Don't ever agree to do this.....VENTING
 

About 3 months ago I agreed to rebuild an engine in a '93 F-250. Of course, 7.3L IDI with an automatic. No problem. In and out piece of cake right? .........:evillol: with dollar signs in my eyes.

Not so fast.....

I just got it running tonight; about 3 hours ago to be exact. As it turns out, I broke even. I spent COUNTLESS hours on it and I'm not getting any money for my labor. The original engine dropped an intake valve and needed a complete overhaul (cracked pistons and pre-chamber cups) along with new hardware in the heads.

I ended up getting a remanufactured 7.3L after the original sat at the machine shop for 2 months.

Why is it that someone who has done COUNTLESS engine replacements and rebuilds all of a sudden loses his shirt on a "simple" job.

Enter: Gale Banks Engineering Sidewinder Turbocharger :cursin:

Don't EVER agree to replace an engine in one of these that has been equipped with a Banks turbocharger. It added about 8 hours worth of work by FIGHTING EVERYTHING I had to do to go in and out with this engine.

UGH. Now I have to add some transmission fluid but have to wait until tomorrow when I can borrow a funnel from work that's long enough to reach the dipstick tube (again, turbocharger interference :cursin:) and reinstall the hood.

All of this grief from something that adds a minimal amount of performance. :doh:

I just hope the guy doesn't flip when I give him his invoice for $5000 (which I initially told him it would cost) PLUS the $450 in labor. :eek:

I learned my lesson....no more big jobs at home. It's so flippin' hard to get the motivation to work on that garbage when I've been doing it all day at work.

Oh man!! Been there, Done that!!! I feel for you. I have sold myself on the same thing... no more engine rebuilds or tranny pulls at home... not to mention one engine I did over a period of about a year on and off... when i finally got it done It went kaput after 5 mins. I had forgot to tighten the connecting rod bolts...:doh: had to swap everything to the engine I pulled out to replace with this one.... at least I had 2 blocks :cursin:

How's this for awesome......

I went for a test drive tonight. Runs great but smokes a little; I assume it to be turbo seals but I am washing my hands of this job once it's gone.

Next AWESOME.

I have an oil leak. I think it's an oil pan seal leak and it's BAD. How? I don't know. I Right Stuff-ed the hell out of it and how it's leaking I don't know. I have to pull the balancer back off to see exactly where it's coming from but I am NOT HAPPY. I wasn't before but now I am infuriated. If it's the pan seal, the engine......




...comes back out......


...and I get REAL mad.

You want a good one?

1988 Olds Delta, FWD 3.8L. For a friend, I offered to swap the blown engine for a salvage yard engine. The salvage yard we used has always provided dozens of reliable engines for us in the past so I didn't really have any concerns. Well, silly me...

Engine shows up and it's not a 3.8L but a 3800 engine (yes, there's a difference). Called back and they don't have any 3.8L engines so I'm stuck with the one I've got at this point. Of course, I'm thinking "this isn't so bad" so I drop the engine in, bolt everything up, and it's all good up to this point.

Well, when trying to get the wiring in, I realize that the harness is completely different. The ignition module is all wrong, the cam and crank sensors are different, the injector harness is different, and about half a dozen other things.

I call up the junkyard and they tell me they'll sell me the correct powertrain harness from the car the engine came out of. It should drop right in, no problem. Gave me a helluva deal on it too. Nice guys. I get the harness, plug the engine all up, and the main end doesn't match the bulkhead connector. Son of a %!^@#!!!

I'm quite thrilled at this point because I've got 15 hours tied up in an 8 hour job. I call the junkyard again and they sell me the rest of the harness along with the correct PCM for this engine for a song because the really feel bad for the spot I'm in. I tow the car home from the shop because I don't want to drive all the way to work to finish this up and I know I'm headed for a LONG weekend.

So I start into it. The wiring harness is 1 PIECE with no connection plugs ANYWHERE! After removing all the seats, the carpet, the dash, the steering column, the door panels, and just about every other freakin' thing in the car, I begin the arduous task of replacing the ENTIRE wiring harness. It took me 6 days to replace the harness from headlight to tail light and get all the interior back in, with only minor splicing to address a couple small changes in the body styles between the donor and the victim. Thank God for miracles because the instrument cluster matched the harness, along with all the switches, motors and whatever else was in the car. Even the fusebox wasn't a problem.

I'm ready to go. I hit the key, the engine spins... and that's it. No fire. After screwing around for another 2 hours, the ignition module is bad and it's about $160.00 to replace it. Pop that on, along with a coil pack that turned out to be bad, and we're up and running. FINALLY!

Because the customer ended up having to pay for the harnesses, module, and coil, not to mention a rental car for 2 weeks, I ended up with nothing on that job but a firm dislike for GM. Of course it was my fault. I never should have accepted the engine if it wasn't an exact match and should have looked into a reman at that point. But what can you do at that point. :shrug:

I feel your pain Cody... REALLY!

Live and learn I guess. That sounds like a couple deals I've been involved with. A friend of mine put a supercharged 3800 in an '87 Fiero. After all of the wire splicing and harness routing, it just fell on it's face...no power whatsoever. Turns out that it was an ignition module and one coil pack on that car too. You can always count on GM for pattern failures.

I got the balancer off and looked...yeah, it's the pan seal but it's nothing that an R&R of the front cover won't fix for good. The sealant was a little thin in the corner I guess.

I have an idea that I'm going to try first. I can blow through the sealant with the propellant left in a can of brake cleaner so I'm going to hope for a miracle by cleaning out the hole with brake cleaner and compressed air. Then I'll put some Right Stuff in a syringe with a needle (thank goodness for livestock needles) and inject the sealant right into the open wound. Then I plan on slathering the stuff all over the suture and keeping a space heater running to keep it warm. It's supposed to be in the single digits for the next week.

If it works, great. If not, I'll have to get a front cover and water pump gasket.

I feel ya
 

Have a Mustang in the shop that had an "engine noise." Long story short, the crank and all the bearings are wiped out. No big deal, right? The engine is a stroker motor built for boost with a vortech supercharger and crap all over the place. Pop the motor out, tear it down, and then tried to find the right crank since the rods and pistons were still good. I spent a full 8 hours checking part numbers and calling for parts. Got scammed on the first crank I ordered. The second one took Summit over a month and a half to get.

The car has been here for roughly four months. We are putting the engine in now and finally got everything but the bastard long tube headers in. Hope to fire it this week.

Should have been a fun project. Looking to be in the 500's at the wheels for power after I get done tuning it. I probably have 30+ hours that I probably will never be able to bill for.

But here's the real kicker: The owner was up here on vacation when it starting making the noise. When the car is done, he is flying up from Florida to drive it back home. No pressure. :yikes2:

windowed
 

oh just for:horsepoop: and :giggle: here is a couple pics of that engine I mentioned above
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j6.../pissedon1.jpg

this is it all pretty before I windowed it..... cant find the after pic right now
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j6...042206_008.jpg

Well, I'm a little happier now..injecting the sealant into the pan/block seam seems to be holding. No leaks after 3 miles and before it took about half a mile to leak about what I figure to be about a cup.

There might be some engine noise but I have yet to really try to hear it because I don't want to hear it. If it takes a dump, I'll call the engine reman. place and make them do it.....it might have a total running time of 30 minutes.

Time will tell. I might run it into town tomorrow night for the guy.

$5474 total parts and labor into an $1100 truck.

That's a pretty sexy pushrod design, soutthpaw! I imagine you got a bunch of power with it! :thumbs up yellow: (How the hell did it not just break?)

- Jack

its an 84 toyota 3AC engine at like 62HP but I ported and polished the heads intake and exhaust... I don't think it can develop enough HP to break a rod. Made a nice window in the block though......

The 3AC was not nearly as sexy as the old 2TC and 3TC engines in the late '70s Corollas. THOSE were screamers with a set of Weber side drafts.

http://www.alamomotorsports.com/weber/2xDCOE.jpg
Talk about fun!

My other favorite Jap "box" car, Mazda RX4 with a 13B and a Weber 48 IDA carb. With extend port work, those things were AWESOME! Add a little nitrous and you had a car that would eat a big block for lunch. Heck, who needs Apex Seals anyway? :lol:

Of course, no list would be complete without the Opel Manta. Fun, fun, fun no matter how you slice it. :D

Well, the truck's been gone since Monday morning and I have yet to hear back about it.........:cool: Yet.


It's something I don't want to work on again. :whistle1: I guess unless it's ball joints or something not related to the transmission or engine.

You've convinced me! The next time someone approaches me to rebuild their engine, I'm going the look them right in the eye and say, "HE11 NO!" :giggle:

Those kinds of projects stink. I'm so sorry you had to get into that mess. :sadface:

Finally finished up my customer's Mustang project too. I guess the dyno/tuning at the end of the project has made up for all the grief. We didn't put the smaller pulley on for reliability reasons till it is safely back in Florida. At 8 psi it is laying down 455 hp at the wheels. Test drives working out some part throttle issues have been fun.

Well your are getting close to the car I used to drive in scca. It was a rx3 with 2 13b's bolted together and with a holly 600 dp each. We had to add lead weights in the back to keep the rear from sliding all over. Our mazda's weakest links were the water pump and the altenator. Back in the early 90's no one really designed and made high rpm compenents for this set up. During a race we consistantly were in the 9K-11k rpm area. Those rotary's sure could take it.
LOL's
Lars :2thumbs:

Three months it's been gone and I haven't heard back from the guy :skeptic: so I guess he either hasn't driven it at all since he picked it up or he sold it.

Or it's been working perfect, though its nice to hear that from a customer since usually all you hear is when it's not.

Lars,

How difficult is it to clock the crankshaft so you have a true 12 cylinder? One of things I always wondered about.

The owner of the race team came up with an indexable adapter plate that connected the 2 motors. His original concept was to try the 12 cylinder idea. He tried first at a 30* offset from tdc of one motor to the other. This created a harmonic vibration.(To this day I still think it had something to do with the exhaust set up) The best solution he found was tdc to tdc of each motor, so it became a beefy 6. Some of the other trial and error thing discovered were each motor needed its own exhaust system manifolds and piping. Tru duals was to be the optimum for each motor but due to clearance issues 2 into 1 systems were utilized for each. So it looked like dual exhaust but was actually a seperate outlet pipe for each motor. He even prototyped a intake manifold for a holly 800 that connected both motors but the outer most runners were lean an the inners were rich. If he could have put an EFI system on this application it would have been the cats meow for the car.
He was the type of guy that would tear everything down and start in a new direction any time he encountered a problem.
Wouldn't keep any of the old concepts they would just become scrap.

Sometimes that sort of silence is the best!
I know from experience, some people can be the pickiest, finding fault with imaginary problems, and others could have a serious complication and be the most understanding and patient person you could think ever existed.
Hopefully everything is just working fine, and the guy understands that rebuilds are not always just like a brand new factory engine and appreciates/understands that fact.