Scat's drop in 383 - Simple Build -Simple Budget

[Dusty]

scat internally balanced the crank for us

[Mwilson]

Im spinning a scat cast crank to 7,800 and Ive hit it occasionally with a 100 shot. Should I be worried? The motor seems to turn so fast I hit the 7,800 rev limiter every time in 1rst but shif at 7,500 in second.

[Dusty]

I have broken about everything but a crank so I can't talk too much about that. This brings to mind the term endurance limit. The endurance limit is the amount of cycles at a certain level of stress that a part may have an infinite life span at. The text book definition is somewhere between 10^6 and 10^7 cycles. When you operate above that stress level the life span of the part is limited. In an IC engine the level of stress varies alot with any given part and becomes very complicated to calculate. In a drag racing engine parts are stressed beyond what would normally be qualified as "safe" in say a circle track engine. Due to the short duration of high levels of stress a part in a drag engine may experience it may last a while. At some point you must replace it and I don't think anyone can tell you when that will be. You either have to break it and everything else or replace it while the engine is still intact. I guess the best answer I can give you is if you think you have gotten your moneys worth at this point retire it to your drive in movie car.

[Mwilson]

lol, well its fairly new so I'll keep spinning it. I do want to build another shortblock on the side though. Have you guys seen the Dart block Howards forged rotating assembly combos at Competition Products? they have a 434sbc for 3K+, just seems unbelievable? Or stock block 397sbc for 2K+.

[rsicard]

Dusty and Dave: I have a set of NEW Mahle Pistons and interested in your experience with them, specifically media blasting the crowns and applying ceramic coating to them. Do either of you have experience with the Mahle Pistons and specifically ceramic coating the crowns? Please advise SOON. Thanks.

[howieschoon]

Hello rsicard,
Hopefully this will be somewhat helpful. I do not have any experience with Mahle pistons but I did coat a set of speed-pro piston with a thermal barrier coating. It was pretty easy, just make sure that everything is very clean and free of oil and with mine it said to use silica sand, not glass beads or anything else. The sand roughs up the surface so the coating can stick better whereas the beads tend to compact it (this is info from Techline). I used Techline's coatings and it is still on there after 20K miles of fairly easy driving.
Howard

[Dusty]

We have used those pistons before and have friends that use them, they are bullet proof. Probably the best piston to use if you have the budjet and are not worried about having the absolute lightest piston possible

[rsicard]

Howard: Thanks very much for sharing your experience with Techline piston coatings. I have experimented with the piston crown ceramic coating and it appears to be easily removed via the media blasting process. I am not using glass beads but something more on the order of aluminum oxide. I visited Techline coatings at SEMA this week and they recommended a finishing type paint gun to spray the coatings rather than an airbrush. I found that VERY interesting and will invest in a finishing type paint gun. Then will further experiment with the ceramic coating. I ordered Mahle pistons in a 16cc dish and they turned out to NOT HAVE a quench pad. Sent them back to the supplier. Will go with SRP 16cc dish and they SHOULD have a good quench pad. Here's hoping for good SRP pistons.

[barryd]

I'm very interested in how Mr. McDonalds truck build turned out with the Scat kit. Any info would be greatly appreciated. thanks