I bought the block from a private party that hadn't even picked it up from the speedshop before he changed his plans so it was really a brand new block.
The block came with 4.115" bore so the first thing to do was to hone it with stress plates to the final bore size of 4.125". I took it to the machine shop with the Ross pistons so they could measure each piston before honing.
After the cylinders were honed I took the block back home, cleaned it and did a test assembly with rods and pistons in each corner to check how much the block needs to be decked. After that it was time for another trip to the machine shop to remove 0.5 mm (0.02") from the decks.
Picking up some parts for the engine...
I put the heads intake etc on just to take this pic...
Before starting the final assembly there's been a lot of little things to measure and adjust. The block required some preparation work. I grinded a little material from the block behind the timing gear to gain some clearance for the double roller timing chain, the oil pan rails required a little grinding too to clear the rod bolts. I also smoothed the oil passages in the maincap and inside the oil pump.
I installed the cam bearings myself and checked cam timing. I have also spent lot of time measuring all possible clearances I could. It's been fun so far without any big problems. Next will be the final assembly!
to be continued...