Tips and tricks after engine work

[Witt51]

So I've been taking my time rebuilding my engine after a "reputable" shop took my money and I got less than a thousand miles out of it. So I had the idea of taking this on myself so I can't blame anyone else and I know I will take my time. This is my first removal/teardown /rebuild /install of any car engine. I had to watch lots of videos, do research and books. I have no one mechanically inclined to help me.

So right now I have the engine in, new clutch installed and transmission on a stand ready to be installed.

Right now at this point I see the light at the end of tunnel and it has me extremely nervous for start-up. So at this point I want look everything over real close and make sure I catch it before it's too late. So I'm reaching out to all the experts and people with experience for some tips, tricks and things that I should double check or things that have came back to bite them in the butt.

Thanks everyone




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[zz430camaro]

It is nerve racking firing up any engine you rebuild. If you measured everything and torqued everthing correctly it will all go well. Make sure you have all the fluids in and all the hoses are tight. Don't rig anything just to fire it up, no short cuts. Obviously make sure it has oil pressure once it fires and does not make any #ucked up noises. Thats about all you can do man!

Its nice to fire up fuel injected engines cause you are not screwing around with carb settings and timing like we used to back in the day.

If you have any pics of the build we would love to see them! What are the specs on this engine?

[frankwjr]

You can do the hold the gas pedal to the floor while cranking option. This prevents the car from starting but does pump oil. I did this after installing my cam, cranked for about 4-5 sec. Then went straight to startup.


Hopefully you soaked the lifters and timing chain before install, and of course proper assembly lube where required.


Good luck!


peace

[Witt51]

I didn't know that. I will screen shot that put it in my reference material.

Thank you I will try it. Ya I soaked lifters and used assembly lube and oil on chain, cam, rocker arms and valve springs. Pretty much every thing. Ive been pretty anal about that.

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[Witt51]

Originally Posted by zz430camaro

It is nerve racking firing up any engine you rebuild. If you measured everything and torqued everthing correctly it will all go well. Make sure you have all the fluids in and all the hoses are tight. Don't rig anything just to fire it up, no short cuts. Obviously make sure it has oil pressure once it fires and does not make any #ucked up noises. Thats about all you can do man!

Its nice to fire up fuel injected engines cause you are not screwing around with carb settings and timing like we used to back in the day.

If you have any pics of the build we would love to see them! What are the specs on this engine?

I have a stock block and bottom end, wiesco domed pistons, btr stage 2 cam 225/238 113 612/586 lift, tsp headers, stock heads shaved. 030. and mcleod rst clutch.

This is same setup I had and reused a lot of parts since I caught the damage so early. All the parts were inspected at the machine shop. They just had to polish the crank, hone the cylinders and install new bearings. I replaced the lifters also.

I'm not a fan of this cam. I feel it doesn't pull hard like the others I have had. It dyno at 470 on a Mustang dyno and with the tsp 231/236 cam it dyno at 507 on dyno jet.







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[Witt51]

Originally Posted by zz430camaro

It is nerve racking firing up any engine you rebuild. If you measured everything and torqued everthing correctly it will all go well. Make sure you have all the fluids in and all the hoses are tight. Don't rig anything just to fire it up, no short cuts. Obviously make sure it has oil pressure once it fires and does not make any #ucked up noises. Thats about all you can do man!

Its nice to fire up fuel injected engines cause you are not screwing around with carb settings and timing like we used to back in the day.

If you have any pics of the build we would love to see them! What are the specs on this engine?

I've been very careful on what I did and measured everything, torqued it and then went back through and checked the torque then marking every bolt with a marker so I know it was torqued right. I shimmed the oil pump when I installed it.

Since this is my first time doing all this I still have this doubt in my head that I was off on something. I've had some bad luck with this car. Lol. I worked on helicopters for 15 years and have installed hundreds of turbine engines and fired them up with out any doubt in my head. My car is different though

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[zz430camaro]

Originally Posted by Witt51

I've been very careful on what I did and measured everything, torqued it and then went back through and checked the torque then marking every bolt with a marker so I know it was torqued right. I shimmed the oil pump when I installed it.

Since this is my first time doing all this I still have this doubt in my head that I was off on something. I've had some bad luck with this car. Lol. I worked on helicopters for 15 years and have installed hundreds of turbine engines and fired them up with out any doubt in my head. My car is different though

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Its gonna be fine. Was it cammed before? Is it already tuned for the combo?

[Witt51]

Originally Posted by zz430camaro

Its gonna be fine. Was it cammed before? Is it already tuned for the combo?

That was a question I had also. Yes it was cammed and tune for this setup. I didn't know if I had to get the tune checked or adjusted?

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[marklsx]

I would prime the oil system. Here is a video by melling showing how to do it:



A nice Melling pressurized primer ($$$) will prelube the whole engine. You can also get creative and make your own primer out of a garden sprayer.


Or just prime the pump by pouring some oil into the system with a funnel and rubber hose.

[Witt51]

Originally Posted by marklsx

I would prime the oil system. Here is a video by melling showing how to do it:



A nice Melling pressurized primer ($$$) will prelube the whole engine. You can also get creative and make your own primer out of a garden sprayer.


Or just prime the pump by pouring some oil into the system with a funnel and rubber hose.

By taking the plug off on the side? I was going to do that but I would need to pull the alternator off to get to the plug. I was looking at that today and a way to get to it that would be easier

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[zz430camaro]

Originally Posted by Witt51

That was a question I had also. Yes it was cammed and tune for this setup. I didn't know if I had to get the tune checked or adjusted?

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If it was tuned already and you are running the same cam and other bolt on parts the tune should be fine, assuming it ran OK with that tune and the engine failed because of mechanical reasons. If you can swing it, it might not be a bad idea to get it dynoed to make sure it putting out what it should. Or if it was tuned by the shop that $ucked it up originally, may want to have it retuned by some good people.

I do like the idea of priming the oil system like showed above if you can but its not necessary. If you used assembly lube on all the bearings and cam then you dont really need to do that unless you really want to. Remember if you dont have all the right shit to do that you might @uck something up like get crap in the system.LOL

Just make sure to fill up the oil filter with oil before you screw it on too! Let it sit and keep filling it up till it wont take anymore, its amazing how much it settles when you let it sit for a couple minutes.

The lifters will clatter a little bit after its fired (even if you soaked them) but should go away quickly.

The best advice I can give is what I said earlier, take your time putting it back together, don't rush and take short cuts just to hear it run.

[Witt51]

Originally Posted by zz430camaro

If it was tuned already and you are running the same cam and other bolt on parts the tune should be fine, assuming it ran OK with that tune and the engine failed because of mechanical reasons. If you can swing it, it might not be a bad idea to get it dynoed to make sure it putting out what it should. Or if it was tuned by the shop that $ucked it up originally, may want to have it retuned by some good people.

I do like the idea of priming the oil system like showed above if you can but its not necessary. If you used assembly lube on all the bearings and cam then you dont really need to do that unless you really want to. Remember if you dont have all the right shit to do that you might @uck something up LOL

Just make sure to fill up the oil filter with oil before you screw it on too! Let it sit and keep filling it up till it wont take anymore, its amazing how much it settles when you let it sit for a couple minutes.

The lifters will clatter a little bit after its fired (even if you soaked them) but should go away quickly.

The best advice I can give is what I said earlier, take your time putting it back together, don't rush and take short cuts just to hear it run.

https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?url...1&share_type=t

Here is the thread we talked about what's wrong. Russell James explains what happens. They never bled the coolant system and the engine sees its running hot and dumped fuel in during break in/dyno runs. Put too much fuel in the oil and it lost its lubrication properties. The machine shop verified this by what he saw. They also inspected the cam and polished it up and said it was good.

Also my wife made this into a budget build after I spent 10k and the shop had the car 9 months and I only drove it a month or 2. That's big reason I hope nothing goes wrong. She will donate it to Kars for kids.

Also I installed the oil filter already and filled it up like you said.

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[zz430camaro]

When I filled my cooling system I put the back tires on the ground and raised up the front end to put the radiator cap even higher up than the lowest point. Filled it up and let it sit over night and then topped it off, also made sure the overflow was full too. After i started it and checked it a couple times after I never had to add anything or bleed it. I did check the cooling system capacity and made sure I had about that much in there, its like 2.75 gallons.

[Witt51]

When all that crap happened I pulled the heads off to look. Of course there was oil all over the pistons but when I put heads on I did the samething. Never had an issue. I'm getting ready to finish up the cooling system and I think I'm going to do it like you said.

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