[377MONTE]

How important is torque plate honing for a street/occasional strip 383 stroker.. 4-500 hp?

I picked up a fresh 350 block, bored +.030, honed, decked to 9.10 from the machine shop. The guy working told me that it had been honed without the torque plate. I understand torquing a head down will slightly change the shape of the cylinder, but is it enough to need to have the process redone?

Also, if the block was already prepped and ready to go at +.030, wouldnt it need to be bored to +.040 if I needed to rehone it using the deck plate?

 

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Thousands of SBC engines have been built without b-plate honing. Great to have, but not a must have, for a mild street engine.


The block can be re-honed with a block plate and not be hurt. Depending on equipment and operator skill. Also actual piston size.

 

[cobalt327]

How important is torque plate honing for a street/occasional strip 383 stroker.. 4-500 hp?

I picked up a fresh 350 block, bored +.030, honed, decked to 9.10 from the machine shop. The guy working told me that it had been honed without the torque plate. I understand torquing a head down will slightly change the shape of the cylinder, but is it enough to need to have the process redone?

Also, if the block was already prepped and ready to go at +.030, wouldnt it need to be bored to +.040 if I needed to rehone it using the deck plate?

The last time I ran into this, a friend had bought a block the same as yours- bored, then honed w/o a plate. The guy insisted we do something about this, so I ended up ordering him a set of forged SpeedPro pistons that had a wider piston to wall clearance. That gave the shop just enough to rehone the bores w/a plate.

It wasn't a bad thing in his case because he intended to run it hard and said he was thinking about running nitrous, too. But as said, it's not an absolute necessity for a street engine. But at 500 hp, I would rather have it plate honed.

BTW there's a difference between a 400 and a 500hp engine as far as the rpm it needs to turn. IMO the more power and rpm the engine will see, the more need there is for plate honing. So w/that in mind, I would recommend you build this one on the milder side.

 

[vinniekq2]

The better a job you do assembling,the longer it will last and the more power it will make. To me,blue printing is essential,most people just want it ti run.
You need to hand fit the pistons so maybe your block is still ok? Or maybe the bore is too big already?

 

[377MONTE]

the rotating assy is the 383 stroker kit from skip white performance. it comes with probe forged pistons which recommend a wall clearance anywhere from .002 to .005. so, If i am on the lower side of the recommended specs, I should be okay with just a re-hone?

how much material does honing typically remove?


heres what im having a hard time wrapping my mind around...
when you plate hone, the cylinders are actually out of round. they come back to round when a head is torqued down. wouldn't a lot of material need to be removed to get the cylinders where they need to be?

 

[vinniekq2]

2-5 is not acceptable to me.I would want all 8 pistons to have the same clearance,no variation. You have to measure all the pistons because they might vary and match them to a bore that makes all of them have the same piston to wall clearance

 

[377MONTE]

vinnie, Im with you.. thats not how i meant it. I meant anything up to .005 and more than .002 is acceptable as far as not having to worry about piston slap or any of the other problems associated with too tight or loose a clearance. I will make sure all of the cylinders are equal

 

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Yes, the cylinders distort. But they tend to distort to the center of the bore and a re-hone just hits the smaller ID of the bore. Leaving the finished OD very close to the original size.

I use a CV 616 or Ck 10 power hone. Using light stone pressure at the top of the bore and finish up with medium pressure on the full length of cylinder. Usually no more than .0005-.001" extra material removal and no taper.

 

[632Mantis]

heres what im having a hard time wrapping my mind around...
when you plate hone, the cylinders are actually out of round. they come back to round when a head is torqued down. wouldn't a lot of material need to be removed to get the cylinders where they need to be?

You`re talking thousanths of an inch.
It's part of the "blueprint" process. I always had my engines final-honed with a torque plate.
Some blocks distort more than others.

If you want to gaurantee perfect bores.... gotsta do it.
Any good machine shop worth their weight in salt will do the torque plates.

It's kinda like having your lower-end custom balanced. It's not an option.

 

[gearheadslife]

and a really really good shop heats the engine also .. but thats overkill for most..