Abdullah

iTrader: (2)

i have 96 impala SS and i want to re-ring the engine. i want to align hone the crank mains? what is the size for align honing for stock crank shaft? what i tell the work shop to align hone the mains for stock crankshaft.

what i know align honing will free up some rwhp and makes the crank rotating easier and freeier.

thanks.

SoxXpupPeT

iTrader: (34)

align honing for the crank is to just make sure that the main caps and block are perfectly straight and true. They should be able to get new bearings to compensate for any over boring that they might need to do. as far as getting power from it. idk about that one.

jaycenk

iTrader: (1)

why waist the time unless you spun a bearing? or bent a rod? Wont free up HP. And why would you want to rering the engine? Is it loosing compression? I pulled a 100k mile engine and the rings and cylinder walls where in great shape. they don't wear like older engines did unless you have been shooting NOS at it or hydrolocking the rings on a regular basis. If your going to re ring, do it right and change the pistons to gain a little compression and have the crank turned or polished and re sized for bearings and change the cam bearings and the cam while your in there. If your taking it apart do something of some value. Unless you cracked or know you wiped out the rings no need.

GIZMO

iTrader: (8)

I would not assemble a motor that had not had the mains align honed. It ensures that all of the bearings are in a straight line.

For those who don't know, a small amount is removed from the caps and then the hone is used to bring the mains back to round.

Different size bearings are used to fix clearance issues betwean the crank and the bearing.

Doing the above right will free up HP and help the bottom end to live. Way too many short blocks are slapped together. The resulting performance reflects it too.

96capricemgr

iTrader: (1)

There are oversized OD main bearing available. I looked into it when I got a spun main block for free. Trouble is the oversize OD bearing available were NOT performance bearings. GIZMO is of course right about how mains and rods for that matter are resized. Take a shave off the mating surface and rebore.

Abdullah

iTrader: (2)

thanks for the replies. so i will need resized bearings for align honing. i believe align honing will free up some rwhp.

thanks

Abdullah

iTrader: (2)

i took the car before to the dealer and they test the compression and it was at around 145-150 psi for all cylinders and they told me that compression is good so since i want to align hone the mains and the compression is good i will only need to re-ring the engine.

jaycenk

iTrader: (1)

I'm still not understanding why you are taking it apart just to align hone the main caps? Your talking a loss of 10 to 20 hp untill the bearings wear back in. Then maybe a 2hp gain if it was a little off. They dont fall out of align from the factory alignment unless you start bending rotating parts or changing cranks. Do you have some other reason you are taking it apart? Yes when you rebuild or swap cranks it a must but when there is nothing wrong it is pointless unless you are having the entire rotating mass ballanced and blueprinted or something. So again why are you wanting to re ring it?

ttranssam

iTrader: (10)

any time you tear a motor down you should have your align hone checked...had a buddy with an lt1 that kept spitting out bearings, took it to a machine shop an sure as **** it needed one. his motor only had 40k on it and ran fine till the bearings start to **** up.

jaycenk

iTrader: (1)

if it's spitting out bearings it was f'd from the start.
Even some of the biggest half *** back woods boys I had ever met in my life could take an engine with caps that didn't match and keep the bearings, crank and rods in it for several dirt track seasons. I couldn't belive some of the **** they pulled or how the hell it stayed running, but it did. If I had done **** like that, it would blow up before I turned the key.

96capricemgr

iTrader: (1)

No, the bearings need to match the crank, the mains in the block will be resized to stock.

145-150 is REALLY REALLY LOW, lest test I have seen on a 180K mile LT1 was 185psi and an ester based cleaner in the oil raised that one up to more like 195psi

Abdullah

iTrader: (2)

oh, i thought 145-150 psi was very good compression. so i will need new pistons and i will need to align bore and align hone the block. so what compression i get if the engine was newly rebuilt? 200 psi?

SS RRR

iTrader: (2)

If this is a stock rebuild and you are reusing the same stock crank in the same block and you have no abnormal wear on the bearings then there is no reason to worry about align honing.

Abdullah

iTrader: (2)

yeah, maybe you are right.

GIZMO

iTrader: (8)

It depends if you want a good one or not.

The minimum that I would do if I had the bare block is...

1. Align hone.
2. Square the deck.
3. Replace the cam bearings.
4. Replace the freeze plugs.
5. Polish the crank.
6. Install ARP rod bolts.
7. Resize the rods.
8. Balance the rotating assembly.
9. Use good quality rings and bearings.

You only get one chance to do it right!

ss.slp.ls1

iTrader: (36)

I agree with that list, do it right or don't do it at all...

jaycenk

iTrader: (1)

You only need to align it and square it if it needs it there is no sense in taking material off a block that does not need to come off.
Have it checked. If your doing a rebuild you replace bearings, rings and change cams at a min. If you have some more funds, change pistons and rod bolts and maybe get the rotating mass balanced.

GIZMO

iTrader: (8)

Like I said before, It depends if you want a good one or not. Each to their own. Really, why spend a couple hundred bucks on a motor that can be spent on a real HP maker like a big throttle body or bigger injectors?

SS RRR

iTrader: (2)

What a bunch of voodoo preaching bullshit. Why stop there? If you want to instill fear with this ridiculousness then why not also mention that even a hone can go wrong if the block is not aligned on the machine properly? That it takes a skilled machinist who knows what they're doing in order to do something like this right, and the only why to trust to have this done correctly is to ask for references or at least research legitimate testimonials.
It's utterly retarded to think a block would be "a good one or not" if the same crank was used in the same block for a stock rebuild where no abnormal wear happened on the previous build. There have several who've done so on a stock rebuild without an align hone with excellent results. I guess they all got lucky.