Time to go big

E

esinger

Stroker Hot Air
Joined
May 28, 2004
Before NSCA Nationals I took the car out was doing to some back road tuning. Everything was going peachy until one WOT blast and noticed oil smelling smoke coming into the cabin. Since I happened doing this road tuning in Richard Clark’s neck of the woods, I drove the car to his shop and things didn’t look to good. Valve cover breather was puffing smoke, took the oil dipstick out and it was puffing smoke. Oil looked good, but there was obviously a good amount of blowby happening. Did a quick compression test on the driver’s side and cylinders 1 & 3 showed 50, but 5 showed around 120. So thoughts were the head gasket went.

Decided to leave the carnage behind, go to the GSCA Nationals and have some fun and let the car sit and wait until I came back.

Sunday evening after the BG trip, started taking things off the motor, Monday we pulled the motor and transmission, Tuesday took the heads off and examined the gaskets. I was using felpro 1000 gaskets and at first glance they didn’t look blown, but there was a lot of scorching beyond the fire ring on cylinder 1 and a little around cylinder 3. Since the motor was out of the car and we weren’t convinced just replacing head gaskets was going to solve the problem, we decided to strip the remaining parts off the block. This isn’t the first time this block has been rebuilt (was rebuilt before I bought the car) , but the first time I have seem what’s inside the block.

So what’s inside???? Pistons1 & 3 were cracked on the lands. Pat (SloGN) was able to pull a nice 1” long clunk on #1 piston’s land, #3 was just cracked. Rod bearings on those two pistons were also showing wear. Cranks was in good shape, but was walking. The cam was in great shape, however it was a naturally aspirated V6 cam and not the original cam or a proper replacement. But let’s not stop at the engine, let’s move on to the transmission. Eagle eye Pat was checking out my transmission and it’s not the original transmission for the car. We believe it’s a Monte Carlo 2004r transmission, but we’ll find out more soon when we tear into it next.

So for the last few days I haven’t been all that happy. Yesterday we filed away my car amongst in one of Richard’s warehouses where he keeps a whole lot of other Turbo Regals. I have a small spot in his shop where my block, transmission and various other parts are being kept.

Thanks to my friends Pat (SloGN) and Vernon (Turbo1dr), I have a GT6152e turbo and a naturally aspirated 109 block is on its way. We’re going to clean up the block, bore it, girdle it and start my new stoker hot air engine and supporting transmission. With luck I’ll have it all finished for the spring 2011 season. Richard Clark told me to plan on living at his shop because it’s going to take a awhile to do this up right.

Hopefully some vendors will be running some hot deals during the holiday season so I can start my new collection of go fast parts. Going to buy a stroker kit, roller cam kit, roller rocker, new heads, FAST XFI, bearings, gaskets and misc supporting stuff.

Don’t really care if the car will break into the 10s, but I want a really strong 11 second car.
 
Going big

Well Eric if it is a Monte Carlo SS trans that's really not that big of a deal. Actually that valve body is on the prefered list, that is if it is a CZF or CRF. As far as the head gaskets go I have had blown hyper pistons myself using Felpro 1000's and the gaskets stay intact. As far as the heads go I thought you already had a set of ported heads on there.
 
boostmaster said:
Well Eric if it is a Monte Carlo SS trans that's really not that big of a deal. Actually that valve body is on the prefered list, that is if it is a CZF or CRF. As far as the head gaskets go I have had blown hyper pistons myself using Felpro 1000's and the gaskets stay intact. As far as the heads go I thought you already had a set of ported heads on there.
Click to expand...

Interesting, Pat noted the transmission so I'll check with him and see what the code was. I do have ported heads and actually the heads are on the back of the list of things I'm going to get. Just have to see what the $$ look like and how my heads stack up against others.

I'll definitely be bleeding some money, but since the labor cost is going to be close to zero and that helps a whole lot.

I'll still blown away by the N/A cam that was installed and that I was able to do so well with it.
 
How do you know it was a naturally aspirated cam? Where there any part numbers on it. And as far as the heads go a good set of ported heads is really all that's needed to make power. So if you think you need some different heads I might buy your old ones.
 
You do realize if it's an original 85 transmission it will not be a bfr valve body, they didn't start doing that till later. So it may be the original trans. after all. I don't remember the code off hand but I ran mine for a number of years in fact it's the one in the car now. Best of luck on the new stroker set up, hope all goes well and Santa smiles on you for turbo parts.
 
turbo6x2 said:
You do realize if it's an original 85 transmission it will not be a bfr valve body, they didn't start doing that till later. So it may be the original trans. after all. I don't remember the code off hand but I ran mine for a number of years in fact it's the one in the car now. Best of luck on the new stroker set up, hope all goes well and Santa smiles on you for turbo parts.
Click to expand...

Actually the stock code is BQ and contrary to what most people may think you'd be hard pressed to find any differences between a BQ and BR. Ask any reputable tranny builder on this board.
 
Pete, they measured the cam after we pulled it out, so that's how they were able to determine it. The thought is the shop that rebuilt the motor before I owned the car just put a plain Jane V6 cam in it and didn't think there was a difference.

I spoke to Pat and it was a K?F 2004R transmission. He can't remember if it was a KZF or KCF, but Richard later looked it up and it's an Oldsmobile transmission that came with a 5 liter V8. Pat told me not to worry much about what's on the label, that the internals will tell the true story. Just the transmission casing could have been replaced and not the whole transmission. The car was wrecked by the first owner and who knows, maybe the transmssion case was cracked and they transferred the internals over.
 
Good luck eric,you're in the rigbht place and have the best people to help ya....see you in the spring.
 
Dude you just don't know but you have a good one, either way if it's KZF or KCF it's from an Olds 442 and has one of the best valve bodies out there even better than the BQ,BRF and CZ. I always say if it aint broke don't fix it. Don't get caught up on the BRF vs everything else hype. The Gn wasn't the only model with a performace valve body.
 
garyk1970 said:
Good luck eric,you're in the rigbht place and have the best people to help ya....see you in the spring.
Click to expand...

Thanks Gary, It was great seeing you again in BG. All you IC guys are starting to step up your game and I'm getting really concerned.
 
I'd have to agree it's more about the transmission builder then the case.

Glad to see you're getting somewhere on your project Eric.
 
turbo6x2 said:
I'd have to agree it's more about the transmission builder then the case.

Glad to see you're getting somewhere on your project Eric.
Click to expand...

Richard Clark's one heck of a transmission builder, so I'm not concerned about that. He's built quite a few board members transmissions, it's just not a transmission you buy. You have to bring your transmission to his shop and he works with you on building it.

dr_frankenstein said:
Viagra eh?

best way to go big.

A.j.:wink:
Click to expand...

Ouch! Well I'd best give up, don't you need a good base to start from:frown:
 
When are you going to ditch the hotair and go intercooler..? HAHA! Sorry to hear about your car. I should be up at Richards in a couple of weeks to build a BRF. Good luck with the build and get a daily driver, that is good on gas, cause you will be living at Mr. Clarks for the next couple months.
 
NC87GN said:
When are you going to ditch the hotair and go intercooler..? HAHA! Sorry to hear about your car. I should be up at Richards in a couple of weeks to build a BRF. Good luck with the build and get a daily driver, that is good on gas, cause you will be living at Mr. Clarks for the next couple months.
Click to expand...

Hi Mike,

Richard was asking me to contact you about a "Transmission Class", so good to hear we'll be working side by side. The G8 doesn't get all that bad of gas mileage, but if necessary I'll switchover to the Scirocco, it hasn't seem much love and attention in a while and gets great gas mileage.

I got a bit depressed over killing my motor, but I'm actually looking forward to the build. I've never built a motor and it'll be a great learning experience.

BTW, while I was at Richard's with Pat and Jim, Richard stone faced told me I should have it done by Thanksgiving. Pat and Jim about died laughing. Jim's motor took one year and Pat's took 6 months, so the track record doesn't look promising for a 3 week build.
 
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