I think it's safe to say the REAL cause of my oil consumption problem is now revealed:

http://billyman24.homestead.com/Billy/boocyl.jpg

A engine builder aquaintance of mine that volunteered to teardown my shortblock and re-assemble it for me, sent me the news tonight.
It would seem there are a host of other problems. Basically every component of the shortblock needs some kind of repair or replacing. It's a big paperweight. The amazing thing is the damn thing was still running strong and surviving romps to 6500rpms.
He says that the problems are due to errors in the prep and machine work done by the shop, not my assembly. The cylinder in the above pic has a wristpin that slipped because the rod was over-heated. He said the others looked like they weren't far from doing the same. That cylinder needs sleeved. In addtion, the block needs bored to .060 (it was at .040), I need new rods and pistons, the crank needs turned, and my camshaft is trashed.

OMG!! Tragic dude.

well swallow once, and don't look back, time to go roller, and port the heads!!! are you gonna waste your time and try and get the shop to kick out some money? at least go throw a fit there, and tell everyone in site never to go there!!

Watch out because they might call the cops on you and try to get you for disorderly conduct. Sorry about the engine , been there before and it ain't no fun

That bites. Will that clean up at .060"? Almost looks like a candidate for a sleeve. Bummer, but not much you can do about it, if you assembled it yourself. I went a couple rounds with my machinist while trying to get good clearances on my 462 Pontiac in the 'bird. Block ended up being align honed twice, since his first try didn't fix the bad job from the previous shop that did it. :rolleyes: But I kept taking parts back, if they weren't up to snuff. Turned out great, though. Great oil pressure, no problems as of yet, close to 300 miles on it.

Get to work, get it fixed, and get back on the road. Not much else to do, but look forward. Good luck.

Brian,
Dont automatically assume that the rod was overheated. I had one burn me about 3 years ago and I know it was not overheated. Since then I have started measuring the press fit on every set of pistons I put on rods. You would be amazed at the difference in pin sizes from manufacturer to manufacturer. And rods vary quite a bit too from the factory. If the pins are on the small end of the spec, and the rods on the big end, there will not be any press fit. Federal Mogul / TRW / Speed Pro's pins seem to run on the small side. I have had to condemn 6 or 7 sets of big block rods that were just too big, and they had been in running engines for many years. I have found stock GM pins that are almost .001" bigger than the specs, wonder if they used them to save some of the OS rods ? What type of pistons were they ? Curious to know what the pins measure. A sleeve should fix the cylinder ok. I would definitely let the shop that installed the pistons know about it, but dont be too po'd, I bet 90% of machine shops never check rod press fit on stock rods. I never did until I had a problem. I used to always make note of how much pressure the old pins took to press them out and if they seemed ok, never worried about it. Never dreamt that there was that much variation in pin and rod sizes :(
Basically, you have to check everything, twice :)

Sorry for your loss. Sounds like the perfect time for a set of Scat rods with floating pins as part of a stroker crank kit. Maybe a 415 or 434.

so many options so little time.

I'm not totally blaming the machine shop yet... in fact I did not have them blueprint my shortblock, just prep it for assembly and polish the crank/rods. It's likely they didn't take measurements of everything. Still, you'd think that they would just as a precaution. The shop I went to has a great reputation and they're not the kind of guys to send junk out their door. I'm certainly going to tell them about it, but I don't think it's entirely their responsibility since I didn't pay them to assemble and blueprint the shortblock.

Bill K, they are stock rods with Keith Black hypers, supposedly had 4k trouble-free miles on the rotating assembly when I bought it used.

The cylinder requires sleeving, boring it won't work.

DOH! :eek:
Hey,it survived dyno runs and some dragstrip action..good 'ole Chevy :thumbsup:

Time to go with a 350, JMHO.

Time to go with a 350, JMHO.

It IS a 350... 357 actually ;)

are you gonna waste your time and try and get the shop to kick out some money? at least go throw a fit there, and tell everyone in site never to go there!!

Well, I had a pretty dissappointing phone call with them this morning. Rather than hearing 'bring it in, let us check it out, we'll make it right if theres a mistake', they were just like 'well, weve never had a problem with that', and made no offer of checking things out.

I'm not going to hassle with them, I'm leaving it with the guy's shop who has been helping me, and they're going to make it right and help me on the cost as much as they can.

Brian,
Did the original shop put the pistons on the rods ? If not, there is really no way to check them without taking them apart and that is not something that anyone would normally do. I dont know what other things you found wrong, but as far as the pin coming loose, if they are press fit, and they were already on the rods, the "blame" if any, should go on the shop that put the pistons on the rods.

Brian,
Did the original shop put the pistons on the rods ? If not, there is really no way to check them without taking them apart and that is not something that anyone would normally do. I dont know what other things you found wrong, but as far as the pin coming loose, if they are press fit, and they were already on the rods, the "blame" if any, should go on the shop that put the pistons on the rods.

yeah they did, I had the rods polished and when I took it there he said the rods were too tight on the wristpins, so they removed them and re-pressed them after polishing the rods.

It looks like I dropped some of my bad luck off at your house Brian.

Ouch Brian! :sad:
That motor ran sweet, too.

That motor ran sweet, too.

On a positive note, I can't wait to see how it'll run without a flat cam, trashed bearings, and a bar of metal digging into the cylinder wall :D

Are you gonna have it back together by next weekend?? ;)
I'm headed up your way (Raleigh/Wake Forest) on the 28-30th.
Need anything?? ;)

Are you gonna have it back together by next weekend?? ;)
I'm headed up your way (Raleigh/Wake Forest) on the 28-30th.
Need anything?? ;)

Sure... go ahead and bring a forged 427 SBC along for me to drop in ;)