Build Thread Want To Blow 5 Years And $50k On A Foxbody? Step By Step Instructions Inside!

RacEoHolic330 · Nov 6, 2014

The leak down tests are in, and they're not very good. I got the engine up to temp, pulled the plugs, got the cylinder I was testing up to TDC, and then hooked up my OTC leak down tester. Pressurized each cylinder to 80 psi and got the below leak percentages.

Cyl 1 - 19%
Cyl 2 - 19%
Cyl 3 - 25%
Cyl 4 - 25%
Cyl 5 - 15%
Cyl 6 - 13%
Cyl 7 - 29%
Cyl 8 - 30%

All the numbers are pretty bad for a new engine. Maybe cylinders 5 and 6 could pass as okay, but the rest are just not good. A new engine is apparently supposed to be below 10%. All the leaking was from the crankcase. Intake and exhaust were quiet, and the coolant was stagnant. I'm actually glad the results are bad. Confirms the source of the smoke on decel. Time to get that 331 out and off to the doctor.

hoopty5.0 · Nov 6, 2014

good bad news or bad good news?

RacEoHolic330 · Nov 6, 2014

Yes. lol. Six of one, half dozen of the other.

hoopty5.0 · Nov 6, 2014

RangerJoe · Nov 7, 2014

You think it will fix with a hone and new rings, or is it going to take an overbore?

I vote big bore 347!

Joe

RacEoHolic330 · Nov 7, 2014

I hope a hone will take care of it. I'm not really interested in buying new pistons and paying for machine work.

RacEoHolic330 · Nov 7, 2014

I need to hire @84Ttop so I can have the engine out of the car in 20 minutes

84Ttop · Nov 7, 2014

RacEoHolic330 said:
I need to hire @84Ttop so I can have the engine out of the car in 20 minutes

Saw the front end off?

Kidding of course. A ball hone and a new set of rings should take care of the problem, the disassembling the entire engine to hone and wash the block correctly is the part that sucks. You attempting this yourself Scott or having your machine shop do the tear down?

RacEoHolic330 · Nov 7, 2014

I'm probably going to wind up just delivering the shortblock to Gil Davis and having the shop take care of everything. Shortblock engine work is one thing I believe is best left to those that work on engines for a living. If I drop that crank or mess something up, I'll be so pissed at myself.

RacEoHolic330 · Nov 8, 2014

All ready to come out. I need to haul my engine hoist up from the basement, so that can wait until tomorrow.

While the engine is out, I'm going to use that opportunity to wrap the rest of the hotside. I'm also going to eliminate some of the polished parts in the engine bay. I have grown very fond of wrinkle black engine parts, so I may spray those polished parts with that paint. We shall see.

Noobz347 · Nov 8, 2014

You putting the fender skirts in while the motor is away?

RacEoHolic330 · Nov 8, 2014

The wheel well liners? Those have been in for a few weeks now actually.

RacEoHolic330 · Nov 9, 2014

And she's out.

One thing I was curious about what how well the headers were sealed to the heads. The Earl's graphite gaskets I have are awesome. Not a single leak at the heads. I definitely recommend these things.

Got the heads off soon after.

I cleaned up one of the cylinders to inspect the walls. No crosshatch to be seen anywhere. I'm no engine expert, but it's my understanding that the crosshatch should be visible throughout the usable life of the engine. There is also light vertical scoring in the bores.

hoopty5.0 · Nov 10, 2014

Ouch man. Definitely on the crosshatch. For the sake of comparison, I picked up a 150k-ish miles 351 this weekend from @Boosted92LX and the cross hatch is still visible on the walls.

84Ttop · Nov 10, 2014

No visible cross hatch is definitely lending itself to your wash down and ring seal issues. Gil and Eric (at Davis race engines) are two of the best guys in the business as far as I'm concerned and you will be in very good hands there!
I really like those header gaskets too by the way. You have a part number for them? I would like to use something like that on my brothers 363 that Gil just finished up a few months ago

RacEoHolic330 · Nov 10, 2014

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/ear-29d03aerl

Once you have the aluminum frames, the insert replacements are around $18 for a set of 8.

RacEoHolic330 · Nov 10, 2014

hoopty5.0 said:
Ouch man. Definitely on the crosshatch. For the sake of comparison, I picked up a 150k-ish miles 351 this weekend from @Boosted92LX and the cross hatch is still visible on the walls.

I know when I yanked out my 110k stock block, there were still crosshatch marks on the walls also. The vertical scoring is also concerning to me. Definitely tells me that oil isn't staying on the cylinder walls. Also, my oil pan plugs have magnets on the ends. When I drained the oil, there was a decent amount of metal "paste" stuck to them. I'm sure it came from the cylinder walls. I have a filter magnet on my oil filter, so I'm going to cut it open and see what that looks like.

RacEoHolic330 · Nov 10, 2014

So that's where my cylinder walls are hiding. That's even after I wiped the inside out with a rag to see it better.

Closer pictures of the walls.

84Ttop · Nov 11, 2014

Damn.... Filter magnet proved to be a useful idea! I'm curious to see if anything went through the bearings

02 281 GT · Nov 11, 2014

There's a video on youtube that shows a partial teardown of an 800,000 mile 7.3 Powerstroke that still had very visible cross-hatching.

I hope this gets fixed for you without too much pain. Not that my opinion is anything to be desired, but I think this is one of the most impressive builds I've ever had the pleasure of following.

Build Thread Want To Blow 5 Years And $50k On A Foxbody? Step By Step Instructions Inside!

I like to dress like a pretty girl

mechanicus terribilis

I like to dress like a pretty girl

mechanicus terribilis

I leave the horn on while driving

I like to dress like a pretty girl

I like to dress like a pretty girl

They make new pistons every day, so why worry?

I like to dress like a pretty girl

I like to dress like a pretty girl

Stangnet Facilities Maint Tech... Er... Janitor

I like to dress like a pretty girl

I like to dress like a pretty girl

mechanicus terribilis

They make new pistons every day, so why worry?

I like to dress like a pretty girl

I like to dress like a pretty girl

I like to dress like a pretty girl

They make new pistons every day, so why worry?

Agreed...My wife has great Boobs

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