OP
Taking time off to work on my car
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Val-haul-ass... eventually
I'm looking at purchasing a budget ultrasonic tester to check cylinder wall thickness. Would I be able to use an aftermarket cast iron cylinder sleeve as a calibration piece (e.g. 4.35" bore sleeve w/ .125" wall thickness) and expect to get comparable readings to Chrysler OEM iron blocks? I don't know how the composition of the iron used in '60s & '70s era blocks differs from a sleeve in terms of what the tester "sees" when taking readings. Thanks.
master
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Eighty Four, PA
Quote:
I'm looking at purchasing a budget ultrasonic tester to check cylinder wall thickness. Would I be able to use an aftermarket cast iron cylinder sleeve as a calibration piece (e.g. 4.35" bore sleeve w/ .125" wall thickness) and expect to get comparable readings to Chrysler OEM iron blocks? I don't know how the composition of the iron used in '60s & '70s era blocks differs from a sleeve in terms of what the tester "sees" when taking readings. Thanks.
Most testers give you value settings for different metals.After calibration we test on a area of the block where we can measure mechanicaly.
OP
Taking time off to work on my car
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Val-haul-ass... eventually
Yeah, I'd heard that's a way to do calibration and be sure you're working w/ the same material.
I'm also considering getting two (2) small probes to modify one to have a small convex shape to the surface of the probe and leave the other one "as is"... in case I eff the first one up.
master
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Phila Pa
Brad, save the money on the cylinder. I have to change my testers settings when I test Ford FE blocks. Don't get me wrong they are just a few digits away. On a wedge block I use the oil pump boss to zero in the meter. Save the money on the cylinder and buy a better tester. My Dakota came from eBay and has been a very valuable and accurate
I Live Here
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Columbia, CT
A good tester will be "zeroed" on a given sample. Dakotas have them right on the unit itself. Then nyou calibrate it on the iron you're testing. Using a cast iron sleeve is not a good idea. Any difference in density will yield a skewed result - a sleeve's iron is denser than factory cast iron. That's why the cheaper testers are bogus... They may give you a sample - but it's not the exact same material as the block you're testing unless they cut it off of it.
Well, art is art, isn't it? Still, on the other hand, water is water! And east is east and west is west and if you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce they taste much more like prunes than rhubarb does. Now, uh... Now you tell me what you know.
I Win
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Oregon
You can usually just use the top of the cylinder in a block as a quick calibration. The area between cylinders is solid at the top of the block. So you sonic it and then use dial calipers to measure the distance. That way you're testing on the same material with the same shape factor.