Follow up on the "I'll never do it again category."

[Doug Rodrigues]

A couple of people wanted to know how the case turned out? This was the case that was glass bead blasted by a non-FAA shop where the bead blaster guy went way beyond what I had told him to do. Everything got blasted, including the bearing supports on the internal case webs! I was seriously thinking of just tossing that O-360 case into the trash can and accepting it as a "learning experience." Needless to say that I was somewhat depressed at the time. However, DivCo, inc. in Tulsa said, "No problem."

I just got the case back today. It looks beautiful. Not only has the rough metal surfaces been smoothed (don't know how they did that?), but all of the machined surfaces are perfectly machined on the case halves and the accessory case cover. Total bill including shipping $1,145. The case is certified. I'm happy that I didn't toss the case into the trash, and also my cylinders arrived last week. Doesn't get any better than that.

[rocketbob]

Originally Posted by Doug Rodrigues

I just got the case back today. It looks beautiful. Not only has the rough metal surfaces been smoothed (don't know how they did that?), but all of the machined surfaces are perfectly machined on the case halves and the accessory case cover. Total bill including shipping $1,145. The case is certified. I'm happy that I didn't toss the case into the trash, and also my cylinders arrived last week. Doesn't get any better than that.

Easy. They probably just smoothed the case surfaces with die grinder with a Roloc disc and did the normal process on your case. First they put the halves on a Bridgeport and flycut the case halves. Then they put the case together and do whats called an "align bore" which is nothing more than a fancy reamer on a machine that machines the main bearing bore and the cam bore. There's only so much of this that can be done before the deck height becomes an issue and there isn't enough room inside the case for the crank journals to swing.

[Doug Rodrigues]

I'm familiar with line boring, but thought that the damage was too deep. Sure glad it wasn't. I'm truly surprised that it all cleaned up.

[lancef53]

Good to hear that it all worked out!