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I was hoping someone would offer some information as to whether you have stock pistons. I put a rebuilt long block in my '84 about 14 years ago, and I didn't disassemble my original engine, so I'm not an authority. You should be able to find a VIN in the block, at the front RH corner of the block. If this matches the VIN of your car, you still have the original block, not a "new" short block. But that doesn't prove that the engine may, or may not have been rebuilt in the past. I'd still like to see the wear pattern on the bore of a cylinder, if possible.
I have flat topped pistons, with individual valve pockets in my engine, and you can clearly see they are oversized pistons. So there's no doubt about my engine being a rebuild! Flat top pistons, with a .040 overbore (plus a few other tricks) gives me a boost!
I would not spend a dime on 624 heads. Only worth the price of scrap. Cylinder head technology has come light years since then. And like everything else the price has come way down. You can probably get some decent aluminum heads for what you will spend on those. Lighter weight better cooling and way better flow numbers. JMHO. Check it out.
he dropped a new crate motor in this car and shortly after overheated the car to the point that he at the very least blew the head gasket,
Those are very good photo's of the cyl. bores, so I'm convinced this IS a very low mileage engine. The question now is: What is this "new crate motor"?
Vette5311 raises another question: What heads are on this engine? The factory '84 heads (casting number _ _ _ 624) have a bad reputation for cracking if they're overheated. Your head shop should tell you about this problem before you spend any money rebuilding them! Since the history of this "crate motor" is unknown, please find out from your head shop what the casting number is for your heads. Let's start there.
w/Roy
Anything outside a basic valve job isnt worth the $ really. Better heads have gotten cheap over the years, everything seems throwaway these days.
By the time you do a proper rebuild of them you coulda bought a new pair that is much much better. Heads are where its at.
Even a 30cfm gain you will feel in the butt dyno
Update guys. Sorry it’s been a few days. Got the heads back from the shop, he said they’re in excellent condition and that whoever worked on them last did a great job. Pressure checked (no cracks), milled 5/1000 flat, and freshly coated black for $120. Said the springs and valves were brand new and that there was no need for a valve job. #savingmoney
The block doesn’t appear to have the vin as the car. I also found a receipt from jasper motors in central Illinois for 2k for an R&R on the motor. This receipt was about 6 months before it was put into the garage for nine years... so I’m cleaning some parts up and I’m going to start putting it back together tomorrow! Still not sure why it over heated in the first place though. I tested the tstat and it opens accordingly. And the sensor I found broken on the driver side only sends coolant info to the dash so wouldn’t have caused it. No debris between the radiator and condenser. I’m thinking I’m going to replace the water pump while I’m here? Thoughts anyone?
Make sure the fan and relay are in working order on your first startup.
Being as everything is apart, it would be easy to pull the radiator out, hose the fins out from the engine side, youll be surprised how packed they get with tiny debris. You should be able to hold it up to light and see through them very well. Do your AC condenser, too. I try to do all my cars once a year.
Fan clutch on the DD comes on less often when its all clear if that says anything.
Most fixes are usually something very simple.
The saga continues.... torquing head bolts down and snapped the third one in the sequence off on my third pass around. Yayyyyyyyy
When I was building a motor for my 84 I had the exact problem with head bolts. I had purchased a new set of Fel-Pro head bolts and one twisted and stretched but did not break. I used another bolt and no other problems after that. Good luck going forward with your repair. As mentioned above make sure your cooling system is working properly when start up takes place.
Officially discouraged for the first time in this process. I’ve bought three of the highest quality drill bits I can buy and have drilled for a total of 8 hours now. Can barely get through this bolt, and the easy out just slips inside the new hole.... I understand that I can just just keep bumping up bit size until there’s nothing left basically. But at this rate it is literally going to take weeks to get that done. I’ve watched so many videos online of people drilling through massive bolts in a matter of minutes. What’s the deal? How is it that I can drill for this long and have maybeeeee have a half inch deep hole....
Officially discouraged for the first time in this process. I’ve bought three of the highest quality drill bits I can buy and have drilled for a total of 8 hours now. Can barely get through this bolt, and the easy out just slips inside the new hole.... I understand that I can just just keep bumping up bit size until there’s nothing left basically. But at this rate it is literally going to take weeks to get that done. I’ve watched so many videos online of people drilling through massive bolts in a matter of minutes. What’s the deal? How is it that I can drill for this long and have maybeeeee have a half inch deep hole....
If it's a hardened steel bolt, which it sounds like it is, you'll need a carbide drill bit to cut through it. Once you get a hole though it, you can use a carbide bit in a die grinder to open it up until it spins out. If you break an EZ out off in it you'll need a machine shop to get it out, so be careful.
If it's a hardened steel bolt, which it sounds like it is, you'll need a carbide drill bit to cut through it. Once you get a hole though it, you can use a carbide bit in a die grinder to open it up until it spins out. If you break an EZ out off in it you'll need a machine shop to get it out, so be careful.
What he said - I broke off an ez out and it was not an easy out! Had to have a guy with something I think was called a CMI laser or some such thing burn it out. It was on a vintage 2x4 intake or I would not have spent the money so be very careful!
yup, get some carbide LEFT hand drill bits. 2 birds, 1 stone.
something is seriously wrong there. By all means use the left handed drill bits BUT why is the remaining part of the bolt seized into the block? Once it snapped that should have released any pressure on the threads and it should just back out.
Its hard to do when reusing the stock bolts, but did you put a longer bolt into a blind tapped hole and the bolt bottomed out and seized?
Did you use locktite or something similar and it set up freezing the bolt before the torqueing was complete?
Normally its rust or corrosion that seizes a bolt, but obviously that's not the situation here.
Try using an oxyacetylene torch with a small tip and heat the remainder of the bolt until it turns a dull red, then hit it with bee's wax; bee's wax will probably flame up at first, but continue applying it until the liquid wax gets drawn into the threads. At that point you can switch to a liquid penetrant of your choice and continue to soak it . At that point an easy out should work. FWIW my favorite easy outs are the tapered four sided type that can be driven into the hole in the bolt; the ones with the exaggerated spiral threads work, but they are more for removing broken off pipe nipples.
And by all means, treat yourself, and your engine, to a new set of head bolts.
And I hope you are using washers under the head bolts.
Last edited by mtwoolford; 08-03-2018 at 11:53 PM.
Thanks for all the quick replies guys, you rock! I’m going to grab a couple left hand bits and the straight edge type extractors today and see if I can get that thing out. As to why it broke... they are brand new head bolts, because everything I’ve read on this site says to never reuse them. So I didn’t pull that rookie move. The rookie move I pulled was a different one. I did not use washers, but I did grease under the head of the bolt for a more accurate reading. The bolt is 100% not in the wrong place. I’ve never done head bolts so I wasn’t really sure what 65 ft/lbs feels like on a wrench. I’m renting a click type torque wrench and I believe what happened is that the locking mechanism got bumped off of “lock” position without me realizing it and I overtorqued the bolt. I got the passenger side head on yesterday without a problem, so once this thing comes out things should start moving in the right direction prettt quickly again. Again, thanks for the input guys!
If you used felpro bolts from autozone/oreilly type place they are junk. I have seen a bunch snap on jeep engines before final torque was achieved. Last 4.0 jeep motor I built I had forgotten to get head bolts from the dealer and it was a weekend and we needed to get it buttoned back up so off to oreilly. We didnt snap any, but we were very careful and we were using a 350 dollar snap-on digital torque wrench.
If I can get ARP bolts, I do. Otherwise OEM bolts. Felpro bolts in a pinch.
^^^^
If you cant get ARP Pioneer is a cheap alternative, never had one break. Not sure what happened to FelPRo they used to make good stuff yrs ago not so sure about that now.
Their water pump gaskets are the worst, the just turn to mush..the 1 piece pan & header gaskets are still decent.
ROL or Mr Gasket seem better.
WAH-LAH! My god, what a nightmare. Thanks for getting through the rant with me guys. I hardcore appreciate you all. I ended up getting a left handed drill bit, it wouldn’t actually grab and turn it out but it drilled through the bolt a thousand times faster than any other bits I’d tried. Then I used the squared easy out (thanks for that recommendation, they grab way harder) and it finally spun out! Back to work we go, feeling a weight lifted from my shoulders
07-27-2018, 02:42 PM
