When is a 186 worn out?

[inchyeh]

Rebuilding my 186. When I stripped it down I found it was already +0.60" (rebuilt before I bought it).

Can I rebuild this block? There don't appear to be any marks in the bores or any scoring.

I'm rebuilding with black 202 crank,  rods,  head and VK injector manifold on a SC14 blower (8psi boost),  running LPG only.

I don't want to do the work to find the block isn't strong enough.

[HARKO]

60 Thou is getting a little risky , full race motors rarely go further except for Canadian   block's
I think personally your getting a bit inchyEH , Red blocks are pretty easy to find  so why risk it , even blue n black blocks are easy to find with all the good internals and 12 ports

[suziecreamcheese]

60 thou is good if it will clean up with a hone if its had 2 or3 hones its probly stuffed

[HARKO]

Suzie are you male or female ?

[suziecreamcheese]

dont make me disappoint you

[HARKO]

 LMFAO   OK you can be Mate then   .

I just thought WOW you sure have some intricate knowledge which is rare/cool in a woman .

[inchyeh]

60 Thou is getting a little risky , full race motors rarely go further except for Canadian   block's
I think personally your getting a bit inchyEH , Red blocks are pretty easy to find  so why risk it , even blue n black blocks are easy to find with all the good internals and 12 ports

Thanks Harko, I thought as much.
Would you have any idea what compression I can run with straight  LPG? I have heard you can run higher compression but no-one seems to be able to  tell me how high.

I was going to use ACL forged pistons (dished) but I would like to know if I should then get a little more machined off to lower compression. Or would you know of blower pistons I can source.

Thanks for your help.

[fccool59]

 I dont think acl do a forged holden 6 piston, they do have a race series dished piston that is popular with turbo's and superchargers, you will be looking at well over $1000 for forged pistons, they are mandatory if you want nitrous with your blower, maybe you could look into ceramic coating cast pistons or keep a eye on ebay for second handy's for around $600, problem with ebay is you need to wait for the rite size to come along, if possible dont bore what you dont have too, my block is on its last bore but it would be much better to have some meat there.
There was a guy who set up a fj on straight gas, he ended up not happy with it and went to petrol with a SU, it might be good to track him down and see why, surely the higher octane of lpg must be a advantage.

[Glenn 'Stinky' Stankevicius]

Would you have any idea what compression I can run with straight  LPG? I have heard you can run higher compression but no-one seems to be able to  tell me how high.

I don't have a definitive answer for you (yet), but my motor was originally built for gas and put on petrol. I could only ever use Avgas if I wanted to nail the throttle otherwise it pinged like crazy. From memory the comp was 10.5 or 11 to 1, I had the comp dropped so that I could run "normal" fuel and it is something like 10.2 now. It will now run BP Ultimate but I still need octane booster if I want to be safe, but I think it really needs a dyno tune. Anyway, with the rebate for LPG I am converting next month, hopefully I will remember to update this thread with the outcome  :-/

[suziecreamcheese]

Had a friend with a 308 hq on straight gas best car i had ever seen run high comp i believe you can run almost 15:1 with straight gas its the unleaded that makes people lower it this car never had a problem ran no petrol  4 speed 308 cheers fellow fc fan lost in translation

[Glenn 'Stinky' Stankevicius]

You could try these guys for some info too -

http://www.gasresearch.com.au/

[Russ]

The way all my holden "mates" talk about them i thought they didn't wear out  

[inchyeh]

I've emailed Gas Research for some info and I'm still waiting. I'll ring them if I don't hear from them in the next few days. (It's been a week already).

Stinky,  I hope you remember to update when the conversions done, I'd be really interested to hear how it goes.

FCcool 59,  ACL race series includes the Hyperlite forged pistons that they make for Holden 202's. Would their cast race series pistons be up to the job? I'm betting their seriously cheaper.

Any other advice (except put an 8 in it) would be gratefully accepted. This is my first serious engine build and I don't want to make stupid mistakes by not asking the right questions.

[suziecreamcheese]

this mate has since transformed 308 hq on straight gas to 454 on straight gas 11.5/1 comp 500++ hp street car 3.5 geared 9 inch t400 bloody chefs?? dont know what there doin