Motor Assembly Issues

[Phish]

DOHC motor. Will be running a stand alone and turbo. I am shooting for 182WHP. Thats 1 more HP then the Rx8 put down NA :-)

[85XR7Project]

That would be a realistic goal if you were building a Mopar engine but this is a mighty Ford. Lol

[slow ride]

Are the caps on the iron block the origionals? Do the caps look like they have been cut on the bottom (like you would with a line bore or hone)? I'm sure you could have just had the mains line honed with studs to make the bottome end even stronger.

[Phish]

Correct. It basically came down to what block i wanted because they both woudl need machiene work. I Believe i have decided to go with the aluminum block because of hte lighter weight and they still withstand more then enough horse... 1000+...

[slow ride]

I'm just curious how this iron block is undersized on the mains? If it ran before something doesn't jive. Either way good luck with it.

[Phish]

Acreed... i honestly can not figure that one out either. Maybe someone did modify the caps like your suggesting. I would have no other clue.

[slow ride]

You could tell by looking at the bottom of the caps if it looks like old factory machining or newer markings I'd think. If you have time just check the caps between the different blocks and see if the machining looks different.

[Phish]

For arguments sake lets say they are differnet (have not looked yet). Why would someone do that? You can always get a thicker bearing if the crank gets machiened.

[slow ride]

It's done before line honing to tighten the area on all the caps. Then the hone opens up everything to the exact same clearance. It's the same process as re-sizing rods, etc. Only reason I can see them doing it would be to get the block ready to hone the mains, but they never went through with the hone is my guess. It's what you would want to do when installing the main studs in the block and having then torqued to the stud manufactures specs before machining.