Oh boy here we go again. My brother took his 396 block and crank to a very reputable speed shop in the area and had them hot tank the block and all of the other bottom end parts. Well we thought they were hot tanking the block to clean it up and low and behold we found out that they use a tumbler with shot peen. We got looking at the block and the lifter bores now have their top edges bent over so a lifter won't drop in. The top of the deck was pounded pretty good. Now were wondering if it don't need decked. The saddles for the mains also have the shot peen marks in them as well. I guess I will help him take a power washer to the block to get any of the steel shot out of the oil holes and afterwards use a brush. The block turned out to be bored .060 which they said it was .040 and needed bored to .060.

My performance shop checked all of these things out this other place was saying and just could not believe the other place could be that wrong. He was telling us the reason they use the tumbler instead of the regular hot tank is they don't want to deal with the EPA on the chemicals and they can get more work by decking blocks and deburring the lifter bores and charging the customers for it. When my shop uses the hot tank there is residual paint on the outside of the block but I would rather have that then all the trouble my brother has went through.

The crank is not 20 on the mains and 40 on the rods it is 30-30. I could go on and on and on about how wrong this place was. My brother wanted to try them out because they are advertised on T.V. and they have stickers on all of the cars at the track. BLAH BLAH BLAH. I told him not to do it and keep our business at the shop that has been doing our work for years.

Anyway we are going to use the Sealed Power 2242F piston and we found out the heads are 112 cc chambers so he will have about 10.4 to 1 compression. I will have to check the pistons to see how far in the hole they are though too so that will figure in. Gosh this has turned into a nightmare.

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69 Malibu 406 3680lbs Turbo 350 2400 stall, 3.73,XE274, Performer RPM Q-JET, 800 Q-JET, Sportsman2 64cc 11TO1 12.65@105.5 mph on Drag Radials

ACES Member #3635
Tri-State Chevelle Member# TSC-010
Larry G.

Check your email

Eric

Almost nobody is using hot tanks any more. The EPA has made owning one a major pain in the butt. A oven system with a shot blaster is the current method for removing all the years of crud. BillK has one and my 427 block was done in his cleaning system. Since I was going to do the deck, bore it and have it aligned honed it made little difference to me about the shot.

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www.muncie4speed.com (http://www.muncie4speed.com)
Gold 67
A.C.E.S. 5602
M.C.C. 559
1967 Malibu, 2nd owner.
1971 Malibu, new rat is in. It's the details that take the time!
There is nothing like rowing through the gears at 7500. Stick cars are so much fun they should be a controlled substance!

Larry,
We have had an oven and shot blast cleaning system since 1988. It was without a doubt the best investment I ever made. You will not ever get a block as clean with a hot tank. We have not had any problems with the shot. If he has one of the good systems, there should not be any shot left in the block. If there is, he is not using it correctly. A quick pass with a small dingle hone will take care of the lifter bores. We have never had a problem with the deck surfaces or the main bearing bores. They might look a bit "rough" but if you measure them, they are fine. Personally, I would be thankful that is what the guy used. 99% of the big rebuilders use this system to clean thier blocks. It is considered state of the art.
By the way, the reason we changed from a hot tank is mostly the work involved in getting a block, or heads clean. Most people don't realize that a hot tank does not really remove rust, or hard carbon buildup. All that had to be done by hand. Now we bake stuff for an hour, then blast it for 10 minutes, and it looks like a new casting. As far as saving money, not sure...the system cost 30K 15 years ago ! But the shop does not smell like chemicals, and we dont have to pay $700 each 6 months or so to have the tank pumped out.
I would not worry about it. As far as the crank goes, I am sure they reground it to whatever size it needed to be. Same with boring the block.

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Bill Koustenis
Advanced Automotive Machine
Waldorf Md

1971 Heavy Chevy - original owner
Team Chevelle #100

Thanks Bill K for chiming in on this subject. I have just never seen the surfaces look like that in the main saddles and the lifter bores. I will get a hone and do the lifter bores and also will use the brush kit in oil passages just for insurance. The crank is .030 and .030.

Does the shot affect bore finish at all Bill?

We are going to use a moly ring so what grit of stone would you use to hone the cylinder with?

We had the centerline on the main bores checked again and it was right on the money. Thanks again.

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69 Malibu 406 3680lbs Turbo 350 2400 stall, 3.73,XE274, Performer RPM Q-JET, 800 Q-JET, Sportsman2 64cc 11TO1 12.65@105.5 mph on Drag Radials

ACES Member #3635
Tri-State Chevelle Member# TSC-010
Larry G.

there is also a soap and water alternative that alot of people are using, kind of a steam cleaner, the engine parts get very hot, and are sprayed with the hot water and soap. they are usually too hot to touch with bare hands after the cleaning is done. i have built one motor using this process for all the parts, and it seems to work about the same as the "hot tank" process.

i do have a question though, i read about deburing the lifter bores. i have a few blocks out in my garage. i went to the machine shop to have my block bored, i had spent a couple hours pulling plugs and taking off all the junk bolted to the block. i already ordered a set of .030 over pistons for the build, but it seems the block had been previously bored .030 over, and had been run enough to make a ridge at the top of the cylinder. i have 3 other blocks in the garage, but when i started inspecting them to get ready for the machine work i noticed that 2 of them have rust in the lifter bores, one is worse than the other, which just so happens to be the one i was going to use. this engine needs to last, and i dont want to have to put in new lifters any time soon. so my question is...... is there a good way to clean the rust without making the bore too big that isnt extremely expensive and that will be reliable? i have never heard of over sized lifters, and i have never heard of sleeving the lifter bores. let me know the best choices here if you can, i hate to scrap 2 blocks due to rust in the lifter bores.

Read BillK's reply above regarding cleaning lifter bores.

i used a 4000psi 350 degree power washer.. my stuff came out clean.. just poured some purple power in the washer.. and soaked the block for about 20 minutes.. i dont know about all that shot peen business either.. i could see it working but surely theres a way to protect all the machined surfaces..