BLOCK MACHINING?

Guy's I went to a local machine shop that prides themselves on the Blue Oval products. One thing that puzzles me is He stated that they will sonic check the block regardless if I have one from Ford. He will then center the bore to make sure the thickness is equal as possible in the circumference of each cylinder. Will this throw off any geometry if the piston is moved around in any direction? Last he was really proud of he price. He wanted $2000 to complete a full block of all machining need for a a build.

Ace

N/M

He might be little high. in the past I have spent 1500.00 to have my New A-460 block machined for assembly. but that was with the cam tunnel being bored for Roller Cam Bearings.



Dan

we talked about that and decided that wider cam baring would be the first step before Roller bearings.

Ace

Greg the machine shop here told me $650 to machine my block that was to check everything decking,boring,checking line bore and boring if needed it,sonic check that for everything.He is well known and even offset grinds cranks to if you really want to go that route.

powerstrokeace wrote:Guy's I went to a local machine shop that prides themselves on the Blue Oval products. One thing that puzzles me is He stated that they will sonic check the block regardless if I have one from Ford. He will then center the bore to make sure the thickness is equal as possible in the circumference of each cylinder. Will this throw off any geometry if the piston is moved around in any direction? Last he was really proud of he price. He wanted $2000 to complete a full block of all machining need for a a build.

Ace

Ace,

1. $2000 is too high.

2. If he is centering the bore in order to make the cylinder walls be the same thickness all the way around, he's wrong and it shows his lack of knowledge. Most really smart engine builders would like for their major thrust wall to be slightly thicker than the minor thrust wall if possible.

Charlie Evans

c.evans wrote:

powerstrokeace wrote:Guy's I went to a local machine shop that prides themselves on the Blue Oval products. One thing that puzzles me is He stated that they will sonic check the block regardless if I have one from Ford. He will then center the bore to make sure the thickness is equal as possible in the circumference of each cylinder. Will this throw off any geometry if the piston is moved around in any direction? Last he was really proud of he price. He wanted $2000 to complete a full block of all machining need for a a build.

Ace

Ace,

1. $2000 is too high.

2. If he is centering the bore in order to make the cylinder walls be the same thickness all the way around, he's wrong and it shows his lack of knowledge. Most really smart engine builders would like for their major thrust wall to be slightly thicker than the minor thrust wall if possible.

Charlie Evans

I figure that he was both wrong in price and centering the bore.

CENTERING the bore within the available metal is usually only done when getting near the maximum bore limitations of the block. This is in order to keep the wall thickness more even as long as it is not to be moved more than .030" off center or so. Piston dome and notch machining then is usually required for every individual bore unless they are ALL offset the same.

An A460 Ford block comes with small bores of 4.340" or so and going to a 4.625" bore for example requires .285" of metal to be bored from each bore diameter. That takes time and time is money. Along with decking, honing, lifter bore preparation and sometimes clearancing with de-burring along with installation of plugs, cam bearings and sometimes valley prep and block painting ... how much is their time worth is the question which you need to answer.