Progress Thread Hci Swap, Finally Here After 1.5 Years!

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Not much progress today, but I did get the pan off an old oil pump. For whatever reason my new oil pump didn't come with both gaskets, so I have to source one before the bottom end goes on. Couple more pics from the tear down.

Joe
 

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I ran into my first set of problems today. First, my timing chain has tons of slack in it. It has really stretched out. I have a frpp billet waiting to replace it, so no biggie.

The real issue is I have a marred up place on the crank snout. It is where the balancer sits. I'm not sure what caused this, but I smoothed it out with some Emory clothe. I think it was probably from the installation or removal of the balancer at some time.

Also, cam is out and I noticed that the front cam bearing (can't see others enough to tell) has visible wear on the lower portion of the bearing. Not enough to scrap it, but it is noticeable. Is this normal, or is this a product of a loose chain or bad balancer?

Joe
 

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Well, I have bearing issues. I posted on here a while back concerning my main studs. I did not know at the time that main studs required an align hone. I have been running it this way for almost four years and 10,000 miles. However, the main bearings show that they have been wearing out of round, with some excessive wear. I think this caused the cam bearings to starve for some oil. Looks like it's going to get an align hone and new bearings while it's out. Cylinders look good though.

Live and learn. Luckily I have a spare set of main and rod bearings. I need to price out the hone and cam bearings.

Joe
 
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Called my machine shop today. Mains will be a few hundred bucks. He wants to go through it first though before jumping to any conclusions. This build just hit a wall.

Joe
 
I got the block completely tore down, and to be honest with you, I think I may be over reacting a little. Once everything came apart and I could see the cam bearings better and actually wipe down all the main bearings, I felt a little better about the wear. I am still not sure what a 10k mile engine should look like. Here are pics of all five mains, what do yall think?

Joe
 

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I'm kind of with hoopty but I don't see any weird wear patterns in your pics. :shrug:They look ok to me. When I overhauled mine the bearings were in worse shape than those. It still had descent pressure beforehand...I wouldn't worry about yours but I agree with having the machinist/builder take a look at everything while you have it apart.
 
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I got the block completely tore down, and to be honest with you, I think I may be over reacting a little. Once everything came apart and I could see the cam bearings better and actually wipe down all the main bearings, I felt a little better about the wear. I am still not sure what a 10k mile engine should look like. Here are pics of all five mains, what do yall think?

Joe

I know it's easy to overreact when something unexpected happens. You guys all have seen me panicking about stupidity over my build. I know you worked hard to get the car to what it was before the tear down. Just wait to see what machinist says, hopefully it will be good news:shrug:

Edit: why won't it let me delete the shrugging guy?
 
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I know it's easy to overreact when something unexpected happens. You guys all have seen me panicking about stupidity over my build. I know you worked hard to get the car to what it was before the tear down. Just wait to see what machinist says, hopefully it will be good news:shrug:

Edit: why won't it let me delete the shrugging guy?
I'm go into panic mode too. Nothing ever goes wrong at an ideal time.
 
Upon my motor breakdown and inspection mine looked just like yours bearings and all. My motor had about 3rd if it makes you feel any better. I still replaced the bearingsame with new ones though
 
Upon my motor breakdown and inspection mine looked just like yours bearings and all. My motor had about 3rd if it makes you feel any better. I still replaced the bearingsame with new ones though

Sent pics to father n law and machinist today. They both think the main bearings "look" okay, but machinist did not like the cam bearing. He said he has seen some bad ones come thru of a particular name brand, but he can't remember what he put it mine. He wants to replace them and check the mains just to be sure. He will get it monday morning.

Joe
 
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At machine shop now. He says mains are good to go, no worries. He does not like the cam bearibgs, mainly due to past issues he has had. He is washing everything, polishing crank, and installing new cam bearings. I am going to go ahead and put my other set of main bearings in since it's all apart, he said it was up to me.

Joe
 
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I have to give a big thanks to John Puckett, owner of The Machine Shop in Carrollton, Georgia. He dropped everything he was doing to turn all my parts around for me. It's all home, I will hit it hard in the AM.

Joe
 
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