found the limit of my 408 :(
i started taking the motor apart, and i can't find anything wrong so far .
the rods, wrist pins , and rod bearings look great , which is not what i was expecting to see. i was under the impression that the rod bearings will take a beating whith detonation, but these look real good.

all the cylinder walls look ok , minor scratches but nothing a quick hone won't fix. pistons look kinda ok
, all in relatively good shape except on which had some scouring on the side ( surprisingly , the wall was real clean - don't let the pic fool you , you can barely get a finger nail caught on that , it looks much worse in pictures than it does in real). i still have to take the rings off and inspect the ringlands more closely . and i still have to remove the crank and inspect the main bearings. should be doing that today.
and i think i found a new set of low comression pistons over here that i might be getting soon .



i'm not sure about the thrust bearing though, doeas this look normal?

another think i found out is that the cam dowl was broken in the cam , but the bolts were ok!!? does that make any sense?
i also found that the first cam bearing has a small crack in it , but not on the loading side. oh and the cam bearings need to be replaced




i took a closer look at the lifters, but they all were ok .
i then took each piston for a closer look. found two of them with collapsed ringlans i guess , since the top ring was pinched on one side of the piston ( but could be pryed out). the piston with the scouring on the side was not as smooth as i though it was
, so it needs to be replaced. all the pins looked good. the good news is that i found a set of weisco 8.5:1 slugs and pins localy , all i need to do now is to order a set of rings. any recomendations?so now i'm kinda confused as to what was knoking in my engine? could it be the main bearings ? (it had great oil pressure ) or could it be because of the pinched rings? or could it be something else that i overlooked?
C16
15* out
What jetting and fuel pressure?
The Best V8 Stories One Small Block at Time
Last edited by FastBlackTA; Jul 22, 2008 at 01:35 PM.
I can check the jetting chart from SpeedTech when I get to the shop..

i got the new balancer in today ( the old one was a "loaner" from a friend over here
)the rings are in too,
i'll hopefulley clean the pistons i got tonight and then i'll be taking the old slugs off the rods ( and rechecking the rods) and putting in the new ones on.
should also be taking the heads and block to the machine shop. the heads need to be checked, and the block needs have new cam bearings put in.
X2 on the knocking. My Cummins diesel did knock and when the motor was torn down I found two pistons scored like that from all the fuel running through it.
i'm hoping to have the engine all buttoned up by friday evening .
If it were my car I would be on strait C16 no mixing, NGK 11 plugs, and around 8-10* of timing. Hope you have better luck when its back up and running.
150 hp = 24 degrees advance
175 hp = 22.5 degrees
225 hp = 20 degrees
300 hp = 15 degrees
So if you were running a 400 shot and say your base was 34 your timing should have been down around 12 degrees....
ATV, I'm with you on the lean/rich deal man.... there are pro mod teams that run upwards of 13:1 AF ratios with 500-600 shots or more with 4 units.... never hurt anything. Granted on alchohol which is more forgiving but still... I'm planning on shooting for around 12:1..... Maybe 11.5:1 on the 300 hit...
so when i'm done the crank is very very hard to turn , i'm still thinking at that time its a rough spot ( didn't have any sleep the last few days, so as you can tell my judgement is impaired
)so on the way back from the garage , i was discussing this with a friend, and he told me that running the engine like that would result in an overheatd or welded bearing ( no why didn't i think of that
)which brings me to my question : are all the main bearings for lsx engines the same dimetion throughout the years ( mainly 2000 to 2004 ) ?? cause i'm starting to think that i got main bearings that are a bit tighter than whet was in there originally . keep in mind no machining was done to the crank.



