build a bigger engine the hard way

[PackardV8]

Something different in the way of an engine MIGHT be a MEL 534 put on an acid diet to lighten it. . . . As well as one of the great big V-6's that if not mistaken, GMC made through the years for trucks. Acid dip one of them too...pdq67

Have you ever actually tried to lighten a block by acid? If not, don't bother.

[The Dark Side of Will]

Your results may vary, but if one has to ask "anyone done it before? got any pointers?" chances of success don't seem likely.

One of my favorite responses to crazy ideas on car forums comes from this... "If you think you can do it, you don't need the internet to tell you how". Works for both end of the skill spectrum...

what a blast from the past! this project is still in my head, but I won't be making any real progress on it for a few years.

I mainly asked the question because different people come up with wildly different solutions for the same problems, some of which are easy, many of which are hard, it's nice to have the internet available for learning from someone else's successes and failures.

I was thinking that 3/4 or 1" steel plate could be lasered or water jet cut into shapes that would both be main bulkheads and receive the head bolts/studs (they'd have to be pretty long, but that's the point). Wider pieces of aluminum could be sandwiched in between. Dowel everything together, seal the joints with RTV or linear O-ring stock and run high strength threaded rod through the whole thing and you have an assembled crank case.

Carve cylinder blocks out of billets, dowel them in place, then drop shelf Darton (Caddy 4.9? ) or similar wet liners into the cylinder block to seal on the aluminum chunks of the crank case and you have yourself an assembled engine block. Hopefully you even designed it to work with your favorite cylinder head.