Engine building 'thoroughness' question
Discussion
I'm building a 383 Chevy stroker motor and have had the short motor machined and assembled professionally. However, I'm doing the top-end work myself.
I'm using Dart Pro 1 heads and will be assembling the heads as they were purchased as bare castings. With brand new bare heads, would it be standard practice to measure valve-to-guide clearance, valve spring seat-to-deck height, valve seat height and to cc the runners and chambers before assembly? This is not going to be a drag race engine... just a street car.
Cheers.
I'm using Dart Pro 1 heads and will be assembling the heads as they were purchased as bare castings. With brand new bare heads, would it be standard practice to measure valve-to-guide clearance, valve spring seat-to-deck height, valve seat height and to cc the runners and chambers before assembly? This is not going to be a drag race engine... just a street car.
Cheers.
Much will depend on what hardware you will be fitting to the head.
You could create quite a mismatch of valves, springs, spring seat, retainers, rockers, rocker ratio, lifters, pushrods and cam.
Lots of checking and measurement will be required.
Before you get the heads fully built up you may also want to port match the inlet to the heads and the same with head to exhaust headers. This will produce large amounts of swarf you don't want around your newly fitted valves and springs.
Steve
You could create quite a mismatch of valves, springs, spring seat, retainers, rockers, rocker ratio, lifters, pushrods and cam.
Lots of checking and measurement will be required.
Before you get the heads fully built up you may also want to port match the inlet to the heads and the same with head to exhaust headers. This will produce large amounts of swarf you don't want around your newly fitted valves and springs.
Steve
Steve, all correctly-matched hardware will be installed (ie. springs appropriate for the cam, matching locks and retainers, etc). Also, the springs will be shimmed to the correct installed height and the valvetrain geometry will be measured and set when the heads are mocked-up on the block.
What I'm wondering is how much measuring of the standard bare castings I should do. Some guys in the States reckon I should be double-checking every last dimension of the castings, but this seems like it might be over-kill / paranoia really. Just wondering what people here reckon. I've never heard of measuring spring seat-to-deck height, for example, or cc'ing the runners to make sure they're correct. Remember, we're talking about brand new Dart castings.
What I'm wondering is how much measuring of the standard bare castings I should do. Some guys in the States reckon I should be double-checking every last dimension of the castings, but this seems like it might be over-kill / paranoia really. Just wondering what people here reckon. I've never heard of measuring spring seat-to-deck height, for example, or cc'ing the runners to make sure they're correct. Remember, we're talking about brand new Dart castings.
Gassing Station | Engines & Drivetrain | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff