Old school 352 short track engine teardown with couple questions

[chilly460]

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?

Lancaster, Spencer, and Cayuga

[machoneman]

All you can do is try it. I'd try the ball hone 1st.

[feadam]

went to cayuga once in the early 70s, i lived near middletown, so mainly went there and syracuse, lebanon valley. Used to love watching the few fe's run and win. 

[frnkeore]

Well, I also collect old tractors and there are a lot of guys that say they have run cylinder walls, worse than that. They even claim that they don't have much/any blow by. But, I wouldn't do it, myself. Honing will take at least .002 out, in that area, just to look half way decent. That opens ring gap by .006 or more, when it crosses that area.

I think it begs to have all 8 cyl at 4.060. It will be very expensive to to it with forged pistons but, very rewarding, too. I would just call it a refresh of the engine.

You'll want a CH of 1.88 (0.000 deck) if, it hasn't been decked. Most OEM style pistons for the 352, are 1.825.

Edit:
I forgot about the LeMans rods. It should be 1.932, instead of 1.880.

I just thought of another option:

Have it honed a additional .005, knurl the piston to fit and see if you can find a .005 over, "file fit" ring for that bore.

[chilly460]

Hard to measure with the dome, but compression height looks to be 1.9375.  I really don’t see putting new pistons in this thing, for one it takes away big time from the nostalgia aspect, plus new pistons plus boring is definitely not in the budget as this is a side project while parts are coming together for a 462 stroker.

[chris401]

Are those custom pistons or forged 332?

Did you figure the pistons out?

[pbf777]

    Yep,.......... find someone with one of the old true big piston knurling machines (if possible?) have them knurl the pistons aggressively for the maximum effect possible, then see what you have to work with.  And stop with the "Ball-Hone" aka "Dingleberry-Hone" stuff, and have a decent honeing effort, even though it will probably still look like shyt!; and the shop will probably look at you like your nuts, and want you to sign something stating you were advised against what you are attempting and it's not their fault in the end.  But you know, sometimes you'll be amazed at how bad some cylinder walls look on a tear-down, yet the thing didn't look that bad from the outside when it was running!             

    Just remember, no promises!           

     Scott.

     P.S. Randy,  just pretend like you didn't see this post!           

[chilly460]

Are those custom pistons or forged 332?

Did you figure the pistons out?

The compression height as measured it was closer to a 332 piston, guessing a way to run a short rod 352

[Tommy-T]

Cool old-timey build!

2nd on knurling the pistons and machine shop hone. That'll work fine for your application.

I have a set of cast Jahns pistons and a set of forged. I can drag them off of the junk pile if anyone needs to see the differences. The old Jahns pistons, cast or forged, are really heavy.

The Holley Street Dominator is a great intake manifold but seems to not fit the nostalgia of your build. Maybe see if you can trade it for an Edelbrock F-427.

I have a grooved main C4 427 cast crank on the junk pile. Haven't used a 3.78 stroke crank since the '80's so it sits.

What distributor are you going to use?

[KMcCullah]

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

Cool build. The old man will be beaming.

Since it probably won't be a daily driver, I'd dingle berry scuff all 8 cylinders and build it.

I built a 416 several years ago that had a few really ugly cylinders. It uses some oil but it hauls my Highboy pretty well.

Photobucket jacked my pics but maybe you can see how my cylinders looked. Way ugly...

http://fepower.net/simplemachinesforum/index.php?topic=4509.msg47481#msg47481

[chilly460]

Thanks for the replies, all appreciated and helpful. 

Another question, this thing has nasty carbon on the pistons, any easy tricks to clean?  I soaked them in diesel for a few hours and it didn’t soften it at all.  They’re soaking in the Tractor Supply parts cleaner now so we’ll see how that does.  I’ve cleaned plenty of parts before but this is tough stuff.

[chilly460]

Cool old-timey build!

2nd on knurling the pistons and machine shop hone. That'll work fine for your application.

I have a set of cast Jahns pistons and a set of forged. I can drag them off of the junk pile if anyone needs to see the differences. The old Jahns pistons, cast or forged, are really heavy.

The Holley Street Dominator is a great intake manifold but seems to not fit the nostalgia of your build. Maybe see if you can trade it for an Edelbrock F-427.

I have a grooved main C4 427 cast crank on the junk pile. Haven't used a 3.78 stroke crank since the '80's so it sits.

What distributor are you going to use?

If you feel like pulling them off the pile, I would like to know for sure what I have, curiosity and all.  I have the distributor that was in the original 390 in my Merc, so I was going to use that since it’s laying around and free. 

[machoneman]

Thanks for the replies, all appreciated and helpful. 

Another question, this thing has nasty carbon on the pistons, any easy tricks to clean?  I soaked them in diesel for a few hours and it didn’t soften it at all.  They’re soaking in the Tractor Supply parts cleaner now so we’ll see how that does.  I’ve cleaned plenty of parts before but this is tough stuff.

https://www.google.com/search?q=piston+carbon+cleaner&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS768US768&oq=piston+carbon&aqs=chrome.0.0j69i57j0l6.4371j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#kpvalbx=_Hv_TXs6yDYmUtAa7hpjgBA28

[frnkeore]

I'm sure it would almost, impossible to find but, a W&H Dual Coil dist would give the best spark, for a points system and is of that era. I have one for a 289/302. They were the next step down from a mag, at that time.

They are two timed, 4 cyl ignitions, under one cap. With 2 modern coils, such as the Pertronix Flame-Thrower Coil, it would throw a hell of a spark. They are 100% better than the dual point dist.

[chilly460]

I found a very old bottle of GM Topend Cleaner in the chemical pile and that worked nice, and lacquer thinner worked well too