hey guys, just thought i'd share - i recently had my 454 overhauled, and my dad and i has just got it in this weekend and gotten it running, tuned the carb a little bit, and got it satisfactory.

an engine rebuilder in town did the engine for us - we would've done it ourselves, but my dad is busy with work a lot, and i am with college and whatnot, and it would've ended up taking forever, so we had it done with a shop we had previously had some head work done in and they came highly recommended.

i'm not mad at them by any means, but i'm hoping they'll be willing to take it in and make it right.

anyways, it was a 454 bored 30 over, forged rods, forged trw pistons, 1972 spec SS oval port heads (i think 049's) with a 3 angle valve job and bigger valves, comp hyd. roller cam, 224 deg i/e and .566 lift, speed demon 850, weiand stealth alum. intake, msd 6A, accel coil, roller rockers, 10.1:1 compression ratio...

here's the weird thing.

when me and dad first got it running, everything was cool - good oil pressure, holding 180 degrees, etc - except when you gave it some revs, it had a ticking under the valve covers. it was more like a "rapping" sound... our first instinct was, "uh oh! adjust a rocker arm, check the lifter, etc..." but the guy who helped us tune the carb said the noise was normal - he said the tall valve covers we had act like an amplifier for the sound of the rocker arms inside. it wasn't detonation because i was running supreme, and couldn't hear the noise ~idle.

so, we took it around the block a few times and came back and set the timing and the carb and all was well. it felt pretty strong, even though i never gave it WOT or took it over 3500 rpms.

so, fast forward 3 days to today - i'm driving on the highway ~65mph @ 2800 rpm and i start to hear what sounds like a big exhaust leak - no big deal i think to myself, i'll check the headers when i get home. well that *tick* turned into a violent sound like rattling, scraping metal. :eek: i instantly reached for the ignition, but the engine died before i even got my finger on the key - i coast the to side of the highway and called a tow, brought it home, and here i am.

i still am trying to follow up with the builder, haven't gotten a hold of him tonite.

i checked under the hood, no fluid, no thrown belts, no fan blades missing, etc - i wasn't paying attention to the oil gauge but i'm pretty sure i never lost oil pressure - temp stayed around 180-200... i'm kinda at a loss... :confused:

sorry so long...

-Chris

had the samething happen to a 383 I built...a valve hit a piston....just enuff to damage the piston..then while driving down the highway at 3000rpm..the smae sounds and results. The valve dropped and smashed the piston the rest of the way. It took out the piston-rod-crank and block. The head was just able to be saved. I hope you fare better.

yeah, it really is a bummer. i don't drive this car everyday, and i was going to give it about a week to 'break in' before i gave it some hard running, just to see what it would do, guess i won't know now for a while.

any ideas on what that combo would be good for? i've been shooting all along for something that can dig deep into the 12's and stay semi-reliable. guess that's too much to ask. :(

Maybe something minor happened.You won't know until you tear it down.Valve covers are a good place to start.I myself do my own assembly. I'ts even hard to find a machaine shop that does really accurate work.

Deep in the 12's and reliable going on 5 years now graemlins/thumbsup.gif It can be done,although I havent driven it much on the street lately,its never failed me graemlins/clonk.gif

Another Comp lifter failure....... Did you use the Magnum or Extreme roller lifters??

We should start a pole here. Actually we should get someone from Comp to comment.

Are folks having problems with the xtreme or magnums? I am about to install my comp cam and would like to know before I put them in. I have some lifters that came with my Lunati cam and may use those instead if lots of people are having problems with the comp lifters.

Sorry if I am wandering off topic. Just hearing some bad stuff about comp lifters...makes me nervous.

Hope you find out what happend to your engine!

Isky red zone and Crower severe duty(same company makes Schneider roller lifters) seem to be the consensus way to go.

Same thing happened to me on the way to CB a few years ago. Turned out a valve seized up in the new guide. Luckily the only damage was the valve/guide and a pushrod. I was glad to have forged pistons because it seized in a partially open position and contacted the piston. I've seen what heavy valve contact does to cast pistons. Lost a block, rod, and piston that time.

The only thing I would like to say is that I hope everyone reading this learned one thing ...

"it was more like a "rapping" sound... "

When you hear a noise that you dont think is right, especially in a new engine, especially one that somebody else built ... STOP and find out what the noise is. If you cant figure it out, wait until your engine builder can look at it !!! All of us are human, and we all can make a mistake every once in a while, but now what might have been a very simple and inexpensive problem to fix has become a mess :( This is one reason I insist on being present when any new engine that we build is first started.

I agree BillK - I should've insisted that it wasn't right, but me and pops kinda blew it off. It was dumb - live n' learn.

I'm kinda in a hard place now - the car is back at home and I'm at school. I hardly ever go home, maybe once every few weekends, and this thing's gonna need to be rebuilt by the sounds of it, so obviously me and dad can't find the time, so we'll have to get it done again... I just hate that feeling honestly...

When we built the 402 in the driveway, I had much more peace of mind in the install and getting it running...

I hope everything works out good on your motor. I hope you don't have happen to your motor that happened to mine :mad: . Look for the topic, "need major help" I posted some pics with it. Anyways good luck with the engine and the rebuilder.

Chris

I feel your pain as I'm currently in the same boat as you with my 402(.30 over). Only put 40 miles on the car after the machinist rebuilt it and slowly lost my oil pressure. Motor started rapping as well and instead of pulling off and shutting her down I limped it home a few miles with 20 lbs of oil pressure(man, was I stupid or what?). Like you said, "live and learn".

Builder got it back on the stand and has the oil pan off. Told me all the bearings on the crank are toast. Crank sent away to get ground again and he's tearing the rest apart this week to see what else may have happened. At this point he states he is still stumped as to what happened but at least he is standing behind it.

Good luck with yours!