Sunday

- Put the truck in the shop so it would be warm to work on Monday morning. #1



Monday

- Truck in the air for the first of many times... #2



- Surveyed the mess of oil under my truck. #3



- Transfer Case out. #4



- One dirty ransmission on its way. #5



- Motor getting ready for its 'escape'. #6



- We realized my oil loss problem was from my intake manifold being improperly installed. Rubber gaskets around the pcv valve and oil fill

tube were both missing and the foam that sits under intake manifold was actually folded over, not allowing the manifold to be tightened

down properly. #7,8




- Motor on its way out. #9



- Started work on the truck at 7am and had the transfer case/transmission/motor out before noon.

- Empty engine bay. #10



- Passenger side. Cylinder 2 got the worst of it, and piston 4 was the only one not missing pieces. #11,12,13




- Drivers side, all missing chunks. #14


- Pieces of piston in the oil pick up tube. #15


- Number 2 piston out of the cylinder. #16




Tuesday

- My new Block ready to go together #18


- Ross Pistons and Crower Rods. Not taking any chances, expensive rods.


- Denny grabs the lube and gets busy on new 370 . #20


- Greg and I started what would be a long battle with the the front gears #21


- While Greg was in the back fighting with the gears I checked and reinstalled all the intake piping for the turbo. #22


- New pistons and rods are all together and ready to go into the new short block. #23


- The 'Doctor' inspects the oil pick up making sure everything is out so its safe to use. #24


- Torquing the rods. #25


- We decided taking the front diff out was the best way to work on the front gears. Good thing because that stubborn roll pin would have

burried us. My favorite moment was when we were 2hrs into the damn roll pin Jerry showed up and offered the insight 'roll pins stuck'. #26


- Timing the Cam. #27



Wednesday

- I started off the day with a couple hour drive on a parts run for a pinion bearing, since the basic "bearing kit" for the motive gears

had no actual bearings. (Something Dave *AlbertaHemi* had mentioned when I bought them... about 6 months prior). So while I was gone the

cameral lay dorment.

- Stock LSD vs. Detroit TrueTrac. #28


- The turbo had been sent off to Limit Engineering for an upgrade to a GT67. From what I could see everything was brand new except the

exhaust houseing which was just HPC coated last winter. #29


- Installed Detroit TrueTrac. You can also see the turbo I had remounted before the pic was taken. #30



Thursday

- Sharadon SP2 big valve heads #31


- Denny Torquing the heads down. #32


- Starting to look like a motor! #33


- Denny and Jerry priming the oil system. sssshhhh... secret operation... #34


- Almost there... #35


- Just a little further... #36


- Sight for sore eyes. #37



Friday

- Told you my U-joints were bad... #38


- Haha, Jerry will hate me for this one, but ask him how long it takes to put a pump in a tank? #39


- The Pacesetters from the rear. #40


- At this point I apparently got a little slack with the picture taking, but the transmission went in and lined up right away (apparently

that never happends), the transfercase went in, and Denny welded up the rest of the exhaust.

- Caltracs were also installed after some extensive modifying. Jerry cheerfully said 'that's hot roddin', though at the time I was a little

choked at the extent the caltracs were screwed up. The bushings weren't even close (way too small), the bars were too long, and the mount

for the axle didn't work with my ground force flip kit. Denny had some bushings in the shop, Jerry cut 1.75 inches out of the bars and made

them look good as new and Denny threw the top bracket from my flip kit on the 'Bridgepoint' to bring the holes in closer. It all sounds

easy, but when something is suposed to work and doesn't it takes precious time to figure out whats wrong and how can it be fixed.

- First turn of the key she lit up like its been ready and waiting the entire time. #41



- Everything ran perfect, well... almost. What we though was a bad turbo ended up being some debris in the STS oil pump. Being a gear pump

it plugged the line causing oil to overflow into the turbo and eventually spray out the exhaust. Denny and I ripped into the turbo. Once

everything in the turbo seemed ok (not that we knew what we were lookign for) we tried it again with the same results. Then we tested the

pump by jumping it when the truck was off so we could hear it better, and then tore into that when it didn't work (4 screws in the bottom

is all).#42


- After that we took it for a little drive and all was well. It was about 2am Saturday so Denny went home after a long day. I on the

otherhad we out to put some miles on the new gears. After a few hours of burning petrol I decided to put my foot into it for a short burst,

and got pulled over for speeding immediatly. 67 in a 55 netted me only a warning, and I decided to call it an night.


Saturday
- Denny and I met up around noon to make a couple passes and put a tune into the SMT6 sufficient to get me home. #43

- After I got packed up I swung by Jerrys for a last visit and get a few pics of the truck. Since Jerry's truck was dangerously low on fuel

I was going to pull in the garage next to his, but since his daughters Chevy wouldn't start to get out of the way, Jerry decided to pull

his truck out anyway. #44,45


- And since he was out anyway, he figured a quick #11 with open headers was an order #46


- And to round off the trip, when I was a mere 2 hours out of Hugo, I was pulled over for speeding again. Only 20 hrs with the new setup.

International tickets must be more paperwork, because I just got another warning. #47


Videos!

4x4 launch
In cab 2wd launch
2wd burnout, no braking

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Vince,

Keep us posted.

WOW....sounds like your having more fun than I am.

OUCH Vince! What did I miss?

quote:

Originally posted by otnielarencibia:
WOW....sounds like your having more fun than I am.

Haha, this happened 6 months ago. Look back in your help topic 'guys I need your help PLEASE ASAP...or I am walking to work again'. First thing I said was "It is extreamly important not to get in a panic and figure things are installed right and go try without checking and double checking everything, it could cost you a motor... trust me... ". This would be what I was getting at, lol.

Good luck w/ the rebuild Vince...

quote:

Originally posted by otnielarencibia:
WOW....sounds like your having more fun than I am.

otnielarencibia

This is exactly what happened to mine. Like I was telling you on the phone today.


Vince,

What new parts are you putting into your engine? Notice when you pull the pistons out how little piston there is between the top and the actual ring itself? Please tell me everything will be forged! I went with custom forged ross pistonThey double the amount of piston between the ring and the top. how many pounds of boost were you running when this happened? What # spring did you have in your waste gate?

Problem wasn't 'just' boost, it was 87 gas, superchips 91, 5# spring, and hotter plugs. Its a long story but basically the truck was laid up for a while installing the turbo with an empty tank, threw in lawnmower gas (87), forgot about the superchips (advanced the timing) and the first 2 stations I went to were out of Premium. Got impatient and put my foot into it.

Everything will be forged. Putting in a 370 with a stage III tranny, and a host of other goodies. I will put up a full list when I have more time, but I think I got most of it in the 'Whats Next' topic in General discussions.

Bastard, now I have to do something with my truck! Maybe I can break your record for most trashed engine still under its own power.

Do be sure to give all the juicy details when it's done.

This is going to be a great thread!! Keep the posts and pics coming

quote:

Originally posted by Vince:
Day Three: I went on a 2 hr parts run for the front gears (my fault, I had the 'basic install *bearing* kit' that includes 0 bearings).

Like i said when i sold them to ya, i didnt get bearings cos my truck only had 15,000kms on it. you werent listening were ya?

3 plus hours to remove a roll pin from the front differential that should have taken all but 30 seconds. What was that all about? lol

man, that is just a ugly pic of those pistons... lol

Damn! Looks like you and Denny and Jerry are going to have a lot of fun!

quote:

Originally posted by Vince:
Problem wasn't 'just' boost, it was 87 gas, superchips 91, 5# spring, and hotter plugs. Its a long story but basically the truck was laid up for a while installing the turbo with an empty tank, threw in lawnmower gas (87), forgot about the superchips (advanced the timing) and the first 2 stations I went to were out of Premium. Got impatient and put my foot into it.

SO whenever my truck decides to run right....would avoiding these things you mentioned put my pistons out of harms way?