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Sonic check frustrations Updated #1769713 03/03/15 01:35 AM 03/03/15 01:35 AM
Joined: Oct 2003 Posts: 11,684 W. Kentucky justinp61 OP I Live Here
justinp61 OP I Live Here Joined: Oct 2003 Posts: 11,684 W. Kentucky	Update: I got the block checked today, all cylinders looked good on minor and major thrust sides. The non thrust sides were a different story, four cylinders under .100", #1 .091", #2 .090" #3 .087" and #5 .092". It's at 4.08 now and needs to go 4.10". Paper weight? Are machine shops that offer sonic checking the minority? I just bought a R1 block that's 4.08", one of the cylinders has a spot in it. The deal is that it will take a 4.1" bore or I get a refund. My problem is that I can't find a local machine shop that can sonic check the block. Most likely I'll have to buy the instrument or go to Nashville TN to have my block checked out. I know I'm not in the race hub of the US but none of the machine shops offer this service. The instrument is around $1200, it seems to me it would pay for it's self. Anyone else run into this?

Re: Sonic check frustrations [Re: justinp61] #1769714 03/03/15 01:41 AM 03/03/15 01:41 AM
Joined: Jun 2003 Posts: 52,972 Romeo MI MR_P_BODY Master
MR_P_BODY Master Joined: Jun 2003 Posts: 52,972 Romeo MI	Quote: Are machine shops that offer sonic checking the minority? I just bought a R1 block that's 4.08", one of the cylinders has a spot in it. The deal is that it will take a 4.1" bore or I get a refund. My problem is that I can't find a local machine shop that can sonic check the block. Most likely I'll have to buy the instrument or go to Nashville TN to have my block checked out. I know I'm not in the race hub of the US but none of the machine shops offer this service. The instrument is around $1200, it seems to me it would pay for it's self. Anyone else run into this? I just bought a new sonic checker for $220... I'm not home yet to test it out EDIT this is what I bought but with the options http://www.ebay.com/itm/TM8812-Digital-U...=item4d2e75554f Last edited by MR_P_BODY; 03/03/15 02:04 AM.

Re: Sonic check frustrations [Re: MR_P_BODY] #1769715 03/03/15 01:56 AM 03/03/15 01:56 AM
Joined: Mar 2005 Posts: 2,644 North Carolina sasquatch master
sasquatch master Joined: Mar 2005 Posts: 2,644 North Carolina	Gary Stanton in Nicholasville will have one...Not sure how close that is. Todd www.mopartsracing.com

Re: Sonic check frustrations [Re: MR_P_BODY] #1769716 03/03/15 02:18 AM 03/03/15 02:18 AM
Joined: Jul 2008 Posts: 30,424 Florida STAYcation dOrk ! The village idiot's idiot
dOrk ! The village idiot's idiot Joined: Jul 2008 Posts: 30,424 Florida STAYcation	Quote: I just bought a new sonic checker for $220... I'm not home yet to test it out EDIT this is what I bought but with the options http://www.ebay.com/itm/TM8812-Digital-U...=item4d2e75554f P ......how wide is the head on that probe ? ... I got one on eBay toooo .... but the probe width is tooo wide to read smaller OD chassis tubing or the ID of a cyl wall.

Re: Sonic check frustrations [Re: dOrk !] #1769717 03/03/15 02:30 AM 03/03/15 02:30 AM
Joined: Jun 2003 Posts: 52,972 Romeo MI MR_P_BODY Master
MR_P_BODY Master Joined: Jun 2003 Posts: 52,972 Romeo MI	Quote: Quote: I just bought a new sonic checker for $220... I'm not home yet to test it out EDIT this is what I bought but with the options http://www.ebay.com/itm/TM8812-Digital-U...=item4d2e75554f P ......how wide is the head on that probe ? ... I got one on eBay toooo .... but the probe width is tooo wide to read smaller OD chassis tubing or the ID of a cyl wall. Its 8mm.. I want to test it when I get home to see if I need to grind the probe housing.. but at 8mm I dont think I will

Re: Sonic check frustrations [Re: MR_P_BODY] #1769718 03/03/15 02:51 AM 03/03/15 02:51 AM
Joined: Jul 2008 Posts: 30,424 Florida STAYcation dOrk ! The village idiot's idiot
dOrk ! The village idiot's idiot Joined: Jul 2008 Posts: 30,424 Florida STAYcation	Quote: Its 8mm.. I want to test it when I get home to see if I need to grind the probe housing.. but at 8mm I dont think I will .315 ? ... I think that is toooo wide. I think mine is .250 and my chassis guy says(IIRC) that it needs to be .125 or so to fully contact the material being measured.

Re: Sonic check frustrations [Re: MR_P_BODY] #1769719 03/03/15 03:02 AM 03/03/15 03:02 AM
Joined: Jan 2005 Posts: 12,419 Kalispell Mt. H HotRodDave I Live Here
HotRodDave I Live Here H Joined: Jan 2005 Posts: 12,419 Kalispell Mt.	reeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaly? (in Jim Carrys voice) I have had 3 5.9 mag blocks at the machine shop across the street for a month now waiting to be tested for $75 a pop I am not causing global warming, I am just trying to hold off a impending Ice Age!

Re: Sonic check frustrations [Re: dOrk !] #1769720 03/03/15 03:08 AM 03/03/15 03:08 AM
Joined: Jun 2003 Posts: 52,972 Romeo MI MR_P_BODY Master
MR_P_BODY Master Joined: Jun 2003 Posts: 52,972 Romeo MI	Quote: Quote: Its 8mm.. I want to test it when I get home to see if I need to grind the probe housing.. but at 8mm I dont think I will .315 ? ... I think that is toooo wide. I think mine is .250 and my chassis guy says(IIRC) that it needs to be .125 or so to fully contact the material being measured. It gave a min bore spec that it could read.. it was in the 3" range... if I need to grind the housing I will it only has a single bar in the center for the signal EDIT I know the meter I use to bring home from work had a larger probe than a 1/8"(.125).. I'm sure it was over a 1/4"(.250) and it read great... did you ever try yours Last edited by MR_P_BODY; 03/03/15 03:15 AM.

Re: Sonic check frustrations [Re: MR_P_BODY] #1769721 03/03/15 12:32 PM 03/03/15 12:32 PM
Joined: Jan 2003 Posts: 15,439 Val-haul-ass... eventually B BradH Taking time off to work on my car
BradH Taking time off to work on my car B Joined: Jan 2003 Posts: 15,439 Val-haul-ass... eventually	Quote: Its 8mm.. I want to test it when I get home to see if I need to grind the probe housing.. but at 8mm I dont think I will I purchased mine w/ a 6mm diameter flat-face probe and was the smallest they offered. I contacted the vendor about buying a second at the same time, because I suspected I was going to have to hand-fit one of them to read the curved surface of a cylinder bore properly... and I was right. I spent some time w/ 600-grit wet-or-dry profiling the face of the probe to have a concave surface that appeared to seat properly against the inside of my 4.375" tapered ring compressor.

Re: Sonic check frustrations [Re: BradH] #1769722 03/03/15 12:44 PM 03/03/15 12:44 PM
Joined: Jun 2003 Posts: 52,972 Romeo MI MR_P_BODY Master
MR_P_BODY Master Joined: Jun 2003 Posts: 52,972 Romeo MI	Quote: Quote: Its 8mm.. I want to test it when I get home to see if I need to grind the probe housing.. but at 8mm I dont think I will I purchased mine w/ a 6mm diameter flat-face probe and was the smallest they offered. I contacted the vendor about buying a second at the same time, because I suspected I was going to have to hand-fit one of them to read the curved surface of a cylinder bore properly... and I was right. I spent some time w/ 600-grit wet-or-dry profiling the face of the probe to have a concave surface that appeared to seat properly against the inside of my 4.375" tapered ring compressor. I was gonna spin up a 4" ID tube as a test piece and contour to it.. I'll make it fit a 3.9" that would be the smallest ID I'd measure..it should be fine on OD

Re: Sonic check frustrations [Re: MR_P_BODY] #1769723 03/03/15 03:02 PM 03/03/15 03:02 PM
Joined: Jan 2003 Posts: 16,376 D dogdays I Live Here
dogdays I Live Here D Joined: Jan 2003 Posts: 16,376	Uh, Brad, that's convex. Concave would be for measuring the outside of a cylinder. R.

Re: Sonic check frustrations [Re: dogdays] #1769724 03/03/15 04:03 PM 03/03/15 04:03 PM
Joined: Jan 2003 Posts: 15,439 Val-haul-ass... eventually B BradH Taking time off to work on my car
BradH Taking time off to work on my car B Joined: Jan 2003 Posts: 15,439 Val-haul-ass... eventually	Quote: Uh, Brad, that's convex. Concave would be for measuring the outside of a cylinder. R. Correct; wrong term, right modification. /

Re: Sonic check frustrations [Re: MR_P_BODY] #1769725 03/03/15 05:12 PM 03/03/15 05:12 PM
Joined: Jul 2008 Posts: 30,424 Florida STAYcation dOrk ! The village idiot's idiot
dOrk ! The village idiot's idiot Joined: Jul 2008 Posts: 30,424 Florida STAYcation	Quote: It gave a min bore spec that it could read.. it was in the 3" range... if I need to grind the housing I will it only has a single bar in the center for the signal EDIT I know the meter I use to bring home from work had a larger probe than a 1/8"(.125).. I'm sure it was over a 1/4"(.250) and it read great... did you ever try yours Try mine ? ... reads dead-on(in mm only) on flat stock but not on a curved piece. I have been in touch with the seller trying to see if I can adapt another smaller probe to it ... but they don't know ...yet.

Re: Sonic check frustrations [Re: dOrk !] #1769726 03/03/15 07:21 PM 03/03/15 07:21 PM
Joined: Jan 2003 Posts: 32,394 Q Quicktree I Win
Quicktree I Win Q Joined: Jan 2003 Posts: 32,394	none of the basic Chevy/ford shops around here have sonic checkers. guess they don't have that issue.

Re: Sonic check frustrations [Re: Quicktree] #1769727 03/03/15 07:25 PM 03/03/15 07:25 PM
Joined: Jan 2003 Posts: 15,439 Val-haul-ass... eventually B BradH Taking time off to work on my car
BradH Taking time off to work on my car B Joined: Jan 2003 Posts: 15,439 Val-haul-ass... eventually	Quote: none of the basic Chevy/ford shops around here have sonic checkers. guess they don't have that issue. Ignorance is bliss... 'til the bliss starts to leak through the crack in the cylinder wall.

Re: Sonic check frustrations [Re: justinp61] #1769728 03/03/15 07:32 PM 03/03/15 07:32 PM
Joined: Jan 2003 Posts: 13,361 Marion, South Carolina [><] an8sec70cuda I Live Here
an8sec70cuda I Live Here Joined: Jan 2003 Posts: 13,361 Marion, South Carolina [><]	I had a real hard time finding one around here to check my World hemi block a while back. Finally found one at a smaller race engine shop (Naylor's) about an hour and a half drive away. Even Gene Fulton and PAR don't have a sonic checker...said they don't need one for anything they do. Naylor said he only uses his on certain cylinder heads for round track classes. CHIP '70 hemicuda, 575" Hemi, 727, Dana 60 '69 road runner, 440-6, 18 spline 4 speed, Dana 60 '71 Demon, 340, low gear 904, 8.75 '73 Chrysler New Yorker, 440, 727, 8.75 '90 Chevy 454SS Silverado, 476" BBC, TH400, 14 bolt '06 GMC 2500HD LBZ Duramax

Re: Sonic check frustrations [Re: Quicktree] #1769729 03/03/15 07:32 PM 03/03/15 07:32 PM
Joined: Jun 2003 Posts: 52,972 Romeo MI MR_P_BODY Master
MR_P_BODY Master Joined: Jun 2003 Posts: 52,972 Romeo MI	Quote: none of the basic Chevy/ford shops around here have sonic checkers. guess they don't have that issue. I know my buddy has real thick walls on his 460.. at least twice what we play with.. he can safely go .120 over

Re: Sonic check frustrations [Re: MR_P_BODY] #1769730 03/03/15 08:38 PM 03/03/15 08:38 PM
Joined: Jan 2003 Posts: 16,376 D dogdays I Live Here
dogdays I Live Here D Joined: Jan 2003 Posts: 16,376	Bigblock chevies, at least the MarkIV which are the original 396s, 427s and 454s, could usually go 0.125 over with no problem. I'm not sure about the 402s, because they might have been built on the 396 cores but bored out a little. On the other hand 400 and smaller ford engines are quite thin in the walls, at least in the Cleveland and 335 families, and on many they were done at 0.030 over. The 385 family, 429 and 460s, had thicker walls and blocks were quite stout. R.

Re: Sonic check frustrations [Re: MR_P_BODY] #1769731 03/03/15 08:39 PM 03/03/15 08:39 PM
Joined: Nov 2003 Posts: 938 White House,TN S stroked470 super stock
stroked470 super stock S Joined: Nov 2003 Posts: 938 White House,TN	I know a guy local that has a BHJ sonic checker. He checked a couple of 340 blocks for me. Let me see what he would charge to do one.

Re: Sonic check frustrations [Re: stroked470] #1769732 03/03/15 08:46 PM 03/03/15 08:46 PM
Joined: Jun 2003 Posts: 52,972 Romeo MI MR_P_BODY Master
MR_P_BODY Master Joined: Jun 2003 Posts: 52,972 Romeo MI	I use to pay $75 for a sonic job... he gave me 64 readings per cyl.. then I started bringing home the sonic tester from work and did my own... but since I retired I havent done any... but I still have all the blocks that I tested... except one... it blew up due to a rod tearing in half... damn Viper rods

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