Blueprinting For The Home Engine Builder - How To Get The Most From The Parts You Already Have

HAH! I'm doing my first engine refresh trying to reuse as many parts as possible. 2 weeks into it and still don't have it stripped down. One week to get it out of the car. Just finished 2nd week making a hot tank to clean parts. Still looking for torque specs for the important stuff with wild disparity on the interwebs. So I guess I'll have to schedule a year and a dedicated space if I ever attempt a custom build. Expectations...

What about piston / rod weight...............Z

I done the same with 2 stroke motors, where i have various parts from years lying around.
Hand pick all the best ones build a motor, Then hand pick the second best parts for a spare motor

I'm new to Building Dodge Do you have any? Formulas for a small block. To make them fast without spending a lot of money

The amount of time required to go through everything, not my cup of tea. I'm taking everything to a machine shop. Let them square the block, line bore, zero every piston. The cost is negligible, and they'll get it done a hell of a lot faster, than the cost of my time.

There most DEFINITELY IS a text book definition of a blueprinted engine !! In regards to the block, Chrysler made a "blueprint" of it before they produced it which exactly placed the lifter bores and cylinders in relation to the crank centerline. If you correctly machine a factory block to those specs, it is now "blueprinted". Doesn't usually happen on most builds, its expensive and you're better off buying an aftermarket block.
Oh, your compression heights on your pistons are .018" off from each other? Knowing 60's & 70's Mopars, they are probably worse than that between all 8. GOOD aftermarket pistons will solve that. Now, the rods, are they all the correct length? If you reconditioned them, they are definitely not. Again, new aftermarket rods solve this.
Is the crank the right stroke? Well, if you use aftermarket rods and pistons AND you zero deck the block, you'll know during assembly.
All that being said, the machine being used, the machinist running it and the quality of factory parts all play a huge part in "blueprinting" a block.
Then we can move on to blueprinting the heads ... etc, etc. MOST engines that claim to be balanced and blueprinted are not. Making sure clearances are correct is just a small part towards blueprinting an engine.
Blueprinting has become a made up word among engine builders who know enough to be dangerous.

Great video!

After we got our deck height where we wanted it, if needed we would mill the piston top This of course was limited To the style of piston use.

Here's Goober

This guy is Incompetent

Goober

What about the balance?

The answer is to put everything in backwards

Very informative and great to hear someone say it out loud. Parts replacement techs and mechanics are far apart in skill level.

As I said before,this man came out of his mom with a torque wrench in hand lol...

Also look at the block your building

anyone can tell you know well what you are talking about , thanks

Probably how sloppy the rod length tolerance was back then, hard to believe OEM pistons were +/- .018 thousandths , half that maybe, then the same +/- tolerance on pistons, tolerance of each rod journal and wallah.. you see what you are seeing.

Thank you

5.4 liter triton . You're my Guy !?!? 😺

Interesting. So the block itself doesn't get machined et cetera . Heads can ???

Thanks Tony

Powernations, in their videos, make it all look so easy

Perfectly illustrating the difference between a person who only buys more horsepower and the person who seeks to create his own horsepower with the parts that he has to work with.

Thank You Very Much Tony For Your Showing Us This GREAT INFO........ Truly Thank You

Excellent description and thorough!

I know is I love our country. Damn shame where the world's heading

Mate, I subscribed. Thanks for keeping it real.

Tony, I find very few vids here I care to watch, your channel is far superior to most, love the 390 fe info as your info is helping my wife and I with our current D4TE budget build . I'm sure I have as much age as you, just not near the knowledge, much appreciate you sharing in such a perfect manor for people like me with a limited budget.

Awesome work mate

Now is that with different rods, bearings, and pin?

The more of your videos I watch the more I want to send you my 390fe stroker to go through.

👍👍

To start, I would have measured the Piston from the Pin Hole to the top of the Piston. Quick and easy. Remember, I said to START.

Production products tend to suck, so if you can take even a “proper high performance” production set up to actually perform and live on for a bit is a bigger deal than most people think 💭

How far can you safely shave the valve guides?

I have to wonder if that deck height variation could have been variation of the crank throws. Or rod center to centers.

Just picked some pretty good new knowledge thanks 👍.

Good stuff. 👍

You are so right it's refreshing to hear how to blueprint the right way thank you you make this old motor bilder happy and remember it from the old day's the way I was taught.

You not only teach me but you also include your years of experience and that makes it even more interesting
I am 72 years old and building a 27 t bucket . I just hope I have enough time to finish it.

You're so lucky. Get to fux with high precision engines all the time. Every engine I've built has been "GET IT DONE! I NEED THE CAR LAST WEEK!" No time for the fun, time-consuming, detail oriented stuff.

Don't over look a 400 SBC. With a cam and a set of 64cc cylinder heads with stock pistons they can run really fast on the cheap and run a long time if you put it together right.

Please stop with the junk dodges!

I have a good 727 transmission

💪😎🇺🇲

Now this is the old school secrets that we need to share.

Uncle Uncle Tony don't sell yourself short,,, some of these engineers and engine builders are a full of fluff,, they're no better than any other engine builder, that takes precautions! For rebuilding a motor.

Nice