350 GM Crate Engine Question

[350_85cutty]

I only got a year use out of my brand new GM Goodwrench 350 Crate Motor. I'm still puzzled as to what caused it to "commit suicide". I kept real good of the motor and never abused it (ok a couple of passes and burnouts, street races) but nothing that could of caused it's demise. Ok here's the deal: I had a hilborn scoop poking thru the hood, cuz i liked the look, it was just atop a single Holley carb nothing bad *ss. I forgot to cover the scoop one night and it decided to rain, for 2 days off and on! and the car stayed parked. On the third day when it cleared up, I went to start the car and to my suprise, the car would not crank. It acted like it was stuck and would not crank over. I kept cranking it and finally got it to start after a loud "cling" like a hammer hitting an anvil sound. The engine sounded normal but a couple seconds later disaster. It sounded like a war going on internally in the motor, like metal hitting metal real loud and I quickly shut off the car. Now I'm no mechanic so I didn't know what happened and at the time I was out of funds to take the car to get looked at. I put the car on jackstands and thru the car cover over it and it's sat like that for this whole year, and I now I drive a 2007 Saturn Ion, great on gas, but nothing like the cutty that I miss so much! well the other day I got under the car to snoop around and noticed that on the rigth side of the oil pan was a tear like something shot out, and I got to thinking that's probably the loud noise I heard, something shooting out the motor, can anyone shed some light on what they think could be wrong? I really want to get it up and running again, and have some good friends I've made at work that want to help me, but I don't want to start to pull the motor and bite off something bigger than I can chew, with funds and all. I can pull the motor and all but the machine work and all that I'd have to get done elsewhere. any comment is appreciated


this is the motor pre scoop and with scoop

<a href="http://s46.photobucket.com/albums/f117/853csb/?action=view&current=hoodpopped-1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f117/853csb/hoodpopped-1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

<a href="http://s46.photobucket.com/albums/f117/853csb/?action=view&current=fans-1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f117/853csb/fans-1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

 

[JESSE]

350

hydrostatic lock up :shock: you can not compress a liquid!!! you might as well buy another engine and get rid of the scoop... the only thing that can cause a rip in the oil pan is a broken or bent rod ,,,jesse

 

[pokertramp]

Re: 350

hydrostatic lock up :shock: you can not compress a liquid!!! you might as well buy another engine and get rid of the scoop... the only thing that can cause a rip in the oil pan is a broken or bent rod ,,,jesse

Agreed, Been there with a rod threw the pan in the past. Junk the engine for what it's worth in weight and put that money towards a new engine.

 

[Uncletruck]

Yep, your hood scoop caused the engine to ingest water, and it broke a rod. However, I don't think you need to junk the engine because it put a rod through the pan. (That's actually a much better place than putting it through the block.) You are going to have to pull the heads and the pan and have it evaluated, but it is most likely repairable. This thing happens often with older diesels in rail locomotives. When those engines cool down, the bores are so large the air inside them condenses and water forms in the cylinders and on top of the pistons. The jog procedure on them opens up small valves near the intake ports to allow the water to escape before the engine is cranked with fuel being injected. Before the days when this procedure was computerized, the operator had to do the jog manually. If it was not done, BOOM- the engine would break a rod on startup.

It usually only gets one cylinder. This is because if it cranked and started, the cylinders that did so would not have fired if they contained water. It sucks the water quickly in to one cylinder, the others fire, then the cylinder full of water will fail at it's weakest point- the rod.

I hope this better explained what happened to you. Hot-roddy looking hood scoops are often little more than show off cosmetics, and in many cases can do more harm than good. I mean really, how fast are you driving on a regular basis to need "air induction?" Those chrome show off Moroso and other open air filter Dukes of Hazzard jobs are not really something you want to drive with either, they do more harm than good also IMHO.

-UT-

 

[79malibu]

pics

can someone fix the links. i dunno maybe its just me.

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

You can pull the engine and do an autopsy, but I would bet it is pretty fubar'd in there. Hydrolock is not a nice thing to do to an engine, and you may have ruined the block, bent the rods, broke some pistons, etc. Next time, go without the scoop. You can get a new short block and reuse the heads, but try to find a short block with flat top pistons for better compression than the 7.8:1 the typical Goodwrench engine comes with.

 

[dan2286]

NEXT TIME PULL THE PLUGS IF THE ENGINE SOUNDS LIKE ITS STUCK, THEN CRANK IT OVER!! It will save you allot of money.

 

[BBC_cutty]

i run my car with no hood, all day everyday, if the car was parked how does water get in????....my geuss is someone dropped something down your carb...a 3/8 nut will kill a entire motor

 

[dan2286]

i run my car with no hood, all day everyday, if the car was parked how does water get in????....my geuss is someone dropped something down your carb...a 3/8 nut will kill a entire motor

It was probably the tunnel ram he has. It gives more of a chance for water to run down it into the engine. If it was the regular style air cleaner the water would just run off the top of the air cleaner.

 

[jrm81bu]

Tunnel Ram?! That's just a Hilborn style scoop that he has. But still runs a chance of gettin water in it.