Thanks for the recommendation, I'm going to sneak out of work early today and go over there.
The shop that did the install and tune is no longer in business (just my luck)
I do have the owners email and I may be contacting him depending on how much damage I end up finding.

 

A little harsh man, when it's your fault. There's a lot of knowledge here, but you're wasting their and your time when leaving out a huge 'little' detail like having boost. Just saying.

 

Snort....

Have I a story for you.

In my past, I was the owner of LS2.com. I made a deal with an engine builder for me to pay a fixed amount (not full) for an engine build and as a result of his "engine", I'd put it in my car and advertise the build to the car shows that I attended. I attended tons, so he was going to get some good "press" for his contribution in the mutual project.

I got the engine just before a trip up to the Corvette plant in Ky. We installed it, did a soft tune (no boost as it was to power twin turbos) and I drove the car to Bowling Green and back to Jacksonville. I drove down to Orlando for the tune under boost with the guys that installed the engine (NLP). First pull we had coolant everywhere! Looked like Niagara Falls under that car. After a lengthy battle over who did the bad tune, and other finger pointing toward the people in Florida, I took the car to a local shop here in Jax. It turned out that the driver head had not had ANY bolts torqued down to spec. the bolts almost fell off during dis-assembly. The head gasket still had the sealing ridges un-mashed for a seal. We took pictures for the engine builder and he paid in full for the repair. Car also had rebuilt lifters used instead of new, and to this day, those damn things still tick. The car is up in Cincinnati now and puts down 735 RWHP with that engine.


Not the same as you but could you drive from Jax to BG and back and not lose coolant from a head that was barely more than finger tight? I had a car show in BG and the engine was spotless (no, I didn't clean it )

Maybe you didn't get a full clamp on the engine head gasket and it took a while to let go?

I wish you well in your repair.

Elmer

 

Thanks for the post,
I thought I had my specs in my signature, it is not working. Do they not work on this forum? I don't see many using them.

 

My money is on broken ring land.

 

They might be in the Sig but I haven't seen any Sig displayed in any of your posts.

The obvious:

Did you check "Show Sig" when you made a post?
Is your User CP set to NOT show or see Sigs (Under Options)

Elmer

 

Mine did the exact same thing (oil out the air filter / blowing out dipstick) when I took out the #7 piston/ring land.

 

Yep, wish I had a dollar for every number 7 piston that has lost it's top ring land on a LS motor.

 

Did you have any damage to he block?

I talked to a few shops today that said the same thing, head gasket failure is not common, heads only seem to have issues when they shoot the exhaust valve into the piston which didn't happen so it does sound like another hypercrapstic piston failure.
Looks like I will be doing head and piston upgrades sooner that I thought.

 

That wasn't checked, thanks!

 

Then why cylinder bleed back into the cooling system?

 

I wondered that too, hoping the block is alright

 

Sorry to hear of your issues.

Sounds like a lean condition and then boom.....I can see why the shop / tuner is no longer around. At least in your area that is......

 

Cracked cylinder liner?

 

I let them know you would be coming by.

 

That's why I said earlier you may also have a crack in the sleeve.

When I first blew my engine back in 2009, a chunk of the #7 piston came off and cracked the cylinder wall but oddly enough the car still ran pretty well. Also, because the heads and piston rings were fine the compression and leakdown tests I did showed normal numbers.

With a leakdown test the results can vary depending on where the piston is sitting in the cylinder at the time. If it's at TDC and your rings and valve are fine then the numbers will likely come back as normal because they're doing their job of keeping the air in the cylinder. if however the piston is the bottom and the cylinder is cracked, that'll allow the air to escape into the cooling system.

If your spark plug was okay then you will probably get away with just having to resleeve the one cylinder and not spend a ton of money getting it replaced.

 

With a good tune it can drive like stock until you in it...I have '05 with the Vortec A&A 3.8 pulley with 10psi boost with 50/50 meth and water. 566 RWHP through an A4 trans and stock rear end. I have nice tune that left HP on the table.
It drive's and sounds stock.

 

The real damage is to your check book or credit card........

Been there!

 

This car did 676WHP and passed emissions, it drove like stock until you put it to the floor and then it ran better than some full race cars.

I have it scheduled for a nice build, with forged pistons and headwork. I think I will keep the stock cam, it has less than 8000 miles and with the SC it had so much power I had to run drag radials on the street because no other tire would come close to holding the power.
It will be dependable and pass emissions with the stock cam, cats and the Vortech.

 

Sounds good. Awaiting news after the teardown on that #7 piston and cylinder.