I thought this might be a good place to finally figure out what this entails. Does it produce power gains? Is it a good place to startif you intend future mods? Thanks for any info.

 

From my experience, blueprinting is really only necessary when you are interested in things like boring, compression changes, changing pistons and rings, valve jobs, etc... Intense internal modification.

 

Blueprinting for the most part is just getting all the tolerances and dimensions to be what the factory intended, or biased towards higher performance. I think it's important when building up a small block Chevy since they can vary quite a lot, but I'd like to think a current Japanese engine would be of a higher quality.

So yeah, it's always a good idea to blueprint an engine, but the gains might not be inline with the substantial cost to do it. Professional racers in very competitive venues will benefit from it, but amateur racers or street driven cars probably won't.

JL

 

whenever yor changing/upgrading internal components, balancing/blueprinting is essential for longevity of the motor. this benefits everyone, not just the pro racers

 

I agree with the Chevy comment, but I think what you're really after is "balancing." Blueprinting is building the motor to exact specifications, very expensive & time consuming. Balancing is getting all the parts balanced. The effect isn't identical, but balancing is much easier and more practical.

I think all engines perform better when "balanced." Its one of the things that racers do, and it is also one of the things that separates a $50K Corvette with 400Hp from a $250K Ferrari with 400Hp.

 

There are other, more significant, things that seperate a Ferrari engine from a Corvette engine. Things like overhead cams instead of pushrods, smaller displacement turning higher rpm's, the wonders of mass production driving down costs, and probably the biggest is a flat plane crankshaft in most of the Ferrari engines. I understand what you are getting at though with the comment, and I agree there are many different ways to arrive at 400hp.

When I said small block Chevy engines, I meant cast iron block/heads from the 60's and 70's for the most part. Engines where you had to change the oil after a few miles because chances were there was still some sand inside the block from the casting mold.

Balancing and blueprinting do go together, but I still stand by my statement that the gains are not worth the cost for most people unless you have the engine apart already for other internal upgrades. I'm sure there is much easier/cheaper horsepower to unleash without having to remove the engine from the car.

JL

 

Agreed. My only point was that a mass-produced engine has more items "off-spec" than a low volume specialty engine.