Not long now....
Discussion
roseytvr said:
What have you had done Chris?
Just over a year ago I managed to blow the engine up quite spectacularly. My dad and I took the engine out once the car was trailered back to the UK, and after a bit of deliberation (basic second hand engine? Chevy LS transplant? etc.) I ordered a new 5-litre performance engine from V8 Developments. This comes with comprehensively uprated internals and I've also treated it to a Stealth cam, a new clutch and a few other bits. The engine was delayed for quite some time, then we had some unexpected issues with the valvetrain (taken from the old engine) which had to be put right, which took us through to the spring. Thereafter it dragged on a bit before we got round to prepping it properly.
Ever since we took the engine out the plan has been to get a professional garage to put it back in. There wasn't anything particularly complex involved in extracting it, but without a pit or a hoist we could only get the car about a foot off the ground, which made doing the bellhousing bolts underneath nigh-on impossible. It didn't help that they were massively overtightened, but even at the correct torque it's not something we fancied doing again lying on our backs in a damp farmyard.
Haven't actually spoken to V8D about this, but I'm assuming there's a running in procedure, so it might be next summer before I can use full throttle on the new engine. When I do I'm hoping it'll be good for 300 (real world) horsepower.
Coincidentally, this was the road I blew the engine up on. I'd almost go as far as to say it was worth it
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carsy said:
Just out of interest, what was the problem with the valvetrain.
Two of the (OE-spec) rockers had lost the hardened pads and three of the valves had damage to the top of the stem. This seems to be quite a common failure on these engines, so we wanted to go for steel rockers on the rebuild, but the tolerancing on the ones were tried was dire. The first set visibly out, let along measurably so:
To be fair, we were warned by the supplier that they were a bit hit and miss. Eventually we got a matched set together.
There was then a last minute hitch when we discovered the sump needed to be modified to provide extra clearance for the webs on the new crank. Quite glad we checked that one by hand before firing the engine up.
Chilliman said:
Took four days to run mine in
So...
First of all we couldn't sort out a trailer in time to get the car shipped over to the garage last week. And this week, when we tried to move it, the brakes on all four wheels turned out to be seized up.
Fortunately the guys at JHD have been very accommodating and given us plenty of flexibility. Hopefully it will go in soon.
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