I just received a shortblock (383) and the block to head surface on the passenger side has gouges between two cylinders, yeah I'm pissed. I can go back to the trucking company that handled the shipping or the shop that finished the short, how hard/how much would it cost to have the block decked to give me a perfect sealing surface for the heads? I have some pics that I will post...it is difficult to show the damage. You can for sure hang your fingernail on them....I am sure it will have to be surfaced to avoid problems with head gasket sealing. Any advice is appreciated...

 

Is it under warranty and did it have shipping insurance? If it is i would go that route.

 

to deck it the motor has to come apart. send it back.

 

No warranty...I insured the shipping....I will talk to the shipping company first I guess.

 

The person who shipped it should have sent the motor in a fully enclosed wooden crate. Every motor I've had sent to me or shipped myself has been like this. There should be no view of the motor what so ever from the outside. This way there is no way anything can fall or gouge anything.

 

Agreed, how much can block be decked? No doubt it will have to be...just wondering how bad this is...

 

Depends on how bad it is, were it's at, and what kind of gaskets you want to use. If the gouge is on or near a water jacket, then it will need to be decked smooth. If it is on the out lying regions of the block and safe from any jackets, then you may be ok with just smoothing out the portion that is "above" deck. Cometic gaskets will be the pickiest since they require such a fine surface for sealing, but a graphite type gasket can be much more forgiving. "How much" will be relitive to gasket thicknesses avalible and how far down the top ring is on your piston. You don't want the deck to be down so far that the top ring runs the chance of blowing out, nor do you want to comprimise your quench area by bringing the piston so far out of the hole that you can't correct it with gasket thickness.

 

Thanks for the input, I was planning to use SCE Titan gaskets (.043), but these gouges are going to dictate that I do something with the deck, I will contact the shop that shipped it (Philips Racing, Ohio) before I get crazy with the shipping company. I know how unforgiving these blocks are with head gasket leaks....

 

The titan gaskets will deffinatlly be picky. It's reccomended that copper gaskets not even be used for the street, so the surface will need to be very smooth for a unforgiving gasket such as that.

 

Yeah, the Titan gaskets have the rubber to go with the copper so they are supposed to be a streetable gasket alternative to the Cometics....that's why I chose them.