engine bore sonic testing

[jason61c]

Hi, I've got an engine that i'd like to get the bores tested to see whats what.

Where in the UK? Roughly what would it cost?

Thanks in advance.

[GreenV8S]

No idea, but I'm intrigued to know what the purpose is.

[Starfighter]

I do some NDT on work items, it is a very specialised field. What are you looking for?

[jason61c]

just to see how thick the cylinder walls are so I can work out what size pistons I can use.

[anonymous-user]

I suspect it will be cheaper to just buy a s/h block and section it up with a bandsaw (unless you have some sort of rare vintage engine of course?)

[stevieturbo]

drill a hole through it lol

[227bhp]

You'll have problems finding one which does concave surfaces, we have one at work, but it will only do flat or convex.

[99hjhm]

Have a couple of these at work, yes they are Chinese which is why we have two. But you can easily check the calibration on say a mounting lug on a block. The probe has to be radiused to work on a cylinder bore, which can be done with a small file as its enclosed in resin and your only filing the resin.

https://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/GM100-Digital-Ultrasonic-...

It’s only relevant if you know what minimum thickness you think is required.... That varies on opinion.

[99hjhm]

By the way, we tried and tried to find somebody with any kind of ultrasonic thickness tester to check a batch of blocks, couldn’t find anybody, not even Ricardo had one!

[Boosted LS1]

A sperm whale may be your best bet. Failing that a tapettey tap hammer.

[jason61c]

Max_Torque said:

I suspect it will be cheaper to just buy a s/h block and section it up with a bandsaw (unless you have some sort of rare vintage engine of course?)

That would only tell me the thickness of the block I cut, also only where I cut.

[jason61c]

99hjhm said:

Have a couple of these at work, yes they are Chinese which is why we have two. But you can easily check the calibration on say a mounting lug on a block. The probe has to be radiused to work on a cylinder bore, which can be done with a small file as its enclosed in resin and your only filing the resin.

https://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/GM100-Digital-Ultrasonic-...

It’s only relevant if you know what minimum thickness you think is required.... That varies on opinion.

I was looking at those, might be an easy way to try, just need to take a good amount of readings per bore

[Jodele]

Sonic (Ultrasound) testing is very common in the aerospace industry. Find an aviation mechanic (engineer) and see if he would/could help out.

[Starfighter]

You could try X-Ray or CT scanning. Both mentors are actually used for dimensional checking of castings. Ultrasonic is generally used to find inclusions or porosity within the casting.

[Mignon]

What limits most bores is not the average thickness or even the local thickness but little inclusions in the casting which leave a dimple in the metal and will produce a pinhole in a the bore if you go too far. It's almost impossible to spot these no matter what you do. Most bores are safe to plus 3mm. Depends on the engine.

[anonymous-user]

jason61c said:

Max_Torque said:

I suspect it will be cheaper to just buy a s/h block and section it up with a bandsaw (unless you have some sort of rare vintage engine of course?)

That would only tell me the thickness of the block I cut, also only where I cut.

indeed, but you can makes lots of cuts for little money, and if it's a reasonably modern block (say last 30 years) core shift is actually well controlled and so wall thicknesses will really not be very different. if you are talking about 0.5mm being the difference between success and failure then:

1) Ultrasonic testing is unlikely to provide sufficient resolution either, especially on curved and complex solids

2) Chances are the engines going to go bang at some point anyway if you're cutting things that fine

[jason61c]

Max_Torque said:

indeed, but you can makes lots of cuts for little money, and if it's a reasonably modern block (say last 30 years) core shift is actually well controlled and so wall thicknesses will really not be very different. if you are talking about 0.5mm being the difference between success and failure then:

1) Ultrasonic testing is unlikely to provide sufficient resolution either, especially on curved and complex solids

2) Chances are the engines going to go bang at some point anyway if you're cutting things that fine

Its a 48 year old block

[227bhp]

This is going to be one of those threads where we get drip fed vital information bit by bit and we have to guess what it's all about. A bit like playing hangman.

[jason61c]

227bhp said:

This is going to be one of those threads where we get drip fed vital information bit by bit and we have to guess what it's all about. A bit like playing hangman.

Not quite right is it, I asked a direct question and got some sensible answers.

[anonymous-user]

Max_Torque said:

(unless you have some sort of rare vintage engine of course?)

i guess the OP missed that bit ^^^