jwrape Posted September 13, 2008 Report Share Posted September 13, 2008 It's not pretty. I finally got around to pulling the motor out after it failed not even 50 miles after initial start up. I pulled the head completely off and inspected the #4 cylinder as I had felt around it before and it seemed to have some cracks in it, so I thought the block cracked. Here is what I saw when I got the head all the way off. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v177/jwrape/Conquest/mime-attachment-10.jpg So here I can tell something has went bad and wore a nice spot in the side of the cylinder wall. Not good. After much more time and work I got the engine completely out of the car and drained the oil pan. I drained about 10+ quarts of fluid out of the oil pan, it seems that ALL of my antifreeze was in the oil pan. Oh, and my magnetic oil plug was covered in crap. I finally got the oil pan off after the draining and pulled these lovely jewels out of the pan. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v177/jwrape/Conquest/mime-attachment-12.jpg Then I got the #4 piston out and low and behold the culprit showed itself http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v177/jwrape/Conquest/mime-attachment-8.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v177/jwrape/Conquest/mime-attachment-9.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v177/jwrape/Conquest/mime-attachment-11.jpg I guess now I know what that knocking was that I couldn't find. It must have been a loose wrist pin or something and then when i got it to highway speeds it gave out. Now I have to start all over from scratch. I am tired of this motor and I haven't even got to drive the car but a couple times for a few minutes. I want to pull my hair out. Now what do I do? I guess back to the drawing board. Do you think I can trust the other 3 pistons? Is there a way to verify they are sturdy enough? I will tare the rest of the bottom end down later but for now I guess I will need to collect some new parts before moving forward. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psu_Crash Posted September 13, 2008 Report Share Posted September 13, 2008 Wow ... that is heart-breaking .... were those new pistons? What kind/compression? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Technology Posted September 13, 2008 Report Share Posted September 13, 2008 I would say that you could not trust the other pistons, that wrist pin was loose. Imagine if you were to ignore the other three and they became loose. Just have them sized correctly and pressed in by an engine builder, or get better snap rings for the pins. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shelby Posted September 13, 2008 Report Share Posted September 13, 2008 it's clear the snap rings eather were not clip'd inor not present on that piston,, pull them all and check the wrist pin retaining clip rings the engine will have to be completely reclean'd any way after such a failure Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwrape Posted September 13, 2008 Author Report Share Posted September 13, 2008 The pistons are Weisco 8:1 Forged and the rods are race prepped. I bought them on the board from a member. they had 5000 miles on them and in fact I remember looking them over and inspecting them quite a bit when I first got them and as I cleaned them up and re-ringed them. No problems found when I first installed them but obviously something was wrong with that one cause it started knocking as soon as I first started it. Just couldn't figure out what the lknocking was until it let go. Gonna tare it all back down, have the other three inspected as well as have DAD re-do the broken one. Gotta get his weigh in on them. I'm sure he will be commenting in here soon. :thumbsup: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwrape Posted September 13, 2008 Author Report Share Posted September 13, 2008 I wonder if I can JB weld it back together.... :biggrinumbrella1: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fanta Posted September 13, 2008 Report Share Posted September 13, 2008 I wonder if I can JB weld it back together.... :biggrinumbrella1: bwahahahaha man, that is some catastrophic failure. Goodluck with finding what you need. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chiplee Posted September 13, 2008 Report Share Posted September 13, 2008 I wouldn't even reuse that block if I were you. It could be the light or the picture but I'd swear that the block is bent out away from the piston in your first picture. The water passage even looks a bit misshapen. To me that block isn't worth risking a build on after it's been subjected to whatever made that piston fly apart. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwrape Posted September 13, 2008 Author Report Share Posted September 13, 2008 I wouldn't even reuse that block if I were you. It could be the light or the picture but I'd swear that the block is bent out away from the piston in your first picture. The water passage even looks a bit misshapen. To me that block isn't worth risking a build on after it's been subjected to whatever made that piston fly apart. No, I have another block. But I'm on the fence on even rebuilding. I might just look for a decent bottom end and swap it in. Kinda tired of being disappointed and spending SO much money for failure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Technology Posted September 13, 2008 Report Share Posted September 13, 2008 Yeah, you can always go with a known good stocker. They work fine! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chiplee Posted September 13, 2008 Report Share Posted September 13, 2008 No, I have another block. But I'm on the fence on even rebuilding. I might just look for a decent bottom end and swap it in. Kinda tired of being disappointed and spending SO much money for failure. I can relate to that. Once it all comes together though it's a good time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dcrasta Posted September 13, 2008 Report Share Posted September 13, 2008 I wouldn't even reuse that block if I were you. It could be the light or the picture but I'd swear that the block is bent out away from the piston in your first picture. The water passage even looks a bit misshapen. To me that block isn't worth risking a build on after it's been subjected to whatever made that piston fly apart. I agree 100% .. Maybe try a new builder. Who prepped the rods and pistons? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scotty Dont Posted September 13, 2008 Report Share Posted September 13, 2008 No, I have another block. But I'm on the fence on even rebuilding. I might just look for a decent bottom end and swap it in. Kinda tired of being disappointed and spending SO much money for failure. MAYBE? if things were done right the first time with new parts you wouldnt have to be redoing it and spending more then you would have with all new parts but hey throw some more unkown quality used parts in there again and this time you might get lucky :character0285: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caliber308 Posted September 14, 2008 Report Share Posted September 14, 2008 (edited) Piss poor engine assembly. Who assembled the motor???? I may be mistaken, but wasn't it you and your dad??? CALIBER 308 Edited September 14, 2008 by Caliber308 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IntercooledFlatty Posted September 14, 2008 Report Share Posted September 14, 2008 man that sux, good luck the next time bro , it'll be worth it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Indiana Posted September 14, 2008 Report Share Posted September 14, 2008 Piss poor engine assembly. Who assembled the motor???? I may be mistaken, but wasn't it you and your dad??? CALIBER 308floaters yes, press fit then they didn't do it some shop had to have, rods could have been prepped either way but I didn't see a bushing but its hard to tell from a picture Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StarquestRescue Posted September 14, 2008 Report Share Posted September 14, 2008 IIRC these pistons and 3 of the rods came from a motor that saw big boost and made big power and than suffered a rod Bering failure. Some one replaced the bad rod and they were than resold several times. There was all so talk of one of the previous owners cleaning the pistons with a wire wheel i think. Obviously they should have been thoroughly checked over by a machine shop. One of the lessons of the posters misfortune is to many assumptions were made. Parts that were good were assumed to be bad and parts that were bad were assumed to be good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richie_Rich Posted September 14, 2008 Report Share Posted September 14, 2008 Weren't those MrDodge01's rods and pistons? If so, they are set up for full floating pins and the wire clips should have been installed. I assume the big end of the rods was checked and resized if needed? Who took the pistons off the rods? Were they careful not to bend up the wire clips? Did you take pictures of the engine as it was being assembled? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shelby Posted September 14, 2008 Report Share Posted September 14, 2008 from the damage i'd say over rev'ing had a little some thing to do with it,, that and the wrist pin floating to one side and being completely out of the one side of the piston , i have seen floating piston wrist pins before with no clip rings,, with out the high revs they slide over and tear up the cyl walls the broken piston also shows signs of being out of round or the cyl wall was , heat scoureing on the side wall indicates that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwrape Posted September 15, 2008 Author Report Share Posted September 15, 2008 from the damage i'd say over rev'ing had a little some thing to do with it,, that and the wrist pin floating to one side and being completely out of the one side of the piston , i have seen floating piston wrist pins before with no clip rings,, with out the high revs they slide over and tear up the cyl walls the broken piston also shows signs of being out of round or the cyl wall was , heat scoureing on the side wall indicates that I think you could be onto something there, cause the #4 was the one that originally had a spun bearing. It could have damaged the cylinder and even the boring to .40 over didn't fix. I don't know, I'm sure it was my mistake along the way that caused the failure, but it won't happen again. I'll have it done for me this go round Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fanta Posted September 15, 2008 Report Share Posted September 15, 2008 At least you're just not giving up and parting the car out or something as some people unfortunately do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caliber308 Posted September 16, 2008 Report Share Posted September 16, 2008 (edited) So, did you do the engine assembly? If so, Did you learn anything? I feel bad that this happened but, If you try and do something that you have no knowledge of, and don't double check parts going into the assembly, you suffer the consequences. P.S. Don't blame it on the rod that spun a bearing in the past. Buck up!!!! And blame it on the engine assembler for not checking all the rods and piston assemblies out prior to installation. I may sound harsh, but it's the truth. CALIBER 308 Edited September 16, 2008 by Caliber308 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolf87Conquest Posted September 16, 2008 Report Share Posted September 16, 2008 It really sucks when a rebuild goes south within a few miles. This situation should teach you something. I've rebuilt quite a few engines in my time, I can't tell you how many...but never had one go that quickly. Every engine I've ever done either had new parts or the old ones very carefully checked. Verifing the old part was in good enough condition to be reused. Costs a little bit to have the machine shop check them, but well worth it. I myself then double check to make sure it's assembled correctly (piston, wrist pin, rings) before coating with lube and installing. Used parts, in my book, are suspect until proven worthy at the machine shop. Sure hope you do this next one right and have good luck with it. Then have many happy miles to enjoy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psu_Crash Posted September 16, 2008 Report Share Posted September 16, 2008 This is why I spent almost $1500 at the machine shop building my engine, and the only used part in it is the crank and block. Alittle pricey, but I wanted to know that everything was done right the first time by someone far more experienced than me. So far everything is great! ... knock on wood ... Kudos for not giving up! GOOD LUCK WITH THE REBUILD! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwrape Posted September 16, 2008 Author Report Share Posted September 16, 2008 At least you're just not giving up and parting the car out or something as some people unfortunately do. Really i had the thought a while back, BUT to be honest, the way i look at it, the entire engine compartment is new, the interior looks new, the exterior is in excellent condition to be the original paint and still shines nice, the wheels are in good shape, the suspension is in good shape(no popping). The way I see it, i don't know if I would find another one that was in such good shape all around. So if I sold it I would have to pay a lot more to get one that's in this good of shape overall. So I'm still ahead in my book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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