Few questions on some DIY work.

[Desertjr]

Hey fellas I recently starting working with Russ pottenger out of SoCal to start building my dream motor. Unfortunately I don't have a place or tools to assemble myself although I'd love to. Ill be working with Russ to get my hand on as much as physically possible though. The motor is going into a 90 Renix. It will have a 7120 head, 99 intake with the egr adapted via Russ. And a 70mm throttle body off a 4.3L vortec to add this is just going to be a simple 4.2l stroker with a custom grind with comp 235 specs but at 113 LSA. Plan is for a 4" custom built piston at this point if my block will hold it..if not then it'll go .060 over.
I'm going to try and do as much as I physically can to help lower the cost. Such as polishing the rods & porting the head & possibly polishing the crank and underside of the intake manifold. Russ brought me a good 7120 cast that I'll be porting. Ill post pictures & be asking plenty of questions through that process, although I've got a pretty good hand at it. Done a few other heads before.

Currently I'm working on my crank and rods. I've polished my rod beams but they are still rough to the touch. Should they be left as is or can/should I polish them up more? Maybe even get them glassy smooth? If it'll help even marginally ill be glad to take the time.
Also how much more can be taken off these rods? I know I know, no real need for the gain, yadayada but I feel like if i can drop 5-10 grams per rod then that's 30-60 grams right out of the heart of the motor. It's probably a lot of work for little gains but I wanna do every little bit I physically can. And it gives me something to do while I wait...I'm think I could pull a little weight of the caps and more off the rods if I work them some more.

On the crank I've got a factory spec 232. It'll get turned & polished but before then should I chamfer the oil holes? Small, medium, large? I was also thinking of cleaning up the casting flaws and polishing the counter weights, getting them as smooth as possible to shred & slice through oil. Good idea? Hell I could even polish it till its smooth & glassy if it'll help? Again plenty of spare time while I wait so if its worth even a little the its worth my time:)
Other than time I shouldn't hurt right? I've got plenty of time to do all the work so let me know, give me ideas or tips & suggestions.

[Desertjr]

This is/was officially day 1. Here's the current progress. I sectioned off my own area in the garage with plastic drop cloth to keep it clean & debris free, light it well & went to work.
Before, stock 4.0 rod


After


If anyone's got pictures of when they polished their rods? Or removed material or anything? Wanna pull as much as possible without going to crazy and then have them shot peened or cryo treated then balanced. I'd like to get hem down to the 650 gram each range.

[Desertjr]

And for what it's worth it's got a 5speed behind it with 31s and 3.55's. it will see 5500rpm as often as I can drive it.

[SilverXJ]

Currently I'm working on my crank and rods. I've polished my rod beams but they are still rough to the touch. Should they be left as is or can/should I polish them up more?

From the pics they look good. But smoother never hurt.

On the crank I've got a factory spec 232. It'll get turned & polished but before then should I chamfer the oil holes? Small, medium, large? I was also thinking of cleaning up the casting flaws and polishing the counter weights, getting them as smooth as possible to shred & slice through oil. Good idea? Hell I could even polish it till its smooth & glassy if it'll help?

I would give the holes a chamfer. Take a google at crank shafts and decide on the size from there. Polishing the counter weights is a good idea. It will help with oil control. Of course do all this prior to having it turned in case you slip. Protect the journals with a few layers of duct tape.

[Desertjr]

Currently I'm working on my crank and rods. I've polished my rod beams but they are still rough to the touch. Should they be left as is or can/should I polish them up more?

From the pics they look good. But smoother never hurt.

On the crank I've got a factory spec 232. It'll get turned & polished but before then should I chamfer the oil holes? Small, medium, large? I was also thinking of cleaning up the casting flaws and polishing the counter weights, getting them as smooth as possible to shred & slice through oil. Good idea? Hell I could even polish it till its smooth & glassy if it'll help?

I would give the holes a chamfer. Take a google at crank shafts and decide on the size from there. Polishing the counter weights is a good idea. It will help with oil control. Of course do all this prior to having it turned in case you slip. Protect the journals with a few layers of duct tape.

Sounds like a plan, the motor man end up as a 4.7l pending how cheap we can get a 12w for. Gonna polish em till up they are smooth, same with the crank. Ill have a few more picture today

[dwg86]

You don't need to have the rods polished to a mirror finish if you are going to have them shot peened. I have some pictures of my rods that I had shot peened. They are posted on hear somewhere I see if I can find them.

[Desertjr]

Ya they will either get cryo treated or shot peened.

[IH 392]

If you're going to go to all that trouble and expense to try and fix some crappy stock rods why not just buy some good ones to begin with??

[Desertjr]

I only know of the eagles that are 6.150 long? Is there others that I don't know about? Or possibly a cost effective alternative?

[Desertjr]

Today I wrong off the center of the rods. Got them pretty flush but will be doing more work there. I also ground off the cast numbers off either side..hoping that was worth a gram at least lol.

[SilverXJ]

There isn't anything wrong with the stock rods.

[CobraMarty]

Are there APR bolts for the stock rods?

[Desertjr]

Yes Marty there is, I forget their part number but I believe I payed something like 32 bucks for mine.

And that's another reason why I never looked at other rods. I not making a high horsepower monster, just something a little different. Well trying. I'd love it if here was a aftermarket rod hat was cost effective and weighed around 600grams, possibly les. I'd love it!
60x60 = 360 grams right outta the heart of your motor. Thats like .8 lbs..I would say it would be noticeable
I'm hoping to have map rods at a mere 650 grams

[Desertjr]

I did just end up off eBay buying some new led bulbs for my reverse, tail, stop, glove box & ash tray & rear running lights.
I've very interested to get these new q5 7w Cree bulbs. Suckers are freaking bright! Use them in white for reverse, bright red for brake & another version, also bright red but has spare LEDs on the outside to give it a full 360* range for the tails. I've got waggy red tail lights so I'm keeping them for sure

Will post pics of these bulbs..here's some out there already, but who knows how real or fake those are. These hints should be amazing. Ill have em January 14-17.

[Desertjr]

Well fellas my basic setup is this. I've decided with some persuasion to keep it simpler. 232 crank, 1.592 pin height pistons (825s), stock 15.2cc dish, stock .051 head gasket, ported 7120 head. Cams yet t be decided if ill stick to the stocker or run the cam russ suggested. I would like to run my stock cam and 1.7 bolt on rollers, its between that or a 235 comp ground at 113lsa.

If my calculations are correct, ill have a 9.25 static & 6.9 dynamic. 62cc chambers, 15cc piston dish, .051 HG, .o14 above deck. Stock cam specs currently. Quench height of .036. This is all per Russ's suggestion and knowledge, I guess he's built and run some strokers a little higher above deck, and even tighter on the quench side. Richard aka goatman I guess is running north of 10:1 on 91 with a quench in the high 20's, .o17 above deck and runs either the 235 or 239 from comp, also ground at 113lsa.
I fear the top ring would be to close to the deck? Will it be an issue? I'm hoping this motor will run me 350-400k like my factory 4.0l. She's pushing 402k and running decently other than he noisy valve train and 1/2-3/4 quart every 4500miles.

Would running the piston that far out & hat tight of quench be an issue for reliability? That's key, power comes second!

And I'm sorry for any misspelling or wrong words. All this is done off my phone which autocorrects for days.