OK, you guys are going to love this. Held off posting this catastrophe, but can now talk about it. Anyone following my posts from last fall, we got out to the track and had a blast - to the point of making some great runs - and necessary engine removal and fix (won't go back through all that). At any rate, I build a fresh .070 motor updated with Dart Pro One heads and sell off everything else in the garage that wasn't nailed down {ZZ502 heads, cams, two nice bare blocks, one at .030 and a new tall deck, intakes, etc.}. I even had the tranny redone/upgraded while it was apart.
We install the the fresh .070 motor. Fire it up, and within 3-4 minutes I have foam pouring from the the intake end seals - great, water leak, figure head gasket or intake leak. Shut it down, drain the pan, get 3 gallons of milk sludge - oil and water. Pull the intake, try another intake gasket, same thing. Try a pressure test on the cooling system, nothing, not even 1#. Pull the motor, tear it down, go over everything, now stumped, we can't find anything wrong. The block was mag'd, so at this point, I am sure it is not cracked. Keep in mind the install, fire up, removal and tear down has all occured within 24 hours. Finally, we find a hidden crack (actually a hole the size of the tip of your pinky) tucked way up under the lifter valley at the top of the water jacket right in front of the #2 cam bearing that was not visible except with a mirror and even then very hard to identify. So, the fresh .070 block is now scrap, the crank is scored, everything is soaked with a mayonaise mix and I am ready to haul the car and everything in the garage down the road and leave it for the trash man!
So, thanks to Carl (CNC), I now have a detailed .070 block on the way, but am rethinking this racing crap. Seriously thinking about keeping everything the same (.070, Dart Heads, Air Gap, etc) but dropping in a lot smaller cam, bring the peak HP down to about 5000- 5200 or so, droping to some 3.08 gears and maybe a 2200 converter and just making this a mid-high 12 sec. air conditioned cruiser. Anyone else get the feeling, it's just not worth the agg anymore?
We install the the fresh .070 motor. Fire it up, and within 3-4 minutes I have foam pouring from the the intake end seals - great, water leak, figure head gasket or intake leak. Shut it down, drain the pan, get 3 gallons of milk sludge - oil and water. Pull the intake, try another intake gasket, same thing. Try a pressure test on the cooling system, nothing, not even 1#. Pull the motor, tear it down, go over everything, now stumped, we can't find anything wrong. The block was mag'd, so at this point, I am sure it is not cracked. Keep in mind the install, fire up, removal and tear down has all occured within 24 hours. Finally, we find a hidden crack (actually a hole the size of the tip of your pinky) tucked way up under the lifter valley at the top of the water jacket right in front of the #2 cam bearing that was not visible except with a mirror and even then very hard to identify. So, the fresh .070 block is now scrap, the crank is scored, everything is soaked with a mayonaise mix and I am ready to haul the car and everything in the garage down the road and leave it for the trash man!
So, thanks to Carl (CNC), I now have a detailed .070 block on the way, but am rethinking this racing crap. Seriously thinking about keeping everything the same (.070, Dart Heads, Air Gap, etc) but dropping in a lot smaller cam, bring the peak HP down to about 5000- 5200 or so, droping to some 3.08 gears and maybe a 2200 converter and just making this a mid-high 12 sec. air conditioned cruiser. Anyone else get the feeling, it's just not worth the agg anymore?
