Mr. Notorious

iTrader: (1)

Hey guys, I started assembling the bolt-ons I acquired the past month or so onto my freshly rebuilt 383 short block. I bought the short block with the build sheet and that was it.

Was happy with my progress tonight up until a couple minutes ago. Slid in the new cam, new timing chain, bolted up the new oil pump along with a nice new oil pan and gasket. Put the timing chain cover on, new eldebrock heads with arp hardware, torqued down great. Then I started dropping in the lifters (already had a couple in the first two to test PTV clearance and get pushrod length), go to cylinder 3 and one got jammed up. Reached down and found a small burr all the way on the bottom of the lifter bore. Moved on and found 3 other bores with the burr. What gives? Sounds like the machine shop knicked them doing something or something. Not really excited about it.

I thought about buying a fresh small file, coating it in grease and filing down the burrs. Figured the shavings should stick to the file. My friend called me an idiot and said pull the cam since it has sticky assembly lube all over it. I really didn't want to pull the oil pan (1 piece oil pan gasket) to pull the timing chain cover etc. Plus the cam bearings are already coated in the lube anyways, so without the cam there it's still has same potential for the shavings to get stuck in the sticky bearing. Or have it fall down into the crank gallery.

Which way would you go? Does anyone have any better tricks? The burr is very small, smaller than a typical mig bb that flys onto the bench when you're welding. I considered using a junk lifter and just tapping it down the bore until the burr either fell off or folded over out of the lifter bore. Is this common, anyone seen it before?

Sorry for the long wind, just a little frustrated. Thanks for the help!!

86jjk656

fudge man.. the junk lifter sounds like a good try but what if it detaches the burr and it sticks to the cam. what about a small pair of needle nose pliers? even if you can remove the burr youll still need to hone that lifter bore. if you have a onepiece oil pan gasket then it should be reusable, better do it right the first time my man. that little burr can scar your bores and lead to premature failure. espicially if you have hydraulic lifters. id call the machine shop and tell them the situation and see if there willing to help you. even if its jsut a comp set of head gaskets, sounds like they kinda screwed you.

dimented24x7

iTrader: (2)

Id probably pull the crank and cam to have a look and/or repair. Its the only way to have any sort of access to clean up the burr and remove the shavings, assuming the rest of the bores in question are OK. You can take the crank out while leaving the pistons/rods in. Put some 3/8" tubing over the rod bolts so they wont nick the crank, and slid the rods/pistons up out of the way. Just make sure you have a helper to remove/install the crank.

Edit: Did the machine shop check the lifter bores to be sure they are still within spec? Where they re machined? Its possible that the bores are damaged or excessively worn if they have burrs like that. Something to check before removing the burrs and reassembling the engine.

Mr. Notorious

iTrader: (1)

Ugh this is terrible news... being a baby I definitely didn't want to even pulls the heads let alone the crank. But I appreciate your honesty. The thought of having to take out all my ARP bolts and clean off all the sealant off of them makes me cringe!! (Yeah I'm pretty ****)

I wish I could contact the machine shop. The build sheet says "bore and hone V8" on the list. But I actually bought the motor from a member that never got to the build. The motor was built in Cali, and I'm in NY. Plus the number for M&R Motors doesn't work anymore... It does look like the lifters bored were honed, because the burr's location (the absolute lowest part of the bore) makes me think its were the stopped the honing process or something. I'm not really familiar with the honing process so it's just a guess.

Apeiron

The lifter bores usually aren't even touched unless you specifically ask for it. You'd recognize fresh marks if they were honed. What's more likely is that the engine wiped a flat tappet cam in its former life and the lifters mushroomed and damaged the bore.

Mr. Notorious

iTrader: (1)

Actually that does make more sense. The guy I bought it from said it was for a flat tappet cam with solid lifters. But then I ran the casting number and it is the typical 89-92 roller cam block that belongs in our cars, thought he had it backwards. Has the cam retainer plate and the spider hold downs. Are the cam bearings any different for a flat tappet cam vs hyd. roller bearings? I slid in a hyd roller, had a ton of play before the cam retainer plate was installed. Probably around 5 thousands of endplay with the retainer plate, I didn't even bother measuring it because I'm sure it's below the max .012" dimension.

Apeiron

Cam bearings are the same.