Here is the photo album of my findings...

http://s774.photobucket.com/albums/yy26/mswezey/

It does seem the nuts backed off the rods.

But if you look at the pictures you can see that the rod knocked two holes in the oil pan, one on each side of the oil pan. How is that possible if the nuts backed off first? My dad is thinking that the rod had to break first (look at the pictures you can still see part of the rod attached to the piston) then the crank swinged it around the pan and that was the huge clunking sound I was hearing. That oil pan has so many outward dents on both sides. I had to hammer 4 different spots back in just to access the oil pan bolt. So wouldn't that rod still have to be connected to the crank while it was doing this to the oil pan?

And if you look at the other rod you can tell the nuts are backing off of it. Why would rod nuts back off besides the slightest change they didn't get tightened?

At first I was thinking when we replaced the rod bearings I must have missed one rod tightening it all the way down. But I can remember going back and checking all the nuts and making sure I got them all. So what could cause the rod (cylinder 8) that is still attached to be backing off? It could have been possible for me to miss one...doubtfully but highly unlikely and there is no way I missed two sets of rod nuts. My dad was right there watching me tightening them down and rechecking them all.

My dad and I both would like some educated guesses on what could have causes this and what actually broke. And do you think it was a bad engine in the first place? Or a better question is, if you were in my position would you contact the seller and try to arrange some sort of compensation ? I'm not expecting all of my money back because i still have a good set of nearly new 918 beehive springs, nice stock lt1 heads, and an lt4 block. All that needs replaced is pistons, rods, bearings, and probably crank. We paid $1200 for it and we didn't even put a mile on this engine. We were thinking that if most of you thought it was a bad engine to sell in the first place that we would contact him and ask for about $500-$600 back if he is an honest man. I'm going to contact him probably tomorrow and tell him what happened and see how he reacts to it and if he is willing to compensate on his own.

You can see how it ate that rod journal up pretty bad and how it scrapped the counterweight of the crank. Do you think it's a complete goner?

Thanks for any input you guys might be able to provide me

 

Also in this picture : http://s774.photobucket.com/albums/y...t=IMAG0537.jpg

you can see a slight scrape and a chunk outta the bottom of the cylinder...

How is that going to effect me down the road? My dad thinks the bottom chunk won't hurt and he sorta thinks honing the cylinder might take that scrape out.

Just wanted some input on that also. Would a hone take care of it or do we need to take it in and get it bored out and that chunk missing fixed?


http://s774.photobucket.com/albums/y...t=IMAG0529.jpg

That picture clearly shows that the valves hit the piston, which caused that one bent push rod. Should my lifters be okay? what about my valves? Should I just check those two valves and make sure they didn't get bent?

 

As long as your not planning a stroker you should be okay. From the picture it doesn't look like it will be a huge problem if you smooth the edges out. To be honest it would be worth the extra scratch to get a good machine shop to check it out to be sure.

If that is the only block damage then you got lucky. I have seen rods act like a buzz saw and destroy blocks


From what it looks like the rod let loose first.... looks like after it punched holes in the oil pan it hit the cylinder and that is what locked it up tight.

 

What do you mean by rod let loose first? Loose from the top of the piston? Or loose as in the bolts coming undone?


My dad's talked to a bunch of people about this and they all feel the guy should at least give us half back or so on it.
I just wanna make sure when I call the guy up, that I do have a valid reason for wanting part of my money back.

 

Sorry I meant came loose, As in the nuts came off,... It looked like the crank came around and sheared the rod, which looks like why the rod came apart in so many pieces. Most rods that break stay bolted to the crank.

 

Alright, sounds very plausible. Thanks for your input and your advice.

 

What torque spec did you use for the rods?

 

looks like the rodbolts werent torqued down to begin with..

 

I torqued them down to the specs listed in the LT1/LT4 rebuild book...

it's in the garage right now so I'd have to look at it again. But i know i torqued them down and went back and checked them all over from the front to the back

 

Man up and stop trying to blame another forum member for your self-inflicted woes.

 

Who the **** are you telling me to man up?

Seriously, I told you once, if you don't have anything to say that is relevant to my thread get the **** out of my thread.

I'm not trying to blame another forum member, if you would read my posts you can see I am trying to figure out if this was just a bad engine to begin with or somehow I made a mistake. I don't want to go up calling the guy blaming him for something that's not his fault. I am trying to get my facts straight.

So why don't you man up and stop being a *****. ****ing *******

 

If that's true, you're going about it wrong, because almost every post you make comes across as "Let me fish for how can I blame my mistakes on somebody else"


In that case /thread because it was obvious from the start that you broke it, and only became moreso as you revealed additional information (Oh, well, yeah, I did also work on the bottom end...)

 

In light of the fact that you changed out the rod bearings, there surely is no reason to expect compensation from anyone because the seller had no part in that activity. We all make mistakes or end up with faulty parts along the way working on engines, including myself. Hell..I have probably built over 100 engines in my lifetime and still screw up...lol. I do hope that it is a easy fix for you, as it is nice having a 4bolt main block.

 

I'm not trying to blame any of my mistakes that I may have made on anybody else.

And you quoting me out of context isn't going to help your case out any.

I was simply asking for opinions and insight. You coming in my thread telling me to man up for no reason isn't helpful. That is trolling. This is the help section of the forum, maybe you didn't realize that. But now you know.

I have no problem accepting that I made a mistake in reassembling the engine. I just wanted my facts straight. Being a ***** about isn't helping me out any.

So, please if you don't have anything helpful to say, stay out of my threads as I don't want to put up with your bull****.

And if it seemed like I was "fishing" for any excuse then you obviously read my postings with a biased opinion. I was just speculating what could have happened and why. As of then, I didn't have a clue what happened because I didn't even have my engine out yet.

 

Thank you. Even though I did work on the bottom end I just wanted to make sure if that was the cause of it and if not, seek out compensation.

I mean what if I changed the bearings out and didn't make a mistake putting it back together and the rod just broke and stayed on the crank? Obviously that wouldn't my own doing.

But from the more I read about it, and the helpful opinion I managed to get it does seem to lead to me being at fault for this.

It just is frustrating that's all.

But thanks for the encouragement!