The Butchers Toll: Over all analysis for newbies

[TerribleTed]

So this newbie is finalizing his data..and here it goes,.,,

The butchers toll is (1 bent push rod and 2 bent intake valves)..

The story begins the day after I did anb R/R of an alternator and found myself enjoying the road ways,,,then a race insured,,sort of,,and I screwed the pooch by downshifting to many gears and wack o jacko,,,that motor then did vibrate a different way its not supposed too, that gear shift knob swayed back and forth,,,and I almost cried,,since I thought I killed my baby,,the stock 2000 z28 that she is,,well almost stock..

So the P0300 code came on and that was the start of my adventures.

I replaced all the push rods since I could find a new set for 20 bucks- this did not take care of the problem totally. Being not to smart-I decided to take the car into a hi tech ls1 based repair place-figuring that as they said-they would do a full compression test and total dump pc pc codes. I thought for 100 bucks why not-they did say they would be able to tell the if a certain cylinder had firing issues based upon the cpu code dump and a comp check.

They said I had 1 cylinder with 20 lbs of pressure.,..that being cyl #1.

So being a lazy and scared azz-I only removed the one cylinder head and did find the bent vavle by using the only known mehod I new of (full up the intake runners with water-all of them and see if the one you suspect leaks-of which mine did. So I removed this valve and spun it in a drill and walla is was bent,,,

So I bought a new intake valve and also some lapping compound kit and lapped my valve. This was easy since I had many many MANY years experience with lapping my own pleasure valve as a kid-so doing it to a real valve was second nature.

So after the valve lapping and cleaning ritual of all carbon deposits from chamber areas etc...I installed the single cylinder head and all the other stuff,,
(Thanks to LS1HowTo data) I cant say enough of that web site,,yum yum data it contains.

So it was all back together,,,and I fired it up.,..it was beter,,but still the P0300 code,,,so I got to thinking,,did that shop truly test all 8 cylinders for compression,,,or not,,,(So I did my own comp check and found another cylinder with no pressure)

So to the shop I went,,its called MSI and its in Roseville, California-the owner named Terri was there. I asked him to read his techs data print out of his analysis and asked him DID THEY test all 8 cylinders,,,of which he said no,,
They frecking removed all 8 plugs,.,,tested cylinder number 1 found it to have low compression and they then stopped with there analysis.

I almost went bizurk n that store,,,

So I told him of my findings,,he kinda laughed,( (paybacks shall be a bitch Terri I assure you),,,in ---house" you shall come to understand what that means))

anyway back to my story,,

So never trust anyone to do a compression check-imagine they miss a cylinder. So if you do your own check at least you know for sure all cylinders are done,,

Anyway,,,,so what did I do next,,tear it all apart again to get to the otehr cylinder head,,,and basically did the same.,.leak check and verify,,,intale valve in the dril to see it wobble,and install of new intake valve and lap up,,,clean up,,install and then fired it up,,

Now she purrs so much nicer,,,I even think that because I cleaned the tops of my pistons and ports and chambers of all carbon deposits that the new fire she has in her equated to a few more HP.

So what did I learn that other newbies lilke me can learn and apply,,

1-dont downshift 2 many gears and screw the poch
2-if you have a P0300 code-do a full compression check first so as not to waste time wondering whats wrong-if its mechanical and valve train caused the compression check will tell all
3-Using the help of this web site and LSIhowto was the real charm maker since I was scared to remove my heads etc,,,but I did them both and all is well now
4-replacing the heads with a new set would have been nice but I have a car that has great power and as a daily driver is fine with me to have simply fixed it with 2 intake valved and a push rod...
5-if you remove your water pump place it in a bucket of water if you plan on leaving your car apart for more than a few days-so the seals in it wont dry out-i had to replace my water pump due to this I think since it was bery new

Total cost of parts lke under 120 bucks,,gaskets,,head bolts, 2 valves

[sunsetorangess]

Geez, Sorry shop, Atleast it all worked out in the end, the reason i became a mechanic is because i got ripped off when i was like 15, Fix it right the first time and dont do it half butted...
J