Well guys, i started tearing down the 383 to remove it in my 89 for rebuild. Upon further work i found some bad within my wrench turning. Upsetting seeing that i need to get her together to make it to the fall meet.


Getting started...


Getting there...


Bad find...


Well, the #8 cylinder poured water out when i removed the plug. I am hoping it is recent, the engine wont spin over by hand. I think it might be old, so the damage may be don't and pitted the bore. I will find out when i pull it tomorrow.


*sigh*

Zane

 

dude that sucks

 

Man, that sucks. Hopefully there is no damage to the block, but that is definitely a bad sign.

 

Ill be updating tonight.

 

that looks pretty bad, sure hope it's not totally bad

 

THANK the LORD, i cought a break....




Pulled her out...


Lookin good from a distance...




Doesnt look bad!!!!



Hardly any rust at all, the piston was olmost at TDC also, so i know it helped, it even turned over by hand, it will be next week before i find which bearing spun.


I am the happiest **** in the world right now!!! Saving money....feels good.

 

So where did the water come from?
Did the head gasket look bad?

 

Sweet, how long do you think until shes back on the road?

 

Well, it sat since Jan. or Feb. I think, when i mived it to my new house it must have had HARD rain hit the windshield, then the underside of the cowl, into the air cleaner, thru the carb, down the intake into the cylender. That is all i can assume. I am just glad it happened recently.

I think ill have her running within late Oct. to mid Nov. We will see. I stil gotta see if my crank got scarred. It shouldnt have, but it does happen. It spun a bearing in my driveway before it sat. Heck, i fired it up for Daniel a while back so he could hear it and the nock was not even there. So i hope to put good clevite 77s in there, put the big roller back in, the new (older) heads on it. The heads are angle plug 1970 LT1 heads, ported and polished to the max. They even have 7/16s studs and double springs. CANT WAIT. As i said before, i hope the 5 speed lives a while.

 

Sounds good, we are both in the same boat on the whole 5spd thing. If mine lasts a year I will be happy. The way things look we might have a really good showing for the Winter meet. That would be sweet.

 

Yea, i need to re-primer my car too. Gonna look ok i guess...i want a sticker that sais "Stroker inside" . Like the intel sticker, thought that would be cool, but then i would be snitching on myself...cannot wait for the thing to be running again, the meet will be one to remember!

 

OK..........i.........am ashtonished........seriously.........looking deeper into my engine........a rod.......#5 to be exact.........actually the bolts backed off........i must have been in a rush or somthing putting it together............i am blown away by this finding and actually feel ashamed to post this info. I have built over 10 engines in my life......this is not somthing i have seen happen by my hand. Well, i guess you live and learn, and **** happens. DOOM ON ME.....





BUT THIS B!TCH WILL BE BREATHING AGAIN SOOOOOON!!!!!!!!

I am not a *******, but yeeehaawwwww! might be close to how i feel on the other end.
----------
Seriously....is r.e.d.n.e.c.k such a bad word to end up *******?????

 

Regardless of the cause, that is great news!

It should be a relatively simple job, you may not need any machine work at all! Just make sure you take a REAL close look at the crank journal where the rod came loose.

BTW, I might recommend some new bolts, if they backed off once they might do it again. Are they a readilly findable brand (like ARP)? If so you can get the same bolt and not worry about your balance being effeceted.

I'm looking forward to seeing you and your car at the meet...if not sooner!

 

The ironic part....they are ARP. Crank and rod look excellent. I will however have my machine shop double check the rod and resize if necessary. Hope to see you soon!

 

Cool, I ran into a snag with my stuff today so I am glad to hear that yours is going well. I am posting my update in a minute or two.

 

i have had the rod nuts back off on me on 4 motors i can think of.
its happened on 2 motors i had built. on the first one i reused the old rod bolts, so i figured that was why it happened, the other motor had new rod bolts. both of these were on my ford truck.
the one that i used the old bolts on lasted a few weeks & only had maybe 2000 miles on it, so maybe i screwed up. the second motor had been together for over a year & had seen some hard use & a lot of miles, so there is no doubt i torqued the bolts. after the second one turned loose, i started using blue locktight on the rod bolts on every motor i built.

the other 2 came from builders, the first place i didn't really like or trust, but its who the customer insisted for me to use.
the last motor i had this happen to came from a reputable builder, it was a complete motor & came back with the oil pan, valve covers, timing cover & intake on it. sense then every rebuilt motor i have put in i use blue lock tight on the rod bolts, even if that means i have to pull the pan & buy a new gasket.
the term "never again" fits me on this.

ps, don't be too hard on your self, by the time that first motor that the nuts came loose on, i had already assembled some where around 25~30 motors. all with no problems. by the time i started using blue locktight on every rebuilt i put in, i had assembled well over 100, & installed probably around 300.
even though i have never had them come loose, i also use blue locktight on the cam bolts.

 

I allways use lok-tite on the cam, the red stuff. Thanks though, i think i will replace all the rod bearings with some clevites and use lok-tite on them, ease my mind. Awesome suggestion.