Dial bore gauge

[1972ho]

Can a dial bore gauge determine if the main caps are out of alignment are is there another means to take it.

[dannobee]

Machinists straight edge with feeler gauges and/or a flashlight.

Dial bore gauge won't tell you much about misalignment.

[1972ho]

Thanks I appreciate it?

[hoodeng]

Hold the journal in a small three jaw chuck, put that in your lathe and clock out the id... If that covers the misalignment you are asking about.

[rebelyell]

seems OP asking about block Main caps.

[BillK]

If you stand the block on end with the caps torqued you can get a pretty good idea if the bores are round but it wont tell you if the block is straight. You really need a machinist straight round bar. A straight edge will tell you if it is terrible but wont be as good as a straight round bar.

[hoodeng]

Sorry, too early..

Apart from clocking it out in a block line boring fixture.

The only other i know is as previously mentioned by Bill, a mandrel, you would want a good eye for straight edge accuracy.

What do you have available to you?

[modok]

I am unclear if we are discussing the alignment of the cap to the block.
Or the alignment of one bearing bore to the other bearing bores.

PROBABLY Billk nailed it.

A dial bore gauge can lie to you, but you usually have to do something special to cause that, third order distortion or the two haves different radius.

[allencr267]

"...straight round bar."
Once you know that the crank is straight & round...

[hoodeng]

If the op has a machine shop available to him that is equipped for line boring blocks, get them to clock out the block and report. This will give him an industry standard report.

Precision machining up a mandrel to the od of the shells for a one off inspection, and the provision for mounting indicators to said item would be far more time consuming and expensive than employing an experienced facility for a one off event, unless the op is intent on making this exercise a repeated one.