Bloodhound's Christine

[Blood_Hound1958]

So far so good if I dare say so. The freeze plug in question blew out twice under minimal pressure at the machine shop. Turns out the hole is 10 thousandths oversize. As for the coolant in the crankcase that's still a mystery. Neither head gasket was blown and the after pressure testing and magnafluxing the heads and block again we found no leaks or cracks. Turns out the break in oil is green and I wasn't aware of that. In all the excitement I may have overreacted and assumed the green color was coolant. Still doesn't explain the high level on the oil dipstick. Could it have been overfilled? Possible I suppose. A new gasket set is on order and we're preparing to reassemble and test again. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will be ok. From there the motor is being taken into another shop for Dyno-testing. I don;t want to have to do this again so that should reveal any issues and allow for fine tuning prior to it being reinstalled. I'm looking forward to putting this debocle behind me asap.

[billy whizz]

Sure it isn't a badly machined cylinder head face or block mating face? I have seen heads being so badly refaced that they needed two gaskets to make up the deficiency - the mark of a crap engine shop. It's an old trick the military used for vehicles that blew head gaskets in action and ended up with warped faces that the coudn't re-machine.

Not suggesting you do this with yours, but a freshly renovated engine that has no cracks? Next suspect should be the lack of quality in the machine-shop skimming or poor reassembly.

[christineuk]

So far so good if I dare say so. The freeze plug in question blew out twice under minimal pressure at the machine shop. Turns out the hole is 10 thousandths oversize. As for the coolant in the crankcase that's still a mystery. Neither head gasket was blown and the after pressure testing and magnafluxing the heads and block again we found no leaks or cracks. Turns out the break in oil is green and I wasn't aware of that. In all the excitement I may have overreacted and assumed the green color was coolant. Still doesn't explain the high level on the oil dipstick. Could it have been overfilled? Possible I suppose. A new gasket set is on order and we're preparing to reassemble and test again. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will be ok. From there the motor is being taken into another shop for Dyno-testing. I don;t want to have to do this again so that should reveal any issues and allow for fine tuning prior to it being reinstalled. I'm looking forward to putting this debocle behind me asap.

Overfilling the crankcase is a common thing on new build V8's (and other V engines that rely on oil splash to lube the cam), the higher oil level causes the crank to fling more oil upto the cam area. If an extra 2 or 3 quarts were added it would have been a good idea for the machine shop/builder to have told you.

[Blood_Hound1958]

Sure it isn't a badly machined cylinder head face or block mating face? I have seen heads being so badly refaced that they needed two gaskets to make up the deficiency - the mark of a crap engine shop. It's an old trick the military used for vehicles that blew head gaskets in action and ended up with warped faces that the coudn't re-machine.

Not suggesting you do this with yours, but a freshly renovated engine that has no cracks? Next suspect should be the lack of quality in the machine-shop skimming or poor reassembly.

I was there when it was disassembled. head gaskets were perfect. They checked the mating surfaces of the head and block and they were dead on. The dynotest should put the issue to rest. If there's a problem it should reveal itself again. Course I'm hoping all is OK. :)

Overfilling the crankcase is a common thing on new build V8's (and other V engines that rely on oil splash to lube the cam), the higher oil level causes the crank to fling more oil upto the cam area. If an extra 2 or 3 quarts were added it would have been a good idea for the machine shop/builder to have told you.

Agreed Dean. If I had known the break in oil was green I wouldn't have assumed there was coolant in it from the start. If it had been overfilled that would have been a key piece of info to share for sure. They did tell me it was overfilled by at least a quart if not more so every indication so far is that it was bad judgement on my part. A lot of worrying and stress for nothing? Quite possible. I'll "beat myself up" happily if everything checks out going forward. LOL :)

[Blood_Hound1958]

Wow! Where has the time gone? LOL.. These past few months have been hectic. The engine issues have been sorted and it's been reinstalled. Although the build was sidetracked it actually worked out for the better. I decided to revisit the issues that cropped up by adding AC into the mix. I was never fully satisfied with the clearance between the fan and the AC compressor. It would have worked but didn't look right to me. I was never able to figure out how it was done originally as there are only 2-3 pictures on the internet of an original Golden Commando Fury with factory AC. I was convinced it must have had a 1 year only power steering pump and decided to try and prove my theory while waiting for the motor to come back from the machine shop. I called Norms Speed Shop in NC after seeing the rebuilt PS pumps he sells on ebay. I told him what I had and he explained that he had 1 original setup for a late 50's B block mopar with AC. Ecstatic, I worked out a deal to buy it. Turns out I was partially right on the PS pump. It's a special bracket for AC and the TRW pump was HD as opposed to standard. The setup also required a special 4 groove crank pulley and tensioner for the fan/water pump belt. I wasted no time mocking up the new setup once it finally arrived. It ended up moving the AC compressor back almost an inch thereby resolving the clearance issue I had struggled with for so long. The goal now is to fire her up again no later than mid October. Same place I was last year at this time but new and improved. My target date to finish and drive her has been summer of 2019 so we're back on track! :)

[57belv]

Awesome Wayne! So glad your motor is back in, and hopefully for the last time!