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The end of one era and the beginning of another....

25K views 145 replies 68 participants last post by  Tom Mobley 
#1 ·
Well I blew up my Mark Jones 498. I won't be tearing it apart for a while. I am in the dog house. lol Today was my wife and I's anniversary and I blew the car up. Not good. I should have seen the signs but everything seemed fine. Last week my oil pressure did something funny for a second. Replaced the line and all was well. I guess it wasn't. Today, the car was running about 10 degrees warmer than usual. Still was only running about 185 deg. but usually only runs around 170.

First pass was a 6.37, second pass was a 6.52, 3rd pass was a 6.63. I should have known something wasn't right but thought maybe the convertor was just hot. 4th pass go up to do my burnout and the car dies. It never dies...so I told them to open the gate I was going to pull off and I should have I guess. Anyways I started it back up and it seemed fine so I went ahead and went to do my burnout. I started in 2nd and the second I shifted the 3rd there was a loud explosion, the car immediately died and smoke rolled out from under the hood and side of the car very thick.

I had oil and water gushing out the side of my oil pan. I assume I threw a rod. So I called my buddy who just sold his car and he came and towed me home on his trailer. The only real thing that sucks is that King of the Street is next week. I missed that friggin race 3 years in a row now.

Now before everyone or anyone starts bashing on my engine builder...don't bother. I don't blame any on the builder but at the same time I am done with this particular big block. The common denominator in all 4 engines is the block. I hope I blew the block to pieces personally. I drove this car very hard and raced it hard and I wouldn't have changed it for the world. However, the amount of money I put into it and it only last 7 months, I am not going to do it again.

I now have friends that are big into the turbo builds and will start planning to build a 6.0 and a turbo. The goal will be simple. 5.90's and 20mpg. I figure it will cost me a whole lot less and I can still drive it on the street as much as I want. I still plan on E85. E85 doesn't cause you to throw a rod. For all I know my crankshaft busted in half. The motor is completely siezed.

I plan to sell the heads, intake, convertor, trans, carb, etc...I still think I can sell all my stuff and build the engine I want. Plus, if I blow it up, I go back to the junk yard and buy another $400 short block instead of being out $8k.

LS Turbo here I come. I always wanted one and plan to have one ready to go by this comeing April. My Mark Jones 498 was fun while it lasted. :yes:
 
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#2 ·
:sad: That is bad news man. Ive been following u from time to time on here and i know she was running like a raped ape. Guess all you can do is start over. I have also been plotting a 6.0 so curious to see how u make out with it.
 
#8 ·
I'm sorry to hear about all the problem but maybe you can trace the failure to find out the cause.
 
#9 ·
Sorry to hear about your engine, I know firsthand the $$$'s involved in this kind of build. Good luck w/ the LS build, I've got a 6.0L in my daily driver and love it.

Bowedup
 
#10 ·
Happy anniversary!!!

You drove that car verry hard. I am all for that. Yes, bad things do happen, but you would not have done it any other way. At least you know the rest of the car can take the power you threw at it.

498 R.I.P.
 
#12 ·
Delbert, This is not to pick on you or your builder but when you had the blown head gasket a while back Butch and myself stated we have seen this happen on alcohol circle track and drag race engines with Alcohol fuels but we were told we did not see this by others who post here. What I'm thinking is maybe you can send the heads out to be pressure tested and I think you will find the Alcohol and the aluminum head caused the engine to Hydrolock. If you want to ship the heads to me in New Mexico I will pressure test them for free if it helps you out.
 
#14 ·
Del, it is the nature of our game. I think about the possibility of catastophic failure every time I go to the track. Like yourself, I am merciless on the gas pedal. Perhaps it's time to focus on that anniversary for a spell. Congrats
 
#16 ·
I will follow the turbo build, I've got a 6.0 for my miata.. Turbo would be nice in my 71 monte carlo, lots of room.. I'am on the ban wagon sinister, turbo it so I can copy your setup being wer both have a-body chassis..Sorry about the engine..any working bread wears outSounds like a rod bearing, I always wondered if the e85 drew enough moisture to affect your oil as alcohol does..
 
#17 ·
hey...sorry man...
look forward to reading about the new build!
 
#20 ·
Damn sorry to hear about the breakage Delbert. I followed your trials and tribulations with the engine closely and it really sucks to hear this. To be honest, I dont think for a second it had anything to do with you, Mark or the corn. More like bad luck lasting longer than its welcome. I actually think that the 6.0/turbo setup will be more reliable and twice as fun to drive. Not to mention a fraction of the cost compared to the bbc. Best of luck to you Del. I look forward to watching the new setup come together. Oh and Happy Anniversary
 
#21 ·
Okay. The ol lady didn't want to do anything for our anninversary. lol So I took my 7 year old to see the movie "real steel." Great movie.

Anyways. As far as moisture goes. In my first two E85 engines I always ran them cool because that is what you do on gas. When I would pull my valve covers there would be a milky residue in the valve covers. I changed my oil about every 3 months and hence I blew the engines. I do think in the first two, the E85 had something to do with it. Not the gas but my lack of knowledge of how to perform maintenance on an E85 vehicle.

This time around, I always started my car and let it idle for about 5 minutes and then I would drive it very, very slowly, accelerating like a grandma, until the temp would get to 190 to burn off any condensation. I would then kick on my fans and cool it back down to 175 degrees or so. I also changed my oil once a month this time around and not a single time did I ever find any moisture in my oil. Th oil always looked very new.

I think the oil pressure thing is where it started. The engine never had a lot of oil pressure to begin with. It was around 45-50 on the dyno pulls. It was always about 35-40 while I was driving around. Recently the presure just got a little lower but I was using synthetic oil so figured that was why.

As far as what I will sell... I need to do some research and find out what I can use with an LS engine and what I can't. I plan to completey do this right and will do what needs to be done so I can drive my car on the street and race it hard. The difference is this time I will get better gas mileage, the car will run a whole lot faster, and if I blow it it will cost less than a grand to build it again.

I know there are some guys on here such as 71 chevy, Calculated Risk, etc.. that pretty much have this stuff figured out I will probably be getting with them to get a "list" of stuff I need and a "list" of stuff I can keep and use.

I don't think any of this has to do with the blown head gasket. That was 7 months ago and I have driven this thing very hard for several months since then. I think it more of an oiling issue. If everyone remembers my last engine had an oiling issue hence the bearings. I never wanted to re use this block but we did. I won't make that mistake a 5th time.
 
#23 ·
Wouldn't it be best to let Mark take a look at this engine first? My opinion is it happened due to the aluminum heads and alcohol. The reason is this thing was solid and you were running consistent times and after so many cycles this will happen and has happened to me and Butch which is why we both mentioned it. I will pressure test both heads for free if your willing to ship them to me and for the ride back so you know if you have good heads to sell. I wish you the best.
 
#24 ·
Do you think maybe the pickup came out of the oilpump? Happens a lot,even if it's welded in sometimes the head on the end of the tube has been known to break off. My buddy always says if you can't afford to build it twice you can't afford to build it. Of course this is while we're beatin' on my motor in his car. I feel you're pain man. The ls turbo deal will be a blast. There were lots of deals like that at Dragweek and they had no problem makin the 1000 plus mile drive. We met a guy at the motel at breakfast that had a Mustang with a turbo charged small block chevy in it with efi. It ran mid to low nines all week at almost 150 mph, and he said it had a lot more in it he just wanted to make sure he didn't break it in the middle of the trip. Almost every really fast car there was turbocharged with efi. There was a pro charged Malibu there that went a high 7 at almost 200 mph on a drag radial. I'm a really old school kinda guy and I can't wait to embarass some of the young guys that run our radial class with my oval port flat tappet 468 with a carb and a plate. They all tune their stuff with a laptop and don't even know how to change a jet in a carb. It should be a blast. I know I will never make the kind of power on nitrous that a turbo will, but, mine will make more than it's supposed to while most of the high tech rigs here make way less than they should.
 
#25 ·
I appreciate the offer shane but I am good. I am really confident this issue has nothing to with the builder. Remember Mark is the 4th builder to do m engine and it still blew. The common denominator is the block. The first engine wasn't even ran on E85. Something was up with the block and I am not going to dwell on it. I definitely spent a lot of money on that thing but I raped that car for 7 months. I'm not going to waste any time shipping the block, heads, etc.. to anyone. I will have a local shop go through everything and tell me what is still good to sell. It's like an old girl friend, it's time to move on.

I think I have enough stuff from the last two blown engines to finance this build and the fact I have friends who do this stuff now. I'm not even dwelling on the blown engine. It is what it is. I tried to make a high compression engine work on the street and for the most part it did.

Any penny I spend now will be strictly towards building a turbo car that can get me in the mid to high 5's and still get decent mileage. Carb or EFI, just have to way the costs. I still have plans to take about 200lbs off the car this winter. That will also help.
 
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