Anyone in the UK used engine block fillers?

[minimutly]

Which reminds me of John Whitmore, who had to race with the big boys.
Mind you if hill climbs are only 10 seconds long, drag racing (where there is no coolant system) fixes may be appropriate.

50 seconds is more like it, usually, it's not drag racing. Half, or more fill should be ok, and provide a substantial improvement in stiffness, but see below.

I'm curious. I've known people who have run blown A series engines on nitro with just ARP studs. What sort of power output are you expecting?

I need to remove a chunk (10mm plus) off the top of the block, and the head studs are being moved from the cast in, er knobs? To where there is simply a cast surface, hence not enough metal to hold a stud, let alone provide a stiff enough flat surface. I have wondered about inverting the block, cleaning and preheating and then pouring half an inch of aluminium into the (now top) of the jacket. If it were to stay in place it should do the job?
All this block work is likely to substantially weaken the old mini block, hence looking at ways of returning some strength. Power wise I'm looking for 200bhp as a starting point.
I must say I have gone off the "cement" pouring option, simply because drilling through it is likely to be a nightmare, and will epoxy provide a sufficient "guide" to stop the drill from wandering?

 

[minimutly]

I have a little experience of deep drilling Cast Iron and my best advice is if you must drill cast, don't! All you need, at any time during the job is to find an inclusion with the drill bit and you are royally stuffed.

I'm pretty sure that unless I can cast a new deck I will need to drill the bottom of the water jacket. The option of a long conrod is not a good one since the rod/stroke ratio is getting silly. (Although it might be an idea to actually try it first before condemning it, since it's by far the easiest option)...

 

[Morris]

Makes sense now.
When I was drag racing I also worked with a very clever guy who had a similar problem (he messed with Ford pre-crossflows). His solution was to cut the deck off (by hand with a hacksaw!), remove the required amount from the now open block and then milled both parts flat. Lots of epoxy and screws then bore and insert liners. At the end he had a low deck block with a full thickness deck. I can't remember the exact reason for it but it was a large bore very short stroke 1100cc pre-crossflow. Also had a homemade MAE style down draft head.
All because he saw a hole in the rules.

 

[Morris]

Which reminds me of John Whitmore, who had to race with the big boys.
Mind you if hill climbs are only 10 seconds long, drag racing (where there is no coolant system) fixes may be appropriate.

Harold Bull was another.
I knew two brothers from Market Harborough (6 miles away) who were abusing an A series in similar fashion. Very clever, made their own Rootes style blower and mechanical fuel injection.

 

[minimutly]

I spent an hour and a bit looking closer at this earlier. Each stud has different issues, and different possibilities. The water jacket bottom is not very deep at the front, and would be easy to drill, except for the middle one which will come straight into the oil feed to the main bearing, but all the front studs are within the original "dimples" and might actually be ok, the now thin deck then being the issue. The jacket at the rear is a lot deeper, with little guarantee the drill if unsupported would make it to the bottom.
Here's a question, could I pour molten aluminium into the upturned block with some chance it would stay there?

 

[Milkybars]

Not sure these will help ?
8mm is the only large size

 

[minimutly]

Makes sense now.
When I was drag racing I also worked with a very clever guy who had a similar problem (he messed with Ford pre-crossflows). His solution was to cut the deck off (by hand with a hacksaw!), remove the required amount from the now open block and then milled both parts flat. Lots of epoxy and screws then bore and insert liners. At the end he had a low deck block with a full thickness deck. I can't remember the exact reason for it but it was a large bore very short stroke 1100cc pre-crossflow. Also had a homemade MAE style down draft head.
All because he saw a hole in the rules.

Interesting shed engineering, we might be related...
My application is a short stroke A series, 16v head and turbo. The block might stand 10mm off (I've done 1071 S cranks that needed a big chunk off), but the 16v head needs the studs relocating.