I shared this story in the time slip/combo database section, but wanted to share it here too.
I know the title doesn't seem possible with these cars, but here's my story. We (my builder, his wife, and myself) pulled the motor to do a cam and valve springs. Pulled the oil pan and there was debris everywhere. I had a bad pre-ignition event last year in the fall and took care of the issues, but I knew something was hurt even though the car ran great. When we pulled the rod and main caps, there were a few bearings with uneven wear and one rod bearing that was almost down to copper and sure to spin out soon. During reassembly while checking clearances, the #2 rod cap marked the bottom bearing on one side and the top bearing on the opposite side, not good. Called the machine shop and sure enough all 6 of my rods were twisted with four being more off and two not too bad. The machinist straightened them for us and we reassembled the same night. Long story short, I used my pistons and rings over, rods, crank, and basically everything except cam, springs, lifters, and bearings. We ported the intake and exhaust ports a little but no bowl work or anything on the heads. Put it all back together and I ran a new PB today of 11.751 @ 114.68 with a 1.69 60' on 20psi with 20/18 timing (unverified chip settings). That beet my old best by a tenth with the same mph on 5 less psi with a budget built 109 block. I just wanted to run 11's on my street tune and have done so easily.
I was very lucky though. We looked inside the motor before things got too bad, fixed what caused the pre-ignition event in the first place, and used all the old stuff over. We took the carbon ring off the top of the bores and carefully removed the pistons. The bores themselves were near perfect with lots of visible cross hatch and no lip at the top from wear even with 65k miles. I was skeptical of the old rings at first but they really looked great. I'm using a new pcv valve and checkball together and with over 1000 miles on the build and a dozen passes today, my valve covers are still spotless, no oil even with all the old stuff inside. I don't think the level even went down but I'll know more on that after 3000 miles on the current oil.
Just wanted to share my story. Much thanks to my builder and the machinist who stayed late on a Friday AND did the work on the spot. We took the motor out Friday morning and had a short block late Friday night. I drove the car home Saturday night and raced it three weeks later. Wow. Now my water pump appears to be going south but I was waiting for what was next.
I know the title doesn't seem possible with these cars, but here's my story. We (my builder, his wife, and myself) pulled the motor to do a cam and valve springs. Pulled the oil pan and there was debris everywhere. I had a bad pre-ignition event last year in the fall and took care of the issues, but I knew something was hurt even though the car ran great. When we pulled the rod and main caps, there were a few bearings with uneven wear and one rod bearing that was almost down to copper and sure to spin out soon. During reassembly while checking clearances, the #2 rod cap marked the bottom bearing on one side and the top bearing on the opposite side, not good. Called the machine shop and sure enough all 6 of my rods were twisted with four being more off and two not too bad. The machinist straightened them for us and we reassembled the same night. Long story short, I used my pistons and rings over, rods, crank, and basically everything except cam, springs, lifters, and bearings. We ported the intake and exhaust ports a little but no bowl work or anything on the heads. Put it all back together and I ran a new PB today of 11.751 @ 114.68 with a 1.69 60' on 20psi with 20/18 timing (unverified chip settings). That beet my old best by a tenth with the same mph on 5 less psi with a budget built 109 block. I just wanted to run 11's on my street tune and have done so easily.
I was very lucky though. We looked inside the motor before things got too bad, fixed what caused the pre-ignition event in the first place, and used all the old stuff over. We took the carbon ring off the top of the bores and carefully removed the pistons. The bores themselves were near perfect with lots of visible cross hatch and no lip at the top from wear even with 65k miles. I was skeptical of the old rings at first but they really looked great. I'm using a new pcv valve and checkball together and with over 1000 miles on the build and a dozen passes today, my valve covers are still spotless, no oil even with all the old stuff inside. I don't think the level even went down but I'll know more on that after 3000 miles on the current oil.
Just wanted to share my story. Much thanks to my builder and the machinist who stayed late on a Friday AND did the work on the spot. We took the motor out Friday morning and had a short block late Friday night. I drove the car home Saturday night and raced it three weeks later. Wow. Now my water pump appears to be going south but I was waiting for what was next.
