It's been one o' dem weeks....

L

lwallsss

New member
Ran over what APPEARS TO ME to be an inner-fender brake line bracket after havin to hop a curb to avoid a guy with a giant trailer using up way too much room to turn (it was dual turning lanes).

Tire appears to still be holding pressure, but definitely not safe to drive on. Rockin the steelie for now!

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Then I had to cover a lunch shift at work the next day which always sucks because Im practically nocturnal. (It's 4:30 AM as Im typing this!) Then my coworker caught hte flu or some shit so I had to close that night too.

Then I had to cover his shift today also, and on my day off tomorrow, I'm supposed to, again, cover his shift (I volunteered since the poor guy is sick as a dog, but it still sucks for me).

On top of everything ,the highlight of my week was supposed to be firing up my brand new motor I built to put in my Camaro, and it fired right up, vitals were good, no bad noises, oil pressure pegged, ran smoothly... And then I noticed the plume of steam the size of a house behind the car and 6 foot long puddles coming from the exhaust dumps. Instead of breaking in the camshaft and driving it home today (it was at ab uddy's house where all the big tools are) I had to end up towing the thing home on a dolly, which ended up tearing a huge crack in my front ground fx as it came off.

Worst part is, the reason I brought it home was because whatever problem it's having with water getting into the combustion chambers is pretty major, and it's going to take probably 10-15 hours of nonstop work for me to get the cylinder heads off (Which is what I've got to do).

Pulling cylinder heads is PAIN IN THE ASS. EVERYTHING IS BOLTED TO THEM DAMMIT. :mad:

It was looking SO promising too:

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A little of this:

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Now it looks like this

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Got the heads in plain view, but I'm not even halfway there to get them off. :sad: I ahve to go buy some goofy tools for some of the hard to reach bolts, get the 5 and 6 spark plugs out somehow, get the headers out which means yanking the starter, plugs, coolant sensors/plugs, oil pressure sender, and then I have to remove the head-mounted accessories, then I've got to take apart the entire valvetrain, THEN I can start breaking all those head bolts loose which is a type of joy unique all to itself!


Best case scenario, they pressure test the heads and tehy fail, the problem is simple and fixable (proper sealant on the rocker studs), and I move on with things.

Worst case scenario, new cylinder heads like what I've got ($500) or new block ($500).

And I've still got a tire to buy for my truck, and I've been working 7 days straight now,and I've got to work 5 more, all long-hour closing shifts.

I just need to vent. Sorry if it sounds whingy, but I've about had it with my luck so far this week. Between truck troubles, work troubles, and car troubles, and on top of it all, Single's Awareness Day in the middle of it to really pour salt into the wound... :mfinger:
 
I'm sorry to hear it. But it just emphasizes why when you build a motor, you should test start it on an engine stand if at all possible.

Sounds like you either have a crack in the head, or damaged head gasket. Either way it sucks. But be strong bro. You'll have an animal of a muscle car up and running in no time.
 
Sorry to hear about these troubles, dude. That really sucks when you get an engine in a car, fire it up, and it's dumping so much coolant through the engine that it can't even burn it all. Was it missing at all? I would think if it was dumping that much coolant, that it wouldn't be running very well at all, as it must be majorly losing compression somewhere. Cracked head(s), bad head gasket(s), cracked block...any of those would cause the engine to run poorly, and dump coolant out the exhaust.

Did you put the engine together, or did you just throw it in the car as you got it? If you simply threw it in, it could be as simple as a bad head gasket. Then again, you never know. Have you tried compression testing all the cylinders? That could give you an idea of where to start looking for a leak. Otherwise you would have to check everything: heads, gaskets, block...not all that much fun.

I can't say I totally understand, but I can say that I know what you're saying. Put an engine in a car, set it all up and get it ready to go, and then fire it up and there's a major issue like this. That would fucking suck.

Good luck getting it fixed, dude!
 
Completely new build. All major parts were either new or machined out to the aftermarket equivalent of new. It's practically a virgin motor at this point.

I've got a lot of guys on another message board trying to tell me that it's completely normal... but my buddy that was with me that's actually broken in fresh motors before is pretty adamant that he's never seen anything like this before.

I dont kow.

But to make matters worse, I managed to drop a little metal washer into the manifold when I pulled off the carb... I think it's in the #6 cylinder... but Im not sure. So even if it was by some freaky circumstance entirely normal, I gotta tear it down anyway unless I can find a magnet on stick that can get around valves. I have a nice part retriever but it's too big to fit in the spark plug hole.
 
I heard no whinging. Sounded more like an account of the mother-load of one o' dem weeks and I'm sorry to hear it. I'll refrain from saying something stupid like, "At least you have your health" or "It could always be worse", because I know shit like that is fucking annoying at a time like this.
 
Figured out what the problem on my car is.

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Water where it aint supposed to be.

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More water where it aint supposed to be.

$500 cylinder heads -> trash

Camaro -> out of commission indefiintely.

They ported the exhaust ports on these heads, and apparently they ported into the water jacket. I remember now some places where they looked like they might have been welded or patched - apparently it was a failed repair attempt.

I got ripped off for $500 by a guy who had to know these were bad. His dad runs a machine shop, and his buddy did the port work, plus the obvious fact that there are apparent repairs done to the ports.

I feel sick. $500 down the drain.
 
I just though I'd clarify for those that dont quite understand... This motor is a brand new motor built by yours truly and dropped into this car to make it a badass street and drag strip hot rod. I've been working on this motor for about a year collecting parts one by one any way I can. So the fact that my cylinder heads are broke is a pretty big bummer after about ay ear of work and money I've put into it. WHen I started on it, I didnt even know what a cylinder head was. It was a huge learning experience for me. HUGE. I didnt know shit about cars a year ago. And now I'm not an expert, but I know how to take a chevy smallblock apart at least. ;)

I decided to add that it seems that my week of nightmares has finally ended after exactly a week. It was last monday that my tire got screwed on my truck. And juts tonight I finally got my apparently junk cylinder heads off my motor. Tey were leaking water on the exhaust ports, which means that water could (and did apparently) get down INSIDE the motor in the cylinders. THat's BAD. THe cylinder walls are very important because they have to be clean and smooth to help the piston rings seal properly. This is especially important with am otor that's never been run before since the rings and the cylinder bores haven't worn into each enough yet to "Seat". They have to break in to each other.

My fear was that my bores were rusting. I got the cylinder heads off finally after about 4 hours of work tonight while listening to Coast to Coast AM. :D

THey were filled with water (A few I filled with oil to help keep them form rusting, but you can see water in it also.

Here is the aftermath:

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You can see the water/oil in the cylinder bores, but there is no rust... Thank you powers that be for finally letting up on me... at least for my motor.
 
Dude, for car lovers like me, this is like a soap opera. WHAT HAPPENED WITH THE SHADY PART?!?!??! IS THERE HOPE?!??!?!?!?

Best of luck from one Camaro owner to the next. I am sending you good Camaro-vibes.
 
Wow, im sorry to hear about that Dirty, sounds like you need a stiff drink and the guy who sold you the shitty parts needs a good old fashioned ass kickin.

you have inspired me to start researching and learning about cars and engines. until now i have had no ambition to do so. Now I have a hobby! :)
 
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