Personally, whether you plan to keep the car or get rid of it at some point, nothing is more attractive, to me personally, then an authentic, #s matching car (unless it has a ZL1 or a 572 in it ) What you have is actually rebuildable. The gaskets shown actually appear to be replacements to me (I could be wrong). But it'd be less expensive for you to rebuild what you have. As well as make future repairs easier.

 

Looks like that felpro gasket saved your motor

If you had a cometic gaskets i am guessing you would be looking at something much much worse

 

LOL. I told you. Go back through my threads and look at the pics of my haed gaskets. They look identical, but mine blew in the center cylinders and almost pushed the gaskets into the lifter valley. You pushed the gaskets out due to detonation, or you didnt have enough clamping force on the head due to inadequate fastener torque, unclean/un-true surfaces of the head/deck, or you just ran it lean, or had too much timing. What kind of head bolts are you using and what were they torqued to?

When it happened to me, to summarize, I cleaned everything up, put the same type of fel pro 1074's that everyone is using back in there, made damn sure I torqued my arp bolts correctly, which they call for more torque than you would normally use on a standard sbc head bolt, and I did not have that problem again. BUT, I had a few of the above issues all at once, so I cant say which caused it. I can tell you I addressed them all b4 it went back together and didnt have that issue again.

Clean, clean, clean all that water mess out and check the heads for flatness as well as the deck. Use a straight edge and feeler gauges. If everything checks out put it back together with new gaskets and get some arp head bolts and make sure you use sealant on the threads and anti-sieze on both sides of the head bolt washer to get an accurate torque and torque in sequence in 3-4 passes leading up to the final. Timing should be under 24 at WOT to be safe and make sure you have 11.5:1 afr or richer. 10 psi of boost should produce 50 psi fuel pressure, if not, you're running out of fuel volume and need more pump.

Oh yeah, almost forgot, dont know how much water you had in the oil, but you may want to check all your bearings and if you're going that far since you have it out, and I would recommend it,.....pull the pistons and give it a quick hone job with the dingle ***** or stones and install new rings since you say it never sealed properly to begin with. Go with plasma moly rings gapped accordingly for boost and MAKE SURE you dont install them upside down, as it CAN be done.

 

Thanks for the helpful advise.

I have ARP studs torqued to 35ft/lbs - 45ft/lbs - then final torque of 65ft/lbs. In correct sequence of course.

I'm still going to bring my block to a machine shop and have them check everything over, replace bearings, and replace the pistons with JE or similar.
I'll probably bump up to some AFR 227's this time around. Right now I'm using stock ported with upgraded valvetrain.

Also, judging how the gasket was pushed into the coolant passage, that would explain why my coolant was pressurized into the overflow tank. But how could it of caused all the blowby? When it happened at the track I took the oil fill cap off and exhaust gas was shooting out like a locomotive.

 

You don't have the pistons out yet..... Lets revisit that statement once you do that.

65ft/lbs seems too low on the head torque. Especially with no 0-rings. If your gonna take the block in, you might as well get a quote on o-ringing the block. Like blown said, use the 1074's again.

Ken R.

 

What he said ^

Ill bet you melted the rings/piston lands or cracked a piston/ring land. Been there, done that with the stockers once. Thats a nice paperweight/ conversation piece. Sounds more and more like you went lean, just like me.

 

65ft/lbs with moly lube is was ARP said to do. What are other people torquing them too?

Anyways, I've been calling machine shops today. I called up that same shop who quoted me $2,700 and got a new quote from what I know now (even though nothing actually changed that I wanted done). Now they give me a ball park range of $3000 + cost of pistons/rings. Needless to say, I'm done with them.

I've been talking with another machine shop that Race Proven Motorsports uses for their machining. He told me their average rebuild is about $1500 then add the cost of the pistons. He seems like a good guy and honest. I'm going to work on dropping my motor off to him once I have time.

 

Sounds a little more reasonable. You could still save more by disassembling the shortblock and seeing if you can salvage anything. I would think the block might just need a quick hone if the pistons havent gouged the wall since you didnt put any miles on it really. The block should need minimal work. Let the machine shop hang yer new pistons and file the rings and hone the cylinders to the pistons as well as rebalance. The rest is nuts and bolts you can handle.

My arp bolts said 70 ft/lb with arp lube. I did them to 75 but I had a reducer and 3in extension. You need to coat the threads with sealer, and the head and washer with lube.

 

Ok guys. The machine shop tore everything down. Couple of the pistons have broken/melted ring lands. Shows signs of detonation. #1 main cap bearing was hurt. They say the oil pump got gunked up and rusty so needs replaced.
Here is where it gets expensive. They can't find a piston from any of the top brands (JE, Ross, Wiseco, etc) that offer a 2618 alloy 0.40 over with enough cc volume I need. I would need to get a custom piston which is in the $800-$850 territory.
To do everything like clean, bore, hone, balance, assemble, gaskets, pistons, hellfire rings, cometic head gaskets, arp 2000 rod bolts (added for piece of mind but can delete for $131).. I'm looking at $3,100

I don't know what to do. I can manage to afford it even though I would like it to be cheaper. I don't think I can get much cheaper than this though. I've searched high and low and this engine builder is the most reputable and cheapest before making compromises. I could save a couple hundred in assembly but I would rather have them do it. Plus I would atleast get some sort of warranty if they did it all. Hummmm

 

so what did you decide on this build?

 

I gave the ok to my machine shop. Custom JE 2618 boost pistons, 210cc AFR heads, Stef's oil pan, and miscellaneous. It's still at the machine shop now. Mainly waiting for parts, but it should be done in a couple weeks.
I bought an AIS meth kit just for safety. I'm going to upgrade to dual walbro fuel pumps.
My goal is to reach 700hp this time.