RedWS6 00

My engine was making some great noises, took off the rocker cover and noticed a push rod that felt loose. Either a collapsed lifter of lost a cam lobe.

Removed the heads and cam. Extracted this lifter, couldn't come out though the top, had to drop it into the cam area onto thin cardboard and extract it though the front.

Not good, certainly lots of metal has ended up somewhere.

Cam bearing has taken a hit.


Engine has done 175k miles. Later on today we will be taking the engine out.

Going to check the crank bearings. Either going to be a complete bearing kit, or a stroker.

I have never been that deep into the engine before. I will have to do lots of reading on what I will need to get, tools, gaskets, bolts etc...

RixTrix

All of those hard little metal bits have gone through the motor.

The soft piston skirts have little bits of this metal imbedded in them and are dragging them up and down the cylinders like a file. any bits that have gotten into the bearings are imbedded and eating away at the spinning things they hold.

Complete rebuild is the only cure.

stonebreaker

Exact same thing happened to me. Currently making a stroker out of it.

RedWS6 00

I'm thinking along the same lines. I've not taken the sump off yet, that is getting close, the engine is on an engine stand at last. Things seems to take a lot longer than expected.
I have seen a 383ci stroker kit. Tempted to go that route. Cost is holding me back a bit, plus shipping times and taxes to the UK. However the car is my pride and joy, and I dont want to feel further down the line that I wish I put a stroker in it when it was all in bits, which gets me leaning towards doing it.

How's your stroker plan coming along?

stonebreaker

I'm currently doing a cost analysis. My mechanic spec'ed out the parts and labor to build an 800 hp bottom end, and I sent a request off to Texas Speed to see what an equivalent LS2 short block assembly would cost. If I can get an assembled engine for about the same as my mechanic building one, I would go with that for the larger cylinder bores. Still waiting to hear back from them. If they don't answer my email in a couple of days I'll give them a call.

And I keep discovering other areas to beef up - the blower I'm planning for the next build stage will require an upgraded prop shaft, already have a dual disk clutch so I'm good there, but I was wondering if my problems weren't at least partly caused by a lack of harmonic damping so I was looking at upgrading to an ATI Super Damper, and then there's the increased fuel requirements, and the in-tank fuel kit for that is around 800 bucks....

Pretty much the same as it always goes - spending twice as much as I originally planned...