Well back to track today, been having trouble last few times out with car breaking up after 6000.. Found fuel filter to be about 50% clogged with debris from tank - car has not run for a couple years really..

Staged, launched - car was very straight with new sway bar but felt weak........ Second gear felt a little something I thout maybe breaking up again, third car stopped revving at 6000 and felt weak..
Noticed oil pressure at 20 psi at about 3000 rpm...
Think it was seizing, don't really know yet... Can hear what sounded like a slight knock - probably spun bearing.
Pretty sick feeling right now...

 

oh no! i hope everything will be ok. sorry to hear that man.

 

i hope it's just something simple like bearings or something and no real damage was done. man that makes me sick, i've been following your threads about the build and progress. get-r-fixed bro! between you and stephen, ya'll are steering me away from BBC's!

 

Welcome to the club. I just add the broken parts to a pile of momentos and keep rebuilding.

I'm still out of action. Some parts have arrived but not enough to finish the block machining. Once that's done, the rotating assembly needs to be rebalanced and the heads are getting new valves and springs so they need a grind and set up. I'm still pushing for a finish date for the last race in August.

Thing is, it's not just BBC engines that fail. Any engine can fail for any number of reasons. My last failure looked like lack of oil to a rod bearing. There's no reason for the failure. Everything was plastigaged to check tolerances. One thing that wasn't done and I'm leaning towards it as the cause of failure was the "new" Eagle rods were not resized. If not perfectly round, even if they were new, they could have caused the bearing to fail.

The long life of an engine doesn't matter what parts are put in it but the quality of all the machine work and assembly. Don't assume new parts are perfect.

 

Thanks guys,
As of right now, the plan I think is pull the transmission out of Camaro and place in the T/A.. Been waiting for friend to build me one, but must not be on his priority list.
May have engine out today, only have about 1.5 hrs to play before doing fathers day things.

I hope to that its only a couple of bearings, but it seems more - I would bank on crank being shot.
M66 - Can't say I don't feel the same about BBC's right now! This thing has been alot of trouble since start - small stuff, but a whole lot of..
And a whole lot of money compared to a SBC.
This was a fist for me as I love the SBC's and never really was impressed with BB's
Hope to get it back together soon, and running well..
Seems like I am only allowed to run 10.0's no matter what, just not ment to go 9's.. I may just launch T/A right out of gate with a 100 shot, hope rear holds once and get my 9.. Or find out why it won't accept more than a 100 shot.

 

Ok,
Engine is out and time is up..
Taking a BBC out alone sux! Did find that headers actually can come out with engine in car, passenger side rather easily.
More carnage to come when I get time to rip pan off.

 

have fun with your pops!

 

pic

 

Here are pics of parts in pan - most of which seem to be #7 rod bearing.
It is totally gone, in pic you can see remains of #8 bearing.
Checked 3 of the mains - all of which bearings are shot and crank scored.
#1 Cylinder seems pretty scratched.
Thanks where I stopped..

 

obviously a lack of oil issue here...any ideas? blocked oil passages? oil pump bite the dust?

 

How much time was on the motor? Any signs of detonation? Seems like you could have detonated it (lack of fuel through the clogged filter), hurt the main bearings and pumped crud through the rods. Unlikely the oil passages would have been clogged up or a relatively new motor unless you were real careless when assembling it. What did your clearances look like when you put it together. What was your pickup depth? Maybe it was starved for oil going down the track. Poor windage control? I'm just babbling here throwing out ideas. You should definitely find the problem and fix it before it goes back together

 

If you every figure it out let me know. I'm always chasing oil control problems. I see what looks like a Milodon windage tray in the pics. I don't use a windage tray any more especially with the deep sump pan. The oil in the pan is nowhere near the crank to need one.

I'm still going with my failure as a slightly out of round rod end even though they were new and they plastigaged fine. This time I'm trying everything I can to have .003" or more clearance on the rods and mains.

 

Plastigage is notoriously inaccurate. OK for stock rebuilds but for a high performance build a good set of mic's and a dial bore gauge pays for itself.

 

I went racing Saturday and made it about 1ft on my first pass before my planitary locked up. So i'm down and out as well for a few weeks.

 

nothing broke, i'm just outta town and won't even see the car till August...and then only for 2 weeks before i go back out.

 

Not really sure yet, clearances were spot on and actually used a 1/1000 undersized bearings for slightly looser clearance.
I don't think windage would have been problem - had some during first pass - when crank was hitting oil, but there has been about 9 passes since.
This problem arose the previous race day, when oil pressure seems slightly lower than normal.. Changed oil - found some light powdery metal on drain plug. called machinest, he said cut filter and check for bearing material - did so found none at all.. He said its normal from rings and valve springs walking at first.. All metal was so small you could not even feel.
Changed oil, pressure looked great even after warm - took to track - kaboom.

Detonation may have caused from filter being clogged - Though it seems harsh.. seems that it started at # 7 rod.
Pulling apart tomorrow rest of way, see what I find -
Looking at crank, think it can be salvaged maybe..

No doubt I plan to find out why before putting back together.. Did you really think I would not?


Pulled trans out of both Camaro and t/a, today and placed Camaro trans in trans am - gotta get D/S made tomorrow and it should be ready for track...
Little less converter than the 700 had, but may still stall as high being its 12lbs lighter without lock clutch.

You might be a gearhead if:
You pull your tranmission out of 87 trans am after putting clothes in dryer, and have it out before clothes are done....
Man I have done that way to many times!!!!!