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I expected it was broken dropped valve, broken rod where piston slapped head something more catastrophic.. Since it's not locked up yet. Spin engine over and clean the muck out. Use wd40 or penetrating oil on the cylinders to keep from rusting. Some detergent and a stiff nylon brush and clean head and chamber looking for cracks. What does head gasket look like?
The engine was not running when I pulled it. Broke down many ears ago and has been sitting for 10+. I was a little shocked when I saw the pic below. I am still disassembling the block. Tomorrow should have it all torn down. I will take it to machine shop Monday and let them have a look at it and see what they think. Maybe not as bad as I think. At first glance the scars in the cylinder are bad. The valve seat is damaged. There were pieces of the of metal in the intake. Something broke and broke bad. Will get the oil pan off tomorrow and see what’s down there.
Had a night to sleep on it. All I can do is forge ahead. It’s an old car that sat for a very long time. It’s expected. Today I plan to get the oil pan off and see what Easter eggs are waiting for me there! Haha, see what I did there...
I am taking this project slowly working a few hours here and there each day.
From: Las Vegas - Just stop perpetuating myths please.
Originally Posted by Furias15x
Had a night to sleep on it. All I can do is forge ahead. It’s an old car that sat for a very long time. It’s expected. Today I plan to get the oil pan off and see what Easter eggs are waiting for me there! Haha, see what I did there...
I am taking this project slowly working a few hours here and there each day.
I will put up some pics later.
I really think that's the best approach to take your time and make it fun. Trying to push ahead usually adds frustration and disappointment. Hey there's a learning curve with every car and I'd rather the time to make it right the first time then to do it twice or more.
Got the motor apart finally. Getting the pistons out was a job as two were stuck and didn't want to move so I couldn't rotate the crank. But with some persuasion they came loose. They don't look like they had much fun at the end. The crank and rods all look good. There is almost no wear marks on the bearings main or rod.
From: Las Vegas - Just stop perpetuating myths please.
Something that you could have done that might save you money is once the pistons are out and the crank is still in that saddles is to try and rotate the crank by hand. If it rotates freely you really don't need an alignhone or borehone that most machine shops want to sell you. But if you've already mixed up the main bearings it's to late to try this.
Man those pix show some mean damage. Thx for sharing. Hope the block can survive.
After using some rust cleaner to get the pistons out the cylinders don't look that bad at all. Once that piston was out everything spun very freely. The guy at the machine shop said the bottom end looked fine probably just polish the crank and check the rods but not much needed there. He said the head will most likely need a new seat. The head will take more exploratory work before we know what all is needed.
The LT1/4 all used the same casting although LT4 used 4 bolt main caps. 2 bolt block with studs will hold up in most street applications. Replacing block maybe a better option than repairing it. Just something to think about.
Bad LT4
