I'm still dying to hear what the bore size is...if you don't have a vernier caliper, get one of those el cheapo plastic ones..it doesn't even have to be super accurate, you will easily be able to tell if its a 4.000 bore or larger...

We also need better pics from the looks of it, you have a glazed up engine there that has accumulared quite a lot of miles, in fact in 1 of the pics it even looks like it has severe vertical wear marks caused by dirt ...something you won't see on a brand new engine.

 

where did my post go? I just replied, the listing shows I was the last to reply but there's nothing here..this post must have exceeded the max # of posts/pages LOL

 

hmm..there it is, suddenly there are 24 pages, I couldn't access page 24 before...anyway back to subject

 

Of course they dyno all those engines "In excess of 100 per day"

 

Yo Msvetteman,
C'mon man, I've spent hours on this thread. Where's my daily fix. Don't leave me hangin here.
Seriously, this has been a great thread. "Stuff" happens, and sometimes it's not fair. I wish you the best.

 

Had to catch up some work!!

Couple more pics of a different cylinder. I'll get some good ones once I get the motor out! !

 

I wish he would measure the bore. Those do not look like new pistons. The surface does not look freshly decked. etc....etc....

 

And why not ? Lets say 2 hours to setup ( that's being generous ), 1/2 hour to break in a new cam, 1 hour to tune ( again really generous ).

Multiply that by 100 and you get an easy, relaxed 350 hour day. It could easily be done with 50 dynometers

 

Ever hear of a puppy mill?

 

Doesn't look like a fresh hone job to me..looks like an engie that has at least a couple of thousand miles if nto more. There's a clear carbon ridge at the top...and then there's the vertical wear marks. Hard to see if it's been decked, the deck sure is dirty but we don't know if that's from the contamination, gasket residue and oil, water, coolant and what not. the cross hatch is just very faintly visible..

Here's a pic, of a freshly honed cylinder and one that has not been done, engine had about 50K miles on it...which bore resembles the above pics better......

 

I wonder if marshall/blueprint is subcontracting out work????

 

This must be longest thread of all time

 

MS,

Do you realize that more people follow this thread than watched the winter Olympics?

I think it should be the subject of a reality TV show. I'll forward the thread to PowerBlock. They're always looking for more stuff.

I'm sure this will resolve itself to your satisfaction. Regardless of everything else, I get the sense that Marshall/Blueprint know that they messed up and are just in damage control mode. If every motor that they made blew a cylinder wall, I don't believe that they'd be in business for long.

 

and to get the old pistons out, wouldn't they have to use a ridge reamer to ream off the carbon? I don't see any evidence that that's been done any time recently. Looks to me like those pistons have not been out of those cylinders for a decade. Makes me wonder if they are really KB pistons as advertised.

 

The carbon is easily cleaned out, the ridge reamer removes the "thrust" ridge, this is a ridge of "cast iron" that is a result of the rings actually pushing the metal forward and accumulating there...much like a snow shovel...kinda hard to explain. It takes a lot of miles to get a ridge like that and it can cause the pistons to jam making them hard to remove. A ridge reamer is an excellent way to destroy a block though if used incorrectly. Anyway.. a fresh bore and hone job should remove the ridge so there shouldn't even be one. It's NOT the same as a carbon ridge.

 

Let me start here by saying I do hope ALL your efforts pay off. And I also feel regardless of who's at fault, a warranty is a warranty, period. If they don't want the "average" person on the playing field doing the initial installation and fire-up, then it should be made clear from "day-one" that this would have an adverse effect on the "warranty"!

We are in the middle of discussions with the warranty company, as of yesterday, used by both "World" and "Schafiroff" in regard to supplying similar warranties on similar units. These talks were started due to a number of requests I've had from new customers. Most of the info out there is "slightly" misleading to say the least.

If you purchase a "performance" unit from someone the likes of
"Summit" or "Jegs", and I assume many others including the "builder" directly, who advertise the 2 yr/24,000 miles, you actually have NO coverage from the "Warranty" company until "90 days" AFTER the initial sale date. In this 90-day window, the "seller/supplier" holds the warranty, in this case lets say "Summit". They would have you return the unit and probably being a fairly reputable outfit, would supply a replacement. In turn, they pass this unit back to the original supplier. At this point you're good to go.

Now here's where it becomes a little "trickier" for lack of a better word. After the 90 day period you now deal with the "Warranty Company", who by the way, doesn't want to part with their money too easily. The part about the warranty that is not really mentioned in too much detail as far as the company's liability is this: you only have access to a $2000.00 entitlement, which if you consider the cost of the unit AND the aggravation that comes along with it, it's really not much money. And it does add in the neighborhood of $200.00/$250.00 to the price of the unit. Not to take away from this, it's intention is good, and is still better than nothing! Thanks Gary in N.Y.

P.S. The only question in my mind on this particular unit is "what type of performance could possibly be built for a $2500.00 (average) price tag? I doubt we could supply a "bone-stock" rebuild for that price today. There's GOT to be some "corner-cutting" on these type units. The law of averages is in the builders' favor, you do 100 units, you only need 95 to stay out there to make any money! I certainly couldn't do it with supplying the cores in the package AND a dyno test to boot.

 

When i bought my vette, from some guy that'd only had it for a couple months, the hose off the valve cover and it was blowing oil all over the exhaust. Obviously the guy i bought it from was not fit to own anything mechanical, because he thought the motor was shot and just burning oil. I got it home and pulled the oil pan. You could still see the cross hatch marks on the cylinder. Clearly it was not "too" recently put in, but was still a very low mileage motor. I got lucky. However, the point, you should still be able to see these marks on your motor very very clearly. Not to mention all the other problems, I would be that this company is taking cores, throwing some new paint and valve covers on, and then reselling as "new". You get it home and goes the motor.

 

Here is a picture of the motor I just pulled out of my car. It has 5000 hard miles on it. I have sold this to another forum member but you can still see quite a bit of the crosshatch on the cylinder walls. I apologize for the poor picture but I had to crop and blow it up so you can really see the pattern.

 

Any chance you simply lost a washer or nut down the carb since there was a good chance you were running without an air cleaner?

I think it is very possible it got sucked in and popped into #6 fracturing the piston, then ejecting out the exhaust valve leaving a hole in the piston and damaging the wall.

 

But then wouldn't you have more damage to the walls in terms of knicks and scratches, not cracks, especially the location of the two cracks?