by "Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To" (murdersofa)
Published 11/12/2017 at 10:11
by "Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To" (murdersofa)
Published 11/12/2017 at 10:11
No Tags
STARS: 10
13 hours of work to extract and disassemble a ‘70s Chevy engine from a ‘70s Jaguar. Here’s what I found:
Steering rack! This had to come out so the exhaust could come out so I could get to the lower two bellhousing bolts. All but the lowermost bellhousing bolts were accessible from the top of the car due to the fact the trans sticks 6" into the engine bay. This rack will not be going in as it leaks, nay, GUSHES PS fluid from the left seal. A new one is sitting in the trunk.
This picture taken for future reference because some of these red wires are grounds because of course they fucking are.
And just like that we extract the beating heart.
These brand new looking freeze plugs tell me this engine is likely very new. We suspect a botched rebuild.
So much room for activities! The subframe is absolutely drenched in power steering fluid. The throttle cable is *crimped to the fucking carb* so it’s staying attached to the car. Some wiring is getting re-routed and tucked away while the engine is out and everything is getting a nice cleaning.
This is the oil pressure sending unit. Uh... yeah. This snapped off shortly after I got the car which prompted going to the hardware store for new fittings.
Unexpected: double roller cam chain
Unexpected #2: four bolt mains engine
These custom headers have literal millimeters of clearance around the starter and steering rack. It’s actually very impressive. The studs on the passenger side have even been welded so you don’t have to hold the bolts with a wrench when taking off the nuts. Very impressed.
Starting to pull rod caps. Certainly not looking great but this isn’t bad enough to be knocking.
Ah. Okay. That’s a lot of copper. That one that’s down to copper is VISIBLY thinner on one side. Completely spun as well. That rod is going to need machined...
Surprise #3: double valve springs. I bet valve float on this engine is astronomically high.
Hm. So here’s my thoughts on this:
Was the car using oil? No.
Do I have the money to bore it out to .060 (it’s already at .030)? No.
Is this little bit of scoring likely to cause catastrophic engine failure? No.
Do I give a shit? Not likely.
Torques for the head bolts were all over the place. Some could be taken off easily enough with a ratchet but two of them required a 4 ft breaker bar, so obviously whoever assembled this engine has an IQ somewhere in the legally retarded range.
Surprise #4: I don’t remember the brand name but these are fairly expensive aftermarket pistons that likely have a compression ratio more in the 9.5:1 range
So.
We have an engine with *some* hot (okay, mildly warm) parts in it, yet shit casting heads and a stock cam. It was obviously assembled by someone who had no idea what they were doing so my best guess is that this engine was assembled and started with no assembly lube and nobody primed the oil pump, immediately heating up the bearings and starting their life of early wear.
My plan is to buy a crank and bearing kit, a new oil pump, and have that spun rod machined. While waiting on parts the engine is getting a very thorough cleaning and all new gaskets including valve stem seals since those have been known to let a bit of oil seep down and make fun smoke clouds on startup.
When I’m done I should have a pretty solid SBC for less than $250 in parts which is pretty unbeatable given that in “Completely fucked needs rebuilt” 350s around here go for $300 alone. The scoring in the piston walls may cause some oil consumption in 20k miles but that is fairly low on my list of things I care about at this juncture.
Besides, I’ll just get an LS eventually anyways :P
"NYankee1927" (nyankee1927)
11/12/2017 at 10:51, STARS: 1
Awesome previous owner, “I’ll get some breathed on bottom end parts and do absolutely nothing for the lack of head flow”
I think heads and cams are the easiest way to make power with these engines. Why even bother with upgraded valve springs if it won’t breathe while revving it?
"Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To" (murdersofa)
11/12/2017 at 10:55, STARS: 2
I feel like someone got halfway through building this and then said “Fuck it just toss it together torque wrench what’s that? Assembly lube? How bout I spit on the bearings lol”
"Urambo Tauro" (urambotauro)
11/12/2017 at 11:03, STARS: 1
Bad previous work makes me mad. The SBC on my truck was allegedly rebuilt, but I found about 6° of play in the original (280k+ mi) stock timing chain. And then there was my brother’s car, with the unevenly torqued valve covers that resulted in a fire (that happened at the factory, though).
"MM54" (mm54mk2)
11/12/2017 at 11:21, STARS: 1
Man, those bearings are toast. Sounds like a good rebuild plan, though. I’m going to be the one to whisper that maybe you should consider a cam while you’re at it, at least take some advantage of what the rest of the engine seems capable of.
The cylinder on #6 should be fine; have you considered fresh rings all around and a quick ball-hone while it’s apart?
"Jayvincent" (jayvincent)
11/12/2017 at 11:22, STARS: 1
Did you consider cross-honing the cylinders (without reboring) to blend out the cylinder scoring? I can’t say I’ve tried it, but it seems low risk if you are going to pull the pistons anyway.
Thanks for the detailed pics, btw! Keep us posted on the rebuild
"Urambo Tauro" (urambotauro)
11/12/2017 at 11:27, STARS: 0
Uh, clarification: It was the poor torque job that happened at the factory, not the fire.
"crowmolly" (crowmolly)
11/12/2017 at 11:32, STARS: 0
Those look like single valve springs with dampers.
Pistons look decent. There might be a part number on the back side of them.
Make sure you label the main caps when you remove them :)
My guess? Maybe a torque wrench was not used properly (or at all) for some of the assembly.
"Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To" (murdersofa)
11/12/2017 at 11:44, STARS: 0
Oh? I just googled “Double valve springs” and something similar popped up. I don’t know much about these things.
There is a part number, I just forget what it is. I’ll take a look today.
Yeah, we have them all organized and nice in a drawer. Would rather not go “oh shit which one is which” and have to do an alignment hone.
“lol wtf is a torque wrench” — Engine ‘builder’
"Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To" (murdersofa)
11/12/2017 at 11:44, STARS: 0
I’m weighing the idea of doing a dingleberry hone. Not sure if it’s safe to do that and keep my existing rings or not.
"Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To" (murdersofa)
11/12/2017 at 11:45, STARS: 1
Cam sounds like money. I have very little money. Barely enough to cover the crank kit. I am considering rings and a dingleberry hone but rings are a pain in the dick. I’m having a hard enough time gathering the motivation to do valve stem seals.
"Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To" (murdersofa)
11/12/2017 at 11:46, STARS: 0
Oil leak on to exhaust?
"Urambo Tauro" (urambotauro)
11/12/2017 at 11:47, STARS: 0
Bingo. ’98 Regal GS.
"crowmolly" (crowmolly)
11/12/2017 at 12:10, STARS: 1
Yeah, just wanted to mention something in case you wanted to try spinning it high. Still might be good springs though. Engine might have a cam/lifter/spring/timing chain kit on it.
Oh, and post up your cam grind number too!
"MM54" (mm54mk2)
11/12/2017 at 12:17, STARS: 1
Fair enough. My only concern with the cam would be if the thing was done without assembly lube or otherwise oil-starved, and it’s a flat-tappet cam, what sort of condition it might be in. It would be devastating to get the bottom end back together to wipe a cam lobe in 100 miles.
"RacinBob" (racinbob)
11/12/2017 at 17:43, STARS: 1
My two cents. Unless you can feel wear on the crank, why replace it? My suggestion for the pistons and bores is to buy a drill hone and clean up the bores. I’d then install new rings.
"Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To" (murdersofa)
11/12/2017 at 17:52, STARS: 0
Was it unevenly torqued or just age? I know the 3800 valve cover seals are known to degrade after about 20 years and people are seeing their cars catch on fire because they never look under the hood and notice that wear items have worn.
"Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To" (murdersofa)
11/12/2017 at 17:53, STARS: 0
Crank is worn as shit. It also has lots of machining stamps on it so it’s been rebuilt before.
Drill hone won’t clean that up. It’s far past that. It would need actual machining and I can’t afford that.
"Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To" (murdersofa)
11/12/2017 at 17:54, STARS: 1
Well we turned the engine over today to clean gasket off the oil pan mating surface and fucking dumped out half of the lifters because we forgot they were in there so FUCK. Guess I’m buying new lifters. Maybe a new camshaft. Fuck. Guess I get to do the break-in dance. The camshaft itself looks fine. Might be okay with new lifters. Stupid flat tappet bullshit.
"Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To" (murdersofa)
11/12/2017 at 17:54, STARS: 0
Where would I find the cam grind number? Just pulled it out today. It looks pretty lame. Not much duration at all.
"MM54" (mm54mk2)
11/12/2017 at 17:58, STARS: 0
Ouch :(
"RacinBob" (racinbob)
11/12/2017 at 18:08, STARS: 0
Gotcha. good luck with the project.
"Urambo Tauro" (urambotauro)
11/12/2017 at 18:17, STARS: 0
Well, soon after he bought it, I had noticed it smoking vapors off of the front manifold and suggested some new gaskets. Another year passed before it actually caught fire, though. It was 15 years old at that point.
The flames were put out quickly enough to save the car (it just needed some spark plug wires and a boost valve), so I went ahead and changed the VC gaskets for him. When I took the valve covers off, I found the bolt grommets had been squished to all kinds of varying thicknesses.
It wasn’t until after all this that we found out about the recall haha.
"benjrblant" (benjblant)
11/12/2017 at 19:48, STARS: 1
I know you’re on a tight budget, but Engine Masters just published a video of budget SBC mods to maximize power on a dime. Regardless of your budget, it’s not a bad 18 minutes to watch:
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"crowmolly" (crowmolly)
11/12/2017 at 20:25, STARS: 1
On the end that engages the cam gear/timing set.
"crowmolly" (crowmolly)
11/12/2017 at 20:32, STARS: 1
There was a recall on the valve cover gaskets. Also, the L67 lower intake gaskets had a redesign- the stock ones were plastic and the “new” ones were/are soft aluminum. There were also leak/fire issues from the LIM gaskets.
"Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To" (murdersofa)
11/12/2017 at 23:18, STARS: 0
Love Engine Masters. Seen every episode. Motor Trend OnDemand is the one video subscription service I may be swayed to purchase.
Annoyingly, the muscle car group considers any engine less than $5k to be budget.
"razorbeamteam" (razorbeamteam)
11/13/2017 at 10:10, STARS: 0
Not to be a dick, but new lifters with an old cam will turn the cam into a broomstick in no time.
"Spridget" (dustbustervans)
11/18/2017 at 22:21, STARS: 0
“my best guess is that this engine was assembled and started with no assembly lube”
what
even Roadkill does this, and they’re self proclaimed hacks