engine builder screwed up. Maybe not. Update

[dvw]

That would be myself. Since I build all my own stuff. "no one to blame but me for a building error". Went to start it up at Columbus and it didn't crank. #6 cylinder filled with coolant and hydrolocked. This happened after setting a week after testing. Ran fine during testing, 9.09@148. Appears every head bolt was significantly under torqued. I used a friends digital torque wrench last time as it had torque/angle capability (rod bolts are torque/angle spec). When torquing the heads my bet is I set it on the Newtion /meter scale (80n/m =60lb/ft, so torque was 20lb/ft light). There is some pitting by the water passages in the heads. They're off having the putting welded and resurfaced to correct that issue. I will pull the #6 rod and piston to inspect. Water didn't mix with the oil as it was never run after the leak. A week or so and it should be good to go. Dumb mistake.
Doug

 

[silversedan]

good find Doug, bet your glad that's all it was!

 

[Hemirunner]

Unfortunately, we’re all human and we all make mistakes. What head gasket was on it?

 

[coronet68mx]

That damm metrical scale ...

 

[Cranky]

Happens to the best of us.....

 

[66383]

Don't beat yourself up too bad. We've all done it.

 

[MarPar]

 

[Wietse]

Mistakes are human...
Lucky you the hydro lock did not do any severe damage, i believe this could blow a head off or smash a rod/piston to bits.
If you do all this work yourself you should have it ready to go again in no time!

 

[Wookie316]

Glad it is nothing too serious. You will be back up and running in no time.

 

[Cranky]

My worst mistake was helping someone build his own engine....or letting him help me build but he insisted. The story goes a bit further in that he wanted to wait until ALL of his parts came in before taking anything to the machine shop. We could have at least had the block done because we already had the crank, pistons and rods. As it was, once the block was done, the machinist messed up the align bore to the tune of being .003" out of round. He said just do it and I said no lol. We had a dead line (up coming race) and that only made that worse and everything on this Indy top end engine needed something machined. I was on the mill one day while he was doing assembly and well, the piston to head clearance never got checked. It ended up being .019"! It did fine the first few passes and ran a 10.0 off the trailer in a 3500 lb car with a NOS tune. Well, not the case when the funny gas hit it. One split cylinder right off the line. One new block, piston and rod later, the car was seeing 9.30's with a very small shot of the goofy gas....and an invite to leave until a legal cage was installed.

 

[happyjackdaddy54]

My worst mistake was helping someone build his own engine....or letting him help me build but he insisted. The story goes a bit further in that he wanted to wait until ALL of his parts came in before taking anything to the machine shop. We could have at least had the block done because we already had the crank, pistons and rods. As it was, once the block was done, the machinist messed up the align bore to the tune of being .003" out of round. He said just do it and I said no lol. We had a dead line (up coming race) and that only made that worse and everything on this Indy top end engine needed something machined. I was on the mill one day while he was doing assembly and well, the piston to head clearance never got checked. It ended up being .019"! It did fine the first few passes and ran a 10.0 off the trailer in a 3500 lb car with a NOS tune. Well, not the case when the funny gas hit it. One split cylinder right off the line. One new block, piston and rod later, the car was seeing 9.30's with a very small shot of the goofy gas....and an invite to leave until a legal cage was installed.

 

[happyjackdaddy54]

Just 1 question....how do you get an out of round align bore? The caps are cut. the mandrel tightens up in the block. Unless he didn't tighten mandrel. he should have noticed the lack of tension when operating, if it was too loose. What a putz!

 

[happyjackdaddy54]

My worst mistake was helping someone build his own engine....or letting him help me build but he insisted. The story goes a bit further in that he wanted to wait until ALL of his parts came in before taking anything to the machine shop. We could have at least had the block done because we already had the crank, pistons and rods. As it was, once the block was done, the machinist messed up the align bore to the tune of being .003" out of round. He said just do it and I said no lol. We had a dead line (up coming race) and that only made that worse and everything on this Indy top end engine needed something machined. I was on the mill one day while he was doing assembly and well, the piston to head clearance never got checked. It ended up being .019"! It did fine the first few passes and ran a 10.0 off the trailer in a 3500 lb car with a NOS tune. Well, not the case when the funny gas hit it. One split cylinder right off the line. One new block, piston and rod later, the car was seeing 9.30's with a very small shot of the goofy gas....and an invite to leave until a legal cage was installed.

 

[happyjackdaddy54]

was the timing retarded for the nitrous?

 

[stage3]

i was at the races years ago at sears point in california, joe amato's crew started there car up in the pits for warm up, a few seconds later there was a loud mechanical clanking sound and then that motor abruptly stopped!,,someone forgot to torque 1 of the rod bolts! whoops!..

 

[Fran Blacker]

Hope nothing wrong with #6. I'd recheck torque on rod / main bearing caps if you used the same T wrench on them unless your positive they're ok. It would drive me nuts if I didn't check.

 

[dvw]

All the rossi recorded torque angle, actual torque required and bolt stretch. Gaskets were Cometic. They're probably still good. But I wont chance it.
Doug

 

[Cranky]

Just 1 question....how do you get an out of round align bore? The caps are cut. the mandrel tightens up in the block. Unless he didn't tighten mandrel. he should have noticed the lack of tension when operating, if it was too loose. What a putz!

I have no idea what he did to get it out that much! I tried to talk the buddy out of using them just because of their reputation for screw ups. The machinist is a known druggie and have no idea why the owner kept him on. Well, that shop is no longer in business since the owner passed on and have no idea where the druggie went...but I know his name!

was the timing retarded for the nitrous?

I've never used the funny gas so didn't have much to do with the tune up and didn't know what the timing was set at.

 

[Hemirunner]

All the rossi recorded torque angle, actual torque required and bolt stretch. Gaskets were Cometic. They're probably still good. But I wont chance it.
Doug

Those gaskets seem to handle the cylinder pressure just fine but they’re absolutely unforgiving of surface imperfections. I’ve taken them apart and copper coated the surfaces and in between the layers to stop fluid wicking. They also keep changing them over the years. The last set I got didn’t even have round bores. They had two overly large eyebrow reliefs really low on the bore. I’m about ready to go back to the good ol’ 1009 felpro.

 

[oldbee]

Get a better set of glasses also! Bet that doesn’t happen again. I hate metric!