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12-1-2007
It’s a case of the right decision for the wrong reason then….the stroke is going to stay 78mm. Welding the crank is not recommended, I can’t afford a new billet crank and don’t have time to make it myself, so stock it is….for now anyway.

I’m trying to get he bore up to 86.5mm to get me 5.5 liter, but 85mm and 5.3 liter will do if I get scarred when I get the liners in my hands.

Just a quick run through the numbers says I’d still need to let the engine spin to 8500 to hit 200mph, and not just spin, but actually make hp….I don’t know. It’s really just theoretical anyway because around here they arrest you if they catch you doing anything like that on the street and the car is not going to the track. I guess I could set the redline in the ECU at 8500 and say it should do 200mph and that’s that.

This is a street car that will occasionally go to the autocross, getting to 80-85 mph quickly is all I need, anything more is gravy.

I’m guessing it will be about 3100 lb. I've got the light gto/euro bumpers and the exhaust will probably save some weight, no spare, aluminum radiator, aluminum shocks, I may end up A/C less if I can’t find a place for the compressor, but the engine weights 100lb ish more than stock.

There honestly won’t be any serious weight reduction effort in this project for time and budget reasons. That will come when my car budget recovers a bit and I’m ready to paint. I’m looking at a seat change, new rear deck lid (that will happen now if I need more room under it)

12-1-2007
Another tough day with the welder....Last time it was the power line and the gas line today it was the water return twice. Welding to get the 348 liners to work slowed the whole process down a bit too. Another day I guess. I’m starting to remember why I don’t like welding.

While it was hot I extracted 9 or the 10 remaining studs. The 10th snapped off at the base of the threads on top. Sean suggested a CNC tool holder collet so I'll try that on the last one.

12-2-2007




As for the studs, I recommend you contact A1 Technologies. http://www.a1technologies.com They are very good at making short runs of high strength fasteners for a reasonable price. I used them for the 3.5 and 4 liter 308 project.
Thanks Steve, I'll look into both places.

12-2-2007
I don't have any money. The budget for this project is what ever I get selling off the old engine and various parts I have laying around. I paid $4000 for the running but tired 400i engine and another $4k for the TR heads. There are several salvage yards that deal in ferrari parts.

12-2-2007
I got a few hours in on the welding this evening. All 18 of the stud holes that need to move are now filled is! Those stud holes were a bugger. I also now have 5 of the cylinder bores welded up so they can be machined to accept the 348 liners....a couple more hours and the welding will be done.

I'm going to try to slide the rest of the welding in sometime this week so i can get on to some rough machining next weekend. I don't want to take any finish cuts on the decks in particular until I now I'm done welding.

12-3-2007
I'll post some tonight. Yesterday Lana was ebaying and I was ready for a drink - welding is hot work!

I wasn't sure the tig torch was going to hang in there, it's a little charred. It’s a bugger getting the weld to want to flow into the bottom of the stud holes, it takes about 5 minutes with 350 amps (the torch rated limit) to get it hot enough in there. I have to hold the torch outside the cylinder hole by the cable/hose to keep from frying my hand, the ceramic gas cup starts to melt and sag from the heat, you can smell the torch housing starting to burn, the torch cooling water starts getting hot enough to burn me, then the weld starts to flow, I weld my way out of the corner and the rest goes fine.

12-3-2007
Here are the pics form yesterday's work. 7 more bores to weld up then on the the mill. I'm also welding the outside row of coolant holes a bit to get them away from the bore so they won't break through when I open up the bores for the 348 liners and to make the shapes/positions match the TR heads better. I haven't decide what to do about the oil returns yet, I may need to weld those in too.

12-4-2007
Thanks. My 7 month old son now looks at the basement door when you say Papa's coming

12-4-2007
I'm trying to over build, but it's not always easy to tell. I'll cut the decks a couple thousands proud so I can see what I’ve got. I also don’t have the 348 liners yet so I don’t know what to do there - I’m just guessing at this point, but I will probably clean things up a little so I can get good measurements and it will give me some new reference surfaces so I know where I am if I need to weld more.

I don’t know about the stress relief or peening, I need to do some more reading over the next week or so. I’m not at all familiar with the vibratory stress relief Steve suggest and no one I know is familiar with it so I need to do some research.

Peening I’m sure is a good idea in general, but I have a couple problems here I’m not exactly sure how to handle. 1st is how much is the right amount? Too much will cause cracking. 2nd is how much will it help anyway? Normally peening processes are a surface treatment and I have to get 3/8” to over an inch deep where the threads are for it to help any. Some peening would probably help with stress relief, but again I don’t know how much to do or how much it would help….I need to do some research.

The default answer will be I do nothing, but I think they are both good suggestions and I want to try to find enough information to make a proper decision.

12-4-2007
Yes, final cuts are the last step after all the welding and any peening or stress relief operation.

I will do the rough cuts and get the heads on then move on to mating the engine to the trans in case there is any welding there. After everything is done, then the finish machining starts.