Junkyard Vortec

[Opie Knievel]

I have been wanting a Vortec engine to build for my Monte Carlo for a long time. As some of you already know I found a Vortec core at the salvage yard I work at a few months ago. The engine has just sat around here since Summer. I finally got a price on it a week or two ago, $200. That's complete from intake to oil pan except for the accessories and fuel rail and injectors. I had no idea what kind of shape the engine was in and I know Vortec heads are known to crack so I wanted to look inside the engine before I bought it. Last night I pulled the heads and the oil pan to check it out.

It took forever to find bolts the right size to put the engine on the stand.

Off came the valve covers and intake.

So far everything was looking great. It was very clean inside the engine. Did anyone notice anything out of the ordinary in that last pic? Look again.

Cylinder 7 is missing a pushrod. That's odd. I wonder why it's not there. Pull a lifter, see what the roller looks like.

Not bad.

Pull the heads, see what the cylinders, pistons, and combustion chambers look like.

Some carbon and a little bit of water from sitting outside for months (covered up) but otherwise pretty good.

I scraped some of the carbon off the pistons. The cylinder walls didn't look bad either.

Time to check out the bottom end.

Pretty clean down here too.

 

[Opie Knievel]

Remember that pushrod that was missing? Look closely, you'll see part of it.

Here's what the rest of it looked like. I found it in the oil pan. This is the mangled piece from the oil pan with the straight piece you can see in the first pic.

The pushrod did contact one of the counter weights on the crank.

That's all the damage I could find. I didn't pull bearing caps because of time but the engine turns over by hand with the harmonic balancer pulley really smoothly and easily. My guess is the bearings are probably fine. I'll check them at a later time. This engine was really clean inside. I think it had been rebuilt recently. There are brass freeze plugs in it, the gaskets were pretty new and everything was so clean. I bet I could put a set of pushrods in it and new head gaskets and it would probably run. I'm not gonna do that but it looks like someone junked a good engine over a couple pushrods. I forgot to mention that the other pushrod on cylinder 7 was bent.

What do you guys think from the pics?

 

[Longroof79]

Good score for the money. I hope the heads check out with no cracks. I would investigate further why the engine ate the pushrod in the first place.
It looks like it wouldn't take much to have a good running reliable street engine.
Having it apart, you may as well go thru the whole thing.

 

[Opie Knievel]

Good score for the money. I hope the heads check out with no cracks. I would investigate further why the engine ate the pushrod in the first place.
It looks like it wouldn't take much to have a good running reliable street engine.
Having it apart, you may as well go thru the whole thing.

I really hope the heads are as good as they seem, too. It's so easy to make 350-400hp with them relatively cheap especially using the roller cam bottom end.

I'm plan to tear it all the way down when I get it home.

I don't know why it ate the pushrod but I'm betting that's why the engine was junked. I know a little about the shop that sent us the core and it wouldn't surprise me if the missfire that would have started when the pushrod broke was made out to be a bigger problem and they talked the owner of the truck into replacing the engine.

 

[Longroof79]

It kinda makes you wonder how many vehicles were junked due to misdiagnosis. Walking around the junkyard you see cars that look clean and obviously cared for...again, you wonder what fate put them there in the first place.

 

[Opie Knievel]

It kinda makes you wonder how many vehicles were junked due to misdiagnosis. Walking around the junkyard you see cars that look clean and obviously cared for...again, you wonder what fate put them there in the first place.

I wonder that pretty often. There are a lot of vehicles that end up here that I would have saved. I certainly wouldn't have junked a Vortec engine because of a pushrod. There are plenty of cars here that are driveable. Some with light damage. There are some with no body damage and either need an engine or transmission. People don't try to fix cars like they used to.

 

[lilbowtie]

It looks like you saw the worst of it and it looks good. Looks like 062 heads and along with the block heater would say it from a truck. I would also guess that it has been apart - someone correct me if I'm wrong - it looks like a felpro oil pan gasket and the blue on the heads would indicate felpro gaskets there(plus brass plugs). The pistons don't indicate over bore(check it) and you have PM rods. Engine probably got shut when the push rod created the noise and the engine ran crappy. looks like the spider tray and the guide held the lifter in place. Your probably right about getting it running.

 

[Longroof79]

You're absolutely right. People nowadays are so quick to dispose of a vehicle that might need a little work. However, with the ever rising cost of new vehicles, most people would rethink their decision. I suppose it depends on their economic situation.

 

[pontiacgp]

It kinda makes you wonder how many vehicles were junked due to misdiagnosis. Walking around the junkyard you see cars that look clean and obviously cared for...again, you wonder what fate put them there in the first place.

I had a 94 Grand Cherokee that was in great shape which ended up in the junk yard due to an electrical issue that would cause it not to start. It was a well known problem and no one online seemed to have a fix even though new computers were installed, the wiring was changed and sensors were replaced but the problem always came back.

 

[axisg]

Still wonder why it spit the pushrod out ? A goods clean and a "rattle can" rebuild and you should have a good little motor on your hands