm just a hobbyist!

But just taking these things apart is a learning experience for me.

BTW, what do you think of the cam? It's a bit dirty from sitting around. It passed the "fingernail" test.

 

[Schurkey]

IF (big IF) the cylinder-wall finish is right, Moly rings are broken-in with two or three heavy-throttle pulls. A machinst I know claims they're broken-in on the starter motor when you crank the engine for the first time, and he's only exaggerating a little.

The first engine to have moly rings as original equipment was the '65 Chevy 396. They're nothing new--or exotic.

Among the benefits of Moly rings is that they're somewhat porous--they hold and retain oil. Less cylinder-wall wear 'n' scuffing.

First Guess: There's no such thing as "Plain" rings for stutaeng's pistons--those pistons will have metric ringpacks, narrow, low-friction. I bet there's nothing but Moly top rings offered for them. (I've done no research on LS engine ring offerings.)

CLEAN the bores. LOOK for the cross-hatch marks of the original honing. If they're still visible from top to bottom of the bore, dingle-berry brush the thing and slap in decent rings. If the hone marks have worn away...things get more complex.

My Vortec 350 Treasure-Yard short block had hone marks still visible except at the extreme top of the ring travel, and one cylinder had a rust-divot a third of the way down the cylinder--water held by the rings during storage at the Treasure Yard had eroded a bit of the cylinder wall. Because the hone marks were still 98% there, I knew the cylinders had no unusual wear, but did have a measured .0015 bellmouth where the hone marks had worn-away. GM spec is .001. My engine exceeded that, but I dingle-berry brushed 'em anyway and put those seven holes back together with new rings on used pistons. The cylinder with the rust erosion got bored .030, one new piston, one set of oversize rings.

What would I do differently? I'd scrap the original pistons. I spent too much time cleaning the ring grooves which were caked with deposits. I should have bought 7 new, flat-top pistons in standard bore size for a jump in compression, and one in +.030 for the bored cylinder.

 

[Supercharged111]

IF (big IF) the cylinder-wall finish is right, Moly rings are broken-in with two or three heavy-throttle pulls. A machinst I know claims they're broken-in on the starter motor when you crank the engine for the first time, and he's only exaggerating a little.

The first engine to have moly rings as original equipment was the '65 Chevy 396. They're nothing new--or exotic.

Among the benefits of Moly rings is that they're somewhat porous--they hold and retain oil. Less cylinder-wall wear 'n' scuffing.

First Guess: There's no such thing as "Plain" rings for stutaeng's pistons--those pistons will have metric ringpacks, narrow, low-friction. I bet there's nothing but Moly top rings offered for them. (I've done no research on LS engine ring offerings.)

CLEAN the bores. LOOK for the cross-hatch marks of the original honing. If they're still visible from top to bottom of the bore, dingle-berry brush the thing and slap in decent rings. If the hone marks have worn away...things get more complex.

My Vortec 350 Treasure-Yard short block had hone marks still visible except at the extreme top of the ring travel, and one cylinder had a rust-divot a third of the way down the cylinder--water held by the rings during storage at the Treasure Yard had eroded a bit of the cylinder wall. Because the hone marks were still 98% there, I knew the cylinders had no unusual wear, but did have a measured .0015 bellmouth where the hone marks had worn-away. GM spec is .001. My engine exceeded that, but I dingle-berry brushed 'em anyway and put those seven holes back together with new rings on used pistons. The cylinder with the rust erosion got bored .030, one new piston, one set of oversize rings.

What would I do differently? I'd scrap the original pistons. I spent too much time cleaning the ring grooves which were caked with deposits. I should have bought 7 new, flat-top pistons in standard bore size for a jump in compression, and one in +.030 for the bored cylinder.

The oddball piston doesn't cause any balance issues?

 

[letitsnow]

The oddball piston doesn't cause any balance issues?

I was wondering that too.

 

[Schurkey]

Nope. Weighs about the same...and given that this engine never sees much RPM, it doesn't make a bit of difference.

 

[stutaeng]

I've been watching some Metrology videos on YT...yikes! But really good information on taking precise measurements.

I called local place that I found on the a Corvette forum via Google search, a place highly recommended. $200 for an align boring and $75 for Magnaflux. So soon I'll scoping the block again.

In the meantime, I'm trying to create a poorman's cam degree wheel . We have a plotter here in my office and CAD. Does this look okay? It's just like a giant protractor, right? 24" diameter should be okay.

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