The BEAST Build. My Quest for 10's
Thread Starter
Your Powder Coater
Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 4,463
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From: Girard, Ohio
it was a crate motor!
On the tag it read "put oil in it before you run it"
So based on the fact that it was a Dart motor that was built by professionals, I only plasti gauged the rod bearings because the only thing i was swaping was te pistons & rods out so that could have the compression i wanted. I really should have not relied on a multi-million dollar company of professionals to have the correct clearances in the 12,000 dollar motor!
Learned my lesson, if you want it right, do it your self!!!
Either way, all will be good, very soon!
Last edited by Running925; Jul 2, 2008 at 07:12 PM.
I'm made of meat!
Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 3,580
Likes: 0
From: Richmond, VA
Truer words have never been uttered. You guys should be grateful to Tony for learning this one first-hand and sharing this info publicly. Who knows who on this forum may also jump into the aftermarket block solution. Hopefully his efforts save someone else a headache.
This is actually really common with the $12,000 crate motors. The manufacturer doesn't know what equipment you'll be running in them, so they give you a little extra material in the bores to be machined to fit the stuff you've got. You could have a $1000 crankshaft that you want to use that's been turned down smaller-than-stock, and a stock bore wouldn't work in that circumstance... so they cast a little extra material in there to give you room to play with. Even in cases where the motor is assembled, the people who sold it as a package don't know that EVERYTHING they used to assemble it will make it into the final build.
Having a tag reading "put oil in it first" is really misleading if that's the crank it shipped with. The end-user should ALWAYS either machine the block to known specifications, or in cases where the build is blue-printed, verify that all the measurements are correct. There is no way to know for sure until you have verified everything YOURSELF.
.0015" is still a bit on the tight side of things, but it's probably ideal on a street-driven motor, and it's very close to factory specs. That's what I spec'd my motor to when it was built, and I have 35,000 miles on it now without any issues. If you're trying to be the dyno king and eliminate as much friction as possible, or milk every hp you can from a race motor, you can get away with as much as .005" on a main journal clearance, but it will be more susceptible to causing pre-mature bearing failure or damage from vibration at high rpms. A tighter clearance usually yields slightly better oil pressure.
Lance, I thought you were referring to how we got Tony home. :P
This is actually really common with the $12,000 crate motors. The manufacturer doesn't know what equipment you'll be running in them, so they give you a little extra material in the bores to be machined to fit the stuff you've got. You could have a $1000 crankshaft that you want to use that's been turned down smaller-than-stock, and a stock bore wouldn't work in that circumstance... so they cast a little extra material in there to give you room to play with. Even in cases where the motor is assembled, the people who sold it as a package don't know that EVERYTHING they used to assemble it will make it into the final build.
Having a tag reading "put oil in it first" is really misleading if that's the crank it shipped with. The end-user should ALWAYS either machine the block to known specifications, or in cases where the build is blue-printed, verify that all the measurements are correct. There is no way to know for sure until you have verified everything YOURSELF.
.0015" is still a bit on the tight side of things, but it's probably ideal on a street-driven motor, and it's very close to factory specs. That's what I spec'd my motor to when it was built, and I have 35,000 miles on it now without any issues. If you're trying to be the dyno king and eliminate as much friction as possible, or milk every hp you can from a race motor, you can get away with as much as .005" on a main journal clearance, but it will be more susceptible to causing pre-mature bearing failure or damage from vibration at high rpms. A tighter clearance usually yields slightly better oil pressure.
Lance, I thought you were referring to how we got Tony home. :P
Thread Starter
Your Powder Coater
Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 4,463
Likes: 0
From: Girard, Ohio
Bottom end is back together.
Main's are all at .002
Rods are all at .0015
Head gasket will be here tonight, pix soon to come!
Possibly some dyno time thursday if i can get this thing together fast enough. Then if everything goes well, i might make some passes on sunday.
Main's are all at .002
Rods are all at .0015
Head gasket will be here tonight, pix soon to come!
Possibly some dyno time thursday if i can get this thing together fast enough. Then if everything goes well, i might make some passes on sunday.
I'm made of meat!
Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 3,580
Likes: 0
From: Richmond, VA
uhm.... I was just looking at your crib via. Satellite on my new iPhone... Tryin' to check your progress... then I realized the pictures here would be a much more close-up view. We need some new ones. 
Typing on this thing is a pain in the ass, but I'll live. Btw... This thread was the 1st place I went on the web with it-FTW! wheeeE!
Typing on this thing is a pain in the ass, but I'll live. Btw... This thread was the 1st place I went on the web with it-FTW! wheeeE!
Last edited by Jafro; Jul 17, 2008 at 05:27 PM.
Thread Starter
Your Powder Coater
Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 4,463
Likes: 0
From: Girard, Ohio
car is back together. put down about 50 miles on it today.
dyno man was full today so we were unable to to get it on there, but i can tell you that it's pretty crazy around 20psi (starts breaking tires loose at top end)
more to come soon.
dyno man was full today so we were unable to to get it on there, but i can tell you that it's pretty crazy around 20psi (starts breaking tires loose at top end)
more to come soon.
Thread Starter
Your Powder Coater
Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 4,463
Likes: 0
From: Girard, Ohio
last post in here was in 2008. I got sick of my car and shoeved it in the corner.
Road my streetbike all summer in 2009.
Built a pretty serious jeep in 2010.
Now i'm finally not sick of the car anymore and decided to start cleaning the motor up and get some professional help with correcting the blocks manufacturing defects and bottom end assembly.
the new beginning.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-2NDM70k9Q
Road my streetbike all summer in 2009.
Built a pretty serious jeep in 2010.
Now i'm finally not sick of the car anymore and decided to start cleaning the motor up and get some professional help with correcting the blocks manufacturing defects and bottom end assembly.
the new beginning.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-2NDM70k9Q