swflastang05's build thread

[Johnf78]

Congrats! Nice work!

 

[swflastang05]

Thanks for all the congrats, that's awesome to see. My celebration has been cut short however, as usual. I was giving my motor a good once over to make sure everything is in order after running it the other night and I found the oil level was high and the coolant tank was empty, again so now I gotta figure this out. This motor has always been a little thirsty for coolant, I've always added a little bit once in a while, I was pretty sure the missing coolant was not getting into the crank case since I checked the oil level constantly so I wasn't too concerned about it but now there's a very significant leak, so much I filled the coolant tank up about 1/3 of the way last night and by tonight it almost all drained down again, even with the motor not running at all, just sitting there. That being said hopefully the problem will be obvious and easy to find. I do want to approach it smart this time, rather than just tear into it and hope the problem jumps out at me, I'm not quite sure exactly how I'm going to do that yet but that's what I'm thinking. All the plugs looked great except #7, the small electrode end was missing on that one, not the ground strap just the little button that comes out the porcelain. I did a compression test on that one and it's fine, the same reading it's always had so I don't think that's related. I guess I'll do compression and leak down tests on all cylinders before I pull it out, I was thinking maybe I could drop the oil pan and pressurize the cooling system to see where the leak is coming from, how it's getting into the pan. Or I may just pull it and do that on the motor stand somehow, IDK.

This sucks but I know it comes with the territory so that's okay, I just want to know 100% sure what the problem is, why it happened and what to do to ensure it doesn't happen again. I know what I'll be doing this weekend, and it wont be going to the track..

 

[weather man]

Fudge.

 

[swflastang05]

Fudge.

Yep that pretty much sums it up lol. I know head gaskets don't fail very often on these motors but that's one of my suspects, blocks don't usually break either but I managed to fubar one of those last time, we shall see.

 

[skwerl]

I only ran at Bradenton 4 times and I broke my car there twice. I know most guys like the track but it was bad news for me. Good luck finding the cause of your leak.

 

[swflastang05]

I only ran at Bradenton 4 times and I broke my car there twice. I know most guys like the track but it was bad news for me. Good luck finding the cause of your leak.

Lots of cars broke there that night, including the camaro in front of me in the video I posted above, that's why they pushed it back off the starting line. I try not to be superstitious but dammit man!

 

[lskiller]

Sorry to hear about that! It sounds like a cracked head to me but with that much coolant disappearing I'm not sure what to think of it. Good luck with it in any event.

 

[travelers]

That sucks, I hope it's not anything major.

 

[darrens07gt]

I only ran at Bradenton 4 times and I broke my car there twice. I know most guys like the track but it was bad news for me. Good luck finding the cause of your leak.

Lots of cars broke there that night, including the camaro in front of me in the video I posted above, that's why they pushed it back off the starting line. I try not to be superstitious but dammit man!

When I started modding my old LS1 Trans Am I absolutely fell in love with the track. I would go at least twice a month and make 8-12 passes each time I went. Never broke anything except my previous best ET's, LOL. That was when I was running low 12's with just bolt-ons. I was slow but having a lot of fun being slow! And ironically I won 95% of the races because most of my competition on test N tune nights was kids running 13's and 14's or people running cars with more power then traction.

But I wanted to be fast like the big dogs on the forums so I kept modding until I was running mid 11's NA. Then I added N20 so I could spray into the 10's. That was when the track became less fun since I was running to nothing but problems with my 10 bolt and had more broken transmissions then I care to admit to. Maybe I was considered fast at that point but I was towing my car half the time and losing races left and right. My car spent as much time broken as it did running it seemed.

I realized that I had much more fun when I was a low 12 second car then I ever had when I was a 10 second car. I am keeping this car below 400 RWHP so I can hopefully enjoy it for a long time to come with little to no down time.


Good luck with your car and GRATS on your new personal all time best ET and Trap!

 

[swflastang05]

When I started modding my old LS1 Trans Am I absolutely fell in love with the track. I would go at least twice a month and make 8-12 passes each time I went. Never broke anything except my previous best ET's, LOL. That was when I was running low 12's with just bolt-ons. I was slow but having a lot of fun being slow! And ironically I won 95% of the races because most of my competition on test N tune nights was kids running 13's and 14's or people running cars with more power then traction.

But I wanted to be fast like the big dogs on the forums so I kept modding until I was running mid 11's NA. Then I added N20 so I could spray into the 10's. That was when the track became less fun since I was running to nothing but problems with my 10 bolt and had more broken transmissions then I care to admit to. Maybe I was considered fast at that point but I was towing my car half the time and losing races left and right. My car spent as much time broken as it did running it seemed.

I realized that I had much more fun when I was a low 12 second car then I ever had when I was a 10 second car. I am keeping this car below 400 RWHP so I can hopefully enjoy it for a long time to come with little to no down time.


Good luck with your car and GRATS on your new personal all time best ET and Trap!

I hear you, and tried to be "cool". I had a 9 second Fox body car back in the 90's, sold it to buy my first home, regretted it ever since. I went without a hotrod for several years then bought my current GT used but it already had some nice bolt ons including a P1SC-1 centri and exhaust. I added some minor stuff here and there and tweaked that combo for a while and it was fun, it ran 11.7x - 11.8x times but finally I couldn't stand it anymore, I had to go fast again and here I am! I have no regrets this time, it's fun as can be running fast, get's my blood pumpin' again. It's been a long time and I missed it, glad to be back even with running into problems sometimes, it happens. Each time improvements are made and we come out ahead in the long run. the wheels in my head are already turning..what if there's damage when I tear the motor down this weekend...hmm...what upgrades will I do? Billet rods??? more compression?? LOL

 

[swflastang05]

Okay I pulled the motor this morning then pressurized the cooling system while on the stand with the oil pan off to find the leak. I found it alright, it's coming from the D shape oil return holes at the very top of the crank case in the block.





I pulled the heads and didn't see anything out of the ordinary with the gaskets, etc. With the leak coming from those holes I don't see how if could be anything other than a broke block. I'm open for suggestions but that's my theory. This block had a lot of yellow corrosion in the water passages when I got it, I didn't think anything of it but perhaps there was corrosion eating away at the water jacket walls that finally failed when I leaned hard on the motor last weekend.

Time to explore some options.

 

[weather man]

JDM has a really, really nice block for sale!

http://www.s197forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=126489

 

[swflastang05]

Yea right, way too much for my budget! If I was gonna spend that much I just go with a Coyote and be done lol.

 

[travelers]

Sqidd has a block for sale, check it.

 

[swflastang05]

Sqidd has a block for sale, check it.

I'm looking into that one thanks. There is a chance it might not be the block after all, it still could be a head gasket that failed around one of the 6 oil drain back holes. I need to work on it more. Might be able to dodge the bullet on this after all. If that's the case I'll probably just upgrade to billet rods, re-balance, mill the deck and heads, put a fresh finish on the cylinders and put it back together. All the bearing are perfect, just like the day I installed them.

 

[travelers]

Can you look up there with a bore scope and see it with it pressurized?

 

[swflastang05]

I have the RA disassembled from the block now, when I receive the head gaskets I ordered I'm planning to reinstall the heads without the RA then re-pressurize the cooling system and see if it's still leaking or not. This will confirm 100% if it's the block or gaskets. If it's still leaking hopefully I'll be able to see from where without the RA in the way, otherwise if it's not leaking anymore I'll know it was just a gasket failure. It sucks to waste a pair of head gaskets but would suck more to waste time and money re-machining the block only to have it leak again, or to waste time and money on a new block for no reason. Hopefully I will know for sure within the next few days. And yes, a bore scope will fit inside the oil drain back holes, I don't have one but maybe I can pick up a cheap one from Harbor Freight this week.

 

[JUSTA3V]

Which gaskets are you going with ?

 

[05stroker]

I have the RA disassembled from the block now, when I receive the head gaskets I ordered I'm planning to reinstall the heads without the RA then re-pressurize the cooling system and see if it's still leaking or not. This will confirm 100% if it's the block or gaskets. If it's still leaking hopefully I'll be able to see from where without the RA in the way, otherwise if it's not leaking anymore I'll know it was just a gasket failure. It sucks to waste a pair of head gaskets but would suck more to waste time and money re-machining the block only to have it leak again, or to waste time and money on a new block for no reason. Hopefully I will know for sure within the next few days.

Take the failed gaskets apart and coat them with copper coat and torque them down test or buy some cheap head gaskets of any bore. That way you don't ruin the overbore gaskets in the process.

 

[swflastang05]

Which gaskets are you going with ?

This time I will try FelPro 26308PT and 26309PT, these are basically the same as OEM gaskets.

Take the failed gaskets apart and coat them with copper coat and torque them down test or buy some cheap head gaskets of any bore. That way you don't ruin the overbore gaskets in the process.

I found some gaskets at Rock Auto for $27 each! Coincidentally they're the same model L&M Engines uses and recommended and are on closeout sale so I ordered two pairs. They're actually 3.620 bore (L&M measured a set he had at his shop for me to confirm) so they should be good to go for my motor. Thanks for the suggestion,