Bore Dial Gauges ?

[W.olly]

I am not one for scrimping on tools. This bit of kit mite only get used twice or so a si want to do iut myself this as always wanted to rebuild an engine. So I am looking for a dial bore gauge for the engine bores. I want some thing half decent but not cheap so as to be real inaccurate.

Are cheap ones, i say cheap, at around £40 ok, or should i go like a Draper of a cost or around £80. that is my max budget really aswell.

I know they are set up with a micrometer so a lot of accuracy is down to that swell but need to know on a half decent boar gauge.

Cheers

 

[Brad93]

@Munkul May have a cheap one...

 

[onlymeagain]

Hi there, I have a Sealey DBG5010, 50 - 160mm bore gauge if that would work for you? It is in excellent condition and has been hardly used.

 

[W.olly]

Hi there, I have a Sealey DBG5010, 50 - 160mm bore gauge if that would work for you? It is in excellent condition and has been hardly used.

PM`d you kida

 

[a111r]

Presuming this is for the boat Volvo engine that got wet and rusty inside?

Are you re-boring it yourself? If not, then the shop has the tool.

 

[Munkul]

@Munkul May have a cheap one...

Yes I do, it's branded Linear, and if I sold it, the buyer would be equally as disappointed as I was

Seriously, the cheap ones are garbage. You'll struggle to get repeatable readings unless you bodge the anvils up with thread tape or something stupid like that.

As A111r says, why do you need a bore gauge? The machine shop has one.

When i did engine rebuilds, I relied on micrometers and some ok quality telescope gauges... I was never happy with the telescope gauges as a solution, but it was repeatable and accurate enough for bearing sizing etc. You could also use Plastigage, but it's not all that accurate for under thou-per-inch clearances.

 

[8ob]

As A111r says, why do you need a bore gauge? The machine shop has one.

When i did engine rebuilds, I relied on micrometers and some ok quality telescope gauges... I was never happy with the telescope gauges as a solution, but it was repeatable and accurate enough for bearing sizing etc. You could also use Plastigage, but it's not all that accurate for under thou-per-inch clearances.

Around here they rarely check their work and will bore an engine without resetting the cutter between bores so they get progressively smaller, more pronounced on something bigger like a 6 or 8 cylinder motor . I have found 5 thou difference between No 1 and No 8 on a v8 engine before now, the bore that was five thou undersize would have left the no8 piston with zero clearance. Same with cranks , never trust them and measure everything .

Bob

 

[Munkul]

Around here they rarely check their work and will bore an engine without resetting the cutter between bores so they get progressively smaller, more pronounced on something bigger like a 6 or 8 cylinder motor . I have found 5 thou difference between No 1 and No 8 on a v8 engine before now, the bore that was five thou undersize would have left the no8 piston with zero clearance. Same with cranks , never trust them and measure everything .

Bob

Well... I'd be changing machine shops, that's shoddy shoddy work

 

[Shox Dr]

Around here they rarely check their work and will bore an engine without resetting the cutter between bores so they get progressively smaller, more pronounced on something bigger like a 6 or 8 cylinder motor . I have found 5 thou difference between No 1 and No 8 on a v8 engine before now, the bore that was five thou undersize would have left the no8 piston with zero clearance. Same with cranks , never trust them and measure everything .

Bob

Never a truer word said. They cant be trusted.

 

[arther dailey]

the reply I got when I questioned the machine shop about bore sizes was ,quote. Its not a formula 1 engine mate its a diesel truck..so they wont get any more work from me

 

[Brad93]

There’s a place near me that is reputed to do good work. Gosnays I think

 

[zx9]

There’s a place near me that is reputed to do good work. Gosnays I think

That is a blast from the past, they used to have a very good reputation (80's / early 90's) when we were into Ford x flows and Mini A series motors. Hope they are still on the ball.

 

[grim_d]

Yes I do, it's branded Linear, and if I sold it, the buyer would be equally as disappointed as I was

Linear genuinely has to be the worst "metrology" gear in existence.

When I worked in training I asked for some verniers and linear is what we got.

Whatever "brand" they used to be was simply crossed out in silver pen, the action was so gritty you'd think it came from the beach, edges so sharp they'd literally cut you.....

 

[Seadog]

There’s a place near me that is reputed to do good work. Gosnays I think

They always had a good reputation back in the 70s and 80s. I've not had cause to use them for donkey's years. There was another in Leyton, called Field's. They were very good, too. Sadly long gone.

 

[a111r]

There’s a place near me that is reputed to do good work. Gosnays I think

On the A12, near Romford.
Was it Barry Gosnay, he used to have 'slot' in one of the car mags in the 80s/90s, with tips and horror stories etc?

 

[Brad93]

They always had a good reputation back in the 70s and 80s. I've not had cause to use them for donkey's years. There was another in Leyton, called Field's. They were very good, too. Sadly long gone.

There’s a guy near me with a fields wheel cover on his defender 90

 

[a111r]

There was another in Leyton, called Field's. They were very good, too. Sadly long gone.

Looks like they're still nearby, which has spoilt my "... this was all Field's" retort.

Engine repair experts |Fields Engine Service Ltd

Visit your local engine repair experts Fields Engine Service Ltd for engine repairs and reconditioning in Redbridge. Call us on 020 8539 5205 for a free quote if you are based anywhere within a 10-mile radius of London.

www.fieldsenginerecon.co.uk

 

[Seadog]

Wow! that's a surprise.

In fact they haven't moved at all, just ditched the shop front on the High Road. The sign could do with a lick of paint, though. The crankshaft grinder used to be behind the counter. I was always fascinated by it when I used to take cranks in for regrinding.

 

[Munkul]

the reply I got when I questioned the machine shop about bore sizes was ,quote. Its not a formula 1 engine mate its a diesel truck..so they wont get any more work from me

Too right.

There's a good engine shop in Dumfries, or at least there used to be. Tom McKean's, they could do everything from grinding/polishing cranks, to reboring, sleeving etc. They specialised in machine work and left the rebuilding to others.

 

[Stueeee]

As said already, check everything. A newly rebored short motor I bought a few years ago had bores where the machining marks were just peeking through the cross hatch honing, so I mentally priced in some work on it. My bore guage revealed that there was 4 thou' variance in the bore sizes (ranging from right size to well over) and up to 5 thou' of taper top to bottom on the bores; i.e. the bores were smaller at the bottom. This tapering is quite common on rushed rebores, with too big a cut being taken and insufficient time with a rigid hone. Cure of course was another rebore, taking the motor out to +80 something thou, fortunately, most old motors (this one was 50s vintage Austin) have nice thick castings.