Doug Gulley

I picked up my engine from my engine builder today. 385 SBC. 4.040 x 3.75 2pc rms 4 bolt main. AFR 190 heads. Intended usage: daily-driven hi-performance street. Idle - 6000 rpm.

I told the builder I wanted a quench ht somewhere around .040 - .045. With the .041" Felpro 1003 gasket and a zero deck I would've ended up with a .041" quench. Instead of zero decking he decked my block just enough to straighten it out. Ended up with a piston .017" down the hole. I spoke to him after he told me this and he said he would go ahead and zero deck the block.

I thought my heads were 66cc but he cc'ed the heads and they came out to 64cc so he decided (without consulting me!) to not zero deck the block "cause my compression would've been too high".

I specifically picked a certain piston just for this combo. I chose a 12cc "D" dished piston to keep the quench area flat and to keep my compression in the 10-1 area with this .040" - .045" quench.

So, I ended up with a piston .017" (in the hole), a .041" gasket, and a 12cc dished piston with 64cc heads. My quench area now figures to .058".

To top it all off, after he cleaned the block and was boring it, he said he found a hair-line crack. He never told me this until after I'd paid him and had the engine loaded up! He did sleeve the block "so it will be okay". Had I known about it before he took it on his own to sleeve my block, I'd probably just found a 400 block and got differant pistons and crank and built a 400 based engine.

I don't have the money to go thru this engine again. I scrounged all the cash I could get to get this done this time.

What would you guys do?

1) Find another shop, pull the engine back down, and have the block re-decked?

2) Find a 400 block, buy new pistons and crank, and build a new shortblock? This isn't really financially feasable for me.

3) Pull the heads and intake and install a thinner head gasket? Is a copper gasket okay for 10-1 alum head street use? I also found a Cometic multi-layer steel gasket at .030" which would give me .047 quench.

4) Run it as is and live with what I have.

He also never checked my piston to valve clearance like I asked him to do. I'm running a 230*/236* .540"/.534" 113* lsa cam (Comp 280 XFI hyd roller retro-fit) with the above mentioned 12cc "D" dished pistons and 1.5 roller rockers (instead of the recommended 1.6). Think my P-V clearance is okay? Safe enough to move up to 1.6 at a later date? At least he gave me a 1 yr warranty on his work. Would the P-V clearance still be okay with the thinner .030" gasket? I know it needs to be measured to make sure but...

If my calculations are correct, with my given combo I should have about 9.88 - 1 cr and a DCR of 8.275 with a .058" quench. According to CamQuest my IVC @ .050" is 44*. With the added 15* some programs ask for this would be 59*. With the .030" gasket my new numbers would be 10.13 - 1 and DCR of 8.483 with a .047" quench. I am running EFI with spark control in case the DCR seems a bit too high.

I need some advice ... I'm not taking this motor back to him. Nor, will I EVER go back to him or give him a good recommendation.

What would you guys do? I need some good, solid advice. If I ever do another engine, I WILL be building it myself. I just had him do it this time because he did give me a 1 yr warranty. But, he didn't build *my* engine, he built my engine *his* way.

Thanks for any advice given...

kens86

I would just run it that way. You wouldn't pick up much by switching head gaskets. PTV should be fine. That's not a real big cam and being .017" in the hole it helps out too.

Quinny

According to my calculations, a 4.040" bore with 3.75" stroke, 0.041" gasket, 64cc heads and -12cc piston and 0.017" below deck works out to 9.92:1.

Decking the block will raise the comp to around 10.3:1, which is a little too high with iron heads. If your heads are alloy then 10.3 should be ok.

With the Comp Cams 230/236 cam, 9.9 should be perfect. I would tune it on an engine dyno and run it as is - sounds like it would be a bit of a powerhouse.