It was a trip from hell wish I had made it intact for the Goshen GTG!

Nose is resting in a Marina storage yard in Michigan city IN. I pulled the Rochester before I came back to Clinton, took it over to the local hot rod shop, he did a test on his 350 test engine, said the Quatrajet was fine, idle and run all in good shape, over heat did not affect it.

So I just bought a new set of wires and plugs, going over to Indiana in a week or two to change out those.

I just hope I did not bend any push rods or burn a valve. The marina mechanic said it was not smoking, just sounded like it was missing on a couple of cylinders. I drove it 50 miles after the heat incident, it did run cool about 90C and did not use oil, but sounded like it was going to quit the whole trip. Missing and backfiring. I still need to figure out why it is breaking fan belts all of a sudden.

I am getting to the point where Nose and I might need to part company, we do not seem to be a good partnership.

The only thing i can think of that would cause belts to start breaking would be pulley alignment may have gotten changed by bad bearings or possibly brackets coming loose . Also check the harmonic balancer to see if it is coming apart , I've had that happen too.

Hopefully there is no internal engine damage . The heat is hard on the spark plug wires , that could be it. You might inspect the distributor cap and rotor while you are there .

quote:

Originally posted by Harold,Cat&Sam:
The only thing i can think of that would cause belts to start breaking would be pulley alignment may have gotten changed by bad bearings or possibly brackets coming loose . Also check the harmonic balancer to see if it is coming apart , I've had that happen too.

Hopefully there is no internal engine damage . The heat is hard on the spark plug wires , that could be it. You might inspect the distributor cap and rotor while you are there .

Great Idea about the ole stribbi and internals,,,Thanks!!!

Duane it was good to see you the other day even without the Nose.

What a pita lately. As mentioned, check alignment carefully. GM used 2 belt, 3 belt, and more than one 4 belt setup on the big blocks. There might be a wrong bracket someone cobbled in.

I would check the alternator loading. If you start the engine, and run it a few minutes, on a fresh battery there should be very little load on that belt.

Try starting and check bat voltage. Shut off, remove wire from alternator check voltage again. Almost seems like you have a hard load on that belt all the time...

Does the belt drive your fan? Is the fan clutch working maybe dragging the fan too much?

good luck, take care my friend.

quote:

posted 06-21-2019 04:07 PM
It was a trip from hell wish I had made it intact for the Goshen GTG!

Sorry, Duane.

Well at least I did pick up the fridge, and got to say hello to a bunch of Barth and ex-Barth folks, what a great Group...

I made the trip to Michigan City yesterday, got the Nose all wired up with new plugs and spark plug wires, had the Rochester checked, it is fine, new distributor. It is a 3+ hour trip one way, so I never have much time if I want to return to Iowa the same day. Plus the yard closes at 4pm.

Fired the 454 up it was not good! I had to increase the idle just to keep it running, it ran better than it did when I moved it to this boat yard but, lots of weird noise and a bit of a miss at idle speed. I begged the Mechanic at the yard to come over and give it a listen. I thought I might have a loose spark plug wire, funny I pulled off the wires one at a time and only one of them seemed to make significant change in the idle. So that is weird. The Mechanic thinks it is in the valve train, perhaps a (or some) burnt valve(s), or a bent valve stem that is not letting it seat properly. I got a bit pressed for time so I skipped the compression test, when I had the plugs out. I need to do that before I go further wonder what news that will yield. Does not seem to be excess smoke out the exhaust and the oil pressure is over 50 at idle, goes up at higher RPM. Cooling is good too.

So I know that SteveVW did a head and cam change with the engine in place on his new crate engine, anyone care to voice an opinion. Should ole Nose join the parts yard? Curious if I remove them how much should it be to have the heads skimmed and valves ground or replaced. New springs might be a good idea too.

New Valves, springs, Head bolts and a complete upper gasket set is about $200 from Rockauto.com. I wonder how much the machine shop would want.

Compression check first. Worst problem will be getting exhaust manifold bolts out. If you break them a good machine shop should have no trouble removing them. Should run you about $350.00 a pair + parts for head work.

quote:

Originally posted by Doorman:
Compression check first. Worst problem will be getting exhaust manifold bolts out. If you break them a good machine shop should have no trouble removing them. Should run you about $350.00 a pair + parts for head work.

So true I had the passenger side exhaust off about a year ago broke 4 of the bolts in the process. The drivers side is probably going to give me the same trouble. But at least I will have the head off the engine for that repair.

So with parts the whole repair should (might) be less than $600 if the machine shop will use my parts from Rockauto.

I had a chat with my local mechanic and friend, his concern was that the overheat did the compression rings in. I thought I would see a lot of blue smoke from the crankcase ventilation if that were case. If that is a fact ole Nose is a done dog. When I do the compression check if all the cylinders or many anyway have low readings I assume the rings are toast! Any further opinions?

Replacing rings with the engine in place, is that even a possibility??

My old stock car partner machine shop does highly rated work. He treats me fair for work. I have been lucky not to need him for several years. Went from cars to MX racing with my son. I tell him it is his inheritance we are spending. Now that he come of age it his retirement that he spending now.

quote:

Originally posted by Duane88:

Replacing rings with the engine in place, is that even a possibility??

Depends on what you have to remove to get the pan off and out of the way.
Good luck!

quote:

Originally posted by Doorman:
My old stock car partner machine shop does highly rated work. He treats me fair for work. I have been lucky not to need him for several years. Went from cars to MX racing with my son. I tell him it is his inheritance we are spending. Now that he come of age it his retirement that he spending now.

Oh what we do for our kids, but my bet is you are having just as much fun if not more than your son.

If I was closer and decided to do the heads I would love to use your guy!!

quote:

Originally posted by ccctimtation:

quote:

Originally posted by Duane88:

Replacing rings with the engine in place, is that even a possibility??

Depends on what you have to remove to get the pan off and out of the way.
Good luck!

Big ole cross member n a P30 but I think I could get at the pan bolts. However does one want to lie on their back on card board and gravel for many hours probably take two guys to reinstall the pistons. I am an old fart remember, Tim..lol

Steve VW post on replacing crankshaft.