Not good...

[hoogiesngrinderz]

Tear down a completely good 5.3 and send the block out to get hot tanked, decks/bores checked, and new cam bearings. Never asked for the decks to be milled, but they did a light mill.

My father picked it up for me as I had to work late. Got home to find this on the 1-3-5-7 deck Some I can hang a fingernail on.

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They didn't charge for decking of the block. I've always had nice work from this shop before, and my uncle holds an account with this place as well (who I'm building this engine for) but my heart sank a little after seeing this.

Since the shop is nearly an hour away, would light feathering allow new OEM gaskets to seal around the fire ring? My gut says no, and I shouldn't allow this workmanship, but I don't want to shave too much off the block and I'm on a rather tight deadline

[masterfab]

Fallow your beliefs.

[hoogiesngrinderz]

Yeah, just a bummer. Not sure if he was rushed due to the holiday weekend. Had planned on painting and building the short block this weekend.

The machinist will be back in on Tuesday, and I have that day off, so I will load it up and bring it to him early.


The scoring must have happened on the first pass as the arc is quite large, maybe some material got caught in the tooling?

[hoogiesngrinderz]

I got the block back on Monday. Talked with Wayne, the machinist, and he noticed the issue as well. It wasn't from him, it was from GM. He showed me his tooling and I agreed that his setup couldn't produce scoring with that radius.

Still a bit sour that he didn't notify me as I asked him to check the decks. He didn't think it would cause an issue, and he may have been right, but this engine is going into a high dollar build.

Anyway...a new picture to follow when I get back inside.

Edit:
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[c0ncEpT]

Flat sand it and see if you can take the edge off. Only other option would be to deck it again.

[hoogiesngrinderz]

I had them deck it. Block is prepped and painted, ready for assembly as seen in the photo above.

Not bad for a total of $239 in machine work. Hot tank, ridge reamed, bores checked, new cam bearings, and decked I did the paint and flex hone.

[Lortay5408]

Nice paint. Keep the pics flowin'!

[hoogiesngrinderz]

Had to wait on some parts to come in, but it shouldn't be long now.

I ordered some Mahle rings (41859CP - non file fit rings) for standard bore 5.3 but the top ring gaps about .013 and the second around .016. Original is tops are .015-.016 and seconds are .018-.020.
I typically follow the Bore X .004" rule, but GM Production specs are 0.009-0.017 for the top and 0.017-0.027 for the second.

The only time I don't like a tight gap is when it comes to rings. Top rings spec ok according to GM, but second rings spec .001-.002 below their tolerance. Engine is going into a 55 Nomad, just a cruiser. Will never see prolonged high rpm, and probably never over 5000 after it's tuned. Will always be NA and no nitrous.
A) Are non file fit rings able to be filed. I'd say yes, but I've searched and never found anything from a manufacturer confirming that or saying otherwise. If yes - file fit.
B) Run it

[hoogiesngrinderz]

[MENTION=3263]masterfab[/MENTION]

What do you think about the ring gaps? I hate filing rings

[masterfab]

I think they will do. Yes you can file non file fit rings. Never go by rule of thumb. Always go by manufacture recommenations. Rings are made out of differant material and those differant materials have differant expansion rates. You piston ring should have come with a spec sheet. I just installed some mahle rings. Make sure to clean the burrs off the filed area so they don't ware the ring lands.

your doing fine. Sorry so late. Been in the shop alot.

[hoogiesngrinderz]

Thanks for the input. I didn't get a spec sheet with the rings and didn't find a .pdf online. Everything has be cleaned and is ready for reassembly tomorrow.

[hoogiesngrinderz]

Shit....
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[Gregs_gsxr]

thats not good

[hoogiesngrinderz]

Trying to source a single piston ring is a hell of a lot harder than I thought it would be.

This was just a fluke thing. The ring compressor was positioned in such a way that it allowed the second compression ring to expand just enough at the gap to catch the edge of the bore.

[hoogiesngrinderz]

[MENTION=393]Superman09[/MENTION]

Hey Jonny, by any chance do you sell individual rings? Or know somewhere to source one?

I'm not opposed to buying another set but I'd hate to spend $40 on another set just to take one ring out and toss the rest. I'd rather not put a used ring back in, either.