My bottom end is toast after driving 10 miles with new heads and cam. Don't know untill we pull the engine how bad the damage is. Whether the heads, cam, timing chain, were damaged, and if its worth rebuilding the bottom.

The plan is to have the new mechanic pull the engine, take to the machine shop to assess the damage and to look for any mistakes in the prior mechanics work. And then find out what went wrong.

Now im gonna have to figure out if i want to rebuild, buy a shortblock, or replace the whole engine.

My intention with this car, is to be my daily driver. I just want some good low end torque or mid-range, so im not looking to spin to the moon, maybe to 6 grand. At this point im looking for the most reliable set up as apposed to a 9 second car.

I was also attempting to pass emissions. I've never heard of the 305 not passing so i went with that. If i still have any chance to pass emissions, the engine will have to stay 350ci correct? We got pretty strict emissions here in Mass.

Just got off the phone with original mechanic, sounds like the oil pump took a crap. The lifters were having trouble pumping up consequently loosening the rockers. Machinist says this indicates a weak oil pump. Probably too much dirt got in there and clogged up the pump huh?

 

what oil was in the car? how old was it? the whole thing about it being dirty is very unprofessional. down here we call those kind of mechanics 'greentooths'. never let a greentooth touch your car. i guess you learned that the hard way.

my buddies and i have done over a dozen high mileage stock shortblock lt1 heads/cam swaps and dozens of heads ford 302 high mileage stock shortblock heads/cam swaps and never had a problem.

 

I have good things about this place. It was recommended to me by Llyod. I hae been looking at the 383 short blocks. Their prices are awesome and have a fairy good rep. The basic 383 short block would be great for the street, tons of torque. Which, in my mind, would make it alot of fun for a street car. It wouldn't make anymore power then a built 355, it will just make the power sooner. With your 305 and heads you should be able to make 370 rwhp.

http://www.golenengineservice.com/ht...rt_blocks.html

 

gtx 30wt, he let the engine run for a half hour on initial startup and said he used some cheap stuff, don't know what.

Thats why I think he must have f-d something up. Or wasn't thorough enough or knowledgable about my car, like checking the oil pump or knowing I should have bought a new one. I gave him the call on whatever he thought needed to be changed out.

 

Actually thats where i got my afr's from. And according to the mechanic they had an "imperfection" on one corner of the head, and I paid about 140 to fix. bought em for 1600.

that 383 sounds good but wont that affect emissions, the cubic inches?

I think this new mechanic is going to want to buy from people he knows, or else he cant make any guarentees. Ill ask him about golens tho

 

Oh i forgot to say, when i bought my car it had 31,000 miles. The mechanic said he just found out by the machinist, that the original heads had THE SAME VALVE SIZE AS MY AFRS!!! 2.02 1.600. I was like holy sh*t. And who would put heads with valves that big on a stock cam? must not have been the stock cam this is messed up. I think he brought the "stock" heads down to see if they were any value. Its strange because everything visible was stock whan i got it.

 

Give us a call.We can build a shortblock that will fit your budget and performance needs.

 

More than likely what happened is someone modded it, decided it was time to move on, they had kept thier stock parts, threw those back on and never told you about what was done to it before you buying it. It sucks, but happens.

 

Let me get this straight...... You paid a mechanic to do a heads/cam swap on your car, it took a crap after 10 miles, now you are paying a different mechanic to pull the motor, then having it sent to a machine shop? I hope you understand that you are in for a really s***ty mess soon. There's going to be a lot of pointing fingers and he said/she said crap.

If I were you, I'd just look to a stock rebuild. It doesn't sound like you want to get crazy with it. If the block is in ok shape (which remains to be seen I guess), just a hone on the bores, new rings, bearings and pump should be fine re-using the stock components(might put some ARP hardware on the mains and rods). You might also look into some Mahle pistons, they'll be stronger than the stockers, and won't put a weight penalty on you.

I know you said you only want to spin to 6000, but I think you'll find 6200-6400 a better shift point in terms of power delivery, without reliability suffering.

 

Well if i think what happened did, then it wasnt the mechanics fault. I definatly threw a rod because there is a hole in the oil pan. Doesn't that just mean a rod bolt broke cuz the bottom couldn't handle the top? Im really not interested on blaming anyone, I just want this put together right and will last me, trying to accomplish this for less than 5,000. If the block is ok, then i will definately look into just a rebuild.

 

Probably spun a bearing, put a bunch of stress on the rod cap, bolt broke and then the rod came through the oil pan. My bottom end took repeated 6200-6300 rpm blasts, and when I say repeated I mean every time it got driven. Numerous passes down the track and freeway pulls. That was with some ported heads/HOTcam and bolt ons. I wouldn't say your bottom end couldn't handle it unless you were getting pretty crazy.

 

It must have all happened real fast and all at once, never even noticed the oil pressure drop. Was babying it the whole time keeping it under 3000 rpm. Nothing out of the norm, then the computer just shut the car off going down the highway at 2,500-3,000 in 4th gear.

Of course my first reaction would be mech didnt do something right. Especially cuz of the fact he let dirt built up on the heads when the valve covers were off for 2 weeks. He said he would fix it for 500$ labor, but i cant take a chance of having this blow up on me again. I dont see myself having any choice but to take it to someone new who can guarentee me they will do it right. I'd rather spend some more money now so it will last, then having to junk the car in 2 yrs.