I would just understand if it was me but I would make sure Whoever ends up with this engine understands that it's probably it's one last go-round Yes it's based on a 3:27's blueprint But she's a little worse for the wear
Love the long form content. If you have some k-333 or 334 on the shelf you can dab some around the bottom of the sleeve after it's trimmed for a little extra insurance. I'm not sure how you could do it on a boring and surfacing machine but I just use a standard boring head with an offset bar and a blind threading insert leaves a 30* chamfer behind to trim the bottom of the sleeves.
Re-stamp the block numbers and use ARP stud kit..... btw '' YT is messing with the view numbers , you had 149K views then they bumped it back down to 109K'''
There are very few channels if any on youtube that I will watch a 1 hour + video on, but dangit, I watch these videos from start to finish on the edge of my seat every time. It is both informative and heartwarming seeing the comradery between father and son, and how they both value each others input as they work. The professionalism shown on this channel is second to none. Please don't ever feel the need to shorten these videos to some perceived outside pressures, it would be a travesty. Keep em coming boys!
Whenever a customer say something like "I tried fixing it" i get that being sent to principals office knowing the hammer is coming down, or the just wait til your father gets home😮, because I know I'm in for some shit
We're going to have to do grinding on the bottom side too? ROFLMAO. Tell me you have never sleeved a parent-bore block without telling me you have never sleeved a parent-bore block.
Just a note of caution when working with liquid nitrogen: wear safety glasses AND a face shield. If it accidentally splashes in one or both of your eyes, there's little chance your eyesight can be saved. I work in aircraft maintenance and whenever we have to use that stuff to install a freeze plug or a bushing, we always double up on eye protection. I'm never comfortable working with liquid nitrogen.
My father-in-law (a farmer) bought a six cylinder International tractor in two pieces. It had been hit in a road crash and the engine literally broken off the gearbox. He metal stitched the broken pieces himself. He hand made at least one from steel plate to fit the block. He also fitted a turbo. That tractor did at least 20 years work on the farm. Totally amazing what these guys could accomplish.
@@michaelsalomonsson9298 The 350 was ok….and basically the same block. There was this allure about a “mouse motor” that we just had to have. The bigger boys had the “Rat” motor which typically was anything from a 396, 427, 454, on up. There was a small block 400 that was just nasty, and we use to see if we could take out the big block guys with mouse motors. Indeed, we won a good many races, but that big block made its dent, and never looked back!
The ONLY reason I could come up with was a desire to keep the engine number, if it matched, but the decking removed those, so...?. Otherwise, I'd have gone straight to either a good core or, when you take all the work involved in that, go straight to the aftermarket HD options.
Ex-production machinist here. I love watching the processes, including the screwups. Anybody that turns raw metal into finished parts or assemblies will always have at least 1 screwup in their careers. If you go to a good trade school or apprenticeship program, you get your screwups out of your system early, and self-taught guys or gals will screw up occasionally because it's part of the learning process. Self-taught also means that you are more willing to try out new processes. Keep up the good work. I had to give up my machining career due to my health 30 years ago. I loved the work so much that overtime was enjoyable, 56 hour weeks was my norm. My scrap rate was around 11 parts per million in an environment where 3% scrap was the expected norm. The best shop I worked in, I drove our Inspector nuts in a good way. Every morning I would check the calibration on my mics and dial calipers. I had my own set of WW2 era Brown & Sharpe standards for that. I exclusively used Starrette measuring equipment. I had the diamond anvils on my 1 inch and 2 inch micrometers, the 1 inch had the mechanical digital readout with the vernier sleeve. My dial caliper was accurate to 0.0001", including the depth rod. I would have our Inspector certify my calibrations monthly, which is the part that drove him nuts. My gear was calibrated better than his own, every month.
@@jsh6952 I love seeing brand name precision measuring tools with calibration certifications on them. There is no such thing as a cheap precision measuring tool. I did have a Mitutoyo dial caliper that goes to .001 and didn't have a cert with it. I just bought it secondhand because I never worked where there was a brake drum micrometer. I bought it secondhand. I'd rather buy a brand name tool secondhand than some new stuff from China. Not all my stuff has to come from the USA, but it does have to come from a place known for good auto parts. If that's not possible, I seek out whatever allows me to avoid Red China. I usually save little or nothing by paying someone to turn my brake drums and rotors on DIY jobs. However, everytime I can do it, I am happy that I did less business with reds. I shout "Screw the reds" and smile every time. I don't have a problem with the Chinese commoner, but I hate few tjings as much as the CCP and oligarchs who finance CCP politicians.
Thanks for a super live video Jim and Nickolas. I typed three paragraphs to you and they disappeared. So now just let me say I love your show. Great saving this engine. Loved watching. Looking forward to the next video. The retired Air Force veteran
When you have a lot to say (always good on this sort of channel) type your message into a “notepad” app. Then copy paste. It lets you check for errors and wording that might upset the YT net nanny.
"Closet Boomer" , now that's what I can call my youngest daughter! She's, 33 but she shares my love for cars and trucks as well as our music of the time. I love it when she gets after her boyfriend to get his oil changed and check those brakes. Love your show and the way you come up with ideas and solutions together, not to mention the way you bring old iron back to life.
Very impressive. As 45+ years heavy truck/bus mechanic (boomer I’m 65 years old) and have rebuilt literally 100’s of engines I have always been amazed at the machining process of blocks and heads especially performance and race engines. Love the videos.
Back in the 80s, I did work experience at an engine reconditioners and there and then decided that is what I wanted to do. Loved the work. Unfortunately, 6 months later, I became very sick, and there went that plan. Then comes youtube, and I get to watch these excellent channels. So I get my hit by watching these.😊
Love all your videos, but this may be my favorite to date. The back-and-forth between father and son and the unique premise of starting with a “junk” block took the entertainment and educational levels “to the max”!
It’s nice seeing you and your dad getting along and working well together. A couple of my friends worked for just a short with their dads ( one of them also an automotive shop ) and they fought like hell and eventually couldn’t be in the same room together. I don’t think they ever reconciled.
At the Mopar factory, they had at least 4 grades of pistons; A,B,C,D (and possibly E). These were pistons of slightly different bore sizes. After the machined block came out to have pistons fitted, the person doing the fitting would measure the bores and figure out which pistons would fit in each of the bores. This was because some of the bores wouldn't fit a standard piston, for whatever reason (tool wear, inattentive operator, etc). There are other companies that did the same thing with cam bearings, the cam cores weren't machined to the proper tolerances, so they used different cam bearings to make up for it. They did a lot of things like that in the 50s-70s, just so they could get the product out the door quicker and cheaper. Most people wouldn't notice any difference in how their cars operated anyway.
Even in modern engines this sort of thing exists. Most Toyota crankshaft bearings are color coded. Each color represents a tiny amount of size difference. It is so they can adjust oil clearance down to the last .005mm or so. The modern Subaru engines have the same kind of piston. They have size A and size B.
I’ve put 100s of sleeves in 327 blocks, usually went with a .125 wall straight sleeve, I’d break through just about half the cylinder and half way around, left a step on the bottom and used green loctite, never had an issue, usually used about .002-.0025 press fit, where it would really only press about .5” on the top and about .250” on the bottom.
That's going to make a fine engine. The sleeves have better more uniform metal and will keep ring seal very well. One request, when you surface things try and get us a closer shot. It's cool to see the improvement- highs and lows. Do appreciate your videos and the time it takes to produce them. Stay well men. 👍🙏
Definitely a street sleeper...not to be run blown or with nitrous...but a beefy 327 that can smoke the back tires on pump gas...those thin sleeves will probably be weak in the center and if blown or whatnot could case it to blow out...correct?? And oh man...that final 2thou pass to clean up the deck...wooo...perfect!!! Awesome stuff...alot of work to save an old block! Keep em coming!!!!
Waste not, want not. Thank you for saving this block. I hope the owner appreciates the time, skill and knowledge it took to save this engine and takes good care of it.
Many yrs ago I had a source for free 327 high compression pistons (Mercruiser). I had post 1963 283s (thicker water jackets) bored .125" and built homemade 302s for drag racing. Just as if I had a brain. Sometimes the "may pop" motors would last as many as 3-4 weekends before the water jacket blew out. Great videos.
Eccentric main bore bushings to allow the clearancing cutter to be moved in and out. The offset bushings hanging out both 1st and 5th main to allow a long Keyed handle to rotate the off set bushings at the same time. Could be hex ,square or double D shaped. Those would be easy to make on your CNC lathe.
After my 2nd deployment I lost my patience for using the machining tools and extracting broken or the why is this so long bolts. it's great watching a pro, the knowledge you have and share with viewers is perfect for anyone thinking about this path. Thanks for the video brother
I’m attempting to rebuild one of these myself, my first Rodeo with a small block Chevy. These videos are a big help in letting me know about he process , albeit mine isn’t as bad lol.
When I was a younger guy,I rebuilt several 540 Perkins engines,those ran flanged sleeves,I don’t remember any having a problem with movement in the block,they were very thin though great video,thanks,ps thinking about it that’s 40 years ago,.hit.
This video is a great example of why I love y'all's channel, as well as all kinds of stuff like this. It's also a great illustration of what's possible and what sets skilled and experienced machinists above the rest. Any machinist, even an apprentice, if they go by the numbers and take care, can refurbish a typical high mileage engine, but a job like this would probably be far beyond their abilities, mostly just because of the things you can't account for without sufficient experience, like that hole in the cylinder wall. Plus which, having a block that from the factory wasn't properly squared up is bound to leave a lot of guys confounded, thinking their setup is messed up, as y'all mentioned. There's just so many variables in play, as well as the occasional curve ball served up by the most auspicious lawmaker of them all, Murphy, that make engine building such a challenging business. Our male pride is a big thing here too, I think, judging by the sorry state of that block from the previous "work" done on it. Either the other guys overestimated their own abilities (see: Dunning-Kruger effect) or just couldn't force themselves to admit it was out of their league, so they kept going with it without first educating themselves a bit better, or it may have just been a case of sloppy workmanship, just going through the motions as quickly as possible so that Miller Time may come. It's damn cool to see you guys save the thing, I absolutely loathe waste and I appreciate others who do their best to avoid it! Sleeving the thing, I can definitely tell that is some nerve-wracking stuff, great job! I think many would have been tempted to try the other side without putting it back in the oven, only to have issues, so I like that y'all take your time. I'm not even an engine builder or anything but I have learned a ton from your channel so far. Keep it up!
must be real cool to work with the clean up guy! As a machinist of over 15 years i had the opportunity to work with great guys like him (clean up guy lol) and learned a lot from them. love the videos
Love watching you both work and interact. Great watching father son. My dad was a toolmaker and Jim reminds me of my late dear brother in law. Thank You gents!
we are just about to take the engine out of my resto car to attend to some faults left by the re-conditioner. probably wrong sized main bearing shell, but we are going right over the short engine. enjoy watching you work ( my icon is a photo of the Holden 186X2 we are going to fix - properly)
Anyone who's mad that the serial numbers on a block were lost lives in a different universe. The only thing that block was good for before machining was scrap or decoration. Now it has a life being used like it is supposed to. Glad to see the work. Looks incredible.
@@greggkiest1069 sure. If you're not going to drive the car. Go ahead and find out how expensive it is to keep those numbers. Numbers matching original/restoration is for the museum, IMHO. It's rare to see them in a concourse/car show. It's more rare to see them on the road. So for anyone that's going to use the vehicle, rip the bandaid off and do what it takes to get the vehicle to the point that you can really enjoy it.
@@chrisgreen359 I figured the numbers still mattered if they could show it was a 327 and not a 350. However, one would have to be a very hardcore Chevy guy to know it. There might have been other markings on the block to indicate that it is a 327, but I don't know. I have heard of Chevy guys loving one type of marking. That's the camel hump heads. I don't know if different blocks get special markings. Nissan and water cooled VW are my passions. They don't mark the blocks on the deck.
I put them in the lathe and use a metabo with a 6 or 7" cut off wheel. Then a flapper disc on a battery powered grinder to dress the bottom to my scribe line on the machinest ink. And chamfer inside and outside of sleeve with the same flapper disc. It goes super quick.
These guys are great. Friends of mine own a non-automotive machine shop and I frequently hang out there on Friday nights. I'd love to do the same at this place but it's on the other side of the country.
All of this is very amazing. I work metal a bit and always find it far more difficult than woodworking. On a 10 inch ww2 lathe I find it difficult to get anything within a few thousands and it is very surprising how much that tiny bit can make a big go no go difference. Once in a while I get a spot on and am never certain how it happened so duplicating it is even rarer. It's also amazing what a tiny burr can do to prevent things from assembling or coming apart. I think that work is very difficult and find I precision unreachable.
Crazy thought : Push the boring bar through the cylinder, install the tool to cut in an upward direction and hand face the bottom of the sleeves buy pulling the bar back up against the bottom of the sleeve. Not sure if you can do that with the setup you have but, it's something that came to mind to try.
I have done a lot of engine work and always listened closely to the highly skilled machinists when they explained a process. I never asked why when boring a whole bank of cylinders do you sometimes prefer to start in the middle?
To cut the bottom of the sleeves use your same setup for boring the sleeves but flip your cutting insert over and feed up. You will just have to install the cutting tool with the spindle extended. You would be able to chamfer the bottom after it's the final length too.
More money than it's worth ! But saving a 327 Block is Nobel ! I like watching you guys bouncing ideas off each other . Great collaboration . Thanks for sharing ! Looking forward to the follow up !
This is one of my favorite videos its cool to see how things are done completely start to finish. Would love to see what a machine does to save a SBC in the valley area such as polishing, grinding out the casting flash smoothing oil flow back or even restricting. Being a hot rodder and oval track racer be cool to see some of the tips and tricks. Very Awesome work guys!
I put 6 sleeves in a Continental 6 block used in an arc welder. I had a 350 Chevy block made in Mexico that split a cylinder. When I bored it for the sleeve there was a hole about one and a quarter inch wide the full length of the water jacket next to another cylinder. What was gone from the bored cylinder was added to the adjacent cylinder. Core shift. I put 140k miles on it with no problem.
jim.. in the good old days... we just took the short block in.. and picked it up a couple of days later i never realised the amont of machine work .. where is the apprentice..?? please dont leave without passing your lifelong skills.. god bless..
That harmonic you got when putting the chamfer on the bottom of the sleeve reminded me of a instance when I was turning a 4" aluminum tube in the lathe and was turning a section of it to a .035 wall thickness. It screeched at a pitch and frequency that dropped me to my knees before I got the feed stopped. Everthing just instantly became a blur, and I was dizzy to the point of nausea. I think if my hand wasn't on the lever, I may not have been able to shut the travel off. I've never experienced anything like it since. There was a guy leaning against a work bench, watching me. He said he would have fell also if not for the bench. It took both of us several minutes to recover.
As usual, Your videos are interesting and educational. There's something poetic about saving a old 327 that's 55 yrs or older. And im sure those stamped numbers would never match to anything still around today. This engine needs to find itself into a old late 1960's C-10 Pickup truck (Hint, Hint). Im sure there's gotto be a old truck like that there in your high desert of Colorado. And then after its a finished project, you raffle it off to your followers to fund future projects.
Many times I have wondered why it was a big deal if you went through to the water jackets when the block was getting sleeves anyway. Now I know. Great vid. I'm here for the whole series. I'd really like to hear that engine run again.
I did a 327 for a corvette restoration...had to sleeve all cylinder like that...green locktite....did some dyno without issue...also gave a bottle of ceramic to the costumer just in case...working with nitrogene is awesome...so easier to put sleeve in
@@AsswipeGarage this costumer didnt really care about number...but we did another one that the number was important...a guy in the usa have the punch from gm...i punched one block for baret jackson
Excellent, painstaking care taken here fellas! I'm proud of youse both! I had a great time watching this, & am keenly looking forward to the next video in this series. Thanks for doin it!
I'm not a machinist, but I am fully aware of what it can take to un-eff other peoples work as an electrician. I am constantly amazed by the levels of incompetence reached by other electricians while feeling blessed that the occupants of the building didn't have it burned down around them.
Amazing work! If you can explain a little more about the ceramic sealant in the next video I would appreciate. I don't even know how products like loctite handle the high temperatures in the engines and why it is not used to fill small leaking cracks on the outside of the water jacket.
Love the work. Hope you go all ind with removing Casting burs and smoothing up the valley and give it some non stick paint for better drainer. You know all the Bell's and whistles
I'm really loving this segment. After part 1 of watching you guys tear down this engine and discovering it was junk. I was really hoping you would try to save it. As the owner of a 327 myself. This is just excellent. I love these engines. Can't wait for the next episode!!
As an ex machinist, three things I would have done. Not internally chamfering the bottom of the bores and not put a stroker crank in it. Keeping it at exactly 327 cubic inches (as god intended) in perfect running order would be incredibly rare for an engine of this age. Unsure what the plans are for cylinder heads, but a pair of Dart Iron Eagle heads would be perfect whilst leaving the engine looking like it did when it left the factory and improving power and longevity.
14:26 I always thought of it as a .055" cut (referring to the radius, not the diameter). Maybe the vocabulary is different on a boring machine. Nice video! 27:38 Machining CI is so satisfying.
Breakthrough to the water jacket always needs the thin section broken away, it leals to accelerated rusting if you done and flow issues. Sealer is a great lubricant for press fitting if you avoid aqua N2.
Great work process; the experimental gamble was lucky that the core was as close as it was so that the sleeves could cover it as opposed to the step on top or at the very bottom.
You don't need a line bore tool to cut the bottom of the sleeves. Run the boring bar down through the bore, then reach under to insert the cutting block with the tip upside down and drive the boring head up while the cutter is spinning.
Nicholas, you could make a little sign off clip of The Cleaning Guy doing a BROOM DROP (instead of Mic Drop) and place at the end of successful creative machine job. Love what you guys do!!
I wish I could afford to ship my engine and have you guys do the rebuild. Your content is always a joy to watch and I have yet to see you work on a Polyhead engine.
Forgive my limited engine refurbishing knowledge (tool n die guy) does beating on a cold,frosted thin walled top hat cause any problems with micro stess fractures where the top hat is recessed at the intersection . Love your channel, all the best from the UK 🏴👏👍
Nice to see the cleaning guy getting some machine time. He's doing pretty well - I think another six months or so, it'll be time to promote him to machinist's apprentice! Good job, cleaning guy!
Thank you to Worksport for sponsoring this video! Visit worksport.com/jimsauto and use code JIMSAUTO at checkout for an additional discount!
I would just understand if it was me but I would make sure
Whoever ends up with this engine understands that it's probably it's one last go-round
Yes it's based on a 3:27's blueprint
But she's a little worse for the wear
Love the long form content. If you have some k-333 or 334 on the shelf you can dab some around the bottom of the sleeve after it's trimmed for a little extra insurance. I'm not sure how you could do it on a boring and surfacing machine but I just use a standard boring head with an offset bar and a blind threading insert leaves a 30* chamfer behind to trim the bottom of the sleeves.
Re-stamp the block numbers and use ARP stud kit.....
btw '' YT is messing with the view numbers , you had 149K views then they bumped it back down to 109K'''
Please follow up on more with this ol' gal! The 327's one of my favorite engines, so I'd love to see it get fully decked out.
Thanks Nicolas. We are ordering a cover for my silverado in a day or two. The tops look great!
There are very few channels if any on youtube that I will watch a 1 hour + video on, but dangit, I watch these videos from start to finish on the edge of my seat every time. It is both informative and heartwarming seeing the comradery between father and son, and how they both value each others input as they work. The professionalism shown on this channel is second to none. Please don't ever feel the need to shorten these videos to some perceived outside pressures, it would be a travesty. Keep em coming boys!
My sentiments exactly, well said.
They are perfectly understandable with 2x speed, you you can dig in half the time.
One of the most annoying, but most satisfying, type of work is "uneffing" someone else's screwups. Great job, fellas!
It sure is when you don’t expect it. But this one is a known (?) mess. It’s always worth a try.
Whenever a customer say something like "I tried fixing it" i get that being sent to principals office knowing the hammer is coming down, or the just wait til your father gets home😮, because I know I'm in for some shit
If you think these clowns are "uneffing" a .060" over SBC block with "flange sleeves" you are just as clueless as they are.
We're going to have to do grinding on the bottom side too?
ROFLMAO. Tell me you have never sleeved a parent-bore block without telling me you have never sleeved a parent-bore block.
Just a note of caution when working with liquid nitrogen: wear safety glasses AND a face shield. If it accidentally splashes in one or both of your eyes, there's little chance your eyesight can be saved. I work in aircraft maintenance and whenever we have to use that stuff to install a freeze plug or a bushing, we always double up on eye protection. I'm never comfortable working with liquid nitrogen.
My father-in-law (a farmer) bought a six cylinder International tractor in two pieces. It had been hit in a road crash and the engine literally broken off the gearbox.
He metal stitched the broken pieces himself. He hand made at least one from steel plate to fit the block. He also fitted a turbo. That tractor did at least 20 years work on the farm. Totally amazing what these guys could accomplish.
I’m glad that you decided to save the old 327 engine block.
Why? Is there something unique about this engine? Why not use one of 10 million 350 blocks instead?
Yup, right there with ya! Those were iconic engines back in the day, and all the street rats wanted the 327/365 hp small block….myself included!
@@michaelsalomonsson9298 The 350 was ok….and basically the same block. There was this allure about a “mouse motor” that we just had to have. The bigger boys had the “Rat” motor which typically was anything from a 396, 427, 454, on up. There was a small block 400 that was just nasty, and we use to see if we could take out the big block guys with mouse motors. Indeed, we won a good many races, but that big block made its dent, and never looked back!
The ONLY reason I could come up with was a desire to keep the engine number, if it matched, but the decking removed those, so...?.
Otherwise, I'd have gone straight to either a good core or, when you take all the work involved in that, go straight to the aftermarket HD options.
The 327 was one of the best motors gm made
Ex-production machinist here.
I love watching the processes, including the screwups. Anybody that turns raw metal into finished parts or assemblies will always have at least 1 screwup in their careers.
If you go to a good trade school or apprenticeship program, you get your screwups out of your system early, and self-taught guys or gals will screw up occasionally because it's part of the learning process. Self-taught also means that you are more willing to try out new processes.
Keep up the good work. I had to give up my machining career due to my health 30 years ago. I loved the work so much that overtime was enjoyable, 56 hour weeks was my norm. My scrap rate was around 11 parts per million in an environment where 3% scrap was the expected norm.
The best shop I worked in, I drove our Inspector nuts in a good way. Every morning I would check the calibration on my mics and dial calipers. I had my own set of WW2 era Brown & Sharpe standards for that. I exclusively used Starrette measuring equipment. I had the diamond anvils on my 1 inch and 2 inch micrometers, the 1 inch had the mechanical digital readout with the vernier sleeve. My dial caliper was accurate to 0.0001", including the depth rod. I would have our Inspector certify my calibrations monthly, which is the part that drove him nuts. My gear was calibrated better than his own, every month.
It's because most of us turn finished parts or assemblies into raw metal that machine shops have customers 🙂
@@jsh6952 I love seeing brand name precision measuring tools with calibration certifications on them. There is no such thing as a cheap precision measuring tool.
I did have a Mitutoyo dial caliper that goes to .001 and didn't have a cert with it. I just bought it secondhand because I never worked where there was a brake drum micrometer.
I bought it secondhand. I'd rather buy a brand name tool secondhand than some new stuff from China.
Not all my stuff has to come from the USA, but it does have to come from a place known for good auto parts.
If that's not possible, I seek out whatever allows me to avoid Red China. I usually save little or nothing by paying someone to turn my brake drums and rotors on DIY jobs. However, everytime I can do it, I am happy that I did less business with reds. I shout "Screw the reds" and smile every time. I don't have a problem with the Chinese commoner, but I hate few tjings as much as the CCP and oligarchs who finance CCP politicians.
The father son banter is great. Dads fortunate to have these years with the boy doing projects and having fun
Thanks for a super live video Jim and Nickolas.
I typed three paragraphs to you and they disappeared.
So now just let me say I love your show. Great saving this engine.
Loved watching.
Looking forward to the next video.
The retired Air Force veteran
Not sure why they would have disappeared. Thanks for your comments and for watching.
@@JAMSIONLINE
That happens when you type through an ad, when the ad closes and the video restarts, TH-cam has a brain fart.
When you have a lot to say (always good on this sort of channel) type your message into a “notepad” app. Then copy paste. It lets you check for errors and wording that might upset the YT net nanny.
"Closet Boomer" , now that's what I can call my youngest daughter! She's, 33 but she shares my love for cars and trucks as well as our music of the time. I love it when she gets after her boyfriend to get his oil changed and check those brakes. Love your show and the way you come up with ideas and solutions together, not to mention the way you bring old iron back to life.
She should do those checks herself. Show up those who treat cars as disposable.
Very impressive. As 45+ years heavy truck/bus mechanic (boomer I’m 65 years old) and have rebuilt literally 100’s of engines I have always been amazed at the machining process of blocks and heads especially performance and race engines. Love the videos.
Back in the 80s, I did work experience at an engine reconditioners and there and then decided that is what I wanted to do. Loved the work. Unfortunately, 6 months later, I became very sick, and there went that plan. Then comes youtube, and I get to watch these excellent channels. So I get my hit by watching these.😊
I love the ARPG LED STRIPS changing color. Nice work bringing that classic motor back from the scrap yard
Love all your videos, but this may be my favorite to date. The back-and-forth between father and son and the unique premise of starting with a “junk” block took the entertainment and educational levels “to the max”!
It’s nice seeing you and your dad getting along and working well together. A couple of my friends worked for just a short with their dads ( one of them also an automotive shop ) and they fought like hell and eventually couldn’t be in the same room together. I don’t think they ever reconciled.
At the Mopar factory, they had at least 4 grades of pistons; A,B,C,D (and possibly E). These were pistons of slightly different bore sizes. After the machined block came out to have pistons fitted, the person doing the fitting would measure the bores and figure out which pistons would fit in each of the bores. This was because some of the bores wouldn't fit a standard piston, for whatever reason (tool wear, inattentive operator, etc). There are other companies that did the same thing with cam bearings, the cam cores weren't machined to the proper tolerances, so they used different cam bearings to make up for it. They did a lot of things like that in the 50s-70s, just so they could get the product out the door quicker and cheaper. Most people wouldn't notice any difference in how their cars operated anyway.
Even in modern engines this sort of thing exists. Most Toyota crankshaft bearings are color coded. Each color represents a tiny amount of size difference. It is so they can adjust oil clearance down to the last .005mm or so.
The modern Subaru engines have the same kind of piston. They have size A and size B.
I my reading I learned that graded piston and bore sizes is currently being done in the production of the Chrysler Pentastar engines as well.
I’ve put 100s of sleeves in 327 blocks, usually went with a .125 wall straight sleeve, I’d break through just about half the cylinder and half way around, left a step on the bottom and used green loctite, never had an issue, usually used about .002-.0025 press fit, where it would really only press about .5” on the top and about .250” on the bottom.
That's going to make a fine engine. The sleeves have better more uniform metal and will keep ring seal very well. One request, when you surface things try and get us a closer shot. It's cool to see the improvement- highs and lows. Do appreciate your videos and the time it takes to produce them. Stay well men. 👍🙏
Definitely a street sleeper...not to be run blown or with nitrous...but a beefy 327 that can smoke the back tires on pump gas...those thin sleeves will probably be weak in the center and if blown or whatnot could case it to blow out...correct??
And oh man...that final 2thou pass to clean up the deck...wooo...perfect!!!
Awesome stuff...alot of work to save an old block!
Keep em coming!!!!
Waste not, want not. Thank you for saving this block. I hope the owner appreciates the time, skill and knowledge it took to save this engine and takes good care of it.
Many yrs ago I had a source for free 327 high compression pistons (Mercruiser). I had post 1963 283s (thicker water jackets) bored .125" and built homemade 302s for drag racing. Just as if I had a brain. Sometimes the "may pop" motors would last as many as 3-4 weekends before the water jacket blew out. Great videos.
Warms my heat to so you guys saving that old 327! Thanks for sharing.
This is going to be one of your better performing videos and series, I'm predicting it.
The cleaning guy is a treasure.
Eccentric main bore bushings to allow the clearancing cutter to be moved in and out. The offset bushings hanging out both 1st and 5th main to allow a long Keyed handle to rotate the off set bushings at the same time. Could be hex ,square or double D shaped. Those would be easy to make on your CNC lathe.
I'm partial to the Double DD shape. 🤣
After my 2nd deployment I lost my patience for using the machining tools and extracting broken or the why is this so long bolts. it's great watching a pro, the knowledge you have and share with viewers is perfect for anyone thinking about this path. Thanks for the video brother
43:35 you punned and didn't even notice! "That's pretty cool." 🙂 Thanks for sharing.
I’m attempting to rebuild one of these myself, my first Rodeo with a small block Chevy. These videos are a big help in letting me know about he process , albeit mine isn’t as bad lol.
Another win for the cleaning guy and his helper...good content and looking forward to seeing follow up...thanks...🔧🔧👍
When I was a younger guy,I rebuilt several 540 Perkins engines,those ran flanged sleeves,I don’t remember any having a problem with movement in the block,they were very thin though great video,thanks,ps thinking about it that’s 40 years ago,.hit.
Who'da thought a cleaning guy could be such a useful part of the team? Love watching you guys work.
Love watching you guys. The youngster is very lucky to have a Dad who can teach him so much.
It's always fun to hear father and son work so well together. And funny.
I'm desperate to keep these old engines going. Thank you for the awesome video!
I think it’s awesome your saving the old girl ! It’s only time and some money. Great job guys keep it up.
This video is a great example of why I love y'all's channel, as well as all kinds of stuff like this. It's also a great illustration of what's possible and what sets skilled and experienced machinists above the rest. Any machinist, even an apprentice, if they go by the numbers and take care, can refurbish a typical high mileage engine, but a job like this would probably be far beyond their abilities, mostly just because of the things you can't account for without sufficient experience, like that hole in the cylinder wall. Plus which, having a block that from the factory wasn't properly squared up is bound to leave a lot of guys confounded, thinking their setup is messed up, as y'all mentioned. There's just so many variables in play, as well as the occasional curve ball served up by the most auspicious lawmaker of them all, Murphy, that make engine building such a challenging business. Our male pride is a big thing here too, I think, judging by the sorry state of that block from the previous "work" done on it. Either the other guys overestimated their own abilities (see: Dunning-Kruger effect) or just couldn't force themselves to admit it was out of their league, so they kept going with it without first educating themselves a bit better, or it may have just been a case of sloppy workmanship, just going through the motions as quickly as possible so that Miller Time may come. It's damn cool to see you guys save the thing, I absolutely loathe waste and I appreciate others who do their best to avoid it! Sleeving the thing, I can definitely tell that is some nerve-wracking stuff, great job! I think many would have been tempted to try the other side without putting it back in the oven, only to have issues, so I like that y'all take your time. I'm not even an engine builder or anything but I have learned a ton from your channel so far. Keep it up!
must be real cool to work with the clean up guy! As a machinist of over 15 years i had the opportunity to work with great guys like him (clean up guy lol) and learned a lot from them. love the videos
Love watching you both work and interact. Great watching father son. My dad was a toolmaker and Jim reminds me of my late dear brother in law. Thank You gents!
we are just about to take the engine out of my resto car to attend to some faults left by the re-conditioner. probably wrong sized main bearing shell, but we are going right over the short engine. enjoy watching you work ( my icon is a photo of the Holden 186X2 we are going to fix - properly)
Id love to see or hear about the process of rebuilding your X2. Was it out of an HK?
Great camera work and editing.
Fun project. Liquid nitrogen is magic for press fits- you should try it for guides some time
Cutting Edge Engineering Australia has used Liquid Nitrogen for putting bushings in some vehicle parts
Anyone who's mad that the serial numbers on a block were lost lives in a different universe. The only thing that block was good for before machining was scrap or decoration. Now it has a life being used like it is supposed to.
Glad to see the work. Looks incredible.
My thought is if the car it came out of was being restored, thats a different story.
@@greggkiest1069 sure. If you're not going to drive the car. Go ahead and find out how expensive it is to keep those numbers.
Numbers matching original/restoration is for the museum, IMHO. It's rare to see them in a concourse/car show. It's more rare to see them on the road.
So for anyone that's going to use the vehicle, rip the bandaid off and do what it takes to get the vehicle to the point that you can really enjoy it.
@@chrisgreen359 I figured the numbers still mattered if they could show it was a 327 and not a 350. However, one would have to be a very hardcore Chevy guy to know it. There might have been other markings on the block to indicate that it is a 327, but I don't know.
I have heard of Chevy guys loving one type of marking. That's the camel hump heads. I don't know if different blocks get special markings.
Nissan and water cooled VW are my passions. They don't mark the blocks on the deck.
Magnificent video, guys. For those of us who don't know this stuff you give a fascinating insight into the accuracy of quality engineering. Thank you.
I put them in the lathe and use a metabo with a 6 or 7" cut off wheel. Then a flapper disc on a battery powered grinder to dress the bottom to my scribe line on the machinest ink. And chamfer inside and outside of sleeve with the same flapper disc. It goes super quick.
Awesome job ! love those old 327's blocks. Nothing like old school !!!!! this is a great site to watch. thanks for the showing.
Thank You for the good video. It was great that You decided to take the 327 out of the junk pile and started building it.
Wow, so very interesting to watch these highly specialized operations done. Probably never will see anything like this again so thanks.
I'm always impressed by you guys.. Thank you.
These guys are great. Friends of mine own a non-automotive machine shop and I frequently hang out there on Friday nights. I'd love to do the same at this place but it's on the other side of the country.
All of this is very amazing. I work metal a bit and always find it far more difficult than woodworking. On a 10 inch ww2 lathe I find it difficult to get anything within a few thousands and it is very surprising how much that tiny bit can make a big go no go difference.
Once in a while I get a spot on and am never certain how it happened so duplicating it is even rarer.
It's also amazing what a tiny burr can do to prevent things from assembling or coming apart. I think that work is very difficult and find I precision unreachable.
I love the zipping sound the liners make when they slip into the block, is so satisfying. I imagine you love it too.
Very impressive work, gentlemen. It's fair to say you salvaged that scrapyard block. Reduce, reuse, recycle. Thanks for sharing the process.
Crazy thought : Push the boring bar through the cylinder, install the tool to cut in an upward direction and hand face the bottom of the sleeves buy pulling the bar back up against the bottom of the sleeve.
Not sure if you can do that with the setup you have but, it's something that came to mind to try.
I have done a lot of engine work and always listened closely to the highly skilled machinists when they explained a process. I never asked why when boring a whole bank of cylinders do you sometimes prefer to start in the middle?
To cut the bottom of the sleeves use your same setup for boring the sleeves but flip your cutting insert over and feed up. You will just have to install the cutting tool with the spindle extended. You would be able to chamfer the bottom after it's the final length too.
More money than it's worth ! But saving a 327 Block is Nobel ! I like watching you guys bouncing ideas off each other . Great collaboration . Thanks for sharing ! Looking forward to the follow up !
Amazing skill and knowledge not just with the design but with the handling and setup of the tools. Incredible to watch.
This is one of my favorite videos its cool to see how things are done completely start to finish. Would love to see what a machine does to save a SBC in the valley area such as polishing, grinding out the casting flash smoothing oil flow back or even restricting. Being a hot rodder and oval track racer be cool to see some of the tips and tricks. Very Awesome work guys!
In the right hands, amazing restoration can make some of the most clapped out things viable again. Way to go Nick and Jim! Great teamwork, as always.
I put 6 sleeves in a Continental 6 block used in an arc welder. I had a 350 Chevy block made in Mexico that split a cylinder. When I bored it for the sleeve there was a hole about one and a quarter inch wide the full length of the water jacket next to another cylinder. What was gone from the bored cylinder was added to the adjacent cylinder. Core shift. I put 140k miles on it with no problem.
I see that is a 1967 and older block, I see the provision for the draft tube , you guys rock💪🏻💪🏻
jim..
in the good old days...
we just took the short block in..
and picked it up a couple of days later
i never realised the amont of machine work ..
where is the apprentice..??
please dont leave without passing your lifelong skills..
god bless..
We are all the apprentice now😂
That harmonic you got when putting the chamfer on the bottom of the sleeve reminded me of a instance when I was turning a 4" aluminum tube in the lathe and was turning a section of it to a .035 wall thickness.
It screeched at a pitch and frequency that dropped me to my knees before I got the feed stopped. Everthing just instantly became a blur, and I was dizzy to the point of nausea. I think if my hand wasn't on the lever, I may not have been able to shut the travel off.
I've never experienced anything like it since. There was a guy leaning against a work bench, watching me. He said he would have fell also if not for the bench.
It took both of us several minutes to recover.
As usual, Your videos are interesting and educational. There's something poetic about saving a old 327 that's 55 yrs or older. And im sure those stamped numbers would never match to anything still around today. This engine needs to find itself into a old late 1960's C-10 Pickup truck (Hint, Hint). Im sure there's gotto be a old truck like that there in your high desert of Colorado. And then after its a finished project, you raffle it off to your followers to fund future projects.
Marvellous! The block looks great. I’m looking forward to the rest of the build.
Many times I have wondered why it was a big deal if you went through to the water jackets when the block was getting sleeves anyway. Now I know. Great vid. I'm here for the whole series. I'd really like to hear that engine run again.
Love to see the boo boo casting with all its warts converted into the literal Cinderella...amazing craftsmanship!
Thank you
D😊
For all the time you have put into this block let’s hope it puts out a pile of horsepower. Great content gentlemen.
I did a 327 for a corvette restoration...had to sleeve all cylinder like that...green locktite....did some dyno without issue...also gave a bottle of ceramic to the costumer just in case...working with nitrogene is awesome...so easier to put sleeve in
How did you save the numbers on the block deck??
@@AsswipeGarage this costumer didnt really care about number...but we did another one that the number was important...a guy in the usa have the punch from gm...i punched one block for baret jackson
Nice that you showed the entire process....its all in the setup !
Absolutely amazing process bringing this block back . Great job.
Nice work fellas. I have a correct block for my 1967 Chevelle that I wouldn't want decked. Stamped with the codes for the L79.
Excellent, painstaking care taken here fellas! I'm proud of youse both! I had a great time watching this, & am keenly looking forward to the next video in this series. Thanks for doin it!
I'm not a machinist, but I am fully aware of what it can take to un-eff other peoples work as an electrician.
I am constantly amazed by the levels of incompetence reached by other electricians while feeling blessed that the occupants of the building didn't have it burned down around them.
Those sleeves are easily long enough to redo a 400 Ford or the 300 I-6 Ford motors with their 4 inch strokes.
Great Save, they were a force to be reckoned with back in the day, she lives to rumble another day.
You guys really have a good time working together. Good on ya!!
Amazing work! If you can explain a little more about the ceramic sealant in the next video I would appreciate. I don't even know how products like loctite handle the high temperatures in the engines and why it is not used to fill small leaking cracks on the outside of the water jacket.
Love the work. Hope you go all ind with removing Casting burs and smoothing up the valley and give it some non stick paint for better drainer. You know all the Bell's and whistles
as a MACHINIST, THIS IS VERY SATISFYING, great video WITH LOTS OF info.
Please don't make fun of the old man. He knows so much There's no way that you will ever stop Learning....i respect the pops he has skills
I'm really loving this segment. After part 1 of watching you guys tear down this engine and discovering it was junk. I was really hoping you would try to save it. As the owner of a 327 myself. This is just excellent. I love these engines. Can't wait for the next episode!!
Top job guys, Old iron being saved.
Loved the coloured light shots on the reveal...
As an ex machinist, three things I would have done. Not internally chamfering the bottom of the bores and not put a stroker crank in it. Keeping it at exactly 327 cubic inches (as god intended) in perfect running order would be incredibly rare for an engine of this age. Unsure what the plans are for cylinder heads, but a pair of Dart Iron Eagle heads would be perfect whilst leaving the engine looking like it did when it left the factory and improving power and longevity.
LOVED THIS EPISODE! Roadkill level entertainment! Love the tone n sound of the cleaning guys voice!
14:26 I always thought of it as a .055" cut (referring to the radius, not the diameter). Maybe the vocabulary is different on a boring machine. Nice video!
27:38 Machining CI is so satisfying.
Breakthrough to the water jacket always needs the thin section broken away, it leals to accelerated rusting if you done and flow issues. Sealer is a great lubricant for press fitting if you avoid aqua N2.
That block is turning out to be a good old block rather then scrap ❤❤❤❤ fantastic job guys ❤❤❤❤
Thanks for posting guys I enjoy your videos. Take care.
What a great channel! The both of you should be so proud of yourselves. Great work, guys.
Great work process; the experimental
gamble was lucky that the core was as close as it was so that the sleeves could cover it as opposed to the step on top or at the very bottom.
Excellent video. It’s truly a pleasure to watch such craftsmanship.
You don't need a line bore tool to cut the bottom of the sleeves. Run the boring bar down through the bore, then reach under to insert the cutting block with the tip upside down and drive the boring head up while the cutter is spinning.
Great and interesting video. I hope we get to see the finished product assembled and running!
I like the fact that you started with a 327 Block that should have been scrapped and saving it and giving it another shot to run again.
Right... because there is a real shortage of them...
Nicholas, you could make a little sign off clip of The Cleaning Guy doing a BROOM DROP (instead of Mic Drop) and place at the end of successful creative machine job. Love what you guys do!!
I wish I could afford to ship my engine and have you guys do the rebuild.
Your content is always a joy to watch and I have yet to see you work on a Polyhead engine.
You’re really doing that old iron justice . Well done
Looks like you’re doing some good work anxious to see the rest of the build !!
Rags to riches, excellent work guys.
I do like your chip guards (cardboard), I have a whole set. 😊
👍👍
It’s a precursor to CAD - Cardboard Aided Design (refs to Project Binky).
Forgive my limited engine refurbishing knowledge (tool n die guy) does beating on a cold,frosted thin walled top hat cause any problems with micro stess fractures where the top hat is recessed at the intersection .
Love your channel, all the best from the UK 🏴👏👍
Nice to see the cleaning guy getting some machine time. He's doing pretty well - I think another six months or so, it'll be time to promote him to machinist's apprentice! Good job, cleaning guy!