Line Boring

I have discovered that the line boring services is getting extremely hard to come by in North Texas. I have called just about every single machine shop in the North Texas region to get my customers 383 line bored with the new caps from 440 Source. No one hardly does it anymore, and if they do, it's only for Chevrolet engines. I found only one shop in Texas so far, Faerman Racing Engines in Houston. Has anyone in the Houston area ever dealt with them? Having to drive 3.5 hours to get this service done and they are 10 weeks out in getting it done. If anyone in the North Texas area has any contacts for North Texas that do line boring please let me know.

Thanks
Darren

Did you try Wayne Calvert? It says they do the four bolt main cap installation and line honing.

https://www.waynecalvertengines.com/services

Yes sir I did. One of the first people I called as I grew up not far from there and Wayne Calvert was the machine shop of choice at one time. Unfortunately they don't provide this service anymore.

A shop that only does line boring for Chevrolets? As my machinist said 20+ years ago, when I asked him if he worked on Mopars..."It's a F*#%ing chunk of iron. It doesn't know what it is. Square is square, and a round hole is just that".

I would agree with you, however I think it may be a little more involved then that in regards to setting up the machine with the appropriate and required tooling for different OEM's. Regardless, that's what I keep getting back.

Not trying to be a smart a$$, but shouldn't the machining
be called align boring?

Joe

is the common term. Besides, its "boring". Things don't get aligned until you do the honing. And that's still called "line hoining"

On a low deck motor the 440Source caps should only need honing as they're already cut to low deck main bore size. A different story on a RB. The caps need to be machined for the larger journal size. This was such a pain in the a$$ that I just returned the caps for credit and went with stockers.

What about Reher Morrison. I know they have built a few hemis. If like the good machine shops up here the wait is long.

Jack Hodson at Precision Machine in Waco. He does the machine work for me. He also races the Outlaw Fuel Altered circuit. 2544201818, or 2546667736

Dave

Line boring has fallen out of favor since most blocks don't require it anymore. You can buy new blocks from a number of vendors that are ready to go with just a line hone. Putting new caps on a block and boring the main line is rarely done anymore since it is expensive and time consuming. So I'm not surprised that you're finding it hard to find someone to do it. The sad thing is that your customer's block probably didn't even require those aftermarket caps. Stock caps should work okay on a 383, even if it is a stroker engine. But that is most likely water under the bridge by now.

But there is a lot of hype around aluminum main caps - I think you even tout the benefits in your book. Andy.

There are two places that align bore here in town. I think you need to cut the thrust area radially for the later style bearing with the 440 source caps.

As far as needing them or not....it's a hotrod. I have three building of impractical cars and parts that I could have substituted with cheaper versions. People have been using studs and aluminum caps with success for a long time.

If this package warrants the AL caps make it happen.

Also....

https://goodson.com/collections/sunnen-align-honing-supplies

Just sayin : D

Andy - The customer brought the block to me without the caps, as someone took them while his car was being restored by another shop. I had nothing to work with from the get go.

Thank you Chief! I will give them a call!

As already said, Reher Morrison

https://rehermorrison.com/

Called twice. They never called me back.

Thanks Chief! I called and they confirmed they can align hone the 383 with the new caps.
Thanks for the reference!!

You are welcome. Jack is a good guy and has always treated me fair. Also, he just got a new machine for line bore/hone. The same machine also does cam tunnels (I asked.lol)

Dave