Cross-bolting and balancing - advice please!

[ruaricoles]

Hello peeps,

Unfortunately the head gasket failure I thought I suffered en route to Supercar Sunday (ours was the red Griff with steam coming out everywhere....) has turned out to be a slipped liner.

So, the car's now in capable hands at V8D for top hat liners and a rebuild, also replacing worn cam, re-lapping valves and a new clutch as it's down to the rivets.

While they're at it, they've suggested I might like to consider a full balance at £225 and cross-bolting at £250.

Now, on the basis that I always thought the engine felt smooth and happy enough before and I'm really not interested in extracting every last bhp out of it, would you guys consider one or both upgrades wonga well spent? It's costing a bob or two as it is, but on the other hand it's usually my daily car so if I could expect a significant improvement in running or reliability I'd have to consider it.

Ta very much,

Ruari


Edited to add: the car's done about 60k and the engine is standard and untouched up until now!

Edited by ruaricoles on Monday 2nd July 22:28

[GreenV8S]

Those prices seem remarkably reasonable. I'd be inclined to say go for it, because the engine will be smoother and less stressed afterwards.

[Boosted LS1]

GreenV8S said:

Those prices seem remarkably reasonable. I'd be inclined to say go for it, because the engine will be smoother and less stressed afterwards.

I was thinking that. If I were removing pistons and balancing rods end to end and weighing componants I'd probably be starting at that price for a hand and dynamic balance. It's always worth doing imo.

Boosted.

[ruaricoles]

Thanks guys - I'll certainly go for the balancing then, and will think about the cross bolting. The car gets relatively light treatment, so perhaps the latter is excessive. On the other hand, while it's in bits......

[rev-erend]

That price is very reasonable for balancing and the cross bolting will help ensure that the engine is more rigid in future.

Your liner is an indication that all was probably not well in this department after all..

[spend]

Is your car a pre-serp Ruari? Surely that would be an exchange later block & crank to X-bolt, with additional fettling of the crank nose - lot of work for the price.

Then again with liners you could be considering a little more capacity in a later block (lots of 4.6 blocks with liners required)

Dave

[350Matt]

Some blocks of that age had the bosses for x-bolting but it was never done, so it may be possible to drill the holes and fit new set of caps , line bore it all and bobs your uncle

Sounds like a deal to me

Matt

[spend]

350Matt said:

Some blocks of that age had the bosses for x-bolting...

I thought that was only on the early serpentine blocks?

Dave

[ruaricoles]

Mine's a fairly late pre-serp. I've no idea about the details of the block, although V8D have quoted me that price for cross bolting after stripping the thing and acid cleaning it so I assume they've realised what's involved! If they have to line-bore the thing too that price does sound pretty reasonable.

Either way, I've asked V8D to do the work, and balance it too, so I'll just prepare the credit card for a hearty bashing......

Thanks for all the advice. Can't wait to get the car back now!

Ruari

Edited by ruaricoles on Tuesday 3rd July 16:29