One thing led to another... [Archive] - Team Camaro Tech

: One thing led to another...


KWIK 69
Jun 6th, 03, 07:55 PM
I remember the look on my brother-in-law's face the day we pulled the motor out of the 69. I just got it home from buying it about a month before. He asked.."What's wrong with it" as it was hanging from the cherry picker. I said, "nothin', I just want to paint it".
As I was painting it a few days ago I noticed the roller rocker arm had poor placement which was causing premature wear on the valve stem. One looked chipped, 2 others looked slightly mushroomed.
Ok, I thought. I can easily replace those 3 valves.... and the cause of the problem which I believe to be the mismatched guide plates.
Rockers look fine, push rods still good...
Damn... 5 valves show quite a bit of unusual wear. As it turns out, almost all of the valves have to be ground to be removed. :(
As I pulled the heads to get to the valves, I find the previous owner used a bunch of gasket sealer on the Felpro self torquing head gaskets which made the silicone CLOG approximately 40% of the water jackets. (Maybe THIS is where my high speed cooling problem was coming from) :rolleyes:
Well, I better check the lifters. I can see daylight under a straight edge laying across the top. "Crap". :mad:
Pulled the cam. It's a Comp Cams Magnum 280H. (230/230 duration @ .050"), but laying a caliper on the lobes... they aren't wearing evenly. Cam bearings are worn. Timing chain is worn out and front seal has a chunk missing. graemlins/angry.gif
Pistons dont look like anything special... don't even appear to be high compression. Lets take one out and see. Hmmm. it wont come out because of the LIP on the cylinder wall, so we shave the lip and pull the piston. The crank bearings are worn too, and the friggin compression ring is broken. Pulled em all... 3 pistons with broken compression rings. http://www.handykult.de/plaudersmilies.de/yellows/freak6.gif This is probably why I'm getting so much oil blowing out my baffled valve cover and baffled valve cover cap!
Main bearings are also worn out.

Just then, things turned bad...

This old beat up Camaro with a peppy 383 Stroker sure has a lot of room around the crank. I was picturing the stroker crank to have clearance issues.... let's run the numbers on this mo-fo.
You guessed it... stock 350 cast. The only thing that got stroked was ME! http://www.handykult.de/plaudersmilies.de/madgo.gif

Ok... two hour 'mental' break.

But wait a sec. Where was all that torque coming from with this worn out motor? The heads. The old GM 68-72 (186 casting) camel-hump 2.02 heads. Looking a little closer, they are ported and polished. Looks like someone spent some money on these, they look real nice. I'm still gonna check em out, see if they need machined while the block is getting magnafluxed and checked out.

Morale of the story: I don't know... I'm too pi$$ed to make any good from it all right now. LOL
I guess it's better to find the problem while it's on the stand other than a month from now on the highway....

Sorry this is so long. I feel a little better after venting. Gahhh, I need a drink.

boodlefoof
Jun 7th, 03, 05:00 AM
At least that gives you a good excuse to rebuild that mouse motor the way you want it!

graemlins/beers.gif

RickD
Jun 7th, 03, 07:34 AM
It's a journey. As I slowly fix/repair/improve I keep coming across 'stuff' I shake my head at.

chicane67
Jun 7th, 03, 07:44 AM
Think of it as a thearpy project......

Just think, now you know where youre starting from at least and you got to solve a few problems along the way!

I think Rick summed it up nicely.......finding those things that would make you shake your head.

graemlins/beers.gif

KWIK 69
Jun 7th, 03, 09:54 AM
Yep. I just wish it was closer to being finished.

I've been shaking my head, shaking my fists... at this point, I'de like to find the guy I bought the car from and shake his head.

garfield
Jun 8th, 03, 10:43 AM
Maybe he didn't know :eek:

pdq67
Jun 10th, 03, 12:53 AM
He, He!!!

Look at it this way..

For not much more then the price of a good 383, you can have a 496 IF you do it yourself!!!

pdq67