Well today I after many setbacks I finally got my new motor fired up but I ran into some problems. Well at first I couldnt get it to stay running because the distributor was moving so I tightened it into place and got the motor to run and it was smoking badly. It ran for a few moments when the I realized that the temp gauge was reading off of the charts. It was past 280 degrees wear the guage stops(aftermarket mechanical guage). So I turned it off and freaked out. I looked at the port in the head where the guage plugs in and its burning red. So I said $hit. and I didnt know what to do from there. I checked all of my fluids and I had coolant and my dipstick said I was a little low on oil. So I ran up to the auto parts store and picked up a new temp gauge and came home and installed it. I also added a quart of oil.I went to start the motor and nothing happened the starter didnt even attempt to turn the motor over. So I stuck a ratchet on the crank and tried to turn it and it barely moved. It took all I had to get it to turn half a turn. Now its to late for me to do anything else until tomorrow. What do you think happened? Do you think the motor is seized after running hot for like a minute? Let me know what you guys think and where I should go from here. Man this sucks Ive been trying to get this new motor running forever and I have like $2000 into it. I appreciatte your help.

 

It doesn't sound too good from what I've heard.
BEFORE anything else, I'd get that motor back out of the car (if it's in there)... and pull the oil pan and intake manifold to see just what damage was done.
Letting it sit overnight may allow the heat to dissipate enough to allow another try... but, why did it get so hot in the first place?

Pull that oil pan and intake manifold and start checking tolerances, etc.

Good luck... I'd hate to see the worst possible scenario here.

 

how long was the car running before you noticed it was overheating?...I had a simular problem but luckly i was working under the hood when that happened and noticed my antifreeze back up into my overflow and my overflow tank was buldging like it was going to blow.

 

It was only running like a total of one minute all together I had fired it up a few times before that to set the timing but each time it died within 30 seconds or so because the dist. wasnt tightened down enough and was retarding the timing. Once I got the timing right it fired right up and sounded great so I started to mess with a few things under the hood.The motor was smoking a ton but I thought it was just my headers burning off the paint. I side my idle at like 2000 rpms to break in the cam and when I got in the car I saw the gauge. But the radiator didnt overflow or anything like that so I think maybe I have an intake leak. Tomorrow I am going to drain the oil and see what happens. Man I dont know what to do. I dont have to time to pull the motor and my parents are already pissed at me enough for having the car in their driveway for so long. I may have to sell the car.

 

If you had an intake leak (or a head gasket leak, for that matter) you would have seen whitish smoke coming out of the exhaust.

This smoke under the hood, where was it originating from, could you pinoint it? And what color/smell was it.

*edit* I just thought of this. Is this a recently dropped in engine? Like completely void of fluids? Or is this just a problematic engine?

 

I just recently purchased it 6months ago. The guy I bought it from said it had about 10,000 miles on it since rebuilt and he totalled the truck it was in.I looked the motor over before I bought it and looked like it had low miles everything was very clean inside and out. I helped him pull the engine out of the truck so i am pretty sure he didnt pop off the intake and pan clean the inside of the motor and then reseal everthing again. I bought it from him and put new heads, cam,timing set,oil pan, intake,distributor, and carb on it. Then I swapped it in in April and started it up today. Oh and just a few minutes ago I checked my radiator and its empty. I pulled the bottom and top hoses and nothing came out and I am sure I filled it to the top with coolant/water. So I think I have coolant in my oil. So I am screwed. This has got to be one of the worst days of my life. I worked increbly hard to get the money for this motor and to put it together. If I do get the chance to buy another motor I wont be able to get the money together for at least another 2months or so and then I will have to find time to swap my parts on it and put it in. WOW THIS SUCKS!!!

 

Did you refill it as the engine was just turning over? By dropping coolant into the tanks of the radiator, you fill the radiator. But keep in mind, coolant needs to fill the passages in the block.

You fill the end tanks, turn the engine on. The pump sucks the tanks dry. You are now faced with empty end tanks again. Keep in mind, the SBC cooling system requires like 14 qts. A lot more than what can be stored in just the end tanks.

That's my guess as to what happened. And yes, that will cause you to overheat.

 

Well today after work I went and drained the oil and there was no coolant in it and it looked clean. So I filled the motor with oil and coolant. Then I hooked up all of the wireing and had my girlfriend start the car while I messed with the carb and looked at the temp guage from under the hood. Everything was running well except for the fact that I have a hood vaccum leak somewhere and I could here what was either an exhaust leak or chattering rockers. Well the motor ran for about 10mins and I had it idleing around 2000 rpm or so(my tach is broke) and I got good oil pressure and the temp. rose regularly. Well after it was running for 10 mins the temp guage reached 240 degrees and the hose to my radiator blew off and coolant nailed me in the back. I am burned pretty bad but I dont care because my car is running. Do you guys think that 10mins was enough time to break in the cam? Let me know what you guys think about this hole situation and what I should do next.

 

Tough luck on the burn man. Hope you're okay. Anyways, the next problem is finding out why the engine is getting so hot. Do you have a t-stat installed and fan hooked up? After that, the next thing would be to find out what's making the noise you mentioned. Make sure all bolts are torqued to spec.

 

my engine does heat up A LOT though too... i have a working 160* t-stat and my fan works, with the A/C on our fans turn on automatically and most the time, that fan keeps me nice and cool.. but sometimes, it doesnt.. and my car heats up like a mother.... and about your temp gague... i dont know how accurate those are... i have gotten mine to past the red about 5 times already since the new engine (march 04) and mine still runs perfectly.. except that overheat problem...

 

IROC, sorry to hear about the burn, man. But I'm glad to hear the car is running. Obviously you worked out the fuel delivery issue, that's good to hear.

As for the operational temp, they can warm up a bit before fans kick on and coolant flows. What thermostat are you using? It is possible you have developed an hot pocket right under the t-stat. That would create for those initial heat up situations. This can be overcame by drilling 4 small holes in the perimeter of the t-stat. I took a 5/32" drill bit to mine. My Caprice did pretty much the same thng. The gauge read up above 220, got as high as 240 or so like you said, THEN it finally dropped. I replaced the stat with a 180° one and drilled 4 holes in it (the size i stated above). No more initial warm ups.

I generally go 20 min at varied RPMs (1000-2500) for cam break in. 30w dino juice.

Factory gauges can be notoriously inaccurate. I have aftermarket gauges on all the critical systems (oil PSI, oil temp, water temp, trans temp, volts, fuel pressure, and fuel temp).

 

Alright well today I changed my carb gasket and remove some material from the bolt that I have plugged in the vaccum hole in the manifold just behind the carb to fix my vaccum leak and it did. I started it up and it idled well. Its a little choppy because I need to tune the carb but it sounds good. I am getting alot of rocker arm chatter, but I am told that this happens with roller rockers, is that true?Well after running it for about 10 mins the temp got up to 210 and stayed there for about a minute then all of the sudden it started climbing fast and got to 230 or so, so I shut the car off. I am not running a thermostat because I thought that my old one may be faulty and I havent had time to pick up a new one.I am running my fan full time through a switch so I know its working. I thought maybe I have an air bubble in my cooling system so I drained all of the coolant and filled it up through the thermostat housing and it didnt really change anything. Oh and I am also using all mechanical guages I dont trust the crappy ones that come in these cars. I am pretty sure that this gauge is right because it read 240 degress yesterday and when the hose busted and the coolant burned me my skin-o-meter confirmed that it was 240 degrees, lol. Thanks for your concern guys, but besides a long trail of blisters on my back and left arm(thanks G0D I turned back in time) I am fine and will be fully healed by the end of the week. I am going to go get a new alternator because I shorted it out before I started this swap and I just realized it today, and tomorrowI will try to drive it down the street and back to see how it does. Thanks for all of the help.

 

Where are is the vacuum line for the brakes plugged into? That "hole" in the manifold, just behind the carb mounting pad, is the port most commonly used for full manifold vacuum for the brakes.

 

I knew that but I couldnt get the fitting for the brake hose to clear the carb so I am running it to the front port on the carb. I have the holley street avenger carb so I have an extra vaccum port.From what I can tell they work fine but I havent driven it yet the pedal just feels right.later I will get the right fitting for it, but since I am just trying to get the motor to run right I am doing it like this for now. Also I have seen a few guys do the same thing with out probs.

 

Well I drove the car today for about a minute. I got it around the corner and the battery went dead so I had to have someone come and give me a jump. Stupid alternator. I have a few kinks to work out still but I tuned the carb a little and it idles decent now. I am still a little wierded out by this street avenger carb the only carbs I have ever worked on is edelbrockes and Qjets. So its a little different but still the same principal. I went and picked up a new alt. and the guy at the parts store gave me the wrong one because the pulley is to small for my belt to fit properly on. Also the car has been maintaning temp pretty well today. So maybe my overheating thing just went away after breaking the motor in a little. Well see I guess.