Rebuilding an engine - what precision instruments to do measurements

[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 used a 3 stone hone (320 grit IIRC) and moly rings on my LT1 re-ring. It took a full season to seat, but made 292whp once it did. What I liked about the 3 stone is what it revealed with respect to cylinder wall wear. I won't be re-re-ringing that motor.

 

[Frank Enstein]

Basic tools:

Service manuals/Technical books for the engine you are building
Engine stand
Feeler gauges
Torque wrench(es)
Torque angle meter. Many bolts on a Gen III/IV small block are one use only torque to yield.
Plastigauge More like a consumable. It's not ultra accurate but this isn't NASCAR either
Straight edge
Dial caliper (optional) Personally I hate the electronic digital type. Every time I go to use it the battery is dead!

When you put in a cam:

Dial indicator with base
Piston stop
Degree wheel
Checking springs
Pushrod length tool(s)


I agree with the others. Let the machine shop do their thing and then double check at home. Trust but verify.

Later, if you like this engine building stuff then more advances tools would be:

Micrometers in 1,2,3.4, and 5"
Inside micrometers or a dial bore gauge
Engine cc kit
Ring filer

I have rebuilt several engines over a 40+ year span and I still don't own all of these.

You can also rent some of these too.

I built my collection over decades. You don't need to get everything at once. Get them as they're needed or if you are sick of renting/borrowing that tool.

As far as the swap goes I always recommend keeping the engine as stock as possible until the vehicle is running, driving, and all the bugs are worked out.

There are enough things to worry about with an engine swap without the headaches of an over-cammed poor running engine that needs a tune to be drivable.

A 5.3 swaps in exactly the same as a 6.0. Pop in the 5.3 and work on the 6.0 as time and money permits.

Building an engine (or anything!) in a hurry always costs a bunch more. So does changing the project in the middle.

Budget 3 times the amount of time you think it will take for broken bolts/delivery delays and such.

I have found that adding up EVERYTHING you could possibly need for any project will be short by 1/3.

Nothing is worse than being delayed because you are waiting for payday to get that last part to make it go.

Especially when you are learning as you go.

Budget for that thing you will mess up due to inexperience.

I've seen countless projects stall due to "***********".

This is supposed to be fun!

Good luck!

Wow! S n o w b a l l i n g !

 

[0xDEADBEEF]

Even if you have precise measuring tools, you still need precise machines to do a lot of the work. I don't think you can fix anything out of round/line with a hand drill and a hone. (No personal experience there though.)

If I was doing my current LS swap over again, I wouldn't have rebuilt it. It took forever and I still worry if the work was done right.

 

[kennythewelder]

Ok, so here's the thing. When you pull the engine apart, things have to be miked. At that point, if everything is within spec, then you can proceed with replacing the worn parts after doing the prep work. This includes honing ECT. BUT, if there is ware, and things are out of spec, then it takes special machines to do this. These machines are very expensive, and take trained machinest to run. This is where an automotive mechine shop comes into the picture. I am a welder at a machine shop, and we do NOT do engine work. The owner says, it's to expensive to get into, and the machinest are not diverse enough to do anything like we do.

 

[Anubis]

From my experience machine shops can do more damage than good and you end up paying for it. If you are a building an all out race engine then go to a good machine shop and get out your checkbook. “ rebuilding“ has a lot of different meanings. I have “ rebuilt“ several LS engines with outstanding results. Amazingly, i’ve found that most LS engines with over 250k Miles do not require a bore and still have cross hatching in the cylinders. Check them with bore gauges. You may be happy with a dingle berry hone, new bearings, rings, gaskets and a head job.

 

[Erik the Awful]

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).

I whole-heartedly disagree. If I don't have any other hone, I might use a dingle-berry hone, but it will absolutely hide any taper. The 3-stone expanding hones are excellent when used correctly. I've believed this for a while, and both Uncle Tony and Steve Dulcich have done good videos showing why.

xc_hide_links_from_guests_guests_error_hide_media

 

[Schurkey]

I whole-heartedly disagree. If I don't have any other hone, I might use a dingle-berry hone, but it will absolutely hide any taper.

One of the pistons that came out of the engine, and one of the piston rings could be used to look for cylinder taper. Use the piston to square the ring, slide the ring down the cylinder bore in steps, while looking at the end-gap in several places down the bore. If the end-gap is the same all the way down the cylinder (usually widest at the top of the ring-travel area (just below the "ridge") of each cylinder, but not always) then there's no taper.

The core Vortec short-block I rebuilt for my K1500 had 0.0015 taper on each of seven cylinders. This exceeds GM's "service limit" by half-a-thousandth. I dingle_berry-brushed 'em, put 'em together with new rings, and it's in and driving. When I went through Tech School, we were told that if a cylinder had less than .007 (bellmouth) taper, it could be used for a grocerey-getter, or Grandma's Church car. Now GM says max taper allowable is .001. I think the truth is somewhere in-between, but closer to GM's figure than Grandma's. At .003 taper, I'd have bored 'em all. Between .0015 and .003, it would depend on my mood, the state of my wallet, and the intended purpose of the vehicle.

(The eighth cylinder had a divot from water trapped on the top ring during storage of the short block at the Treasure Yard before I bought it, which rusted a portion of the cylinder wall. That cylinder got bored and honed, and a new + .030 piston.)

There's three main kinds of hones; what's needed; or what's "best" depends on various factors.
1. Rigid hone Used after boring to remove several thousandths of material, making the cylinder round and straight.
2. Flex-hone "Dingle_berry Brush" Used to recondition cylinders with minimal wear, or to provide a final surface finish for freshly bored and rigid-honed cylinders.
3. Spring-loaded hone like a brake cylinder hone. Far as I'm concerned, the least-useful style, having many of the disadvantages of the other two, with few of the advantages of either.

 

[stutaeng]

Thanks for all the response guys. I went ahead and ordered a Mitutoyo dial bore guage. Should be here today. I'll be "practicing" over the next few weeks taking measurement. Like I mentioned, I don't need the engine at the moment, and will make a long-term project and a learning experience.

I do have a good set of tools that includes most of what @Frank Enstein suggested (thank you!), but not the more specific things like cam degree wheel, piston stop, etc.

I talked to machine shop and they told me to take the block for a quote. It would be cool to do the LS6 heads/LS3 cam combo, but those 2 items alone are a big chunk of change! I'm too broke for that, LOL.

I didn't know about the taper check with the cylinder rings trick. I've got a lot to learn!

 

[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:

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[RichLo]

^ 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.