Racing Engine Build - The Ultimate Street Stock Motor

On the opposite side of the block, the cylinder bores are siamesed for extra thickness. For example, the cylinder bores can be taken all the way to 4.165 and still have a minimum cylinder bore thickness of 0.230-inch.

Even with a new block, some machining procedures will still be necessary. Here, after mocking up the piston height, the block is decked a few thousandths to maximize compression and ensure that the deck surface is square to the crankshaft centerline.

Almost all new blocks also require honing. One important touch that should be mandatory, even with a Street Stock engine build, is to hone the bores with a deck plate torqued into place. This simulates the stresses the block will see when the heads are bolted up and helps ensure you have straight cylinders in the running motor.

CNC machining that was once the realm of Cup engine builders has now successfully made its way to Saturday night racing. RCE uses a CNC cylinder hone that Santelik says has really improved the shop's ability to provide its customers the truest cylinder bores possible.

Of course, no matter how much computer technology you have on hand, it's still important to double check every tolerance personally.

After the bob weights for the pistons and rods are determined, the forged K1 crank is set up on the balancer.

The standard (read: cheaper) way to balance a crankshaft is to drill holes into the ends of the counterweights to lighten them. The problem with this is the holes actually create windage and burn horsepower. Instead of drilling holes, RCE carefully cuts down the counterweights on a lathe. This is a more labor- and time-intensive process because you have to be very meticulous with your cuts, but it not only leaves a smooth counterweight, but the length of the counterweight is also shorter, reducing windage. This method of crank balancing is more expensive, but considering a crankshaft can be used for several rebuilds in these lower horsepower engines, the extra cost isn't that extreme.

Next, the crank's journals are measured for consistency and to get the correct bearing clearances. By the way, this is a stroker crank that will swing the pistons 3.750-inches.

For the mains, Santelik says he likes to keep the bearing clearance between 0.0025- and 0.003-inch. This is on the tight side for a Street Stock motor, but Santelik says it provides good oil control as long as your machining tolerances are dead on.

The Clevite bearing shells are also checked with a ball micrometer to make sure they are consistent.

The cam is a solid flat-tappet from Comp Cams. It is ground with 242/246 degrees of duration for the intake and exhausts at 0.050 lift, and the lobe lift is rated at 0.340 and 0.345.

RCE uses Joe Gibbs Driven assembly grease throughout the engine during the build. On the dyno and in the race car, the engine will run Joe Gibbs brand oil as well.