Finally got the car back
Thread Starter
On The Tree
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 162
Likes: 1
From: Raleigh NC
Finally got the car back cliff notes at bottom:
finished the car 2 weeks ago but i've been out of town, got it to the dyno the other day to see how i did, this is the first motor i've put together, here's the saga:
planned to do cam swap since my third opti had taken a dump and swap to the vented piece. got a cam, vigilante torque converter, roller rockers, comp R lifters, etc. started pulling everything apart and everything was going well until i took the front timing cover off, as careful as i was the front seal on the oil pan gasket ripped off with it. so to make things easier on myself, i pulled the motor out, which was a lot of work but proved to be a godsend.
pulled the pan with the engine still on the hoist since i hadn't planned to have it out long and got it down a couple inches when i heard something large and metal FALL INTO IT. my heart sank immediately. it was the front main cap bolt on the passenger side of the motor that came out in two pieces. it snapped right where the shank of the bolt meets the threads and had been that way for a while, as the threads worked their way out of the block and the pieces sat in the bore for who knows how long.
i pulled the crank, had it checked and turned, put new rod and main bearings in it along with a new oil pump. never took the heads off or pistons out, since i'm on a tight budget, but everything has worked great so far. i never had any oil burning, and still dont. like i said, this is the first time i've ever taken any motor apart so i was quite nervous about how it was going to turn out. i'm very happy with what it did on the dyno.
good stuff: car made 325 hp/394 tq to the wheels, hope to make a few more hp on a not 100 degree 95% humidity day.
mods: 224/236 .535"/.554" lift @ .050" 112 LSA, vigilante 2800, 1.6 rockers, comp R lifters, comp pushrods, LT4 ED timing set, isky valvesprings, jet hot longtubes, ory pipe, slp 2otl exhaust.
finished the car 2 weeks ago but i've been out of town, got it to the dyno the other day to see how i did, this is the first motor i've put together, here's the saga:
planned to do cam swap since my third opti had taken a dump and swap to the vented piece. got a cam, vigilante torque converter, roller rockers, comp R lifters, etc. started pulling everything apart and everything was going well until i took the front timing cover off, as careful as i was the front seal on the oil pan gasket ripped off with it. so to make things easier on myself, i pulled the motor out, which was a lot of work but proved to be a godsend.
pulled the pan with the engine still on the hoist since i hadn't planned to have it out long and got it down a couple inches when i heard something large and metal FALL INTO IT. my heart sank immediately. it was the front main cap bolt on the passenger side of the motor that came out in two pieces. it snapped right where the shank of the bolt meets the threads and had been that way for a while, as the threads worked their way out of the block and the pieces sat in the bore for who knows how long.
i pulled the crank, had it checked and turned, put new rod and main bearings in it along with a new oil pump. never took the heads off or pistons out, since i'm on a tight budget, but everything has worked great so far. i never had any oil burning, and still dont. like i said, this is the first time i've ever taken any motor apart so i was quite nervous about how it was going to turn out. i'm very happy with what it did on the dyno.
good stuff: car made 325 hp/394 tq to the wheels, hope to make a few more hp on a not 100 degree 95% humidity day.
mods: 224/236 .535"/.554" lift @ .050" 112 LSA, vigilante 2800, 1.6 rockers, comp R lifters, comp pushrods, LT4 ED timing set, isky valvesprings, jet hot longtubes, ory pipe, slp 2otl exhaust.
