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My 1600 mile engine

2K views 6 replies 6 participants last post by  oldschoolrods 
#1 ·
Just an update. As most know I pulled the 4.3 out of my '93 Silverado and dropped in a 350 that SUPPOSINGLY was totally rebuilt and had 1600 miles. 600 miles on it and it headed south. So I pulled the engine, tore it down and lo and behold the bearings are shot, heads are shot, cylinders are shot, crank was shot, what even wasn't shot was shot. When I got the engine I pulled it apart and did notice some of the external bolts were a little loose on the brackets and such. So I decided to tear it all apart except for pulling the valves out of the heads and I left the crank and cam in. Major mistake. I did check all the torque on the caps and mains as that was my intention and that was alright. And when it was apart everything looked real clean. Piston tops looked clean, the valves looked clean, and what you could see looked clean. So I took the guys word for it that it was rebuilt as it showed the signs that it was. Never believe anyone. This guys nephews put it together and the machine work was supposingly done by a guy that builds roundy-rounders. .030 bore, the heads had been done to accept larger valves (2.02 and 1.60) and they were cut for the teflon seals, etc. Well when the engine went down to the machine shop to have a little work done to it due to one cylinder having a small area of pitting like it had some water standing it in at one time and honed over, we were going to see if another .010 bore job would clean it up. We are now at .060 over, put in the largest cam that would work with the computer in the truck, complete new head job as the valve guides were all trash, new roller rockers, gear drive, crank had to be turned .020, and I don't know all what else. My wifes nephew is a mechanic by trade and is putting the engine back together. Where he is doing it is in a special room in his building that he calls the clean room. You had better have clean hands when touching the engine or a good @zz ripping is headed your way. Everything is mic'd, checked, double checked, and checked again, then recorded in a journal as far as the specs, sizes, etc. That way if there is any failure of any part, then he will have a better idea as to what caused it and how to remedy the situation if it ever arises in the future. So last night we were getting setup to degree in the cam. While doing that we were talking about porting the heads, so decided to pop all of the valves out and get started on those. Well don't you know that 4 of the inner springs (it has double springs) were broke when we pulled the heads apart. And what was supposed to be teflon valve seals replaced in the freshly done heads were just the plain old umbrella type. Talked about being PO'd. So the machine shop gets an earful come Monday morning. So it's off to Jegs today for parts. The he tells me that since we were putting a shift improver kit in the tranny, his tranny specialist could get started in tearing it apart. Long story short, the 4L60E is getting a total rebuild, The drum inside that the clutch pack goes into has been damaged at one time and I guess they have a high rate of failure when they go bad. GM changed the design from a solid sided drum to one that has holes stamped in the sides to lighten it I guess, and therefore weakened the design somewhat.
I guess it is better to pay now than to pay for something breaking after it is put into the truck and fails few hundred miles into it. The bottom line is that when someone tells you that an engine has been rebuilt either have them show all the documentation or turn your back on it. When I first got the engine I could have bought just the engine, but I opted to buy the complete truck it was in. The truck had a broken frame so I talked him down considerably. I did get my money out of the truck so the engine was actually almost free, except for the initial cost of everything it took to drop it in place of the 4.3. What I do know is....it should be one thumping SOB if I ever get it back together :thumbup:
 
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#6 ·
I would never buy an engine with out seeing and hearing it run first. I've been a mechanic for 35 years and have patched a few up, but I never knowingly sold one that was junk. I'd give it away but not sell it. I see these fools buying used junk at the swap meets. I've seen heads that were pulled off and still had gunk and trash on them with the guy saying "they were just rebuilt".
 
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