What is "Blue Printing"???
- Thread starter GDawg
- Start date
MustangChris
Mythic Level
Javi said:
this was in a MMFF magazine about a year back.
a TRUE blueprinted motor means that the block is taken in and machined so each cylinder is as perfect as physically possible. They all angle up properly. They pistons are all matched. The bottom end is balanced to the final gram. It's supposed to improve durability. It's best done from step #1 in the manufaturing to ensure a close-as-possible machining on the cylinder walls.
Some blocks made on Tuesday are worse off than blocks made on thursday... blueprinting is supposed to fix the natural defects by sending the block through another machining process to compensate and correct these errors. All this is done with state-of-the-art CNC machines to ensure measurments as close as physically possible.
There is an article in one of the MMFF about blueprinting the new 5.0 cammer motor and how much effort it takes... thats why its a $15,000 motor
old school blue printing is just going through the motor to ensure measurements are correct. no super-expensive cnc machines. nothing like that.
when you hear "Joe-Schmoe" say his motor is blueprinted and hes got 400 horsepower, you can bet that it was jsut old-school "blue-printing" where they measure and correct as close to possible to try and get the engine to "theoretcial perfection." this is fairly cheap and easy to do. Most motor shops will do it when building a motor.
But when you see a 2,500 HP drag car pull up and the driver says "blueprinted" you bet you'r tail feathers that they used CNC machines on the block, radar-driven sensors to measure the cyliners, the angles of the cylinders, and to find the weakness in the cylinder walls. they even sometimes use a machine to "engrave" patterns into the cylinder walls to hold oil. a small "X" is most common.
MustangChris
Mythic Level
Javi said:
dont appologize. i was just saying that to give "authority" to what i was saying. and to give him a lead incase he wants to do some detective work to hunt down more information. i wasnt doggin' on ya.... lol. and i havent re-subscribed to those magazines in a while.
I get my tech info from this cool site... its www.sn95forums.comhttp://...
i get my ideas from my own brain...
and i get my other auto information (1/4 mile times, track runs, etc.) from REAL magazines like motor trend or somethign like that. Ive noticed they give less "slanted" numbers...
MustangChris
Mythic Level
hm. it didnt pop up with "you have mail" anyways, i checked and replied 
let me know what you think of my counter offer..... bwahahahahha!
let me know what you think of my counter offer..... bwahahahahha!Chris, you amaze me sometimes. We need to get together sometime and go shoot the ****. We don't live that far apart. I'm just starting my automotive classes next week and I'm excited. Time to take it up a level or two or more... ccasion14:
ccasion14:
MustangChris
Mythic Level
yea. every once in a while i RARELY know what i talk about. lol.
what classes are you taking? i wanna take classes! lol. i should be in the springs next month for the sinister stangs meeting. u going this time? or gunna spend all saturday in bed with your girlfriend "sleeping" again? lol.
you coming to vegas with me for my 21st birthday?
what classes are you taking? i wanna take classes! lol. i should be in the springs next month for the sinister stangs meeting. u going this time? or gunna spend all saturday in bed with your girlfriend "sleeping" again? lol.
you coming to vegas with me for my 21st birthday?
MustangChris said:
I'll probably be at the next Sinister Stang meet. I had to miss a few for a reason. I'll explain sometime later why I went "underground" for a bit.
I'm doing a "Performance Engine Auto Tech" course in the Springs at IntelliTec. Spoke to the Director today and there are some exciting things coming. I'm going to learn a lot of stuff over the next 18 months including tuning on the Dyno.... My director races at the track down south here. I didn't even know it was open so I guess I may stop going to Bandimere.
Btw... you know I married my "girlfriend" in March in Vegas don't you...? :la:
MustangChris
Mythic Level
GDawg said:
ahhhh congrats!!! i had no idea. lol. youve got to make threads for these kinds of things lol.
tuning huh? gunna tune my mustang? it runs rich up top (which i guess is common with NPI heads.)
thats exciting bro! how long do the classes last?
Fancy CNC machines are not necessary to blueprint and engine, nor to machine to exact tolerances. Even in 2500 horsepower monster motors. A CNC machin is only as good the engineer who programmed it, the program that is run, the rigidity and sharpness of the tool, and the rigidity and appropriateness of the fixture.
Keep in mind, even "old school" engine machining centers are pretty expensive. With a good experienced machinist, and careful attention to detail, very exacting tolerances can be achieved. I've seen rotating assemblies balanced to less than 1/10th of a gram by hand on an "old school" balancing machine. In fact, the machine shop owner bought a new machine, but didn't like the results with it, and continued to use his old machine on high-end race motors.
Further, blueprinting can also involve machining the engines tolerances specifically to the application that is being run and the components being used. For example, a naturally aspirated motor turning high-rpm with hypereutectic pistons can run much tighter piston-to-wall tolerances than a boosted motor with forged pistons. This is due to the metallurgical properties of the metal. Hypereutectic pistons have higher silicon content than a forged piston, and will expand less when heated than the forged will.
This thread has good info.
Paul.
Keep in mind, even "old school" engine machining centers are pretty expensive. With a good experienced machinist, and careful attention to detail, very exacting tolerances can be achieved. I've seen rotating assemblies balanced to less than 1/10th of a gram by hand on an "old school" balancing machine. In fact, the machine shop owner bought a new machine, but didn't like the results with it, and continued to use his old machine on high-end race motors.
Further, blueprinting can also involve machining the engines tolerances specifically to the application that is being run and the components being used. For example, a naturally aspirated motor turning high-rpm with hypereutectic pistons can run much tighter piston-to-wall tolerances than a boosted motor with forged pistons. This is due to the metallurgical properties of the metal. Hypereutectic pistons have higher silicon content than a forged piston, and will expand less when heated than the forged will.
This thread has good info.
Paul.
MustangChris
Mythic Level
Paul said:
i agree... i guess the point i didnt get across is just like everything else "blue printing" changes over time.
In the past no one raced with wide band o2 sensors, no one had hand held tuners to get that .001 second out of the car.
this is no exception.
The article i read just explained how FORD was blueprinting motors. they used a sonar machine to measure the cylinder diameter, cylinder angles, and cylinder wall density.
My friend's dad blue printed his motor. But it was nothing like this. he simply had it measured, and speced, and they did bore it out on a CNC machine, but it was as you say "as good as the builder." nothing like Ford's set up.
I guess we should have just said "blue printing, although it has changed much over the eras, is the basic rebuilding of a motor to a specific set of parameters to attempt to reach maximum tolerance, reliability, and performance."
def. learned about pistons in this thread! lol.
Yeah, these are things I'll be learning in school. It's going to get off to a slow start but I'll be excited when I finally get into those classes. I'll be learning how to port and polish too. And a bunch of other stuff.
MustangChris
Mythic Level
sweet! youll have to share all you wisdom with me (for free) :-D
