Thread: Piston deck height/ Quench question

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Originally Posted by jerry clayton

and its pretty complicated to MEASURE a block for deck height--you have to establish the main bore center line ---precesion bushings plus alignment bar ( usually a 2 inch steel perfectly straigt bar) and some tools toestablish a plane square to the bores then measure each hole to the lowest point( that is minimum of how far you'd have to machine it to get flat square to crank bore surface)

Jerry, all I've ever needed was a 12" dial caliper, pencil and piece of paper. Measure from the main bearing bore to the deck, moving the jaws of the caliper around some to get the lowest reading, write it down on the piece of paper and add the radius of the main bearing bore. Voila, block deck height. You can do all 4 corners of the block in your home garage in less than 10 minutes.

http://www.jamisonequipment.com/picPage/BHM-24-1.gif

Here's a Chinesium 12" dial caliper for 50 bucks. If it's accurate to within 2 thousandths, it's good enough for what we need.
12" inch Dial Caliper Imperial Vernier Workshop White Face Accurate Machine DRO | eBay

Avoid purchasing a digital tool of any kind. Every time I used to reach for my digital calipers, the batteries were dead. Dial calipers and manual micrometers are bulletproof.

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