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I'll be honest, when I park the car at places I'm comfortable with, I never lock it, and I'm in for hours at a time. My ex could've very well done this.
Come on now. let's not be building conspiracy theories, or become paranoid about someone out to get the OP.
Geez. That is not a header bolt. OK,
Somehow, sloppy mechanics, the bolt found it's way into the intake manifold and EVENTUALLY destroyed a valve and pieces of the valve and bolt destroyed the piston.
You know you got a destroyed piston, scarred cylinder wall, cracked block, probably a bent rod.
What is condition of head? Not good I'll bet.
I'm not so sure that I would even look farther. I'd get a new crate engine and move on.
Oh yeah, save the bolt, put it on a shelf, every now and then look at it and mutter a few choice words,. That will help the healing.
This is my cuss-a-lot.
Head cracked in chamber, coolent filled cylinder, hydrolocked, blew the section of chamber away, broke both valves which destroyed piston. bent 3 rods.
But I reused block, did not have to sleeve, and I had a set of heads waiting to install.
Kept piston and rod to cuss at. Hanging in garage.
Come on now. let's not be building conspiracy theories, or become paranoid about someone out to get the OP.
Geez. That is not a header bolt. OK,
Somehow, sloppy mechanics, the bolt found it's way into the intake manifold and EVENTUALLY destroyed a valve and pieces of the valve and bolt destroyed the piston.
You know you got a destroyed piston, scarred cylinder wall, cracked block, probably a bent rod.
What is condition of head? Not good I'll bet.
I'm not so sure that I would even look farther. I'd get a new crate engine and move on.
Oh yeah, save the bolt, put it on a shelf, every now and then look at it and mutter a few choice words,. That will help the healing.
This is my cuss-a-lot.
Head cracked in chamber, coolent filled cylinder, hydrolocked, blew the section of chamber away, broke both valves which destroyed piston. bent 3 rods.
But I reused block, did not have to sleeve, and I had a set of heads waiting to install.
Kept piston and rod to cuss at. Hanging in garage.
If YOU can't come up with what bolt that is (7/16" when you are only dealing with 3/8" bolts?????) and where it SHOULD be used, someone else MUST have lost it [or 'added' it] in the carb/intake/engine. There might be a 7/16" bolt used somewhere on the intake and it's assembled parts.
Who is really upset with you??? If you have forgotten your last 3 anniversaries, wife's birthdays, or any combination of those, check your food & drink carefully .
An employee pissed-off at the shop where you had your car could have done it...just to spite the shop. Hope that's not the case, but it happens.
Suggest tamp down the conspiracy stuff; bolt probably an accident.Heck, perhaps it may've been lodged inside the intake Before y'all installed intake ...
... does bolt look like existing intake bolts? Exactly which intake do you have ? make & pn ?
Regardless, you're gonna have to come up with a another motor. I like the above L31 crate. There's a fellow CF member ( bmans vette ) with a hi-grade all-new motor project for sale; AFAIK it's Not assembled.
I was using the original intake that came with the car from the factory. At this point, damage is done and I’ll likely never 100% know how it got in, or when it got in.
currently, trying to figure out what motor I should go with, should I get one that already is dressed, should I manual swap, etc etc.
# 8 puked right? Look down into pics plenum ... see the fore-aft "ribs" cast into plenum floor ... leading to # 6 & #8 ... that's OE iron intake ... maybe yours was similar.
What's with all the conspiracy? Crap happens, move on, stop trying to find someone to blame.
For the posters who keep the conspiracy going: you are not helping!
Jackson:
That's what I was getting at, the bolt could have sat in the intake for weeks.
No way it was in the headers and got sucked bavck into the head. There is always a pulse exiting down the pipes.
Stuffed into a spark plug hole. That would have destroyed the piston on the first turnover. Not weeks later.
The one I suggested above, L31 replacement motor, new pn 12681431 ... old pn 12530283 ... it comes Only one way ... naked. It comes with pan, damper & valve covers on it ... No intake, No distributor. Your OE or aftermarket distributor fits L31. It's essentially what was universally referred to as a long block.
Note: L31's fuel pump mount pad in Not finished ... a nearby auto machine shop completes them with his ~$1200 BHJ jig and currently charges $125. But, if you go with EFI instead; pad become moot. YMMV
For my abilities & purposes, I can't see me buying any phase of dressed motor. YMMV
Regardless a New replacement L31's one heck of a bargain.
One thing jumped out for me is that bolt size is not measured by the bolt head that the OP showed with a wrench on. Bolt diameter is measured by the outside diameter of the thread or shank .
I have a porsche 924 that I'm going to sell to offset the costs, but I'm keeping the car, going to throw an LS and a manual gearbox in. Might as well go all-out at this point.
Originally Posted by Jebbysan
I for one, think this is a terrible decision.....you don't just "throw" an LS in a C3.......
Jebby
That may be true, but putting a manual transmission in a C3 is NEVER a terrible decision. If this motor needs to come out, whether to rebuild or replace, there is no better time!
Originally Posted by l82vett
One thing jumped out for me is that bolt size is not measured by the bolt head that the OP showed with a wrench on. Bolt diameter is measured by the outside diameter of the thread or shank .
I doubt it's an 11 mm bolt head, either. Measure with calipers, and check the thread count with a tool, or compare against taps in your tap set. Even if all of your intake bolts are in place, I bet that's what it is...
Last edited by Bikespace; Feb 13, 2020 at 09:17 PM.
I don't know about Georgia, but around here (South Jersey) you can have a 350 rebuilt for about $2500. That's about the cost of the GM "Goodwrench 350" crate engine. If you have the original engine, I'd be inclined to have it rebuilt, maybe adding a hotter cam and bumping the compression a little.
The problem I would have with reusing this block is that it is cracked. Yes, it can be sleeved, but a cracked block is still a BIG problem and could cause problems down the road.
And if he was to just to get a short block, at least one of the heads is junk. So block and heads at least,
How many rods are bent? Crank? etc.
Might be less money to drop in a crate 350.
Apparently, (OP's post # 5) his OE motor "gave up" after 100K miles and perhaps is rebuildable?
Seems the motor which just suffered bolt calamity was a fresh crate motor.
Perhaps that catastrophe can be sleeved with requisite decking ...
... also replacing head/piston/rod/crank etc as needed And fully rebuilt ... but certainly not for $2500.
With all that in perspective:
A Brand New rpo L31 Vortec-head Roller-Cammed crate can be had today without core exchange for $2500 delivered... or less.
Well it depends on why you pulled the OE engine.
If it was because it had 100k miles on it, and it still ran good. I would rebuild it.
Did it have other problems? If so, what?
You could probably "refresh" the OE moter, if nothing is basically wrong with it, OR you could build the motor to a stronger configuration.
If you don't want to make any "build" decisions, then by all means go crate and live with what you get, because you can go bone stock or keeping uping the performance as much as you want.
If you want something to drop in and drive a create motor is a good option.
Create motors are cheap, but you get cheap.
If you want to rebuild your original motor with some performance add-ons, it can be done reasonably inexpensively.
If you want to build a good quality motor with some bigger hp/tq, it will add up quickly.
You'll pay for hp and quality, it's not cheap.
If you plan to install a manual trans, now would be the time to plan your entire drive train with a motor that will do what you want.
Another factor to consider is the stock rear differential, axles, half shafts, u joints etc, were designed to hold up to 400-450 hp max.
If you start adding big hp/tq to the rear wheels with a manual trans you will need to modify and upgrade the rear end of the drive train as well.
Now you are starting to talk big dollars.
Based on what I can get for the 924, my budget is somewhere around 5-6k. The old motor was having low oil pressure issues, and was knocking at cold temperatures. With my budget in mind, I was also considering an ATK 350 horse, 400 torque long block, though I'm not sure on the gearbox.
Based on what I can get for the 924, my budget is somewhere around 5-6k. The old motor was having low oil pressure issues, and was knocking at cold temperatures. With my budget in mind, I was also considering an ATK 350 horse, 400 torque long block, though I'm not sure on the gearbox.
With your budget in mind, I would rebuild your original motor with some performance add-on upgrades and rebuild your automatic trans while your motor is out.
Should be easy with your budget.
.
