Anyone replace either rod bearings or mains in the car successfully?

[Red Regal T]

Allen "head", does not have a clue. You gave him more information than he ever had. Only the 109 blocks have a boss on the front of the motor where the oil return hole is drilled. The other block numbers mentioned do not have this boss. The motor they sell IS an NA motor that might possibly be OK for a 150 hp engine. You don't need much oil pressure for that. Send the motor back!

 

[Blown&Injected]

Bob, you sort of did what I suggested - now that Allen certified that they do sell the proper turbo engine, if it is not the 109/rolled fillet block/crank - easy to check, you have grounds for a return.

If you use it and it breaks - you have grounds for parts and labor and time without your car - provided that the engine really is not a full true turbo engine.

Print a copy of the thread (you and Allen), send it to ATK, and tell them you are concerned that you may not get the engine that is supposed to go in your car, and ask them what procedure would be followed if they send the wrong engine and it fails.

 

[Rickracer]

Hey Bob, my Jasper Rep. stopped by today...

...and I had him check to see if they had any '86 or '87 GN motors, or any 009 blocks to build. They had neither. They can and would rebuild yours though. He said it would take 2 to 3 weeks, and it would be built on the high performance line, which is dyno tested after assembly. The price was around $2600. If you want to give them a call, the number is 1-800-827-7455. I wasn't sure of your location, or how it would work, but if you want an "in", my rep's name is Ryan Thompson, and his voice mail number is 1320. I'm sure he can get all of your questions answered, if he doesn't know, he'll find out, or put you in touch with someone who can. Let me know if I can help. Just a quick summary of the features of a Jasper engine that I can remember(vs. the other guys): All new valves and springs, all new pistons, application specific camshafts, cranks that originally had rolled filet radius's will have them in the rebuild as well. If there's anything I can do to help, let me know.

 

[Bob Avellar]

Engine arrived yesterday. It is a 109 block with 8445 heads. The crank is a NA crank as far as i know at this point. It is casting # endiing in 877-not 229. I have not measured any clearances or checked to see how much the crank may have been turned or how much the cylinders have been bored or if they even have been. I can live with a NA crank for the time being since I know some people have pushed them pretty hard and have got away with it. I am going to rebuild my original motor a little at a time as $$ allows and I hope the ATK one might last until I'm ready. My bigger concerns are the cam and pistons used. I can't find any casting #s on the cam so I don't have a clue whether it will work well for a turbo application..What are the differences in cam specs for stock turbo and NA motors??? My Chilton's manual has specss for NA motors but the turbo motors are left blanklike they didn't have that info back then.
The pistons look pretty beefy on the undersides and are quite similar to the stock Hypers. That is they are close in the amount of mass around the pin bosses and they have a steel reenforcement much like the stock ones around the pin area. They look much like stock hypers in the way they are cast and in color. The tops of the pistons appear to be dished and have I think 3 dots on the top but they are not as smooth in appearance as the stock ones. So I don't know what you would call them(don't say junk here please) but they do look pretty beefy from underneath at least. I have not pulled the heads to see what size they may be or to measure the bore. They are not sleeved and they don't look like they have been bored much if at all. I'm just comparing them to the original motor which is right next to it. I think I will put my oil pump bottom half and KB booster plate onto this motor and hope for the best at least as a temporary solution. I am going to check some bolts for proper torque. The motor has new valve springs(the ones with 1 spring inside of the other) but I don't know what kind of spring pressure they have.. New lifters, Rod side clearances seem alot tighter than my old motor but that is just from moving them side to side and comparing them to the old one-not actually measuring. I have not seen anything that looked out of wack or unclean. The motor was supposedly run for 10 minutes with water temp at 131,oil temp@ eithe 44 or 144 (can't make it out). Oil pressure measured 72.5 max and 43.5 psi min. Compression was 148.7 psi avg.I assume that might improve after the rings seal? Well, it didn't look like junk but I do wonder about the cam. I wonder if I should bother to invest in a cam for this motor and throw it in before I assemble the rest of the motor???? If I knew the cam was equivalent to a stock cam I'd just leave it alone. I'm not sure how I could even check this??? That's the story for now but I would like your ideas on what I might do with the cam situation as far as checking it or replacing it. And don't anyone say "I told you so, either)

 

[Russ Merritt]

Best of luck! Hope it works for a while.

 

[Pronto]

You could measure the lift pretty easily. That might give you an idea what cam is in it. Can you call them ask for the specs of the cam?

 

[wagon]

Bob,
I say just use the motor, keep the boost low, and start right in on the other motor, with your fingers crossed the whole time, at least until you are finished. Good Luck.

 

[MaxVO2]

I second the above.. Don't start messing with replacing the cam, etc.. to something better in the hopes of getting more performance out of it. If (God forbid.. at this point, you've had enough bad luck) you should have a problem, I can see ATK saying they will NOT warranty the motor because you put after market parts on the short block that somehow, mysteriously caused piston number three or whatever BS they come up with to fail down the road due to your negligence.

I live near Washington, DC where there are more lawyers per square foot than probably anywhere else in the country. A local gentleman spent a very significant amount of money having his Porsche 911 restored by a very well known shop in our area. Everyone makes mistakes, and this shop is good about customer service in my experience, and does most everything in house. Anyway, the owner has his friend put new heat exhangers and a fancy new exhaust on this car to give it a bit more oomph, and the new exhaust is different enough that it comes a bit closer to the new factory oil cooler that the first shop had installed.

Well, the oil cooler ends up frying, and ruptures, causing a massive oil leak that destroys the engine, and darn near burns the car to the ground. Owner hires a lawyer when the shop tells him to get lost about warrantying the motor due to having had someone else work on the car. The oil cooler was probably defective, and a cogent argument could have been made that it would have eventually failed, yada yada.. The guy sued, lost in court, doesn't take the bus, but he's not driving that Porsche anymore either.

Bottom line was that he modified the car enough that the original engine house argued they didn't have to warranty it, even though they offered to put the EXACT exhaust, etc.. on the car, though their estimate was MUCH higher than what he got from someone else to do the job, that apparently did a great job putting everything together, but the oil cooler failed...

Check the clearances, do some other checks, put it together, drive the car, while you get the $$$ to do what you eventually want to do with the original motor.. This is an expensive hobby, and you have to pick two of the following three choices: cheap, fast, reliable.

Sorry for the novella

Billy

 

[Bob Avellar]

Brian, Billy, Good advice. I won't mess with it other than changing the lower oil pump half and booster plate to increase oil pressure. I can always put the old one back on if the need arises and no one will ever know except us. So keep your mouths shut!

 

[Rickracer]

I 3rd Billy and Brian....

...sounds like the best plan under the circumstances. If it does hold up well, it might be a decent spare motor for your good one on down the road.

 

[Bob Avellar]

Well the motor is back in the car (ATK). It fired right up. Lifters were noisy for about 2 minutes but now it is normal. I fired it up about 10 days ago. Ran it for 20 minutes with 30 weight oil and then changed the oil and filter to 10-40. Hot oil pressure stays at 32 psii with water temp 170-180 after running it inside the service bay for quite awile. Oil temp was about 160- 180 I think. Just the stock fan keeping the car at those temps inside the heated garage. All I have left to do is put the hood back on and clean the car up a little. Might have to buff the clearcoat in a few spots that got lightly scuffed during the engine switch -nothing serious. The hood is at home in the temporary garage shelter and the car is stuck at school due to the snow and crappy road conditions. Glad the car wasn't in the shelter cause I had to keep pushing the snow off the roof all during the storm. It is not designed for snow loads! Figures we'd get about 30 something inches of snow to test it out. I've been porting the heads off of the old motor. Mainly cleaning the passages and radiusing corners. Also am trying to smooth the combustion chambers-that's tricky to do w/o taking too much off, keeping all the chambers identical and getting the whole thing smooth. So far so good though. Mostly been working on my kitchen cabinets. Sprayed most of the doors and drawers today (in the cellar) with the 2nd coat of polyurethane after sanding the first coat of sealer. So once in a while I jump back on the heads when I get bored. Someday when the snow is gone and the roads are clean I might actually bring the car home and put the hood on. That might be in June if this snow doesn't quit. It'd be nice to drive the car before the 3 yr warranty is up

 

[Blown&Injected]

Billy, what is that well known shop - just curious.

I know of a shop near the Air Park that does some hack up stuff - never seen a GN there