302 Chevrolet Engine Build

[Greg Reimer 7376]

Back in the days of my vocational training, we bored several blocks in our auto shop class using a boring bar that sat on the deck and affixed itself directly to the block. Now, realizing how inaccurate the deck surfaces are on most blocks, and that the further you move away from the point of origin of a machining operation the further away from true center you get, how far off those cylinders must have been when finished from the true blueprint specs of those engines. The Sunnen CK-10 machines that located the block on the main saddles and finished the cylinders a true 90 degrees from them ushered in a new era of accuracy that we never previously knew. Once the main bearing saddles are perfectly straightened out and the cylinder bores are round, square, and properly located, and the deck is exactly parallel to the main bearing centerlines, then the engine block can be assumed to be accurate enough to proceed with. Ever notice when you get your block,crank, cam and pistons and rods back from a great machinist, how nicely they seem to go together and everything turns smoothly and they just feel like a good engine. If the block isn't right, nothing else around it will be,either.