When I bought the GN last year, the previous owner stated that the engine had been rebuilt back to stock specs, told me his father had it rebuilt about 5 years ago. Had some oil leaks I could easily address, but overall, clean oil on the dipstick and it seemed to run pretty smooth. Found the stock BRF trans was smoked, so this year I spent most of my savings on a builders kit from Dave Husek, and just finished up assembling the trans last weekend. I figured that pulling the engine would be a good idea to completely replace all the gaskets and perform some little things like pocket work on the heads, and Earl's oil pump and housing modification. Well, today I started to tear down the engine and it looked like a stock rebuild once I pulled the valve covers off, then pulled the intake to find some surface rust on the pushrods, and they were installed upside down, the burnished area usually found from some friction in the head was now pointed toward the lifters. Let's back up a bit, after I found the toasted trans, I had a bad feeling that the engine may not have a quality rebuild, and told myself that if I find anything wrong, it would be bad enough to warrant another complete rebuild. Well, that hunch became a reality.
found a bunch of garbage and sludge in the bottom of the pan, which I threw on the ground when I saw all this crap. Then....
Saw all this F'in welding and grinding. Apparently the "builder" tried to balance the assembly at 50%. There's even globs of weld on the freakin flywheel to add weight to the heavy side.
More filling with weld, and they even ground the pad on the rod caps down. Three different type of rod bolts too, and they did some grinding on those too.
more welding and grinding on the front bob
Notice the different rod bolts, and the grinding wheel marks. Also notice this rod hasn't been "modified." This tells me that the engine was rebuilt twice, first time all the hacking and welding, and the second time was to replace a rod, which was probably due to a spun bearing chewing up the old rod.
notice the helicoil in the cover, Ive found cross-threaded bolts, missing, wrong placement, you name it, this engine is thoroughly Fscked. I also noticed there is a double roller timing chain, didn't take the cover off but im willing to bet that some of the trash in the pan is part of the chain tensioner.
So now Im down to less than $1K, with a boat anchor and a 2500 dollar transmission. I could piece together a replacement, but they way I see it, a basic rebuild is going to cost at least 2500. Theres other stuff that's messed up too, this is the biggest part, though. My hopes of buying my first born son a Jr. Dragster next year are most likely not going to happen. I could buy a used crank, and rods, and pistons(30 over), but I don't want to throw it in the block and plastigage it. I don't want to re torque a set of rod bolts or mains not knowing how many times they have been torqued, and not know how much stretch has been placed on the bolt. If I buy knew, chances are everything will need a resize or line bore. So, the way I see it, is find someone fairly local that has an LC2 short block in good shape, and buy it. Or LZ9 swap, which I told myself last weekend if this engine was crap, it's getting bagged and a swap will take its place.
found a bunch of garbage and sludge in the bottom of the pan, which I threw on the ground when I saw all this crap. Then....
Saw all this F'in welding and grinding. Apparently the "builder" tried to balance the assembly at 50%. There's even globs of weld on the freakin flywheel to add weight to the heavy side.
More filling with weld, and they even ground the pad on the rod caps down. Three different type of rod bolts too, and they did some grinding on those too.
more welding and grinding on the front bob
Notice the different rod bolts, and the grinding wheel marks. Also notice this rod hasn't been "modified." This tells me that the engine was rebuilt twice, first time all the hacking and welding, and the second time was to replace a rod, which was probably due to a spun bearing chewing up the old rod.
notice the helicoil in the cover, Ive found cross-threaded bolts, missing, wrong placement, you name it, this engine is thoroughly Fscked. I also noticed there is a double roller timing chain, didn't take the cover off but im willing to bet that some of the trash in the pan is part of the chain tensioner.
So now Im down to less than $1K, with a boat anchor and a 2500 dollar transmission. I could piece together a replacement, but they way I see it, a basic rebuild is going to cost at least 2500. Theres other stuff that's messed up too, this is the biggest part, though. My hopes of buying my first born son a Jr. Dragster next year are most likely not going to happen. I could buy a used crank, and rods, and pistons(30 over), but I don't want to throw it in the block and plastigage it. I don't want to re torque a set of rod bolts or mains not knowing how many times they have been torqued, and not know how much stretch has been placed on the bolt. If I buy knew, chances are everything will need a resize or line bore. So, the way I see it, is find someone fairly local that has an LC2 short block in good shape, and buy it. Or LZ9 swap, which I told myself last weekend if this engine was crap, it's getting bagged and a swap will take its place.
