First-Gen S10 Corner Carver

[jerome]

josh, you are the man, first post and you nailed it



Thanks, I was about to tear the engine apart haha.

Live and learn right?

[jerome]

[novanutcase]

Ya gotta be psyched!!!

John

[jerome]

Ya gotta be psyched!!!

John

I've had a perma-grin from ear to ear for the last few hours haha

I didn't let the engine break-in quite yet, ran it for 5-7 minutes at 2500 rpm and cut it after a water temp warning light sensor and a water temp sensor started leaking a bit of water. Neighbors probably wouldn't be too happy either with 30min @ 2500rpm with open headers.

You can't tell in the video, but I have a pair of old truck headers mounted upside down to break it in. Didn't want to mess up my ceramic headers.

Had no spark at first, increased the gage of the wire from battery to distributor and got spark. Next, the distributor was set tdc on exhaust instead of compression. Next, it was too retarded to run more than a couple pops. Re-stabbed the distributor (couldn't advance anymore, vacuum cylinder hit the fuel rail), and I fired right up. Whole process took a few hours, my first time building/firing an engine with nobody knowledgeable to help, but it worked out ok!

Leaving for school again tomorrow, but I'll be back at it again in a few weeks, see if I can't get it driving by the end of winter break.

Jerome

[novanutcase]

WOO-HOO!!! Rock and Roll!



John

[HectorM52]

Schweet. I can't wait to see it rolling!!

[jerome]

Fired up the engine today to actually break it in, but ran into some problems. Drivers header would have an intermittent white puff, probably from a single cylinder. Header had oil in it after the run. For reference, passenger header was dry.

Dipstick was a few inches above normal, oil was milky. Seems like I have a water leak. When I pulled the pcv valve out of the valve cover a constant stream of white steam shot out. It was enough steam that it came out a little bit through the pcv breather on the other side, meaning it was more crankcase pressure than manifold vacuum.

I'm gonna drain the oil tomorrow to see if there's water at the bottom of the pan. Before I do anything drastic, I'll redo the head bolts with thread sealer. Does anyone know where else to check?

[jerome]

doesn't look too good. pulled all the head bolts and sealed them with permatex thread sealant. changed the oil. water came out, and then oil came out. filled it up again with oil. fired it up, and no more steam from valve covers, so the head bolts sealed up, but this time i got a white frothy oil. yesterday, it was just water, and oil. This time it was a milkshake, so I think i have something very bad happening. I'm gonna pull heads and intake tomorrow.

[HectorM52]

Aiiieeeee...

I'm inclined to say it's a blown head gasket.

But I'm not your most knowledgeable engine guy so take it's for what's worth.

[novanutcase]

Aiiieeeee...

I'm inclined to say it's a blown head gasket.

But I'm not your most knowledgeable engine guy so take it's for what's worth.

I'd have to agree, sounds like a blown head gasket!

John

[Nate K]

Aiiieeeee...

I'm inclined to say it's a blown head gasket.

But I'm not your most knowledgeable engine guy so take it's for what's worth.

May also be a cracked head. Sorry to hear about your problem. Good luck! Nate

[jerome]

not a good sign...


a little piece of metal stamped into the head...left in there by some idiot (probably me)


possibly cracks in the cylinder wall?

It would be a huge coincidence if there were cracks and a foreign object unrelated to each other and both in the same cylinder. I'm fairly positive that those are cracks, do those look like cracks to you?

I'm looking at getting the block sleeved, does anyone have better options? Also, do I need to get the head worked on to remove the nick from the foreign object? I have no idea what it is, it imprinted itself on both the cylinder and the head, I'm not sure if it is something from the head or if it was indeed something I dropped in.

What's the least expensive 383 or bigger shortblock on the net?

[HectorM52]

Blocks are a dime a dozen. Get a good block from your machine shop, get them do do all the work necessary to make it tip-top then swap all the parts over.

Easy.

[bbcc]

Blocks are a dime a dozen. Get a good block from your machine shop, get them do do all the work necessary to make it tip-top then swap all the parts over.

Easy.

X2. That is the easiest and cheapest route. Before that though, take the block to your machinest, and ask them to mag the bores and the deck.

Ryer

[73supreme455]

Hey I'm having very similar engine problems. Im also weighing all my options. I been researching all the machine shops in my area lately.

[Memphis]

Bump for a cool build, anything new?

[jerome]

Memphis, nice to see someone from the pacific nw

Got the cracked cylinder re-sleeved
Decided to get all new pistons and rods

Old combo was a 5.65 stock 400 rod w/ cast aluminum TRW 350 dome pistons for about 11:1 compression

New combo will be a 6.0 scat rod w/ forged aluminum KB domes for about 10.2:1 compression

New combo will probably make more power on pump gas, because I can have more room for timing advance without detonation. Also will have block decked to get 0.040 quench height so that may find some power as well.

Currently just the bare frame w/ suspension is sitting in my garage. This is a good chance to redo the brake lines, I don't like the way I bent them last time.

I'll get more pictures of the engine when I assemble it.

Jerome

[twosaturns]

nice to see you haven't abandoned it, I've been following it since the beginning.

[HectorM52]

Cool - I forgot about this one. Keep it coming!

[novanutcase]

I really love this build. Can't wait to see more progress.

John