Question about rods and a possible crack in block

[wake328]

First off, I am a first time V8 builder, been around powersports all my life professionally and built many engines in that arena. V8... not so much :-)

My rods were already hung on the pistons by the machinist who prepped the bock. Some of the chamfers on the rod ends looked the same on both sides, where others there was a more distinctive difference. The over-analyzer in me just wants to confirm that the picture is correct. It just seemed strange to me that the bearing (king bearings if that matters) surface was so far away from the radius on the crank journal. So regardless of the chamfer, the thicker side of the rod goes to the crank lobe side?

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1U_...X7uWoeJ8h8560w

As I was installing the pistons, I noticed this imperfection. Not sure what to call it, a crack or just a random groove that wasn't smoothed out? Thoughts, would you be concerned? After paying around $1600 for machining work I hoped this would have gotten smoothed out...

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1fS...8_AtrqJm96rg-w

[mattfranklin]

Pic 1 looks right with larger chamfer of rod cap toward crank fillet.

Pic 2 shows a rough spot and potential stress concentration. I don't know if it would be automatic for a machinist to smooth that. I have seen that smoothing done for racing engines where you are pushing the engine to its limits. Has not been done for my stuff. Although on my recent cylinder heads my machinist did a little extra chamber work getting rid of sharp edges that might lead to preignition or knock. I didn't ask him for that and was not charged extra, but he's a super nice guy and a racing engine builder so that was natural for him.

Depends on what was included in your $1600.

[Captainfab]

I wouldn't be overly concerned about that imperfection at the bottom of that cylinder. It was likely there from the factory. However, myself I would have smoothed it out.

[DieselSJ]

Take your die grinder and take the sharp edges off of the imperfection and call it good. Cracks like to start at sharp corners.

[wake328]

After some further inspection, all the cylinders have somewhat of a little defect there from what appears to be flashing from the casting mold. I can also tell that the machinist definitely chamfered around the bottom of all the cylinders and likely couldn't take off so much material to completely remove the spot.

Here is a photo of another cylinder that has a similar spot... pretty much all of them have it to some degree. Not shown is that the little crease has flashing leading up to it on the non-finished side of the cylinder that protrudes down

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1rt...rXn6bcs4HRn1ZA

[Chevyrestorerman]

you mentioned you done several engines, did you use the same guy to do the machine work over the years ?

After a few trips working with someone you learn to trust and understand if there is a issue, than the guy who did all your machine work would bring up such an issue, in fact if it is a issue with the cylinder area you are concerned with.

In other words, the guy who did your machine work would of brought it to your attention before he spent 1600 bucks of your hard earned cash on prepping your block.

[wake328]

Originally Posted by Chevyrestorerman

you mentioned you done several engines, did you use the same guy to do the machine work over the years ?

After a few trips working with someone you learn to trust and understand if there is a issue, than the guy who did all your machine work would bring up such an issue, in fact if it is a issue with the cylinder area you are concerned with.

In other words, the guy who did your machine work would of brought it to your attention before he spent 1600 bucks of your hard earned cash on prepping your block.

He hasn't done work for me previously. I don't think it is much of an issue after seeing some of the other cylinders have a similar situation... just not as noticeable.

I went with this machinst in the first place because he was so thorough in going over options with me. Everyone else I talked to more or less said "drop it off, will cost $xxxx". This company was very thorough in explaining options and whats overkill versus important for my power level/rpms it will normally run.