1996 Camaro Z28 LT1 Project

[birdie2000]

Peter bought the engine from me, and when it was removed from my car the engine was running fine with no coolant leaks. Headgaskets have less than 1,000 miles on them.

[alone_and_insane]

I checked the coolant temp sensor, it wasn't leaking from there.

[alone_and_insane]

So today, I was gonna investigate if that coolant leak was indeed coming from that crossover pipe. I couldn't feel any punctures or anything like that, so I figured I would start the car, stick my hand back there, and feel if there was any coolant coming out. So I started the car, and once I stuck my head under the hood to try to reach behind the motor, I heard knocking under the hood. So I went and shut it off right away. I never heard the knocking before because the headers being so loud. I have no idea if it was doing it the whole time. But of course, by "whole time," I mean it probably ran a grand total of 4 minutes since being back in one piece. I've really only just started it a few times, never did more than idle. So I thought, "hmm, maybe I should look at the oil." So I pulled the dipstick. And basically, the oil looked like this:



Ever wonder what a Royal Purple milkshake looks like?

So wherever my coolant leak is, it's leaking coolant into the engine. I'm now fairly convinced that the leak I saw before was the coolant literally coming out of the header. I'm really at a loss for words...all the time, effort, and money I've put into this thing in the last 10 months, all for naught. I'm literally at square one.

[nascarnate326]

is all I can say.

[BP_Z28]

ddaammnnn that sucks dude!

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[nascarnate326]

Were the heads ported at all?

[birdie2000]

Yes

[FASHOOTER]

That sucks peter! Don't give up shit happens pull that thing and fix it.......If it was easy everybody would have a Bad Ass Ride!

[FASHOOTER]

Updates?

[alone_and_insane]

haven't touched it. I've been trying to get the Mazda ready for the MSU Car Show. Once that's over, I'll get back to it.

[alone_and_insane]

So yesterday, my dad and I spent the whole day tearing this thing back apart. Long story short, we got the head off, and here's what we found:



So yeah, the head's pretty much FUBAR. If you look closely, see how there's an inflection in the light by the water sleeve? That's where the water was getting into the cylinder.

I plucked this piece of debris out of the head. What do you think? My theory is a piece of piston ring, it looked to me like it used to be flat, round, and thin at one point in time. But hey, what do I know.







So yeah...literally back at square one. Not a good feeling. Not at all. All that time and money spent on the motor and on the car over the past 11 months, all for naught.

[meissen]

Damn Peter... very sorry to hear.

[nascarnate326]

Shitty...very shitty.

5.3 ls time?

[JoeliusZ28]

Original bottom end? Any score marks in the cylinder walls?

Considering total runtime was a total of 4 minutes, i think its very possible there was a foreign object in there from the start

[dawdaw]

Is this the short block out of Ryans old 355? GM steel crank, scat I beams, 4 valve relief speed pro's?


Sorry to hear, refresh it and start again. Shit happens all part of owning a car.