juarez

I've heard a lot of things being said with regards too altering the performance of engines, reconditioning them and preparing them for Foriced induction. I've heard of shotpeening, balancing the engine, blueprinting, boring, honing, cross-flowed heads, and heaps of other technical terms.

What I want too know, now that I'm expecting to get an I6 soon, is which of these things do I need too get done, or at least, what are these things? All I know at the moment, really, is that I will want shotpeened pistons and that the crankshaft shouldn't need work up to 750hp, and that if I design it for NA, it wont work so good with Forced induction and vice-versa.

So, what exactly is:
Shotpeening?
Honing?
Engine balancing?
Blueprinting?
What is the difference between honing and boring? (There seems to be some connection between the two)
Surfacing?
Decking?
Torque Plating?

Also, I'm aiming too get Pavtek too do some of these things too the engine. Are there any other places in Victoria which offer reasonable engine-machining services?

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TQE, SWB, ATPS, Worst of the E-series.. and I wouldn't have it any other way

AUII_Forte

Honing leaves a rough pattern on the cylinder bores that make new piston rings seat. Honing is an essential part or reconditioning a motor. Boring on the other hand is where the cylinder bores are made larger and oversized pistons are fitted, there for increasing engine size. I think Bass Crazy's car is bored from 3.9 to about 4.1 or am I mixed up with someone else's car?

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RAPTOR

OK, I'll have a go. I guess everyone has to learn this stuff somewhere;

Shotpeening - the surface treatment of metals by bombarding it with small balls of shot (metal) to increase the density of the surface layer and remove minor imperfections that can be initiation points points for stress failures. Increases durability.

Honing - as EAII_Fiarmont has said, the application of the cross-hatch pattern on the cylinder bore aimed at oil retention and the proper sealing of the piston rings. Done during reconditioning or on new engines prior to assembly.

Engine balancing - attempt to balance (as much as possible) the rotating and reciprocating mass of the engine. Reduces vibration (obviously) and associated stresses and should allow for more rapid changes in the revs and possibly higher revs to be maintained.

Blueprinting - the process of ensuring every part of the engine or whatever confirm to the original design specs (ie. the blueprint). Typically ensuring each combustion chamber has the same volume, piston & rod mass consistent throughout engine, all clearances confirm to specs etc.

Difference between honing and boring - Honing is as described above, where a surface finish is applied to the cylinder bore (without changing it's size) while boring is the increasing the internal bore of the cylinder to increase the capacity of the motor or during reconditioning to move up slightly to the next size piston/ring set (eg. 40thou oversize(imperial))

Surfacing - ensuring a flat surface at the top of the block for cylinder head mating (may also be ensuring this surface is parallel to crankshaft and at 90deg to bore?)

Decking - skimming the top of the block (deck) to increase compression.

I'll admit I may have the above two confused.

Torque Plating - applying a thick rigid plate to the block and torquing this down to head bolt specs to simulate the stresses within an assembled block prior to carrying out machining of the bores (boring). This is to ensure that the assembled block confirms to the machining specs as the block may deform under the loads applied during assembly.

Why do you want shotpeened pistons?

Given that you are still climbing the learning curve I would suggest you discuss with a number of engine builders what you are trying to achieve and see what they recommend rather than specifying work for them to perform. It could be a lot less expensive - it all depends on what you are trying to do.

The performance of an engine has to do with how much and how efficiently it can use the air/fuel that you can cycle through it and where in the rev range is the re******t torque maximised.

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