Joined: Aug 2017 Posts: 1,710 Threads: 47
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Location: Auckland NZ
Car type: 36 Nippy, 31 RM, 38 Special, 24 Works Rep
A word of warning about shims, please ensure they are accurate and I personally would only use aluminium ones as they will conform better to the block and crankcase faces. Someone once brought a freshly rebuilt engine to me with a knock he could not diagnose. It turned out to be the piston skirt hitting the steel shim he had installed. The steel shims had been supplied by our local club, they are in my opinion too hard for the job and were not particularly accurately made, I have seen them fitted with two paper gaskets and the resulting oil leak is quite an achievement!
Black Art Enthusiast
Joined: Aug 2017 Posts: 3,388 Threads: 105
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Location: Darkest Bedfordshire
Jon, the beauty (and curse) of Threebond and similar e.g. silicone sealants is they will squish out and fill the voids in the joint but metal to metal contact will still occur, thus the joint is stable and solid and its thickness is more or less nil. Application must be sparing or the sealant will migrate to places where it's not wanted.
Joined: Jun 2018 Posts: 518 Threads: 90
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Shim fitted. Pistons a gnat's whisker below the block top now. All sorted. Thank you.
Jamie