I've been slowly gettin' things cleaned up and painted for my stroker motor but have run into a disheartening setback. I had the heads clamped on to measure for new push-rods, took the heads off to re-assemble the valve springs and noticed debris in the cylinders. After examining, I found it to be metal bead blast grit. So with the heads on the bench I find that one of them has quite a bit of bead blast material in the water passages. Upon closer inspection of the short block I find some of this grit in the lifter valley. Made a trip to the machine shop after work and discussed the issue with shop owner. I told him I could try to clean it up in the garage by flushing it with solvent, he asked how much of the motor I had together to try to determine the extent of the problem. After a short exchange of our thoughts about options he is more than willing to tear the short block apart, clean and re-assemble. It's sure a good feeling to work with someone who still has some professional ethics.

 

You lucky dog. The reason I got into doin' my own work was becauseI didn't feel that I could trust someone else to do it. ( or afford them ) I'm glad he's doin' ya right. Ya know, Bubba has a chain of auto repair shops, all over the country.

 

Ya, I hear you on the BUBBA chain. This guy is community oriented, he coaches his boy's hockey team, is pretty respected in the auto world, and a number of my wrenchin' friends use his services, he knows which side his bread is buttered on.

 

I agree, you sure have a keeper for a mechanic/machinist.

The fellow I used to do my machine work used a different process to clean the block, heads, and intake instead of hot tanking. He bakes it at a high temp. which makes all of the crud very dry and brittle. Then he puts it in a rotisserie that's loaded with steel shot (~ .080" dia.) and it rotates and when the parts came out, they looked like they just came from the foundry. No residual paint or other crud. I was truly amazed becuz I was very skeptical when he first described the process to me.

 

From the engine stand down to the engine cradle by way of the chain-fall, then back up to tailgate height by way of the chain-fall, then truck goes under the engine, engine into bed on it's end, off to the machine shop. I'll pick it back up Friday afternoon. I have everything ready to bolt on now--I just want this motor sealed up so I can progress.