well, when life gives you lemons, what do you do? spend more money and build a bigger motor.

about a month ago a PRC single beehive spring broke in my cam only LQ4, taking out the piston, breaking 2 rods, trashing a head, and putting a hole in the block and oil pan. What started as a "quick stock rebuild" escalated.



Back in April I took the car to be tuned at New Era, Mike did a nice job, although it proved difficult to tune.


Drove it to work every day for a week and generally enjoyed it. Went to Rochester to visit a friend:



On the drive back, about 60 miles from home, I got a random miss that turned into a tap, which quickly turned into a light knock 30 seconds later



Got it home, pulled it into the garage, and we get this





Oil Pan Doritos






All caused by this



Spring broke, dropped a valve, valve met piston, broke the rod, and sent it through the pan and block. So, now I'll need a replacement block and heads - the valve made some big gouges on the inside of the combustion chamber - currently on the hunt for a dropout just like I had. The spring was a single beehive, PRC 1518 good to .600 (my cam is .588 on both intake/exhaust). I bought the cam, springs, and pushrods as part of a package deal sold by Texas Speed. Spoke to them and they will be replacing all 16 springs for me with a stronger set, along with other seals, seats, and retainers. Just kind of ironic since I only drove the car maybe 300 miles after putting it on the road...if it had happened just a few hundred miles sooner, it would have been late last year, and I'd have been able to spend all winter fixing it. But, it is what it is, so gotta move forward.


Day after the motor blew - 90 mins in


Another few hours on Tuesday got me here




Had a buddy stop by and help me "put it in storage"









a few weeks back I was cleaning up the garage a bit on Sunday morning, on a whim decided to hop on the local Craigslist and do the usual search for "6.0". Lo and behold there was one locally for cheap, with a "slight knock", For my purposes, perfect! It came with some nice parts that will help recoup some costs. Loaded her up and had it home before noon. Not much info on the motor other than that it "came out of a steak truck" (LOL) and had aluminum 317 heads (so, it was at least a 2001+).

Yanked the intake and heads and checked bores, they looked great for unknown mileage.



Removed the remaining 15 valve springs at my super fancy cylinder head service bench. Wine and cheese come standard


I will be sticking with the stock crank, but after speaking with my engine builder, I decided to have the cylinders bored .030" over for a 370 build.

2002 LQ4 Iron 6.0 pulled from truck
Stock crank, .010 undersize mains
undecided on pistons: possibly Flat Top Professional Series JE Pistons (4.030" Bore)
floating Gen 4 rods, LS6 rod bolts
New Clevite P rod bearings, cam bearings, main bearings, etc
GTO oil pan, pickup tube, windage tray
TSP 228R Cam (228/228, .588/.588 @ 112*)


Top end:
317 heads milled .024” for 66cc chambers
No porting, stock otherwise
new GM 6.0 MLS headgaskets
ARP headbolts
TSP pushrods, dual springs, titanium retainers


Intake:
Stock LS6 intake manifold
LS6 throttle body, stock
3" pipe with stock LQ4 truck MAF, cone filter
Stock LS6 fuel rail, with 42# Ford Greentop injectors


Exhaust:
CTSV cast iron manifolds with the cats removed, into OEM BMW exhaust with 2 secondary cats.
3" QTP Cutout/exhaust dump before all mufflers/ resonators

2002 F-Body T56
Stage 2 Diamond clutch
18lb Diamond flywheel
3.91 M5 LSD rear

Right now I'm trying to figure out what I want for pistons in a 4.030 flat top configuration that won't break the bank.

 

are the stock 6.0 MLS GM headgaskets still compatible with the 4.030 bore?

 

Any idea why the valve spring failed? Are you replacing them with doubles?

 

Yeah, but they're tight. The 6.0L gaskets are about 4.050" so that would only leave you about .010" from the bore if it's perfectly centered. The 6.2L gaskets (PN 12610046) are about 4.100" so they would probably be a better fit.

 

^Thanks. Looks like the 6.2 gaskets are more like 4.080"
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/nal-12610046
Bore (in):4.080 in.

 

I'd do something like the Diamond Racing 11510. It's a 4.030" bore piston set up for the stock crank and stock rods (3.622/6.098) with a .945" wrist pin (would work beautifully with the Gen 4 rods). It has 2cc reliefs so you can run pretty much whatever cam you want to in there.

 

This is the second thread a 228r ate a PRC 1518. I know there are people who run it and have no issues, but maybe now people can see the aggressiveness of the XER lobes and why you need a proper spring to control it.

 

They're actually a little bigger when you measure them. Both sets of my 6.2L gaskets were closer to 4.100". I think the 6.0L gaskets are listed at 4.020" and they measure larger as well.

 

So, I found a screaming deal on a set of low mileage 241s locally, so I'll be snagging those tonight, and putting the 317s up for sale. Anyone want some good condition 317s with 66cc chambers?

Bottom end should be done Monday, and then the hustle begins to get it together for a big BMW show in Columbus, OH in a few weeks.

 

You shouldn't have much trouble selling the 317's fast on here. Perfect head for the budget boost build, which everyone seems to be looking to do. Beautiful BMW too.

 

Thanks! I loved the 317s when I ran them, but mine were milled for higher compression since I was NA. They are a great budget substitute for 243s.

 

Very true. I need to convince the wife we need to do an LSx swap in our BMW.

 

Ill defiently be fallowing this build!


I just picked up a 02 Lq4 with 317 heads for my e46 lol

 

There's a couple of swaps going on the engine conversions thread in bimmerforums if you guys need more info.

 

quick update - between the day job and working on the car I am pulling some 16+ hour days here (and will be for the next week)

the good news is that things are moving right along with no issues (aside from misplacing my tube of RTV and spending 45 mins looking for it).

Tuesday 6pm, motor picked up from builder. Bottom end (crank, pistons, rods) assembled, otherwise a totally bare block
IMG_20150602_170056_314 by Norbert Ogiba, on Flickr

Tuesday 11pm
Block cleaned, masked, painted, all block coolant and oil plugs installed, oil tray on, cleaned and prepped oil pan/windage tray/pickup tube/oil pipes. Head dowels in. Crank and cam sensors in, along with valley cover and knock sensors. Had to call it quits as I was waiting on the oil barbell plug and a new timing chain. I love Summit Racing
IMG_20150602_220307_082 by Norbert Ogiba, on Flickr

Wednesday 11pm
New timing chain installed and motor timed (LOL), cam bolts loctited and torqued. Oil pump installed, oil pickup tube inspected and installed (don't screw up that o-ring!) Rear cover and main seal installed, balancer pulled on to align front cover and main seal, both covers aligned and torqued. Oil pan and accessories installed, sealed and torqued, alignment checked. Deck surface cleaned, headgaskets and heads installed and ARP bolts torqued in sequence to spec. Wrapped up the night by installing and torquing 8 new spark plugs.
IMG_20150603_221917_087 by Norbert Ogiba, on Flickr

I am taking a ton of pictures with my other camera for documentation's sake but don't have time to make my usual very long winded post so those will have to wait until a few weeks from now

 

This looks like a lot of work, I'm just going to start saving up for the LSA crate when mine grenades all over the road.

 

Ahh damn, I too have a 6.0 with a 228r cam and 1518 springs. Now I'm worried

 

Jim, you'll probably be fine, but those factory crate motors sure are enticing...

 

Op, thanks for the post, since we run the same cam and valve springs, I'm gonna change mine out to a set of psi1511 beehive springs. I'm not gonna mess around.

 

Damn