Minimum Deck Height.

[petrol punk]

I'm seeing around .035-.040 deck on my motor. This sound a bit low for a 36hp, I've .030 and lower on high performance 1600 based motors but I know the 36hp is a whole 'nother story. If I do need to change the deck I can do it on the lathe in my school's machine shop. I'm pretty confident in doing it myself as I've spent a lot of time on the lathe this year and it's just facing the tops off, but does anybody think the 3 jaw chuck would damage the pistons?

edit: I should mention, this is all stock motor; heads, rods, pistons will be stock spec.

[Low Bräu]

You could probably chuck the piston in the lathe but its not ideal. At my previous employer's shop we had a bunch of fixtures for supporting various sized pistons while in the lathe as well as a piston vise. Unfortunately, I don't have any pics.

I don't think you have anything to worry about with .035-.040 clearance but if you wanted to cut your piston here's what I would do. Be advised your going to lose compression by trimming the piston.

If its a one time deal I would get a piece of thin aluminum sheet metal, like 20 ga., and cut a rectangle just smaller than the area of the piston's skirt or the area below the ring lands. Roll it in a slip joint to make an almost complete cylinder. Then just slide it over the piston and it should protect the lower half of the piston from chuck's jaws. Chuck it up as close to the lands as possible. Hope that made sense.

Good luck,
j.