Khan's Motoring Chronicles - PICTURES & VIDEO FROM THE TRACK

[khan0165]

well the GP has had a bad rearmain leak for a couple of summers now, which I've been thuroughly ignoring. I was avoiding it because the oil pan is so big, it's easier to pull the engine than to try and replace in car. I also ordered a torque converter, so this was a good opportunity.

my friend's dad lent me his garage and my brother helped me pull the motor, got it out in a night

don't ask why the transmission came out too... "it's easier" - said someone who was helping

 

[khan0165]

Re: Khan's Motoring Chronicles

a couple nights later, we went back to inspect the bottom end. This is the first time I've had this oil pan off, and got some cool surprises. It's a fully balanced rotating assembly, clearanced rods, high flow pump, clevite bearings, etc... good stuff

measuring side clearances

pulled a few caps, and bearings looked good

 

[khan0165]

Re: Khan's Motoring Chronicles

so here's where the project gets carried away...
after pulling the motor, I fell into the traditional mentality of "well while it's out, why don't I just refreshen it?"

the engine has had some blow-by and I thought it could use new rings. And since I've got a new converter, it'd be nice to have a fresh start with the motor too.

so, I took it apart...

labeled and bagged everything...

TRW Forged Flattops, 10.4:1, part # L2256-30

block has factory deck

from inspection, the cylinders looked good (but it wasn't the case as I found out later)

I marked the timing gears before pulling the cam, so I could install in same position

cam has nice pattern on the lobes

heads came off looking good, these gaskets worked great with so much compression

little burning on the exhaust valves, but understandable... I do run some temperature at the track

 

[-83MONTESS-]

Re: Khan's Motoring Chronicles

What do you plan on doing while its out? Just freshen it up or anything new?

 

[khan0165]

Re: Khan's Motoring Chronicles

well, I decided to leave the short block together and have my machinist re-assemble it. After taking it apart, he found copper on the front bearings, on the mains and the rods. And he found very deep scratching in the cylinders.

The bores were already 0.032 over, and honing wasn't going clean these bores up

new pistons weren't in the budget, and I really didn't wanna mismatch the balanced rotating assembly. He said he can throw it on the hone and if cleans up the top couple of inches, it should be okay to run. So that's what we did, and surprisingly, it cleaned up the scratches quite well... they are still there, but not bad. Aftering honing, the walls were out to 0.033 and decided to order 0.035 rings to file fit.

here's the new parts

I didn't order a full gasket kit, because none of the kits came with these nice head gaskets. So I ordered the head gaskets and intake gaskets separate, and then what SummitRacing calls their "R.A.C.E" kit which is (Remainder to Assemble Complete Engine)

all Celvite 77 bearings, mains, rods, and cam

and a SpeedPro (formally TRW) premium moly ring set, this cost a pretty penny

and I bought some other stuff I've been meaning to for a while

I'm still on the fence about getting a good fuel pump and using it with a regulator

 

[khan0165]

Re: Khan's Motoring Chronicles

What do you plan on doing while its out? Just freshen it up or anything new?

lol, you caught me in between posts. But yeah I'm just re freshening... no new parts (besides miscellaneous items like fasteners, hose and lines, etc...)

 

[khan0165]

Re: Khan's Motoring Chronicles

and the story continues...
so after ordering all my new parts, I got very bad news. (as if the scratched cylinders and loose tolerances weren't a hurdle to get thru)
The machinist was prepping the block to assemble. He was sanding the deck to clean when he found, a FRACTURE

the fracture is right ontop of the deck, in between cylinder 4 & 6, it's very small, and is the type that's caused repeated use after gasket failure. Since my gaskets came out nice and there was no burning on the heads, this fracture was likely there before, and was run all this time, with all this abuse.

in reality, if you threw on some low compression heads, you could run this block forever and not even know. The risks with running high comp heads like mine, with a fracture like that, if I blow a head gasket and not stop right away, it'll start melting thru the aluminum heads.

I spent two or three weeks looking for a replacement block. Nothing I found was trusty, most were not well kept or rusty, all had a shady story. The trusty ones were the complete engines, and I wasn't about to pay $700 just for a block and not reuse all the other parts. And I woulda been around $500 anyways after getting a bare block and machining it to where mine is now.

After much searching, I decided to keep my block. Yes there's a risk, and if something goes, I gotta stop right away. But the motor was run all this time with the fracture there, and I'm banking on that good luck to continue... lol

 

[khan0165]

Re: Khan's Motoring Chronicles

stay tuned...
story continues...
I'll post pictures of the Assembly later tonight or tomorrow

 

[dr78442]

Re: Khan's Motoring Chronicles

Good luck with the rest of the build. Hopefully the crack is superficial and won't cause any problems. The car ran good before the engine wastaken apart. Again best of luck I love engine build threads

 

[Blue86Monte]

Re: Khan's Motoring Chronicles

You'll be alright Khan, if you ran it this hard with the crack in the block, it wont be a problem. I just know if it was me, I would be looking for another block...