Gonridnu's stroker build

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gonridnu
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Gonridnu's stroker build

Post by gonridnu »

Day 1-3.....

Last Wednesday I finally drug the wife's Renix motor down to the shop. After spending all day Thursday disassembling and jet washing all the parts I discovered the block had been bored to .040" and would have to go .060" for the stroker. Well, that was all the excuse I needed to go find a NVH donor engine. Friday I called a friends machine shop and he did not have one so I set out on a tour of the wrecking yards in Reno.

At the 1st one I stopped at the guy behind the counter sent me out to a corner of the lot where they keep the core engines. Immediately I spotted an engine with the pan off sporting a main girdle. It was more or less complete and I noticed several other 4.0's there as well. After looking through them all I realized there was only the one NVH motor so I went up to buy it and realized I had left all my cards at home. I told the guy I would be back Monday to buy it and called a friend, told him I had no dough on me and he needed buy me lunch cause I was starving....lol.
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gonridnu
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Re: Gonridnu's stroker build

Post by gonridnu »

Day 4.....

I ran up to Reno in the morning and bought the AVH donor for $200 complete with intake and exhaust. It was missing the water pump and oil pan only, and since I know a guy that will buy the exhaust I figured fair enough. They gauranteed it as a machinable core so after loading it up I drove the 30 miles back to the shop.

By 1 o'clock I had the engine completely torn down and all the parts in one or the other of the jet washes. Upon disassembly I noted how nice a core this was. All the bearings looked perfect and it was super clean inside. Normally we soak tired old motors overnight and then jet them but this one was so clean jet washing only would do just fine for inspection.

By four I had all the parts rinsed and dry. My wife called me and wanted to go have a drink so my day was over.....
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gonridnu
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Re: Gonridnu's stroker build

Post by gonridnu »

Day 5.....

I had a very productive day today. Arriving at the shop fresh in the morning with all clean parts is soooo nice. We've all heard that having clean parts to work with is essential, but it cannot be stressed enough. In fact, I can easily spend as much time cleaning parts as it takes me to assemble an engine. I had left the header and a timing cover in the aluminum jet so I rinsed and dryed them. I had also left all the bolts and main caps in the iron jet and had to do the same with them.

I decided to mag the block before I did anything else. There was some corrosion in the front drivers side head bolt, which goes into water, and I knew from experience that this is a common place for these engines to crack. I spent a little extra time magging the water pump area and the block around the head bolt and then moved on to the entire deck area paying close attention to the water jacket areas and between the cylinder bores. Since I had no idea why this engine was in the core pile I wanted to be sure I wasn't starting with a pice of junk. Everything looked good so I moved on to the cylinders and finally ended my mag session on the bottom side of the engine by checking all the bearing saddles and the bottom of the bores.

Off to clean more parts....I always glass bead the main caps and clean the mating surface of the block with a wire brush. After a half our of cleaning mains and another few minutes wire wheeling the main bolts it was time to check the main journal housing bores. This engine was so clean inside I skipped chasing the main bolt threads in the block. Normally this is standard but I had a feeling they were hella clean. Just a side note...U should not use cut taps to chase threads in newer stuff. Most of the newer stuff is machined using roll taps as they are stronger. Using a cut tap on roll formed threads will actually wreck the thread form.


After oiling the theads and underside of the head on the main bolts, I set the first main cap in place and started both bolts and then tapped the main into the receiver with a dead blow. After repeating this six more times I was praying to god I didn't have to line hone this block cause line honing anything more than five is a pain in the arse.....
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gonridnu
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Re: Gonridnu's stroker build

Post by gonridnu »

After getting all the mains torqued I set up a dial bore gage that reads in .0001"'s to the minimum housing bore diameter. Upon inspection I was estatic to see the housing bores were all perfectly round, in the mid range of spec, and didn't vary at all....that saves me about 4 hours of line honing!

I blew the pisons off the rods, marked them with the same numbers I had on disassembly and polished the beams then shotpeened them. After they got out of the peen machine I cut the caps and rods so I can size them tomorrow when the ARP bolts show up.

I really haven't bought any parts for this thing so that is gonna slow me down a little as I'm a little cash poor and while many arrive next day from others will take a little longer. In fact, after checking the bores I called Silvolite and checked stock on pistons. The bores were very very straight but .002" oversize which is not uncommon but I'm not gonna risk getting standard pistons and then returning them cause the clearances won't work.

I'm torn between going .020" and .030". .030" is way easier cause I can bore to within .002 and then hone to size. .020" can be much tricker because you can only bore .008" or .009 off each side before honing and then if you have a cylinder that doesn't clean up you are just wasting time and going to .030" anyway.

I grabbed the 12 CW crank and polished it while I pondered the piston delima. It has been sitting for some time so a good polish was in order. After that I magged the cylinder head and it looks great too. Then the wife showed up and wanted to go have a drink so once again my day was over....


I have pics of all this but one of my kids stole the sd chip out of my phone so I'll have to post them later.
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gonridnu
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Re: Gonridnu's stroker build

Post by gonridnu »

Day 6....

Got my chip back from the kid but now I'm having problems with the phone....I swear I'll post some pics as soon as I work it out.

Had some other things to do today but I still made progress. The ARP rod bolts came in and I got the rods resized and balanced. I also balanced the rotating assembly minus pistons cause they are not here yet. The rebuilt harmonic balancer from Napa was 15 grams off and the factory flexplate only 2. I suspect the balancer was not balanced after being rebuilt. The rods were suprisingly close for factory stuff and balanced nicely.

In another thread I read a question about balancing inline engines and whether or not all the parts had to be done as one. I'd like to address that... The general thought is U can balance all the pieces separate which is true...kinda. I prefer to balance all the pieces separately then bolt them together and check it again. While I do not claim to be an expert on the inner workings of a balancer I can tell you that I have seen things change once the parts are all together so that is how I do it. I always balance the crank neutral first and double/triple check it. Then I bolt the other balanced parts on and if anything needs adjusted I do it on those parts. It takes a little more time but gives me a warm fuzzy feeling and in the event something fails I know the crank is neutral balanced and, in the case of the above mentioned rebuilt Napa harmonic balancer that was so far off, the crank has not been compromised due to a bad part bolted on the end. The theory is that if said balancer needs replacing again I can just neutral it and be really close.

Well that's it for day 6 but it's rolling right along....
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Re: Gonridnu's stroker build

Post by gradon »

Keep it coming
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gonridnu
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Re: Gonridnu's stroker build

Post by gonridnu »

Day 7....

This was not a good day....

While media blasting the head I noticed a mounting boss broken off and went and looked at another guys jeep in the parking lot. Sure enough it was one of the bosses on the passenger side of the head that the A/C unit mounts to. So off to Reno to get another head. The guy at the wrecking yard was totally cool and gave me another head as well as a complete 91-95 intake manifold for my troubles. I got the head stripped and in the jet.

With really not a lot to do I decided to debur the block. I ground the flash next to the mains and in the cam bore. I also broke all the sharp edges on the block which I like to do so I don't open myself up while working with it later. Unfortunately I got a pice of crap in my eye (yes I was wearing protection) and got to go to the eye doctor to have it removed. Add $70 to build for eye doctor.
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gonridnu
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Re: Gonridnu's stroker build

Post by gonridnu »

Day 8....

While the head was in the jet I drilled and tapped the pipe thread hole for the sending unit on the block. The NVH block had a boss for it that was undrilled. I might have gotten away with using the pipe plug hole towards the back of the block but did not want to risk it cause the header is back there. One more thing done.

After the head came out of the jet I media blasted I magchecked it. It was good so I spent a couple hours media blasting it. The intake ports were caked but they are clean now. I used dykem on the head surface and bolted it to the block just to see how it laid out. The combustion chamber is actually a bit wider than the stock bore which creates a small lip under the intake valve. Perhaps when I bore it the lip will disappear.

Spent the rest of the day polishing the combustion chambers and am pretty close to done with them.....
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gonridnu
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Re: Gonridnu's stroker build

Post by gonridnu »

Day 9.....

Today I finished polishing the combustion chambers. After that I did a preliminary bowl blend although the seats are not in yet. I'm gonna put hard seats in on the exhaust 'cause I'm using LS1 valves. Normally you might get by with just buzzing the seats but because of the larger valves I'm afraid of going through the hardness on the head so I'm putting some hard seats in.

My cost on the LS1 valves is almost half that of the 4.0 valves so we'll be taking it to a 2.00 intake and the 1.55 exhaust which seems like good sizes for this engine. By using the LS1 keepers with the stock retainers on the LS1 valve it looks like new stock valve springs will have adequate pressure for the very mild cam I had ground at Erson. It is only .408 lift so I should have about .120 before coil bind and if they need shimmed a little to get correct pressures so be it.

Pistons (KB944) will be here Thursday. I went .020" over. I CC'd my heads today and after comustion chamber polishing they are 60cc. The calculator sez 57 but they are 60. The LS1 valves appear to give you an extra 2-3cc's as well. That being the case I'm gonna zero deck and use the .043 gasket (which now I gotta go find) and should end up with a static of 9.28 to 1. We live at 4500 ft above see level so it will run fine on low grade pump gas.

Don't quote me on the numbers 'cause they all came out of my head but as I get closer to assembly I'll make the necesary adjustments.....
Last edited by gonridnu on March 1st, 2010, 8:52 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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gonridnu
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Re: Gonridnu's stroker build

Post by gonridnu »

Summit has this gasket in stock DCC-4529242 and it should be .043" compressed correct?
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gonridnu
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Re: Gonridnu's stroker build

Post by gonridnu »

Day 10...

Had to work on some horses to pay the bills this morning.

Went to the shop and honed the block to .017" over leaving .003" to hone to nominal. Since the pistons won't be here for a couple days I am basically looking for things to do as they present themselves.

I didn't want to use the boring bar for the following reason. When going to .020" overbore you really only bore about .008" out of each side of the cylinder wall leaving .002" to hone out of each side. If the block is not totally straight from the factory you will often get an area of non-cleanup in a cylinder at which point you have to go to .030". On a V8 block we use either a machine or a fixture that bores 90 degrees to the cam/crank centerline. On an inline motor the the block locates on the oil pan rail and you can shim to level the deck surface. If either the pan rail or the deck surface is not square to the bores you end up with the dreaded area of non-cleanup.

For this reason I chose to hone the block to within .003" of nominal using a rough stone. It takes longer but the hone follows the existing bores and life is groovy. I have used a few hundred sets of KB pistons in the past and the hold their tolerances exceptionally well so I am comfortable getting close to nominal and then honing to actual piston size using a 625 stone once I can measure them. I think I may have found a torque plate I can borrow and will know tomorrow. There was one floating around after one of the Reno machine shops closed and I think I might know who has it.

I started to put bronze guide liners in the head but ran out of time before I was done. I prefer bronze liners in some applications over a solid guide. When working on a head you don't work on a lot and do not know how much material you have to work with you can get in trouble with solid guides. These engines have relatively little spring pressure and are well designed so guide wear should not be an issue. Liner technology has come a long way and I don't want to wreck a head I've already put a bunch of work into so that's the route I chose.

I did get the LS1 valves and locks ordered so tomorrow once I have the liners installed I can hone them to size. I had to order a cutter for the hard seats (add $100 to build) because the one at the shop was pretty tore up and I did not trust it to hold tolerance. It won't be here for two days so I'll be stalled on the head. When I am done with it I will donate it to them because they let me use the shop free of charge.
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gonridnu
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Re: Gonridnu's stroker build

Post by gonridnu »

Day 11....

Had to repair a friends tractor today so again did not make a lot of headway....

Installed guide liners and sized the guides to the LS1 valves which arrived today.

I made a rubbing of the valve cover rail and the boss for the temperature sender on the Renix head and transferred it to the later head. The temp sender is drilled at an angle so I'll have to put the Renix head in the head machine and find the angle before drilling the new head. I know I could just use the late model thermostat but I'm gonna go with this method.

Brushed the block with the CK-10 hone again as it had shrunk a little upon cooling. I have about .0025" to hone once the pistons arrive, which should be tommorow. After a trial assembly I will be able to zero deck the block and the bottom end will be ready to assemble.

I also picked up the cam from Erson today but I didn't even open the box soooooo......

Tomorrow the cutter for the hard seats should show up as well which means I will be able to assemble the head tomorrow or Friday.

If everything gets here on time I should be assembling the entire engine next week and be ready to stuff it.......
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gonridnu
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Re: Gonridnu's stroker build

Post by gonridnu »

Day 12....

Drilled and tapped the coolant temp sender in the head in the morning. Set the old head on the machine and found the angle then drilled and tapped it. Even if I end up not using it I have options.

I honed the block to near nominal with 625 stones. Still don't have pistons but I want to be able to do a mock up and get a deck height as a soon as they're here. My buddy was supposed to bring them over tonight but I have not heard from him. I left about a .001" to nominal so I can do a trial assembly and get a deck height then finish hone at which point I'll be ready to short block the engine.

Installed the hard seats today. The cutter didn't arrive until afternoon so I did some shopping for the Mrs. and then returned to put them in. Dura-Bond is just down the street and I got a seat that will fit the LS1 valve, was only .188" thick and worked well with the existing post at 2.315". It went great and I have just a small amount of bowl work to blend everything before doing the valve job. I also got my cam bearings today and opted for the durabond N-9B which has a groove on the backside to permit full Main oiling. Didn't realize these things are kinda like Big Mopars in so far as they priority oil the cam bearings before sending oil to the mains. Crappy design in my opinion but it ain't the first time I've had to deal with it.

I kinda screwed up and didn't order main and rod bearings today, but I'll take care of it tomorrow and have a fair amount of head work to do. Should be assembling early next week.....
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gonridnu
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Re: Gonridnu's stroker build

Post by gonridnu »

Day 13....

Cut the intake and exhaust seats for the LS1 valves. The stem heights worked out well. Then I spent almost 4 hours blending the bowls. The LS1 valves and ports look really good and are sized about right for an engine of this size. This was a great modification I learned on this site...thanks guys! I'll try to flow the head at the begining of next week. I didn't do a full port job, just a bowl blend but there should be good numbers from that and the increased valve size.

944 Pistons showed up today. I traded a set of shaft rockers for a Mopar for them so that worked out well. They were 140 grams lighter than the stock .040" pistons I took out of the old motor. I threw away the standards from the donor engine so I can't say how much lighter than stock but....actually they may still be in the dumpster so if I remember I'll check.

I need to hone another .001" out of the block to get the clearance I'm after. The new slugs will drop in so I can check deck height and then finish hone and deck the block. Should be shorblocking by the middle of next week and I hope to have the head done by Tuesday. If I didn't take so long to order parts this engine probably could have been machined and assembled in just a couple weeks time.

I've got lots of pics and will post them once I'm done. Never figured out the phone thing but it has a card in it I can put in the wife's phone and hers will download pics.....
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gonridnu
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Re: Gonridnu's stroker build

Post by gonridnu »

Day 14....

I didn't do anything on the stroker...LOL
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