The V8 Owners Forum -

Hello all.

Looking for advice on building my 302.

Purchased a bare block and it’s pretty rusty. It’s on a standard bore and hasn’t been decked before so not worried about that. What concerns me is the water jackets and lifter bores.

Has anyone ever cleaned up a rusty block to discover the lifter bores are over-size?

I haven't had any with problems but I have heard of lifter bores being sleeved after a lifter has chewed it up.

That’s a good shout Paul. I didn’t even realise that the lifter bores can be sleeved.

They definitely can, but hunt down a machine shop that can do it before getting too invested in it.

As seemingly it's not a totally simple process.

I don't really see why not myself, but it's what I was told when I enquired about lifter bore repair on an LS block, by quite a few machine places.

And even then...it still makes little sense. It's just a hole. Line up the mill/machine with existing hole, and it should be simple.

I’m with you there. I can’t see what wouldn’t be simple about that for well equipped machine shop.
Anyway the block is with Agra in Dundee so we’ll see what they say

Drilling the hole is easy , but it takes a lot of setting up. Clamping down something as large as a cylinder block aint easy , and then you either have to tilt the mill bed 45 deg , or the mill head has to tilt, then you have to locate the lifter bores. If you have damaged lifter bores I would start lookin for another block, or sleeve the existing holes and fit smaller dia lifters ........ cant remember where I saw it but some bloke had pressed in pre made sleeves and fitted mushroom shaped solid lifters.