Reply to "500 BHP 351 Cleveland"

A 4" stroke in a Cleveland block is not extreme. The oil ring having a spacer rail support for the oil ring should give no ill results. The 347 stroker brought this to attention because of its oil ring placement and smoking issues. We have over 100 347 strokers being used on the highways and no reports of smoking problems. All of these engine have the oil ring intercepted by the wrist pin. The oil ring in an engine is SUPPOSED to oil the cylinders. The second ring is actually the oil scraper. Most think the second ring is a compression ring. This could not be any more untrue. The shape of the secong ring will NOT allow it to hold pressure from the top of the piston. I attribute most of these smoking problems to improperly honed blocks. Oil control is achieved by a proper finish, straight cylinders, and a good relationship between the two. When we dynoed Chris Lewis's engine there was no air coming from the valve cover breathers which we ran uncovered on the dyno so he could visually see what NO blowby looks like.

On a different note pan vacuum is hard to pull when there is any blowby past the rings, even more so on a forced induction engine. We have a 9.2 deck engine with the oil ring intersecting the wrist pin that runs 40 psi of boost making 2700+ hp and pulls 15" of pan vac.

The proper stones to hone this way are expensive, they wear fast, and cannot be used until they are worn out. A hone job is more than making things look pretty.