I got a good insight today into the time required to square up and zero deck a block to a specified deck height. A local race engine builder was nice enough to let me come in and deck my block on his equipment...although he still expects to get paid, imagine that! 
I started at 4 PM and finished at 9 PM. Jeez what a lot of work. I had decked the block previously on a "deck locating" machine after sleeving two holes ...fancy way of saying you **try** to cut it at the same angle as the current block deck surface and have no idea whether it's canted end to end or side to side.. It was .008" off end to end and .004" twisted on one side, and .012" off in/outboard on the other. I guess I can try to blame it on the previous blowup and repair work.
I ended up with the block at 9.501" on both banks, square to the crank and level. I made the mandrels for his deck machine a couple of weeks ago so I think I have 10 hours or more invested in just decking the block. I learned a lot though and now I can order pistons! I'm getting closer, one slow step at a time.
I started at 4 PM and finished at 9 PM. Jeez what a lot of work. I had decked the block previously on a "deck locating" machine after sleeving two holes ...fancy way of saying you **try** to cut it at the same angle as the current block deck surface and have no idea whether it's canted end to end or side to side.. It was .008" off end to end and .004" twisted on one side, and .012" off in/outboard on the other. I guess I can try to blame it on the previous blowup and repair work.
I ended up with the block at 9.501" on both banks, square to the crank and level. I made the mandrels for his deck machine a couple of weeks ago so I think I have 10 hours or more invested in just decking the block. I learned a lot though and now I can order pistons! I'm getting closer, one slow step at a time.
