Are those flycut b230 pistons or b234 pistons?

Very exciting.

They are proper B234 pistons...

A few of those pics made me think a nice Marinara sauce was in order.

That engine is going to be awesome when it's done, as will the whole car I am sure, nice work.

she's gonna be gorgeous!!!!!!!!

OMG how long has that body been stuffed under your dash!
Lookin good boys, verrrry good...
How are we going to know which way you went at the bottom of hills without the blue cloud?

Just open your windows. You'll be able to hear me...

Thank god Dale has a multi spoke steering wheel, worked great to organize the wires

Looks like my machinist did a pretty good job...I would have ground the block smooth, but we've already established that I've got problems. Just kidding boys, looking good. Please tell me you put a bearing cap on before you flipped the block...Make sure you check your ring gaps by the way, if the bore is a little loose, you can fix that with the rings as they are fitted to the bore, not the piston. I know no one checks them on Mahle's, but do it for fun. Don't forget to polish the main and rod bearings first.

No need to check the ring gaps, really - I checked the first piston and they're REALLY wide. The numbers written on top of the block were the top ring gaps I measured - .020, .019, .019, .021 - using the same ring in all four bores. I measured the bores as best I could, and there is about .003" of clearance, a far cry from the .001" that I specified. He never even unwrapped the pistons, so I know he didn't measure them before honing. I didn't even end up taking really accurate measurements of the bores, once I saw that they were close to 3.802" I gave up. I fitted the biggest piston to the bore with the biggest ring gap, and so on...

The block was FILTHY too - the amount of metal shavings, grit, baked oil, etc that was left in the oil passages & threaded holes was disgusting. There wasn't a lot of cleaning going on either. The crank looked alright - he polished down far enough to remove almost all of the scratches, and there wasn't a lot of taper to the journals though I know you can't control or correct that with polishing. The crank spun alright, which you'd expect with .002-.003" of bearing clearance from the polished crank, but it doesn't look like he did anything to the main line (maybe he checked it and it looked alright?)

I'm not really impressed, overall - the V8 stuff I got back from D&W looked much better and was most definitely cleaner. Obviously looks can be deceptive, as that engine wouldn't stay together, and the money I spent on it was quite a bit more than what Dale spent on his, but when you consider what I had done the costs line up pretty closely. I just hope Dale's holds together.

For the record, I never asked them to clean it, just cook it. I've always figured that since you do it anyway, why bother. I prefer to go over the block and make sure that it is clean before anyting happens.

Also, each ring pack gets sized to the individual bore - that's the right way and at least one piston was pulled to deck the block - I can see the scratches on bore #2. I get a sense of negativity about the entire thing. Really, I doubt that 0.002 is within the realm of measurement accuracy. You've got to use the same instrument (he's using a bore gauge, not a snap gauge or internal mic) to set the hone. You may not care to take my word for it, but you're welcome to use my bore gauge to check the bores.

The mains were checked - and should be left alone if they are straight.

So, relax - get the bits preped and put back together and it will go for a long time. On my block and bits everything measured at the small side of the spec.

Haha, we didn't check my maths just then... 3.802" was a typo and would be WAAAAAAY too big for the 3.7901-3.7907" pistons. The number we got on the bore was 3.792", giving .0019-.0013", plus or minus my accuracy. For some reason when I was doing the .003" claim I remembered the pistons reading 3.7891-3.7897", until I went back and looked at the pix.

In light of you not asking them to clean the block, I guess I'd be satisfied with what we got, and my trust in them is starting to come.

Man, I can tell you right now that my engine is going to take a LONG time to build. at least at the end of it I will understand more of that jibberish.

engine looks really good!

It's been a long day and I didn't even think to check the calculations...give or take 0.003 to 0.009 is well within what you can reliably measure unless you do it all day not to mention instrument temperature these days (Saturday notwithstanding), I could get that by just being a little loose on the mic. It is a feel thing - make sure it squeaks, but no more when doing the reading. If using a T-gauge, then the drag of the gauge is harder to get right...it's just a little bit of drag. It's more important to be consistent with your technique (i.e. if you measure the bore parallel and perpendicular to the long axis, are your measurements the same? Ditto for the crank. When I checked the crank there was no taper on either the mains or the big ends and they were absolutely round.

Just remember, size, taper, out of round

To quote Craig...the mother of all thread resurrections is eminent...

Stay tuned...