Old school 352 short track engine teardown with couple questions

[chilly460]

Finally got into the 352 short track engine that I picked up awhile back, my father crewed on the car that ran 352s in NewYork starting in ‘66.  This is their last iteration, odd little combo.  Had one 427 LR head and one standard C1AE head, lightened lemans rods, Jahns domed pistons, and a C4AE-B “high riser” cam. 

I picked up another C1 and ported them, they are being finished by Les Schmader, and have a Street Dominator for it.  I was going to run a 247* SFT I have on the shelf, but I’m really trying to keep it as original as possible so now will likely go with the Ford cam which I understand is old school lazy but should sound great and is a decent match for the topend it’ll have. 

Another oddity, .050” over on 1&4 and .040” in other cylinders, they were a shoestring budget team and basically slapped it together as cheap as they could back then.  I have no interest in fixing the sins, whole intent is to build it for my father as close to as it was as possible. 

So, to the questions.  #5 has some surface rust in it, they coated it with grease but that hole got a dose of rust.  Best way to get this out?  Figure I can scrub it with a scotch Brite and diesel then ball hone?  Also, are grooved mains normal?  Finally, any way to tell if the pistons are forged or cast?  Odd looking unit with the concentric grooves in the Skirts

[chilly460]

Also, I know the right thing to do is have a shop hone it, etc....but this is just a side project being done on the super cheap. 

[machoneman]

Rifle brushes for the holes. Teflon pin buttons!

I'd do what they (obviously) did. Ball hone it and have a go!

Bet they tore that sucker down numerous times, bored and honed only where needed, slapped it back together and ran it, hence the uneven bore sizes.

Clearly Jahns forged pistons (and I don't think they ever sold cast ones) with a skirt design that is really old school, just like the grooved mains that were popular way back then.

Cool engine! 

[chilly460]

Cool, thank you.  Yep was thinking the pistons are forged, especially being domes.  Rod bearings were stamped ‘69 Clevites, the mains were Ford apparently made in 1970, pretty cool tearing it down. 

[FElony]

Excellent grassroots!

[wayne]

Are you sure its a 352 and not a 390-406 the mains and short rods 352  rods are longer i think.The pistons may have the pins made  to work with 390-428 style rods not sure low riser valves will clear a 4.00 bore just had to ask.

[chilly460]

Definitely a 352, 4.040” bore and a 2T crank.  Cylinders are notched to clear big valves.

[chris401]

Are those custom pistons or forged 332?

[chris401]

Are those custom pistons or forged 332?

Seems I saw a set of forged 332 pistons on Ebay at one time.

[frnkeore]

To me, the interior, that's visible, looks like a forged piston (smooth flowing contour), not the rougher cast interior the cast has.

If you can give the measurement, from the top of the pin hole to the piston top, we could have the CH.

The grooving that the outside of the piston has, kinda reminds me of Grant pistons.

[feadam]

just out of curiosity, what track did they run, growing up in N.Y. I used to go to a lot of the dirt tracks and some asphalt?

[wayne]

Ebay has some old jahns books look under jahns pistons.

[RJP]

Rifle brushes for the holes. Teflon pin buttons!

I'd do what they (obviously) did. Ball hone it and have a go!

Bet they tore that sucker down numerous times, bored and honed only where needed, slapped it back together and ran it, hence the uneven bore sizes.

Clearly Jahns forged pistons (and I don't think they ever sold cast ones) with a skirt design that is really old school, just like the grooved mains that were popular way back then.

Cool engine!

Jahns did indeed sell cast pistons. My 60 Starliner had Jahns cast domed pistons in the hi-po 360hp/352 the car came with. I never did a compression ratio calculation with the domed pistons with the hi-po 59cc heads that were on it but it must have been a lot. The pistons were scrapped as 5 of the 8 had at least 2 cracks in the pin boss area and a couple had 4 cracks. Considering what I put that engine thru it kinda scared me now knowing the condition those pistons were in.

[machoneman]

Rifle brushes for the holes. Teflon pin buttons!

I'd do what they (obviously) did. Ball hone it and have a go!

Bet they tore that sucker down numerous times, bored and honed only where needed, slapped it back together and ran it, hence the uneven bore sizes.

Clearly Jahns forged pistons (and I don't think they ever sold cast ones) with a skirt design that is really old school, just like the grooved mains that were popular way back then.

Cool engine!

Jahns did indeed sell cast pistons. My 60 Starliner had Jahns cast domed pistons in the hi-po 360hp/352 the car came with. I never did a compression ratio calculation with the domed pistons with the hi-po 59cc heads that were on it but it must have been a lot. The pistons were scrapped as 5 of the 8 had at least 2 cracks in the pin boss area and a couple had 4 cracks. Considering what I put that engine thru it kinda scared me now knowing the condition those pistons were in.

Good to know....too bad they sold faulty cast units.

[chilly460]

Plot thickens, rust in #5 was a bit worse then “surface”.  Cleaned it up with scotchbrite and there are light pits, and the rust area feels slightly raised.  Now, normal rebuild is bore it no question.  With this deal I can’t bore it and run out and buy another piston.  Would something like this clean up with a ball hone or one of the 3 stone hones enough to at least live? 

I will say pic makes it look much worse than it really is