<VV> Engine building - bearing clearance
Tony Underwood
tony.underwood at cox.net
Fri Jan 22 10:34:15 EST 2010
At 09:18 AM 1/22/2010, corvair at mts.net wrote:
>I've HEARD of line honing a block. I've never heard of anyone that's
>actually done it, how they did it, and what the results were like.
>
>Les
>----
Happens often with inline or V engine blocks all the time, not so
much with aluminum boxer crankcases like a 'Vair or other boxer
unless the engine is a bit of an exotic (Porsche Ferrari etc) that
commands some economic respect.
I *have* heard of people who line honed a Corvair crankcase to fix
loose cam bores but it was a labor of love and they had easy access
to a machine shop... otherwise it would be much simpler and cheaper
to pick up a good used crankcase for dirt cheap. It's more a matter
of economics than anything else but yes you can line hone a crankcase...
...but not much. A few thou is about all you can get away with
before you start having bolt hole issues with accessory components
like top covers and bellhousings and front housings etc. However,
even so in these times 40+ years after the fact it's still pretty
easy to turn up an excellent used crankcase that needs
nothing... which lends notion to the point that line boring or even
honing a Corvair crankcase is pretty much unnecessary and unwarranted
because replacements are available for less than the cost of the
machine work and you get to avoid the pitfalls of an abbreviated crankcase.
Let's not forget that you have to do it *twice*... once for the crank
and once for the cam. And, if you had to take too big a cut from
the mating halves to clean up a discrepancy you could end up with
assembly issues with accessories' bolt holes not lining up quite
right. Hone, maybe... bore, avoid it.
Or ask around this list for somebody with a crankcase they wanna sell
for a few bucks. ;)
tony..
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