Sunday, May 26, 2013

Shop Update(it's about time!!)

Been busy here at the shop. We have been working on a variety of different stuff this past winter. First up is the 428 Ford engine that we are doing as a complete This engine was completely engineered and machined by us. What is cool about this job is that the customer had the same vision as I had for this engine. The engine looks stock on the outside. All factory valve covers and air cleaner assembly, pulleys and accessory drives are in place. The inside is a different matter. A brand new rotating assembly with Scat Crankshaft and Connecting rods, Mahle forged pistons, Solid lifter flat tappet cam mated with composite flat tappet lifters, Edlebrock Aluminum heads, Harland Sharpe roller rocker shaft system. Lastly all bearings are coated with Calico antifriction coatings. We have used alot of cutting edge racing technolgy in this fairly radical street engine. Power is predicted to be around 500-530 HP running on regular pump gas. The pictures that are posted are of the process of putting in the sleeve that was required in the block. 428 blocks are quite rare today and cannot be bored more than .040 because of the thin wall design that Ford used on their FE series engines(352, 390, 406, 427, 428.). I had a cylinder that did not clean up as good as i would have liked after the hone process. That required a sleeve be installed into the block. We start by boring the block oversize to accecept the sleeve with about a .002 interference fit. once bored the sleeve is shrunk with dry ice and acetone. The sleeve is pushed in and allowed to return to room temps. The cylinder is then bored and honed back to it's original size, and the block is decked to it's proper height. The result is an almost undetectable repair that is stronger than the original block.We have the engine in final mock up. It will then be torn down and be prepared for painting,chrome, and special coatings. More later