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FNBADAZ06 under the knife for diagnostic, repair, and mods


FNBADAZ06

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Any signs by looking at the head gasket? Also look very closely at the bores for a crack. Seen something just like this on a friends ls2 that cracked a cylinder. Very small hairline crack.

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Any signs by looking at the head gasket? Also look very closely at the bores for a crack. Seen something just like this on a friends ls2 that cracked a cylinder. Very small hairline crack.

I'll be looking closely at the heads and head gaskets.....got Two Fangs coming over for eyeballs as well. I'm told identifying minor head gasket issues is a bitch on LS head gaskets.....let's see what we can find. I'll pressure test the heads, and have the guides checked just for CF members to argue about LOL. Then, I may have to order a crack detection kit if nothing shows up........or.....just bite the bullet and order a short block.

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AJs car made good power with that 440. :)

 

I've seen someone pop the heads off, thought it was a gasket, put it back together, just to find a cracked #7 liner. So just wanted to make sure you take a close look to make sure you don't do all this for nothing.

 

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Just one quick thought. Check the head (and block) for flatness. The first thing that came to mind in those pics was that the head wasn't torqued properly or milled correctly. Do you see any carbon lines on #1 and #7 on the gasket, head, or block?

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During your last oil change, did you accidentally fill it with gravy?

gravy is delicious, that does not look delicious

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Well, I didn't wrench on the car at all last night, but since I will be in the garage a lot over the next few months I finally found motivation to install the 50' LCD TV on an articulating mount (with a ROKU) above my work bench. LOL

I can't miss football season :thumbs

 

Two Fangs will be over today so we can review the head gasket and block deck.

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Winner, winner, chicken dinner .....at least that's how I'm going to approach it.

I found the source of my lifter noise, and I feel very confident that Two Fangs identified the reason and source of the coolant path into the oil. I'll post more about what we found, the cause, and the available paths I can take to put FNBADAZ06 back on the road.

 

The one realization we came to today is that the engine needs to come out.

Som'bitch :(

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:lurk :toetap

LOL....you know where I live, if you want to drive by and see what we found :)

 

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We found two different issues that are unrelated........one and easy fix, the other way more complicated.

 

First problem that started this ball rolling, and lifter tick that I suspected was a sticking or broken lifter that I had CPR investigate during my visit to have the starter put in.

Conclusion ? Broken lifter ...... exhaust valve, cylinder 8 

 

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These were brand new OEM lifters that were installed when the cam and heads were done 4K miles ago.

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Problem number two.

When CPR pulled a valve cover to identify the lifter tick, we came upon a gruesome site you see in the beginning of this thread......a sludge mix of oil and engine coolant. Nothing ever looked bad during routine engine oil changes (2 since the build), and nominal oil pressure of 55-60 psi cold, 45 psi hot at idle, never suggested anything was a miss. Even after sitting for 2-3 weeks without being started, the engine fired right up with no smoke (either white or blue) from the exhaust, and the exhaust tips were clean. The only thing that got my attention was the loss of some engine coolant from the overflow tank over the course of the last year or so. Not enough to cause an overheat, just noting that the tank was low during normal maintenance, where I added coolant twice over the year to bring the level to the full mark when cold. I never saw any coolant leaks, so I guessed that there may have been an air bubble in the system that needed to be burped. 

I was wrong.

Suspecting a bad head gasket, I went about pulling the heads to take a look see.

Passenger side, even cylinders 2,4,6,8...8 being closest to firewall..... note the lack of significant sludge buildup in the lifter tray at cylinder 8, where the sludge exist in large quantities elsewhere....

 

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Lifter tray for cylinders 8 and 6 removed. Note the washed area on block where sludge is non existent.....

 

 

 

 

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While it's difficult to capture in a picture, there are significant defects on the deck surface around that area that looks to be sanding marks....maybe from using an abrasive material to clean stubborn head gasket residue when the heads were done......don't know.

 

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Drivers side, odd cylinders, cylinder 7 nearest firewall.

Same thing, but not quite as bad, on cylinder 7.

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That is not good for sure. Who did your heads and when does the motor come out? Ugh!

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So..........I'm at a crossroads of a sort, but either path leads to an engine removal.

 

Option one is to remove the engine and pull the main bearing caps to look at the bearing surfaces to see if they are OK. If the mains and rod journals look OK, I could have the block hot tanked, decked, honed, and reuse it in a complete rebuild with the LS7 crank, titanium rods (rebushed), and new forged replacement pistons. The heads would need to be checked for a flat deck surface as well. Basically, a rebuild of the original LS7.

 

Option two would be to purchase a complete short block from ERL, LME, et al, and have a new fully forged stroker motor (up to 454)....which is significantly more expensive but would also be significantly stronger and could be built to produce more power.

 

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Of course you might ask Gary Hillen if he still has the short block he was trying to sell a couple months ago. Or slip in a LS3 and a blower, then sell off all the remaining good parts.

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Of course you might ask Gary Hillen if he still has the short block he was trying to sell a couple months ago. Or slip in a LS3 and a blower, then sell off all the remaining good parts.

I'd much rather have a big bore long stroke for street purposes....Gary's has that 377 de-stroked LS7 if I remember correctly.

And, I'd much rather have the big N/A motor too.......I brushed off any thoughts of F/I a few years ago :)

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Oy.......pneumatic wire wheel on aluminum, I'd bet on it. Fuq man.......[shakes head sadly]

 

Hard saying, but there was definetly something abrasive involved around those cylinders. There are no abrashions anywhere else on the block deck surfaces near the other cylinders.

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