Today started like a good day...
i drove the super loud bird to the muffler shop... welded my exhaust and my car drove better.... sounds better.... total bliss...

So I drive around town for the rest of the day... when I put it into 5th I get a weird clattering... almost normal when you are in too high a gear and low an rpm... thought nothing of it...
The sound got worse throughout the day... I thought "okay the tranny is finally kicking it" when i put it in neutral and rev it the sound wasnt there. So I thought the transmission is dying....

Car starts to sputter and smokes like crazy... i just changed out a power steering pump today and spilt some fluid and it was smoking out of there a little. thought okay it will burn off....

Car doesnt want to start.... force it.... force it.... starts...
white smoke is pouring out of the valve cover breathers and the exhaust... my radiator completely drained....

I just rebuilt this motor and this was only like the fourth day of driving it.

apparently I am not the mechanic I thought i was...

you think my 10.2:1 comp destroyed my felpro blue head gaskets?
I think i am going to throw up now...

 

i dunno if u roasted the gasket, hopefully its just that..

i feel your pain id be crying

 

the metal chattering says otheriwise that it was more than a head gasket... $2700 down the drain... I am comprising a list of parting out car parts right now... I have put in 3 engines in this car. and apparently i have no business turning a wrench. I am washing my hands clean of this.

 

Oh, man, that sounds awful. I'd be an angry, nervous, sad wreck if that happened. It's a lot of money to lose, and even worse if if you care for the car.

Don't be down on yourself about your mechanical abilities, either. There might be a lot of people out there who have a natural mechanical knack, but the rest of us are just plodding along, trying not to break too many parts as we pursue our hobby. We've all broken parts or made dumb mistakes before. Even pros do it, sometimes!

 

I am an aircraft mechanic... peoples' lives depend on me. This crap is just nuts and bolts... if i can not manipulate something like a 350 to do what I want then perhaps I need a new profession.

 

Perhaps just an education on how to put togather a 350 correctly? Maybe some component was faulty and it was not caught on assembly? 10.2:1 compression will not hurt felpro blue gaskets. I have used them on engines pushing 13:1 compression without failure. Look at how many engines I have killed in my G20. Crappy rebuild parts or poor machine work are likely the cause.

 

With a car its pretty much your trial and error stuff, because its all about doing your own thing to get some more power. Dont think about a new job, because its just a bit outrageous to do that over the car. Maby you can go to one of those inspection places if your having trouble pinpointing the problem.

 

there is nothing to pin point... my car is puking smoke and coolant. and knocking... the coolant washed away the lube and something got hot... I guarantee you i will have to change out every bearing... machine the crank etc...

 

Well, let's wait and see what you find on teardown. Who knows, maybe the machinist didn't Magnaflux properly and missed a crack in the block that then led to the coolant coming in...?

 

you want to know what makes me sick the most...
overall i have almost 6k in this car... I have about 3k racked up in credit cards because of this car and if I parted it out I would only make half that. around $1500....

 

GET rid of the blue head gaskets...trust me on this one.
I never use them...and then I did...pow one engine down the drain.
Never again...GM from now on.

 

Just keep the car, pay of debts, and maby keep it for when you have kids and wanan enjoy a project with them. Buying a third gen just for that reason..though im the kid.

 

Oh man.. thats horrible. Poor guy. $3000 in debt for nothing. Well, it will get better, and that will pass. Then it wil get worse, and that too, will pass. Its the facts of life.

 

Yeah my car was left all night on the side of the road... I have been using geico for 5 years, 5 years I have paid road side assistance and they refused me last night... geico left me stranded.. I am on my way now to get it towed... geico just lost a customer for life.

 

Dumb question, but did you put thread sealant on your head bolts?

 

ouch!

Join the club buddy! Take a nametag, and chalk it up to first time builds!

Mine did that clattering in high gear low RPM... I wondered what that was... huh...

I'm guessing the block and heads would be ok. Pistons, rods and crank, *most* of those are probably ok, that'd put you at a gasket set, bearings, and one of those 3 parts. Like $400 tops. I don't think the entire $3000 is down the drain. Sounds like a familiar story though, I have $6k in my car (almost to the dollar), $3000 of that is motor, and I toasted mine 2 weeks ago... Lucky for me it's just new bearings and gaskets (I hope!).

That damn gecko lied? You can't trust a friggen lizard

 

But he says on TV he'll babysit your kids!

I cringed when my "new" engine puked, went in to denial, blamed Canada, etc. I had some money in it too.

I feel ya, but don't let it get you down, I'm rebuilding the rebuild right now, should have it done here in a couple weeks.

 

our evil, like maple syrup, oozes down across the border

 

The sludge in my bearings did bear a striking resemblance to syrup....

Canadians with their flannel and free health care... eh?


Sonix how's that engine coming anyway?

 

peachy. I got the summit brand cam bearing installer and the collars were too big. Had to return it, and get the proform one, another $50USD airmail hit there. Hopefully i'll get that on monday, and get to try it out.

 

ouch bud..
i know u'd be depressed but it probably had nothing to do with ur knowledge or skills of mechanic so dont be sad.

ill keep in mind if i ever rebuild an engine in the future not to use aftermarket headgasket now..

 

nelapse, it does sound like a head gasket failure, which isn't the end of the world.
Was the block or heads decked at all? Did you check for warpage on both surfaces? Could just be as simple as that. Which would have caused a head gasket failure.

 

I will still stick with an aftermarket gasket sogabe... I am going for the straight up copper ones... They will seal those imperfections
Yes i used thread sealant, but i used moly grease instead of oil which may have been my problem...
There is still a chance it is the intake manifold gasket... they can leak into the combustion chambers too... so it could be as simple as a $10 fix...
we shall see... I have a warranty on the motor but like I should have known will not be warrantied since he thinks because my car looks like a drag car i was out dragging and therefore I voided my warranty... I am like too tired to cry...

 

Well thats really unfortunate Cale I had a similar problem with oil getting sucked into my combustion chambers due to an intake gasket being installed improperly. Talk about frustration, give it a shot and hopefully everything turns out good.

 

Which airline?

 

cars & planes are different.
i would never get in a plane designed by a car engineer & i would not buy a car designed by a plane engineer.

now, there are lots of reasons why you had problems.
you may have missed something.
there could have been a problem with the machine work.
there could have been a defective part.

where did you use moly grease instead of oil at?

was the motor making a metal to metal knocking sound like a rod, or was it a valve pinging type of sound?
i ask because the short block part of a small block chevy is pretty tough.
i once was forced to drive my car over 100 miles after the initial overheat caused by a bad upper radiator hose, i drove it about 10~15 miles at a time & then let it cool off for about half an hour before filling it back up & heading out again. a pair of used heads & a gasket set got it back on the road for my 750 mile trip back home. other than having to replace 1 valve cover gasket i ran that motor for around another 50,000 miles before it burned a valve in one of the used heads i put on it.
by used heads i mean some my friend had laying in the back of his 57, i cleaned the rust off of them & bolted them on, without a torque wrench.

 

Don't be down,man.I know it's really tough,it could be your fault,could be a machining flaw,or even a gasket flaw.New parts are sometimes bad parts.

Once upon a time,I spent a fortune building a 421.All forged rotating assembly with Manley rods,Wiseco Ultra-Light pistons,solid roller cam,pretty much the best of everything within reason.I spent 3 years and lord knows how many $ building it.Once the shortblock was together,I started saving for the heads.I wanted AFRs in the worst way.Then one day,a friend of a friend's friend has this set of AFRs that had absolutely perfect portwork done,with flowbench paperwork.The guy was "in a pinch",and sold me the heads for $500 bare.Another $$650 worth of valves and springs,and I had the ultimate heads,or so I thought.
Fast forward to the big day,engine is finally finished,in the car,one last check of the timing and valve lash,fill the float bowls on the brand spankin' new HP Holley,hit the key,it was the most beautiful sound I've ever heard.For about 45 seconds and 2 short quick revs.Then came the funky sound,a dead miss,and lots of blue smoke.My first thought was an intake gasket.Jerked the intake,behold the bad gasket.It sucked,I thought,but at least I have spares.While scraping the old gasket remnants from the intake surface of the left head,I spotted something awry.There was the head of an intake valve in the #3 intake port.Needless to say,it did not belong there.Pulled the head,tears ensued.the valve seat had fallen out of the head,when the valve couldn't close,the piston slammed into it,causing a chain reaction of carnage.
When all was said and done,I had one ruined head,5 pistons with the top ring land mashed,a split cylinder in the block,deeming it scrap,3 bent rods,a rod throw on the crank destroyed,but at least I could salvage my cam and lifters!

I did go on,though.I have never gotten to build another big inch mouse,but I did build another 406 after the 421,ran for 3 years no major problems.Don't give up,find out what went wrong and know better from now on.

 

bwahahaha

 

I used moly grease on the tip of the bolt and permatex 2 on the upper portion of the threads... This may have been where I went wrong...
When I find time I am going to replace the intake gasket first and then try it out. it doesnt make much sense how 15 psi of coolant can force its way through 15000 psi of combustion...
like i said before... it is possible that this is a failed intake gasket... I should have used the edelbrock matched set... I cant seem to find them anywhere.... anyone recommend a good brand? Or set?

 

Okay i pulled the plus and valve covers off... The oil smells very very very burnt.... it turned my synthetic to pure black... the engine smell is nausiating. the rocker arms and tops of the heads are bone dry. you cant even wipe a rag and get an ounce of oil.... on the bright side i have never seen them cleaner... two plugs are black and a couple more are wet. The rest are normal as can be... however they are distributed among the two heads not more on one side than another.
I am thinking due to the extreme over heating the motor is completely fried.... infact it makes me so sick i am not even going to take the heads off because i can guarantee you the cylinder walls are going to have bits of rings everywhere...
i have exhausted too much money and no matter what it will cost money... so I am selling the entire car top to bottom as a roller and everything goes with it. Look for it soon on the classifieds I am asking $2k firm.

 

i don't use anything to lube the head bolts on a gen 1 small block, i chase the threads & make sure the bolts are all in good condition & will run into the block smoothly. i can't remember which permatex i use, its the liquid with the brush that gets hard. i know a lot of people who don't use anything on the threads & have no problems.
i seriously doubt that using the moly would have caused your problem.

i know there are people here who have, but so far, i have never had any problems with FelPro gaskets, & i hope i never do.

 

Well bone dry isn't good. Could always get an oil pump tool, whatever theyre called, and see if you can build oil pressure and if you get any top-end flow...

But I hate to say it, wet plugs are a bad bad sign. When I lost a cylinder on my motor, the plug kept coming up wet. I had lost half my compression on that cylinder and anything inside it, the rings let right past into the oil pan. It had less than 10k miles on it and was built by a local shop...long story short, he used the wrong pushrods and I wound up with metal in my oil, which ate up several cylinders, and destroyed the rings on one. So I feel your pain, he wouldnt do anything for me either, blamed it on me "sticking to a budget".

Everybody has their bad build story.....stick at it man, you'll find a winner eventually. The motor I got now is technically inferior to my old one, but it's more reliable and faster. Funny how things work.

 

Did I read synthetic? Did you break the motor in on synthetic or straight grade oil? That might be a part of your problem. Do a compression test on the head gasket issue.

 

motor was broken in on dino oil and then synthetic was used... i will do a compression check...

 

well i did a compression test on the motor... i got 60-90 psi on each cyl.... safe to assume my gaskets are toast.... unless i did the test wrong...
i pulled every plug, then put the tester in the hole as tight as i could and then opened the carb wide open and gave the car about 5 cranks per cyl...

maybe it is time to upgrade to 455... i find it hard to believe i blew two new gaskets in 50 miles..

 

Good to see you're not still talking about getting rid of it. Look forward to seeing you at a gathering some day.

 

actually, it's betting parted out. I am saving up to get a GTA... the car iv'e always wanted... I am starting it all over again... So check out my threads if you need some parts.