old iron

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donsboy
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old iron

Post by donsboy »

Does cast iron age? I found a windsor ford engine group on facebook. guy wants to know which block to use to make 800 whp with a single turbo. the latest production 302 was in 2000 I believe. never particularly strong it was advertised as a thin wall casting. even the best windsor block from 69/70 are now over 50 years old. I would think a 50 yr old block is ok for a mild race engine and good street use but 800 whp is well past its design limit. start with an aftermarket block. would you gentlemen and if there are any ladies here concur?
PackardV8
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Re: old iron

Post by PackardV8 »

Yes, cast iron "ages" with enough heating and cooling cycles, any stresses remaining in the casting process will relax. Back in slower-paced times, some high end OEM cylinder blocks and heads were stored outdoor for a year before machining.

Yes, back in the day when stock blocks were being encouraged at Indy, the conventional wisdom was to find a "school bus block" which had been through daily max effort use and thus relaxed.

No, cast iron isn't harmed by the passage of time. But it can be ruined by bad storage practices, coolant freezing, "stop leak" crappage and myriad other bad practices.

Once old arn has been baked, shot blasted, bored, honed, line honed, decked, it can pass as a NOS block. We've been doing this forever and are still pleased about how nice they come out.

None of that increases the ability to withstand too much horsepower.

Only slightly OT, but has anyone else found durability differences between 800 horsepower on the dyno versus 800 horsepower twisted up between big sticky tires and solid motor mounts; different between a smooth dyno pull and being repeatedly slammed off a prepped starting line; the hit from nitrous?
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mag2555
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Re: old iron

Post by mag2555 »

800 hp with a factory standard production block is doable for about 5 to 10 seconds !
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Racer71
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Re: old iron

Post by Racer71 »

Yea def gonna need an aftermarket block, been there done that. Even short filled in a 408 naturally aspirated with a main girdle didn’t hold up well for me, did make a handful of small sprays of the giggly stuff but wasn’t spraying when she split!
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