Ok so i had a guy build me a 383 stroker engine, after not being able to get it to run propperly for almost 6 months... After little to no success we decided to pull the motor and look at the bottom end before sending it back to this guy... And by the looks of it the crankshaft throws were hitting the bottoms of like 3 of the pistons... 2 of the main bearings were crushed and now the guy is saying that the cam has between .007 and .040 of wear on a hydrulic flat tappet cam... So i guess what my question would be is what would cause the crank throws to hit the pistons? could it be the main bearings or the cam?? or could it be that this guy didnt clearance the motor properly?? He is trying to make me pay for the machine work to the crank and the cleanup on the block!! I need some kind of advice pleeeeaseee!!!!!!!!!

 

i read on this board, someplace, that when you stroke the engine you need to watch the bottom of the pistons. and you need to use pistons that connect at a different place on the connecting rods to make up for the lower part of the pistons going deeper toward the crank. so they need to move up a little so the bottoms dont hit.
not sure about the cam - but was it a new cam you gave him or that he was supposed to put in? if it was then check the numbers - bet he switched it to a used cam.
im sure someone here will know the real problem about that.
and did he give you a big sloppy kiss? if he didn't - well he does not respect you. sorry - i could not resist that last part.

 

Crank hitting the pistons is common when you use a 383 crank that is counterweighted for 6" rods but then used with 5.7" rods. Accept your losses, take your parts, and find you a new engine guy.

 

What he said

Dan

 

i would love to take the parts but the guy tried to send me a bill for having the crank cut down and rebalanced and the motor cleaned. so now im just kinda stuck

 

My Thoughts are that yes the clearancing was made causing it to hit like that, especially if you have top bolt pistons which means the whole bolt comes out. The bearings probably went bad from the crank hitting the walls causing it to kinda, well lift the crank a tad. These are just my opinions

 

Do you have a small claims court where you are? Is the jurisdictional limit of the court $5000? If the answer to those two questions are yes you're not stuck with giving this guy more money.