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

[80ELCAMINOFLAKE]

Re: Khan's Motoring Chronicles

Sweet!! Thanks for the info, my starter acting up, this will be a great upgrade... U right on track with build.. Cant wait for more update 🙂

 

[khan0165]

Re: Khan's Motoring Chronicles

unfortunately, that's not the end of the story...

after all the headgasket troubles, it finally ran so well, with no leaks and good healthy symptoms. But I guess it decided it apparently hasn't given me enough trouble...
... it chewed up the brand new valve seals the we put in.

The machinist and I are very puzzled. The old seals weren't factory style, but they worked well. So not to re-invent the wheel, we both agreed to install the exact same kind. And now, they got chewed up.

With the spring off, it's obvious they are too large.
... so how did the old ones work?

 

[79loserbluebu]

Re: Khan's Motoring Chronicles

I would keep looking into the coolant leak issue... A gasket is there to seal, and it should of held coolant just fine at 20psi. Sucks that you're having so many troubles but hang in there you are doing a great job despite all the bad luck. The headers look awesome you did a great job. KBS makes a bunch of good stuff but following the directions they give you is critical to how it turns out in the end.

 

[khan0165]

Re: Khan's Motoring Chronicles

yeah, I'm not so convinced with the gasket just yet. I will do a compression test and maybe a leak down test. I don't know if I want to do another coolant pressure test after running it.
when I did the test before running, the pressure seemed to hold for an hour or so, but would leak when left over night. I don't know how it would respond now after it's been run.

I'm turning a blind eye to the headers. After getting some heat in them, the paint start to chip and flake away. But I'm pretty frustrated and I'm just gonna pretend I haven't noticed that...
3 days of wire-wheeling, 2 days of rust blasting, and 3 days of painting... all for flakey chipping paint

 

[othtim]

Re: Khan's Motoring Chronicles

Do you have new valvetrain parts? Maybe the springs are bouncing around more? New cam or something?


Also, when I did my last engine I took out the positive-stop style valve seals and I just put umbrella seals on mine. I know its not that good for oil control, but the way I see it - those old cast iron valve guides need all the lubrication they can get.

 

[Pontiac455]

Re: Khan's Motoring Chronicles

The valve retainers are hittin the seals, too much lift. If yer gonna use that cam and rocker set up u will have to machine the valve guides.

 

[online170]

Re: Khan's Motoring Chronicles

Othtim and Pontiac;

its really only seals, rings, gaskets and bearings replaced on this motor. All valvetrain is the same, labelled and put back together exactly. Retainers hitting guides shouldnt be an issue if it ran that way at 6000rpm for the last 4 years.

The valveseals were replaced with the same parts again. Maybe the seal tolerances have changed in the last 8 years since the motor was originally built, or maybe a production screwup on the seals causing a bad batch, or maybe just the wrong seals packaged in this box. It happens.

Would be easy enough to measure the clearance of the new seals going in when they arrive.

 

[khan0165]

Re: Khan's Motoring Chronicles

yep, just a engine refresh/regasket job. No new parts. Same valvetrain as before. We used the same type of seals as the ones that came out, so it should not have caused problems.

Pontiac455, you are right. When we pulled the springs, we could see the seals were not clearanced properly, the retainers were hitting the tops of the seal.

I think online170 brings up a good point. The old seals were last installed close to 8 years ago. Maybe they've changed since then. Or they shipped us the wrong ones packaged with the wrong part number... and we didn't check when we put them on.

the machinist had installed them for me. So the engine is with him right now. He's replacing them again, and checking for clearance.

 

[Pontiac455]

Re: Khan's Motoring Chronicles

Hope ya have better luck this time around buddy.

 

[khan0165]

Re: Khan's Motoring Chronicles

machinist called me today, said he has no idea how the old seals survived. The intake side is close, but the exhaust has no chance.

it's just like you said Pontiac455... too much lift, retainers are hitting the seals and would need to machine the valve guides down.

It's a newer style double seal fuel injection seal. Machinist says an old style hardshell seal will work. It's not double seal, and not as well sealing as the fuel injection seal, but it'll clear the retainers.