gemellocattivo.com

12-8-2007
It does have to be pretty straight in that direction, but that is the easiest direction to make straight. Just set the block on the top and indicate the crank parallel to the table and cut the bore. The bore will be as straight as the machine is, it should be easily within .001". No worries there.

12-8-2007



What the H*LL are you doing in your cellar!
It's a milling machine, you don't have one???





I don't have a lift though, so I guess we're even

12-9-2007
It's 25 thou. and it is a lot.....I've see worse. I thought about trying to straighten it a bit. I almost though it in the press last night, but after looking at the size of it I figured all I'd do is bend my press, the block is nearly 12" tall in that direction. Clamping it to a 2" or 3" plat of steel and annealing would probably work, but then it would be annealed (not a good thing) and I'd most likely pull the bearing saddles in strange ways.

I don't know......

12-9-2007
I spend some time cleaning up and pulling the studs off the bottom of the block. I was still a little confused about the best course of action, so I explained the whole thing to my technical advisor and let him think about it a bit.

He suggested that I really need to measure at the crank not on the to surface. When I check that I found that it was only bowed about .012” in the one direction, but also had a about .003” of bow 90 degrees to the vertical. So not as bad as it 1st appeared. He also suggested I start by rough cutting the bores where most of the welding took place which should let whatever is going to move, move now. And lastly, the block is not as strong as the welding table that it should have been bolted to and it might be possible to use the strapping clamps to pull it back a little closer the straight.

I think that’s good advise. So I’ll start by roughing the bores and punching in the stud holes.

12-9-2007
I think that's the same as the 400 block, so it wouldn't have saved any work using the earlier block after all.

12-9-2007
I should have bolted it to the table, no question.

I am going to try very hard to not weld the long spacers to the trans. I have to weldan extension on the pan section, but I don't see why I can't just bolt the rails on top - is there anything that pops into your mind?

12-9-2007
Wait a minute.....the original engine bolts on there. My plan is to simply use the original bolts.

12-9-2007
I finally did some cutting. I cleaned off the deck a bit so I could tell what I was doing. Drilled the new stud holes and started drilling the oil feed/pin hole only to discover that ferrari did a most excellent job coring the block and my hole went into the water-jacket. So I need to seal that hole and move it over about 10mm in both block and head. I think the other one will be the same. I guess it’s probably time to figure something out for the oil returns too so if I need to do more welding I can do it now.

I ran out of WD-40 that I like on the cutting tools, so I called it a night without getting into the bores. Tomorrow.

12-9-2007
I'm thinking that I'm just going to weld a pan extension with a flange on top. Then the rails will bolt all the way across. Also, I’m only planing to add 1.75” beyond where the pan flange currently is…maybe 2”, but at 2” I have about ¼” clearance from the timing cover to the passenger side shock.

I’ll double check everything once I get the engine assembled, I want to get as close as I can on the passenger side without being stupid about it.

12-10-2007
I took a look at the oil return problem and I find I have it. I look like I can mill a slot between the exhaust ports that will break into the bottom the cam cavity. Then I weld a thin plate between the exhaust flanges to form channel.

On the block, there is an oil collection tube that runs the full length of the block so all I need to do is add a little bump to match the bump on the head and drill a hole. At least something looks like it will go easy.