John Howe Posted January 27, 2002 Share Posted January 27, 2002 Having now committed myself to a steel bottom-end etc the only problem I have yet to mentally convince myself of, is how to stiffen the block? Any thought out there... JH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oilyhands Posted January 27, 2002 Share Posted January 27, 2002 You can't really stiffen the block (although stiffer blocks are on the way), what you can do is to locate the bits that comprise the sandwich a bit better; steel dowels between the head and the block in place of the plastic (these are now standard) and between the main bearing ladder and the block (machining reqd.) will stop some of the jelly-wobble. High tensile studding in place of the stretch bolts together with a steel oilrail can also stiffen up the whole construction a little, but this is not a trivial undertaking, Peter Carmichael's bottom end is constructed in this manner. A steel oil rail can be made for about £350 and you can buy higher spec. through bolts will rolled threads which are direct replacements for the stock ones. Better liners which are a tighter fit and made of improved material are available too, I will have supplies in about 4 weeks. With decent liners and new through bolts you whould be OK to 8250/8500, any higher and some better location of the bearing ladder would be advised (dowels at each bolt hole). Oily P.S. The head is coming along nicely John... Edited by - oilyhands on 27 Jan 2002 16:16:49 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Walker Posted January 27, 2002 Share Posted January 27, 2002 John, When contemplating fitting a steel oil gallery and non-stretch bolts it should be born in mind that the engine was machined as a sandwich with the cast ali oil gallery which as we know allows the whole block to distort when the torque is removed from the stretch bolts. Replacing these components will certainly effect how the engine distorts . Its possible that this could lead to main bearing problems. The stretch bolts also allow for blocks expansion/contraction and maintain roughly the same torque, fitting stronger non-stretch bolts will effect the clamping force on the whole block/head sandwich. Its anyones guess what the longterm effects might be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oilyhands Posted January 27, 2002 Share Posted January 27, 2002 Got to agree with Rob about the lack of expandability in the long term, however Peters engine has shown no signs of distress and nor have the turbo engines for which this scheme was designed. The block and head sandwich has a different COLE than the bolts and the liners so the stretch bolts ensure consistent clamping force thru the hot/cold cycle. The tougher bolts *do* stretch but are of better manufacture then the original, the high tensile studding as used in PCs engine are non-stretch.. The steel oil rail is to ensure that the threads dont stretch or fail rather than eliminate stretch in the block sandwich, later rails from the factory have steel inserts and improved bolts. Oily Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julian Thompson Posted January 27, 2002 Share Posted January 27, 2002 Does the R500 motor use this stiffened configuration? 8JU Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oilyhands Posted January 27, 2002 Share Posted January 27, 2002 No. Oily Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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