I got some bad news about my engine

[David Biele]

Some of you might have seen that I been fighting a oil consumpion issue and a leaky rear main seal since I bought the car.
I finally bit the big one and had my mechanic yank the engine out and disassemble and evauluate what is goin wrong. Today I found out that bearing were scarred up and the cylinder walls on 4 are no good. It looks like they might have to bore it .030 over and get new pistons.
This is not the news I was hoping for but if it fixes the oil issue it is worth it.

BTW, there is only 2400 miles on the motor..

[CobraChris]

I dislike your post - awful news.

[209]

Sorry to hear your news David. Hate to ask but who built it? 209

[terry lee]

With an alum block, it should have steel sleeves in all the cylinders. You should be able to re-sleeve it and use the same pistons, assuming you didn't mess up the piston in that cylinder. Check with the engine builder!
I scored a wall in mine several years ago, and that is what we did. Also went to a dry sump oiling system.

TL

[RICK LAKE]

David Biele Dave before your machinist goes offand gets bore crazy, we need a couple of things to look at, Pictures and depth of the scratches would be nice. You have a couple of options here,
#1 If only 1 cylinder is bad, cut it .015" over to remove the damage to the walls an get 1 custom piston with the same weight as the rest. If other cylinders are damaged, do the same. This way you will have 4 rebuilds before even looking at block replacement or a sleeve job. The motor has custom pistons to start. .015, .030, .045, .060" are the 4 bore cuts done with a good machinist.
#2 If the hole is that bad, replace the sleeve and piston only. Bore out old sleeve install new one. New piston and rings.
#3 How does the rest of the motor main and rod bearings look?? perfect, poor shape, or toast?? Alot of FE motors have oil leaks. How low was the oil level to damage the bearings??? If you are doing alot of hard or canyon running, you are going to have to think about either a drysump system or a extra safety protector. A 3 quart accusump to help maintain oil pressure on high "g" turns. I hope the motor is running a larger oil pan that the normal 5-6 quart one.
Get a COMPLETE break down before you start to repair the motor. Between all new pistons, bearings, remachining the crank, (undercutting) New bolts for rods it might be cheaper to get a new stroker kit complete from Barry R. and have it balanced. Last time I checked it is about $2,500.00 plus shipping.
It's your car and money but would like to see you get the BEST repair for the money. You also need to look into an accusump as both a preoiler for starting the motor and protector for fun driving. You should not have lost this motor in 2,500 miles even with hard driving. Also make sure you are running an HVHP oil pump and have an #80 spring added to the pump. Doug plumber sell them here. If you are running 60 psi in your car, it is not enough. Also check and see if oil restictors are in the heads? You want a set of .080" restrictors. Holley jets work great with a little grinding work to get them into the oil channels of the head bellow the rocker stud ot bolt hole. This will give ENOUGH oil to the rockers and help cool the valve springs under fun driving. IMO and testing have found that .060" are not enough to safely handle a motor driven hard . Normal driving, Yes.
Waiting for a report on which way to go?? See if you can get a couple of pictures too. The other thing is if you are not 100% happy with machinist 1 get your stuff and find another one. Cali has some of the best. It just might be a drive to get there. In the long run it may also be worth it. Rick L.

[David Biele]

I plan on meeting with the builder next week to determine a course of action.

As to who built the motor I would rather not say because I bought the car with 1000 miles on it. I do not know if the previous owner caused any problems and I think It would not be fair to point fingers. I could have sent it back to the original builder but time you pay freight both ways I think rebuilding locally is a better way.

David

[Clois Harlan]

Exactly what has been said above. Re-sleve $100 and re-use your pistons etc. New rings $under $200 and a new set of bearings $100 then new set of Ford Racing Gaskets (same as Fel-pro but cheaper). Don't let them talk you into a complete re-build.


Clois

[madmaxx]

How does one score a cylinder wall???

[blykins]

Broken ring, piece of trash in the cylinder, wrist pin retainer breaking and letting the wrist pin walk out....

[Excaliber]

We hear these kind of reports to often. OK, we do tend to "drive hard", but gimme a break, a decent motor should be able to handle it more than 2,500 miles anyway you cut it.

What the heck is the problem with these motor rebuilds? It's not exactly rocket science, it's just paying attention to details, doing the work right. It's not to much to ask.

As far as machinist's go, I "interviewed" (talk story, asked a few questions, etc.) THREE different machine shops before I picked the one I went with locally. I wanted a machinist I could TALK to and get things done MY WAY while I was more than willing to listen to his opinion on the issues as well.

[vector1]

david, the jbl i bought from you had the canton filter installed in reverse. might want to check your filter if it is similiar. either no oil or unfiltered oil is the result.

[madmaxx]

What is your deal??? You abrasive ahole. How dare you expect to get what you paid for? Why do you not understand this engine issue is the owners fault. Get a grip, LOL

Originally Posted by Excaliber

We hear these kind of reports to often. OK, we do tend to "drive hard", but gimme a break, a decent motor should be able to handle it more than 2,500 miles anyway you cut it.

What the heck is the problem with these motor rebuilds? It's not exactly rocket science, it's just paying attention to details, doing the work right. It's not to much to ask.

As far as machinist's go, I "interviewed" (talk story, asked a few questions, etc.) THREE different machine shops before I picked the one I went with locally. I wanted a machinist I could TALK to and get things done MY WAY while I was more than willing to listen to his opinion on the issues as well.

[Excaliber]

Well certainly it IS the owners fault some of the time, but we hear about motor failures a lot. Are "owner mistakes" more common than builder mistakes?

Like installing the oil filter incorrectly, not the first time we've heard about that happening! It would be interesting to know what happened to THIS motor, I hope a followup as to cause is posted at some point.

[rustyBob]

I think i would take it to someone else also.......
sounds like he's looking for a big pay day.....
I'm with Clois on this one.........

[David Biele]

The bigger picture here is that it driving weather and I will Cobraless for about a month or so.

Vector,

The plumbing for the oil lines were done by the engine builder on the JBL. He has since gone out of biz. Now I no why.

Re-sleeveing is a option we are looking at or just get JE pistions and pick up a few extra hp. (like 600 hp is not enough).

I should have bit the bullit during the winter and had it done, we were just not sure what the problem was.

David

[DAVID GAGNARD]

As to who built the motor I would rather not say because I bought the car with 1000 miles on it. I do not know if the previous owner caused any problems and I think It would not be fair to point fingers

Big question mark here????? Did the prevouis owner race the car, overheat it, run it low on oil, over rev the do-do out of it,break it in correctly??????

Abuse can easily happen along with damage in 1000 miles.....a buddy destroyed a motor in less than 500 miles cause he's an idiot and did everything you can do wrong to damage an engine from day one!!!!!!!!!

Still a bad deal for you, but not knowing much if anything about the prevouis 1000 miles leaves it open to a lot of possibilities.....

David

[David Biele]

BTW,

We thought we were just dealing with a rear main seal leak, now we know better.

David

[RodKnock]

Bummer David. I hope you get it back on the road ASAP. Things just happen sometimes.

Looking at the big picture, it's only time and money. Best of luck with the rebuild.

[rustyBob]

well at least you dont have any rods hanging out of the oil pan....that would been one heck of an oil leak........i think you got lucky and pulled it when you did........

[David Biele]

You are right Rusty,

If I had much longer things could have gotten much worse.

David

Like Rodknock says it only time and money