A blown big block saga.......

The saga........
Some know I've been "vehicularly challenged" for a while now, WELL.....

About Dec 12, 2008, I heard a "bad noise." About 1/2 mile from home,
about 1/2 mile from where I was, at 1 AM and 4 degrees out.
Me, without a coat, due to the short drive.
Had the truck towed to my "friend" Jack, who as going to take care of it
for me, as he ows me.
After waiting too long, I made a different plan. Jack was to simply get
the engine out, and I rebuild myself, then he was to reinstall.
Some of this is out of order, as it's a compilation of e-mail sent to various
folks who asked how it was going.
March 31, 2009
Yesterday, I brought the engine home to see exactly what happened.
Some have asked for photo's so I took a bunch as I ripped it down, as
far as I got.
I fully expected to see a rod poking through the side of the motor behind
the starter, but there wasn't, and I took that as a good sign. Bad plan !
It appeared the head gasket had blown, and that's where the water and
oil all over the ground had come from. It was, but....
Got the engine home, and snapped a few photo's of the #8 head gasket.
Pulled plugs, all of which looked great, EXCEPT for #8.
Hmmm.....
OK, we're gonna pull apart that side of the mill, and see what we got.
Pulled the valve cover, and found.... Well the photo's tell the story better
than I can from this point.
https://cowboys.homeip.net/Files/Engine/
They're pretty much in order of tear-down.
A few notes.
That little plastic button that's supposed to retain the rocker in position
is ( I think ) the original cause. It broke, the rocker drifted off the valve.
This I believe is where my intermittent miss and stalling was coming from.
The rocker would miss the valve stem, causing incomplete, or no, opening
of the exhaust valve, miss. Drift back into position, and run fine, with no
other evidence of a problem.
Dec. 12, 2008
The midnight disaster.... Cold engine.
The exhaust valve failed to open, blowing the head gasket, allowing water
into the cylinder. Water won't compress 10:1, so blew out the side of the
cylinder. The engine kept running ( on 7 cylinders ) and beat what was
left of the parts ( that unrecognizable hunk of metal used to be a piston )
to oblivion.
Surprisingly, the head looks great, so I'll be reusing as-is.
Got a new engine complete, but seized for $200. Rusted cylinders, so my
plan is to bore the rusty block to match my .030 over pistons, and re-use
most of my old mill, using the "new" rusty block, one of it's rods ( balanced
to match my old 7 ) a new piston, and see how it all goes together.
This plan subject to change, as more parts come out, depending on how
the other 7 pistons look, and stuff like that.
It's an adventure.
;)
*****************************
Well, I did rebuild it myself. Got it back to Jack, but he didn't get it
back in the truck until about Aug. 15. Various complications ( like Jack's
guys smaching the oil pan ) I brought it home Sept. 2nd.
Overheat, and blue smoke from under the engine bay. NOT good.
*****************************
Sept. 3, 2009

Found coolant REAL low. Filled coolant and temp stabilized
at a "normal" 160 or so.
Eric is here for the week, so we did a compression check.
100 to 150 on various cylinders. NOT good.
Did a leak-down test in the vehicle.
REAL not good !
Not a calibrated measurement, but just a compressor and
listen for air leaks. ( made a spark plug hole adapter )
I'll be making a calibrated orifice this week. ( if I can find a drill bit )
Intake valves leaking on three cylinders on both sides.
Same cylinders have excessive blow-by.
I decided to pull the engine AGAIN, but THIS time by myself
in my garage ! Took about 4 or 5 hours.
The mill is back on the engine stand.
( and moving that 5000 pound truck with no engine is a chore )
At this point, I'm suspecting that the moron's left the thing out in the
rain the three weeks they had it this time, uncovered, and rusted
intake valves and bores.
I'll know when it comes apart again.
Life goes on.....
Send money !!

*****************************
Well, it's been an adventure !
Having not worked since February, finances are a concern.
( some part time IT consulting here and there, but not enough
to live on )
Machining.
Total blue print and balance, by me.
What started to be a $200 bore turned into $1500 worth of bore,
polish, receding valve seats so new hardened seats, a few bent
valves, new guides, lots of head work.

Can't get a matching heavy piston, so got what I could. One piston
6 grams light. $hi^&* !!
Re-balance the whole silly thing. Pistons, rods, crank......
Fit bearings and found them loose by 1.5 thousandths.
Iffy. Study, think, consult, etc. etc.
"Sanded" main caps to close them up some. All bearings at the
high end of the clearance limit, but within blue print specs.
Hand fit rings, etc. etc.
CC heads, pistons, deck.......
Compression a dissappointing 8.7749:1 considering I was told it
was and would be 10:1. Since all the work was already done, and
there's really no way to change it without all new pistons, a whole
new re-balance, etc. I decided to just live with 8.77:1.
Built the entire engine. Got it to the garage where my "friend" was
to instal into the truck.
( Jack ows me, and I do/did trust him, but HE didn't do it. He had one
of the morons that works for him do it. )
TWO WEEKS later ( every time I turn around, "Oh, yeah. Have that
for you tomorrow." takes 2 weeks to a month ) the bozo calls me
telling me I got bad injectors.
I don't think so !!
Over I go, and find he'd not connected the alternator accessory wire.
( which was snashed. He says "That's all melted !" No it's not. He
smashed it when he took the engine out, along with bending and
breaking my dipstick )
Connect accessory power, so the ECM powers up, hit the key, and
it's almost instantly running. Kewl ! 60 PSI oil pressure. Great !
( 10-40 oil )
BANG! BANG ! BANG ! BANG !
The idiot somehow smashed the oil pan JUST enough, that a rod journal
is beating the pan inside.
One of Jack's other morons makes a comment.....
"Yuk yuk yuk ! Guess you'll have to go buy a pan from Summit, yuk yuk.
Souldn't be more than about $500 yuk yuk yuk."
I damn near shot that idiot !
The moron that put it on says he'll take care of it that evening.
Fine.
TWO WEEKS later........
( that evening, except he simply didn't show up at all for two weeks )
Starts, and runs near perfect.
Go to drive it home. Ron is following, because the plates expired two
months ago, and I can't get it E-checked obviously, yet. ( for which I
have to buy a 30 day tag first, since the plates expired )
When it warms up, oil pressure goes to zero, sixty, zero, sixty,
then alternating fast enough for the gauge needle to disappear.
SH*&^ !!
Blue smoke from under the truck. DOUBLE SH^%$ !!
I'm half way home, and more disgusted than I can ever remember
being in my life !
Check oil level, which shows full. Minor drip, can't tell where from.
Engine is fully warmed up at 190 degrees, so feelling around for leaks
is out of the question.
NO bad noises. No ticking lifters, which should be ticking badly if
there is in fact no oil pressure/flow.
Drive it home. Holding 50 PSI oil most of the way home on hot restart.
Huh !? Running great, but that smoke......
Idle at stop light, pressure goes zero, 30, zero, 20, zero, zero, zero.
Gas it a little, and get 45. Continue, 'cause I'm SO disgusted I JUST want
to get it home, in any state of damage. Got expired plates on it, so my
options for stopping on the road at all are quite limited.
At home, look hard, and find oil pumping out of the dipstick, at idle.
Put a few RPM on it, and it stops pumping out till it idles back down.
( and holding oil pressure the whole time parked )
No clue why yet, but I suspect a$$&^%$ got the PCV valve backwards,
or something equally as stupid.
Almost anything else would be REAL not good, like ring problems.
( which it still could be, but I doubt it. My work is good, and too much of
work "by others" is crap )
One rev to about 2500 RPM ( absolute highest so far ) Good oil pressure,
cools down good ( idles HOT but a$$#@^ got the shroud all screwed up,
possibly wrong motor mounts on wrong side. Remains to be discovered.
AC doesn't work. Moron must have done something, 'cause it worked
before !
Suddenly, a lifter tick. NOT happy ! Showing 25 PSI oil at hot idle, but
who knows what kind of crap moron might have gotten into the pan.
Possibly some gasket cork, I don't know.
Possible work later this month. God, I hope !!
Looking like a minor tear down in my garage ( cramped as that will be )
to find out what got screwed up.
I'm so disgusted with people NOT doing what they say they are doing,
AND taking the money which is at a high premium for me these days,
I can't even begin to describe.
I can pull the pan, main caps and such in-vehicle and check for damage.
Not easy, or fun, but I can do it.
I can pull the intake manifold and get to the lifters, and see the cam also
in vehicle, and suspect I'm going there next.
Going to see if the lifter quiets down on cold start.
Eight months to do a two week job. Not real happy, but at least now it
can move itself, and it's back in my control.
Probably not today, as my attitude still needs an adjustment.

********************

On Tuesday 08 September 2009 06:40 am, Cowboy wrote:
I decided to pull the engine AGAIN, but THIS time by myself
in my garage ! Took about 4 or 5 hours.
The mill is back on the engine stand.
WELL.....
I had help from Mark, across the street, getting the engine out of the truck,
onto the stand, and putting the bare block into the van to go to the machine shop.
Absolutely everything else, I did with me, myself, and I alone.
Tore it down completely.
Found scored bearings, ( all of 'em ) cylinder walls, and 14 stuck rings.
SH%$# !!
Tore it down totally and completely. Cried to Gable ( machine shop ) and he
has a heart. Boiled the block, crank, cam, heads, pistons and rods, and
re-honed the bores, repolished the crank, replaced cam bearings, all for $100.
$1200 the first time around, $100 this time. Not bad.
Called Advance Auto Parts, and talked to the same guy I bought the parts from
the first time around. He also has a heart. They warranteed EVERYTHING !
Everything INCLUDING the used gaskets ! About $300 saved.
They're all special order parts, so that took most of a month. 3 weeks anyway.
During that time, dissassembled, cleaned, checked, and reassembled all 16
lifters. Cleaned out all 16 push rods. Miscellaneous whatever I could.
Well, the Lord takes care of babies and fools.
We know I'm not a baby, so.....
Gable called me, the block was done, come get it. I did.
He helped me get it into the van.
Got home.
None of my friends that could help me get it OUT of the van anywhere
within an 8 hour drive, one way.
Well, do or die !
Got a pair of leather gloves, and a grip.......
Deep breath.
I picked up the block.
HOLY MOTHER OF PEARL !!!!!
THAT hunk of 8 cylinder cast iron is HEAVY !!
( the book says 600 pounds ( about 272 kilograms ) but since I did pick it up
I know it's not 600 bare block ) (( guessing 200, but I don't know ))

So, now I'm standing there, holding this thing, thinking I *should* put it down
RIGHT now, ( after all, I'm not a 25 year old weight lifter ) but if I do that,
I damn sure won't pick it up again, so......
I turned around, ( now I'm REALLY committed ) and carried it into the garage.
Now, I gotta put it down without dropping it ! ( especially on my foot )
Once it started, down it went. More of a very slow, controlled fall really.
Now, it's on the floor. Walked it across the floor under the beam, then
picked it up with a come along, and got it back on the engine stand.
That's enough for one day.
Reassembled the whole thing again. Got bearing clearances 1/2 thou
bigger than they were, so not exactly "blueprint" anymore, but still
within racing spec. ( JUST within "loose" race spec )
Ring gaps opened up 1 thou, so Rick only took about 0.0003 on the
re-bore / hone. Still within loose "race" spec, but not blueprint.
Leak-down test.
Not good.
Should be better than 25% loss, and I was getting 50% and 60%.
( prefer to see 5% or so on a tight precision race mill )
Asked Gable what he thought. ( Rick has been building race engines
some 40 years ) He said he'd run it. Check it again after about ten
minutes, and it'll "probably" be fine, since it's not really a "race" engine.
I didn't like that, so I pulled down the worst cylinder.
Couldn't find anything wrong. Wiped off the piston and rings, and
put it back together. Went from 60% loss to 40%. Better.
Called Rick again. He suggested bolting the starter on it, filling it
with oil, and spin it with the starter 100 revs or so.
Did that. Now getting loss 30% to about 45%. Better. Maybe it really
does just need run ? Since I could find nothing wrong, put it together.
Went to clean out the oil pan it came home with.
Pulled out 30 year old sludge, and about a tablespoon of loose
powdered rust. OH !!??
Apparently these bozo's that were supposed to pick the best of two,
clean it up, fix whatever, and use it, didn't.
( body shop, so I figured they were more used to dealing with rusted
steel and holes than I was. BIG misteak ! )
Spent a day cleaning the oil pan, brazing up what pin holes I could find,
grinding rust off the inside surfaces.
Took the oil pump apart, and got another teaspoon of rust, and quite
a bit of filter material stuck in the bypass.
Put it all together.
Borrowed a cherry picker from disabled friend Bob ( three strokes
this past year ) and brought that home by myself. ( about 100 pounds )
Put the engine in the truck all by myself over a Saturday. Found ZERO
bolts in the transmission ! The only things holding the tranny in the frame
was the linkage, and the drive shaft ! The more I find, the more upset I am
with Jack and the bozo's working for him.
No wonder nothing would line up !
Got the thing set, all tranny bolts, motor mounts and such.
Sunday, did all the peripherals. TBI, Alternator, fan, radiator, and such.
Sunday, November 1st. Spun the oil pump with a drill, and oiled it up.
Dropped in the distributor, and hit the key.
Running almost instantly. Idle only. 60 PSI oil pressure.
Ran it about ten minutes, long enough to set timing. Shut it down.
BANG BANG BANG !! Yeah, that transit bus transmission has a bigger
converter, and the bolts are beating on the inspection cover.
Well, Scott had told me something similar ten years ago, the first time.
Spacers in the appropriate places, and it clears.
Monday, fired it up again, and went looking for oil leaks and such.
Found pin holes in the pan. DAMN !!
Got the brilliant idea to jam toothpick into the pin holes, wipe 'em off
with acetone, and JB weld over that. THAT worked !!
Re-filled radiator, now that it's running. Took another 2 gallons.
That explains why it over heated the first time. The bozo's never
checked the fill after the engine was running the first time, so it only
had about half when I drove it home.
Checked the tranny fluid and found it SIX QUARTS low !!
The more I find, the more upset I get. SIX F%$#ing QUARTS !! AND
they let me drive it that way, telling me it was fine !
Now that all appears OK, time to take it for a spin. Plates expired back
in July, and Ohio now ( this year ) has a $20 fine if you renew late, which
I couldn't renew because it needs e-check this time, and you can't e-check
without an engine. Around the block. Ran OK.
Down the hill, and turn around. Up the hill at 3/4 throttle or so, but never
exceeding 40 MPH, to "seat" the rings. Ran good ! Park it.
Maybe 20 minutes, total. Almost 1 mile.

Got a week stacking steel in Chicago.
Ran it around the block a couple times. Appears OK.
Go get a 30 day temp tag ( $20 ) so I can get the e-check.
Ran it about 3 miles to the freeway, then HARD up the ramp, and about
2 miles down the freeway. Off the freeway, and over to e-check.
Engine has about 8 or 9 miles on it, and I *know* the left side catalytic
is bad. ( chunks of the honeycomb on my shelf blown out the pipe )
What the heck ? If it fails, I expect that anyway with the known bad cat.
IT PASSED !!
OK, the limit on it is 220 PPM HC, and it usually checks about 10.
This time, 120. Twelve times what it used to do, but still half the limit.
Put a plate on it.
Had to argue about the late fine, because a repair bill from a shop is
an acceptable reason, but repairing it yourself is not !! Go figure.
Argued the heck out of 'em. Threw $2000 worth of receipts at them,
and they finally agreed to let me out of the late fine.
Drove it around town a bit. Total about 50 miles.
Changed oil and filter. Oil came out clean. Didn't cut apart the filter,
but I'm over-all happy.
Took it to my mother's place the other week. On the freeway, hit it
HARD about 50 MPH, *just* fast enough it won't down shift.
50 to 85 MPH in about 3 seconds, maybe less, in high gear. The truck
weighs 5700 pounds, so with both my brother and me in it, about 6000,
and it's pulling noticeably hard. Might have hit 3500 RPM at that speed.
At this point, I'm planning about 500 miles or so of normal driving, then
the synthetic oil, and then I'll get back to fine tuning the ECM computer.
Probably change the pan at that time, and re-torque mains, rods, and
heads.
SO, now I have a known Buick 455, built by me. About 461 displacement.
30 over bore, 8.7745:1 static compression ratio, and an H268 Comp
Cams hi-perf cam shaft with a rather broad power range.
Hyper eutectic pistons, stock valves but with about 1 1/2 times stock lift.
3/8 inch valve-piston clearance, .035 deck, .045 head gasket.
Forged rods, cast rings, brass valve guides, doubled valve springs.
Drips a little oil when hot after it's run, but not a whole lot.
I'll address that at the next oil change.
Running noteably cooler than it used to. Warming up faster,
but cooler running, even with a heavy foot.
Mild surge at idle, but Com Cams says that's normal with this cam.
My chemist tells me that the lightest oil I can get away with and still
make pressure, the better, so I'm running 10W40 in it.
60 PSI idle cold. 25 hot, and 50 or so driving when fully warmed up.
I didn't do anything any differently than the first time 6 months ago,
so I know it wasn't me. It was Jack, my "friend" and the bozos that
work for him.
Over-all, I'm happy with the final outcome.
I got my truck back ! :)

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