Carnage

[Chris Benvie]

Guys, please make sure your headgaskets are intact. Cause i don't think you want to see this happen to your motor.

3.2 Fully rebuilt
JE 9.0:1 Pistons









That was the beginning of my defeat

 

[SHOguy 92]

Ouch, that almost makes me wanna cry, sorry

 

[Yamaha V6]

You dropped a valve Chris, not really blew a HG, from the look of it. With the stock cams, it's a non-interference design. Short of the rod cap breaking off, you're not going to hit the valve & embed it into the piston as you have.

If you used Stage cams, you're borderline with Stage 1's, Interference with Stage 2's. So you'd have to be pushing major lift AND slip the timing belt to impact like shown.

It's possible you may also have broken a valve spring, which isn't unheard of.

At least, that's my take on the pictures you're showing.

 

[SuperchargedSHOguy]

I will be extremely p.o.ed if that ever happens to my SHO. I have never seen anything like that except for in my buddy's 1978 Olds but he was hitting over 500 h.p. at the wheels on the dyno with a 125 shot of nos on a semi built 350. He fried that motor on his first drag after swapping in a new cam and lifters. I believe that he broke a valve spring also but don't remember 100% anymore. That sucks!

 

[Lupo]

Is that a valve imbedded in that piston?!? Wow.....
I'm going to have to agree with Fred on this one.

 

[MySHOcanGo]

Been there done that. Dropped a valve on to the piston and jacked stuff up pretty good. I think the stem broke off, I dont know why. Sent my car to the SHO Shop for a high comp. 3.2L rebuild, then I was broke.

About a year prior to that I had one of the SS HD Titanium valve springs collapse, fortunatly no damage happened that time.

 

[ShoGuy93]

All i say is wow! That makes me want to check and then triple check every thing on my new motor before i fire it up!

 

[gmorrell]

That picture of the combustion chamber looks remarkably like the damage to my old 3.0L that dropped a valve into the #1 cylinder and turned the entire engine into a boat anchor in a matter of 5 seconds. I was running Stage 2 cams and SS "High Strength" valve springs that had about 30K miles on them. An exhaust valve spring fractured and dropped the valve.

I shook valve mushrooms, pieces of valve stem and pieces of valve seats out of the intake manifold surge tanks and the exhaust Y-pipe. The oil pan looked like a bomb had gone off; it was full of Aluminum rocks and piston rings. The only thing I salvaged from that motor was the oil pan.

Chris, what cams and valve springs were you running?

Gary M.

 

[Chris Benvie]

Stock valve springs. Stock 3.0 cams that were "shimmed to stage 1 spec" or atleast we assumed. This "shimming" was done by protech automotive. I dunno what they were thinking.

"The oil pan looked like a bomb had gone off; it was full of Aluminum rocks and piston rings. The only thing I salvaged from that motor was the oil pan."


thats what my intake manifold was full of.

 

[gmorrell]

Stock valve springs. Stock 3.0 cams that were "shimmed to stage 1 spec" or at least we assumed. This "shimming" was done by protech automotive. I dunno what they were thinking.

How do you "shim" stock cams to change their lift specifications as ground?

You can re-grind a new profile on an existing lobe (within liimits...) by reducing the lobe base circle, then you have to get longer valve stems or use lash caps to make up for the smaller base circle.

You can shim the clearance tighter then minimum spec to get a few more thousandths of lift, but this is dangerous, not terribly effective and accelerates cam lobe wear.

I think somebody is pulling one of your lower extremities...

Sorry about your motor, Chris. I've been there, and know how you're feeling right now.

Gary M.

 

[Chris Benvie]

Well, yea, i figured it was being pulled, But they did it to John Mears, who I bought the car from, not me. I just felt the brunt of it.

I am feeling like crap, i just sold it, i feel like crap so bad.

SO what, exactly had to be done to cause this

 

[flosho]

So this just happend before the new owner took delivery of the car? Or after he got it? I thought you had said something about not even driving the car?? Hopefully something good will come out of this?!

 

[Chris Benvie]

this was before the current motor

 

[Yamaha V6]

Gary, when the engine was pulled apart, the cams were shimmed to .004" clearance cold. The base circle was 1.300" from memory, indicating that they were a stock profile.

The crankshaft on the engine as received from John was ground .030" under, which IMO is something you just wouldn't do on a supercharged track car seeing lots of torque & severe duty. There was a lot that didn't make sense to me on this engine buildup. As received the crankshaft was sheared around cylinders 1/4 area.

It's my understanding that the shortblock was rebuilt, using a new block & crank, old pistons & rods. The was a question as to the condition & installation of the head gaskets. I understand that the old heads were used as they were; I don't know if they were re-shimmed to proper clearances.

 

[Chris Benvie]

Fred you are exactly correct.

Not that I am surprised

 

[SHO Dude]

Looks like a dropped valve to me too.

Garry, good to see you in type again.

-How did my springs work out?

 

[Mike Kopstain]

"Shimming" the cams to stage I spec would put the base circle in permanent contact with the shims. That would be interesting...

Sorry to see the damage Chris. It's unfortunate that you didn't get to enjoy the car at all.