Finally got the motor torn down, haven't pulled the pistons yet but am trying to find options for who to take the motor to so they can do a full cleaning and replace the cam bearings and plugs.

Does anyone know if they do an acid dip for aluminum blocks? or if it's more of a dip in mineral spirits? Do you think it'd be possible to do this at home? I just sort of invision them dropping it into a tank of solution and it coming out super clean lol

But anyway, I've identified the actual failure - it seems the main bearings failed.

Enjoy some car p0rn.






(notice the oil sludge around the bolt .. yay lol)







I wanted to get some pics of the journals too ..




some of the toys ..

 

What were the symptoms?
Those bearings don't look bad to me.

Ron

 

Good luck getting the motor all cleaned up and rebuilt.

 

The motor lost oil pressure at high rpm resulting in a *klank* *klank* *klank* commonly associated with a "spun bearing" - that was tied to the rpm band (see: it got worse as you rev'd the motor).

(here is a YouTube video of what it sounded it)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPXODzIBycU

If you feel the bearings, they are pitted and rough - they should be silky smooth to the touch.

To be honest, I'm happy to discover it was only the bearing as I thought originally I bent a rod. Also when I pulled the pan - there were almost no metal shavings in the bottom end.

 

Thanks, its been fun so far. And I've been learning a few things along the way - like you should pull the harmonic balancer off while the flywheel is attached and just buy the tool that holds it in place (broke a breaker bar figuring that out)

I'm looking forward to getting the stroker into it and getting it back into the car

 

Usually, the rod bearings fail and spin.......and make a pounding sound.
Will be interesting to see what those look like.

Ron

 

agreed.

 

FWIW, the machine shop will have a tank of cleaner to dunk it in to clean it. Not a hot tank as that would eat the aluminun. Used to be called a cold tank.
I'm not sure what is being used these days, depends on the environmental laws in your area and what the shop has.

Ron

 

finally got some more work done on tearing it apart .. long story short, ended up moving the location of where it was being worked on to my the garage at home so it's much more accessible (read: i hope i'll get it done faster)

Here are some of the rod bearings from I think Journel #4 (i'd have to dbl check)

Photo #1


Photo #2


Photo #3


In this gem you can see the bearing for journal #5 (i think) is fused to the crank. (I can't even pry it off)

Photo #4


Here is the one of journal 6 (this one is too is fused to the crank)
Photo #5


Photo #6


Photo #7



All in all, the block itself and the walls are in great shape (I was surprised since the motor has 220,000 miles on it). I had really been going back and forth on the stroker or swapping to the 402 LS2 but after checking out the block - I think I'm just going to keep it a LS1 motor based car.

I'll take some more pictures of the pistons and stuff just for fun and post 'em up later.

So next step - I've got a few more things to pull off the motor (pop the plugs, etc) and bring it right down to the base block - then give it a nice bath to get rid of any contaminants in the block.

I have a question for anybody who knows, I can't seem to find a definitive answer on it .. there are some metal scuffs on the top of the cylinder wall on cylinder #8 (just before where the wall actually begins, it's more in the main compartment area) - would it be okay to dremel this a bit and clean it up? I mean, I'll likely have to clearance the block anyway for the stroker but just wanted to through it up there for comments.

Cheers Guys.

 

The mains look ok specially for that many miles. As you can now see, it's the rod bearings that gave up.

You could drop a 4 inch crank in it and make it a 383.

Good luck

 

http://texas-speed.com/p-787-tsp-383...-assembly.aspx




I'm building it out as a forged 383.

will have some PRC 227's and a nice bump stick to match (23x/24x)

not exactly like your monster but I'm pretty confident it'll be enough to tootle around town.

 

WOW. A very impressive post. I always enjoy following along on post like these. Good luck

 

Thanks, I appreciate the support.

 

took a few more pictures of some cool items ..

How do you know when it's time to change the cam bearings?

yeh .. i'd say copper showing is a good sign.


just a few more pictures of prepping it ..

(pre-bath w/ tide and a scotchbrite pad)


(post)




still needs more TLC and a razoring of some of the surfaces. But at least now each time I touch it, it wouldn't leave me with a black greasy hand.


and a beauty shot



okay .. i'm done for now.

 

Looking forward to the progress of this build. Best of luck Kyle.

 

the puple greaser works wonders, the cam bearings are easy to replace and install. best luck good pics

 

while the motor is out (and steering and brakes) figured the frame rails had seen better days so I'm giving it a quick blast with some engine enamel paint.

I forgot to take a picture of the side I was working on before I started so .. this is the other side .. they looked about the same haha



simple green + paint thinner + wire brush


taped and scuffed


first coat


I'll wait til that drys, scuff it again, and shoot it again. Thinking about maybe adding a clear coat (.. maybe not .. lets see how lazy I get )

oh and I took the engine cradle apart yesterday too .. oh boy was that thing diirrr-tay!

 

I saw that stuff, good to know!

I had been told paint thinner and a stainless steel brush .. I tried it on one part of the engine the other day, it works pretty well but I'm hesitant until I see what happens to the metals to try it on the internal walls.

I've also been using scotchbritte pads and paint thinner, after I dunked the motor in tide.

 

engine bearing should never show any wear if it has the proper oil pressure.

 

funny you should mention that ...



say, maybe .. if the oil pressure dropped when the motor was at high rev?