[gtofreek]

I am starting the assembly of an all aluminum 510" street engine that might be of interest to some. It is going in a 69 Firebird. It came in about a year ago. Here is a link to the original thread started by the guy working on the car.

http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...d.php?t=766773

This engine had many issues, from stripped out main cap side bolts because the heli-coils were in crooked, to cracks in the main web, to main caps that were serrated on the sides so they would dig into the register of the block, to cylinder sleeves that were bored .040" off center. Then there was the crooked heli-coil in the deck for one of the head bolts, and the deck that was .060" short! Oh, and don't let me forget about the cement type substance they filled one side of the block with, and the epoxy crud they filled the other side with. The pin bushings had very little clearance, and the rod big end was small, and out of round. Many months later, and lots of work, it's finally ready to build. This engine will be dynoed in the next couple weeks.

Here is a shot of the crud in the rear oil gallery. Remember, this engine was sold as a ready to run short block.



A close up of it.



Here you can see the offset in the boring of these sleeves.



Here are the sleeves after pulling them out.



And the block without them.

[gtofreek]

Here we welded up the two stripped out bolt holes to make them solid again.



Ground out, and welded up the crack in the number 2 main web. It was very small.



Getting the block squared up in the mill, getting ready to cut the registers, and oil pan rail. I had to lightly cut the top side of the block[in the four corners] square to the oil pan rail, so we could have the block sit square on the mill table in this position.



Using a dial indicator on the straight bar, to square it up.

[gtofreek]

Next, we used an edge finder to find the edge of the main saddle so we could move an exact amount out to cut the registers a little wider to get rid of the serrations left by the main caps. This also gave us the dimension we needed to cut the width of the main caps after we welded up the sides.



New threaded holes, and re-cut registers.



The area that the main cap seats against had to be re-cut also since they were beat up and dented pretty bad. We cut .005" off.





Here is the welded up crack repair after I align honed it and it was cut back flush in the mill.



Number 4 main saddle after welding up a hole someone drilled to oil the thrust, then screwed a wood screw into it to plug the hole, then ground it flush. We pulled the screw out, and welded it up, then re-shaped it.

[gtofreek]

Here are the main caps after we tig welded up the sides, then cut them to an exact dimension.







Here the block is all studded up and align honed.

[gtofreek]

Got the new sleeves installed. We downsized the bore from 4.360" as it was when it came in, to 4.250". With a 4.500" stroke, this makes 510.7 cubic inches.





Kind of out of order, but here is the block being align honed.

[gtofreek]

Next, we bored the lifter bores for bushings. Here is the block getting the fixturing setup on it.







Up in the mill getting bored!

[wheneaglesfly]

Very Impressive Machime Work Repairs by You.

It was Total Junk before .
Dead.

Great Job By You !

[gtofreek]

Originally Posted by wheneaglesfly

Very Impressive Machime Work Repairs by You.

It was Total Junk before .
Dead.

Great Job By You !

Thanks! It's a lot of work but will be worth it in the end. We're thinking 650-700 HP, on pump gas, with a streetable solid roller cam.

[wheneaglesfly]

Originally Posted by gtofreek

Thanks! It's a lot of work but will be worth it in the end. We're thinking 650-700 HP, on pump gas, with a streetable solid roller cam.

Where are You located at ?
In The Midwest ?
I am not too far from Chicago . Downstate.
Most Chevy only shops would not have touched that 510 Aluminium Pontiac Block with a 20-foot pole.
I have a favorite machinist and he is a long time old friend.
Runs a Small Gas & Engine Diesel Machine shop.
I have several Factory Pontiac 455's.
Getting ready to build one for 2016.

[wheneaglesfly]

I have heard that IA 1 Blocks had quality control issues.
IA2 much better but still must check carefully .

I don't need IA2 right now.
Be nice someday.
I like Cast Iron.
Aluminium just too Exotic and expensive for me.

[gtofreek]

Originally Posted by wheneaglesfly

Where are You located at ?
In The Midwest ?
I am not too far from Chicago . Downstate.
Most Chevy only shops would not have touched that 510 Aluminium Pontiac Block with a 20-foot pole.
I have a favorite machinist and he is a long time old friend.
Runs a Small Gas & Engine Diesel Machine shop.
I have several Factory Pontiac 455's.
Getting ready to build one for 2016.

I am in the mountain country, Tucson, Arizona. A little ways from the corn belt.

Except for the weight, cast iron is much better for an engine block than aluminum.

[gtofreek]

Next I drove in the bushings. We cut an elongated oil hole in them so they would always have oil pressure to the lifters oil band.



You can see the line I scribed on the bushings to indicate where to install them too. You can see it in the blue band. If they go too far, the cam will hit them.

[gtofreek]

Then I decked it to 10.175" for a zero deck height.





Here I am reaming the bushings to get them within .0015" of final size, which I will hone into them.





Honing them to .0018" clearance.







The one on the right has been honed, the one on the left has not.

[GOAT WHORE]

Excellent job Paul, you never cease to amaze me!

[gtofreek]

Originally Posted by GOAT WHORE

Excellent job Paul, you never cease to amaze me!

Thanks Greg! BTW, your car is coming along beautifully!

[gtofreek]

Here are some shots of the crooked head stud hole.







So we squared it up in the mill, and bored the hole with an endmill that was smaller than the size we wanted to drill for the thread insert. We did this with an endmill because a drill bit is more likely to follow the crooked hole. The endmill bores the hole straight so we can drill the correct size hole straight. We used a Lock-N-Stitch 1/2"x13 thread insert. These insert are unique in the fact that the threads are curved upwards, so when you tighten them, They pull the parent metal in towards the center, rather than spreading apart, like a conventional thread. They make crack repair pins the same way.



Then we tapped the hole, and installed the insert.





Now the suds are straight.

[gtofreek]

[gtofreek]

Honed the block with a torque plate. Sorry the photo is blurry. The hone was running when I took this, so I guess the camera couldn't decide what to focus on.





The cylinder on the right has been plateau honed, the cylinder on the right has not been yet.



The front of this block looked really crappy. I could not stand it, so I took a Scotchbrite pad on a flat steel block, and scrabbed it clean, and gave it a nice swirl finish. Looks much better now. Guess I should have got a pic of it before, but I didn't think about it.



Done and awaiting cam bearings, and to go on the engine stand.





On the stand and ready to be built.

[wheneaglesfly]

That Pontiac Guy will be very Happy with his 510 ci Poncho.

Your in Arizona.
To Far for me to drive to on a Saturday .
Crap.
Tuscon. The Inlaws are there too.

[gtofreek]

I balanced the crank to the new pistons. Here is the setup screen on the balancer machine. We turn the tolerance, and compensation off. This lets us see exactly how far off the crank is. With the tolerance set to a particular weight, lets say 5 grams, when you get the crank within 5 grams, it will read zero. We don't like that. If it reads zero, I want the crank to be zero, not within 5 grams!



This is how much it was off on the initial spin. I would have expected a previously balanced crank to be closer than 15 grams from end to end. That's not very well balanced. I don't expect it to be right in balance since the piston weight has changed, but from end to end, it should have been closer.



After the initial correction, it came out 8.9 grams front, and 5.2 grams rear, on the second spin.



Finally, it came out .3 grams front, and .4 grams rear.



I just had to drill some more in existing holes.



Then I dial it in close with a Scotchbrite pad on an angle grinder. Then I deburr the holes and hit them one more time lightly to remove the burr the de-burr tool leaves. This also polishes up any grinding marks that may have been present from heavier removal.



Crank with bobweights attached. I already removed the bobweight from #4 journal before I thought to get a picture.