Thread: Dropped off the Olds engine.

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I decided today was the day to drop off Dan's 455 Olds block at the new machine shop to have them start on it. When I got there I had some time to kill while the guy was doing something and got to look around. What I saw didn't particularly impress me, so I got back in my car and drove across town to another shop that I remembered seeing a while back. What turned me off was the general messy conditions in the shop.

The guys I decided to go with only do high performance engines, no stock work. I sat down with the owner for about an hour and he gave me the cooks tour of the place and it is VERY impressive. First of all, the place is spotless and there are a lot of half built race motors sitting on stands. He's very proud of his equipment and there was a lot of it. I saw names like Sunnen and others, and he took me into his dyno room where he as an engine dyno that is good for something like 3200 hp. They had a 2200 hp motor sitting on it when I was there. They also have a chassis dyno.

What he is going to do is bake and tumble the block then align bore, deck, and hone it 40 over to use the pistons we have. I gave him the pistons and he says the scuffing on them was due to being too tight in the bore. He sets his engines up a little looser than some machine shops do. He is also going to install ARP bolts in the rods and mains, and brass freeze plugs, as well as the normal cam bearings, etc.

I asked him if he bores then hones the last few thousandths and he said he hones it all the way to .040 because he feels he gets a better cylinder wall. Not sure what you engine builders feel about that, but it made sense to my limited knowledge.

So, once he is done with the block and crank I'll pick those up, and once Dan's finances recover we will take the C heads to him for a complete valve job and Comp Cam spring set up. I feel pretty good that I chose the right guy this time, it will be a little more expensive, but hopefully worth it.

Don

Let us know how it goes Don, I know I'm always a little leery with a new shop.

Sounds like you made the right choice, and peace of mind is worth a lot, too. I'll be looking forward to hearing the details as you go through this engine build.