Braze Repair of 283 Main Cap
Bill Jones' Photo Gallery Page 25
-I built a 1967 283 that had the curvature at the bottom of the bores that allowed the 350 crank counterweights to clear----used a 350 crank with the mains ground down to small journal size and stroked to about 3.550" with small journal 327 rods-----and it has been a really good engine even with the stock 2 bolt mains---and I did it just
because I had all the stuff laying around.
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-Two main issues with this deal were:
-1-grinding the crank to small journal really moves the oil hole exits of the three middle mains---so bad that I had to modify the bearing tangs and tang notches to move the mains to the side to adequately cover the oil holes.
-This hasn't proved to be any problem in service.
-2-the worst problem came after something like 2000 laps of oval track racing----and maybe was induced by using too much torque when tightening the rear main cap.
-The rear main cap cracked/split 4 places down both sides of the bolt columns---and also cracked over and into the oil drainage slot on both sides---but the cap was still in one fully connected piece.
-To fix this I chose to grind out all of the cracks and braze weld it all back together with some extra braze thrown in there for extra strength in several places---and then I fabricated a fairly simple main cap strap for it.
---------------------------------------------------------------
-Two main issues with this deal were:
-1-grinding the crank to small journal really moves the oil hole exits of the three middle mains---so bad that I had to modify the bearing tangs and tang notches to move the mains to the side to adequately cover the oil holes.
-This hasn't proved to be any problem in service.
-2-the worst problem came after something like 2000 laps of oval track racing----and maybe was induced by using too much torque when tightening the rear main cap.
-The rear main cap cracked/split 4 places down both sides of the bolt columns---and also cracked over and into the oil drainage slot on both sides---but the cap was still in one fully connected piece.
-To fix this I chose to grind out all of the cracks and braze weld it all back together with some extra braze thrown in there for extra strength in several places---and then I fabricated a fairly simple main cap strap for it.
