92k lt1 is block ok for heads and cam?

**RollingD** · 04-23-2010, 05:40 PM

I got the rear seal put together, put one of the heads on, then decided i wanted to do the oil pan before the other head. I took my timing cover over to the weld shop nextdoor and the guy was like superman with a torch. He filled in the water pump drive gear hole and ground it flat to a picture perfect finish. I got my timing cover on with a few annoyances but nothing too bad. Oil pump went on fine and I had to buy a new pickup tube, whatever. The windage tray was a problem. I had to beat the shit out of it with a hammer to make it clear the rods. After that I put my pan on and oh my F@#KING GOD I had a horrible day. I spent like 5 hours installing and removing my oil pan only to hear a little *clink* sound when turning the crank. Each time I would hammer out some clearance and I cut out a huge chunk of the windage tray thats part of the stock oil pan. With seemingly one more bit of clearance to make I took a look at the oil pan....holy crap. It looks like a piece of shit. Why would I put that on my motor when I've got over 6k invested in it. So I guess I now have to buy an oil pan, I'm looking at the moroso 20185. My only stipulations is it needs to clear the rods in all areas on a 383, thats all I care about and I don't want to pay 500 for an oil pan. So the question is, will the moroso 20185 fit with a 3.75 stroke and 6 inch rods and do I need to buy a new oil pump or windage tray or any of that crap. What do I do, I'm feeling very defeated.

**RollingD** · 04-24-2010, 01:28 PM

Sweet jebus I am retarded. I installed the timing cover, water pump, opti and went to put the crank hub on and.....forgot about the reluctor ring. I hope I can save those gaskets but I seriously doubt it. Well tomorrow will be fun...

As for the oil pan I still don't know. I found out canton, moroso, and milodon all make pans that are supposed to fit. The canton pan requires shimming the motor mounts, but I've got poly mounts so maybe I won't need to. The milodon doesn't have a provision for the oil level sensor...don't really want to lose that. And the moroso...I forgot what it needs but something. I might get the canton pan but I'll be doing some more research tonight. Any feedback appreciated as always.

**RollingD** · 04-28-2010, 10:16 PM

Well, I've solved so many problems and this whole project has been a big learning experience. Somehow...I've failed to listen to sage advice I've heard repeated over and over again. I bought my new shiny parts and went in to put everything together. I installed a crank key and test fitted my new crank hub I bought from jegs just using the bolt to install it. You'll never guess what happened! Somehow the f**king ARP bolt decided to cross thread in the crank shaft and got stuck. I wasn't even turning it hard!!! When I went to take it out it said hell na and got completely stuck. I tried going in a little and coming out just messing with it but noooo it was done. At this point it was over and it had to come out somehow, so I got an impact on it. Oh my god....impact has no effect whatsoever, not even a budge. I had to get a big ass breaker bar and a pry bar in one of the counter weights which left some good gouges (damnit >.<), and she started turning out. I got about 1/2 turn in and POW!!! snapped bolt. So now I have an ARP 190000 psi bolt crossthreaded and snapped in half in my brand fking new 383 stroker crank. Hooorraaaayy!!! I bought a $100 set of cobalt drill bits today and tomorrow I guess I'll find out if I'm lucky. I hate my life....I was soooo close. The lesson here is listen to the salty mechanics....they really DO know what they're talking about. Please god let me save this crankshaft T_T.

**5.0THIS** · 04-28-2010, 11:08 PM

Yeah that's about the worst thing you could have done. Have fun with it. At this point the motor will likely have to come apart all the way.

**Smittro** · 04-29-2010, 04:45 AM

Originally Posted by 5.0THIS

Yeah that's about the worst thing you could have done. Have fun with it. At this point the motor will likely have to come apart all the way.

This..

The crank needs to come out and be repaired/rethreaded. Sounds like possibly the wrong thread pitch on the bolt maybe the cause. I would have a professional repair the crank rather than taking the old drill to it. Because if you break a bit off in it or drill off center you risk ruining the crank which will require it to be removed as well. Sounds like maybe you need to slow down a bit bud.. Don't take any of this as a personal attack because it's not. Use a sharpie to number the rod caps and put a mark along one side between rod caps and con rods that way everything goes back together the way it was. Good luck.

**5.0THIS** · 04-29-2010, 02:51 PM

The crank may already be ruined. Best case scenario you may have to put a helicoil in it.

**Smittro** · 04-29-2010, 07:45 PM

I would have the crank @ a machine shop for a redrill and new threads before I'd ever use a heli coil on it. But that's just me and my .02..

**5.0THIS** · 04-30-2010, 01:30 PM

Originally Posted by Smittro

I would have the crank @ a machine shop for a redrill and new threads before I'd ever use a heli coil on it. But that's just me and my .02..

I wouldnt. I dont want to remove any more material from the crank than I have to. I've had to use one in the past (in a jam)... and it worked fine. Although if I had a choice in this situation I'd probably replace the crank, one way or the other.

**RollingD** · 04-30-2010, 07:43 PM

Man you guys are some negative nancy's. I already took the drill to it though out of impatience so...too late. And yes I did screw it up my hole was slightly off center, 1 point for you guys. I barely got into the threads on one side and I ran the tap through it and it chunked out the rest of the bolt. Apparently it bottomed out and mushroomed at the tip...or something like that. Anyway I had left side half threads and right side good threads so the hole was screwed. I took it to the most backwoods machine shop I've ever been to and gomer pile fixed it sitting in the bed of the truck I brought the motor in. All he did was tap it to the next size...I could've done that. Either way it works so whatever, he charged me 20 bucks and I'm back up and running with my project--10 points. Take that you naysayers

And just throwing it out there the pickup canton makes for their oil pan is a really nice piece. Its got a bracket welded on that bolts to the pump, and a little welded piece for you to hammer on to get it in. SO much easier than dealing with a stock pickup.

**5.0THIS** · 05-01-2010, 11:37 PM

It's not negativity, it's advice that comes from building many SBC motors. I'm glad it was salvagable, but make no mistake, it was pure luck.

**jiveass** · 05-02-2010, 04:14 AM

why the hell are there no pictures in this thread??? do it!!!!!

**RollingD** · 05-03-2010, 12:26 AM

Dude's got a point. Aye sir. This is where I'm at right now, valve covers aren't actually installed they are just sitting there to keep stuff out while I'm working. Everything else is pretty much what you see.

from the front

from the rear

**jiveass** · 05-03-2010, 06:18 AM

nice!!...you gonna do any paint on the intake or valve covers to spice it up?...when i had my lt1 bird, i painted the fins on the intake orange and matched the valve covers..it looked purty cool...one thing i had hell with was when i was removing the engine, that damn coolant line that goes from the back of the drivers side head broke off....anyways nice job..keep the pics comin...and some of the car too!!

**RollingD** · 05-03-2010, 04:38 PM

I'm fairly lazy and I'm a function over form kinda guy so...probably no on the paint. Unless one of my lackeys takes it upon himself to paint it for me I'm not gonna, he loves that stuff so he might. As for pictures of the car I can't seem to find any. I only recently started bringing my camera with me places and actually using it. My buddy snaps pictures a lot so he might have some, I'll see. If not you'll have to wait till everything is done as its fairly disgusting looking and I can't take it anywhere to wash it with no motor =/

**jiveass** · 05-04-2010, 03:34 AM

Originally Posted by RollingD

I'm fairly lazy and I'm a function over form kinda guy so...probably no on the paint. Unless one of my lackeys takes it upon himself to paint it for me I'm not gonna, he loves that stuff so he might. As for pictures of the car I can't seem to find any. I only recently started bringing my camera with me places and actually using it. My buddy snaps pictures a lot so he might have some, I'll see. If not you'll have to wait till everything is done as its fairly disgusting looking and I can't take it anywhere to wash it with no motor =/

ok....well at least get a video when youre done...i wanna hear the rumble

**RollingD** · 05-15-2010, 04:28 PM

what the hell man....even stuff thats supposed to work doesn't. I got tall valve covers to clear the valvetrain and the alternator doesn't fit anymore. So I found out about the zoops bracket that makes it go up a little higher. But it still doesn't friggin clear. Pretty much everything is connected right now besides that. Tomorrow I have a few odds and ends to include adding and bleeding fluids, putting the shifter and interior back together, the airbox on, an exhaust clamp I broke etc. The main thing is gonna be that alternator.....I guess I'm taking it to the grindstone unless someone has a better idea.

**bigrondownhiller** · 05-15-2010, 05:26 PM

You can make the stock valve covers fit. Just have to trim out the baffles to clear the valvetrain.

**RollingD** · 05-20-2010, 02:22 PM

Even with those long ARP rocker studs and tall polylocks for the pro mags? Because right now its looking like I have no other option whatsoever. I did the grinding the alternator trick, and it didn't fit. Then I took a cutting wheel to it and mangled it down until there was only important things to cut, and it STILL didn't fit. Then I got a powermaster alternator that has the same mount pattern but with a much smaller housing, and IT DOESN"T FIT even with the zoop bracket. So my choices are... see it the stock ones fit or buy the canton ones? This is getting seriously annoying, I haven't started my car yet because of an alternator.

**RollingD** · 06-02-2010, 04:04 PM

Its been a while since I posted anything and I haven't been working as hard either. But I've made some real progress now. I ended up having to buy the canton fabricated covers and cork gaskets for them and I was able to use my stock alternator no problem. I found a belt to work with the underdrive pulley after a couple of tries. I got it started and had a coolant leak so shut it down and fixed that. I still have a coolant leak apparently, though its a very small one. There is a pinhole in the radiator near the cap, I'm guessing jbweld will fix that? I hope anyhow. So anyways it idles at about 1000-1100, which it has always done for some reason, and holds steady. Its got a pretty impressive rumble for such a high idle too, I'll get a video soon. I still have problems though, mostly with the fact that its untuned. If I can get it running it idles just fine, but once I shut it off the plugs are fouled and I have to give it gas to start and hold the revs at 1500+ for a minute or two to burn off the fuel. So untuned its just running rich. The other more annoying problem which is keeping me from limping it anywhere is that I'm overheating. The fans aren't cutting on and I don't know why. I'm about at the point to say screw it and let the tuners fix it but I know it would amp up the bill. Is there a way to diagnose this problem without having to have the engine running?

**RollingD** · 06-04-2010, 07:54 PM

Well that didn't go too well. The guys at the hobby shop helped me out and brought out a diagnostic tool and printed out some schematics and such. We found out the coolant temp sensor is working just fine and the fuses and relays are good. He jumped the sensor to make the computer think it was like 400 degrees so it would cut the fans on and it wouldn't. The computer read the outraegous degree number but wouldn't turn it on. I checked the grounds from the computer to the relays and the wires are good. So...apparently my computer is bad. Weak. We wired up a ghetto manual fan switch under the hood so I could limp it home but I couldn't keep it running, every time I tried to move it would die as soon as the rpm's dropped. I have a few codes: random misfire, bank 1 sensor 1 o2, evap system and egr. I suppose all these things may contribute to the bad running but maybe its just that I need the tune and a new computer =/