Should I keep this engine

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KillerSix

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Recently, my engine has been making some nasty noises. Me and my dad pulled it apart (mostly). All that's wrong at the moment are a flattened lifter and a dropped wristpin. No metal shavings made it to top end. Internals in decent shape, a little less than 100k on it. Heads and valvetrain look almost new and were swapped by previous owner due to taching it one too many times. Car has held up to numerous races and multiple (but few) 140mph runs. Getting daily driver to replace it, so it will be a weekend cruiser. My dad wants me to get rid of it, i want to replace lifter and bearing/wristpin and run it. Do plan to race it on occasion.

Any opinions?

Make no mistake, I am not a dumb teen that doesn't care for his car. Sure I run it ******* occasion but I do keep up with maintenance and car care.
 

rubydist

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and wtf is a "dropped wristpin"? the only way you drop a wristpin in a running engine is when the piston or rod breaks a hole in the side of the block.

I think you should buy a Honda.
 

zblackbeast

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Do some searching and learn about these motors, then get back to us on what really went wrong.

Sounds like you either spit a shim or spun a bearing, or both.
 

KillerSix

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sorry about that, the person who had this before damaged the engine (found what looks like something from the previous valvetrain in the oil pan) and replaced a few things, the bolt left holding the rod to the crank was loose enought to be removed by hand so it was never tightened well to begin with. Indeed the bearing was spun in the process (evident by all the metal shavings stuck in the oil pickup) and the other bolt ended up in the oil pan with the head sheared off. As for lifter i am sorry about that, not thinking straight, i mean one of the tensionors for the cam chains. To get it running I believe I need a tensioner, rod, bearing and possibly piston. If you guys know where to source these things it be greatly appreciated. Also thanks for the help setting it straight, especially zach44102, I just ordered the unicorn oil from eBay...... unfortunatley they were all out of canadian.

P.S. most of my victories were over hondas.
 
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rooster

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Are you going to keep racing it with internals in the oilpan? Sounds like you've done well that way.

I assume SHO Source and SHONUT have what you need
 

LOUDSHO92

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We do have the parts you need at SHO Source.

How is the crank?

I would consider dropping in a junkyard motor for a 3.2.
 

KillerSix

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The crank seems fine, just needs to be smoothed out a little where the bearing spun, we searched throughout the engine for damage. The parts in the oil pan don't match anything else, especially seeing that most of the parts on this engine including the engine itself were replacements. Engine is a junkyard swap with less than 80,000 miles when bought. Heads have been replaced after engine was installed, looks like they even had a valve job and cams have almost no wear. From the way the connecting rod was not tightened correctly, it looks like the internals haven't been there all the blocks life either or it was refreshed. Doing a 3.2 swap with 3.0 cams sounds badass especially because there were a few SHO's in the wrecking yards around here, but I went by recently and they have all been sold off and I can't find any in the surrounding areas that don't need a complete overhaul due to neglect. Not intersted in a full build just yet, as you guys know getting some serious power out of the engines cost more than just getting a V8, so I want to keep the car until I make enough money to do something with it.

I have a project 400ci engine coming soon hopefully, but the build time for the engine and car is too long to not have a weekend car, so I want something to have fun with until It's finished. Don't need a perfectly balanced and blueprinted race car, just want something to enjoy right now. I really got stuck on SHO's, this is already my second one. So like msteiny said, as soon as I parted with my other SHO, the first thing I did was use the insurance money to buy another one.
 
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luigisho

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try the fordbastards.com website. Texas SHO folks there and a few members should have a line on parts and engines in your area.
 

SHOhopefull

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How bad is the crank? Does it look like this:
6921
bearings:
6929

I was able to polish it smooth, but it will still pop on the pressure light when hot and lugged, as will happen in heavy traffic. It did take a while though...
 

jayro

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You would basically be "rolling the dice" on the motor if you just patched it up and put it back together. Could be fine or it could die a week down the road. If you are replacing parts in the rotating assembly it could unbalance the motor....which isnt a good idea when you are reving it to 8K.
 

rubydist

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when you spin the bearing, not only do you score the crank, but you also make the rod end go out of round. the result of a 'patch job' is that it will spin the bearing again soon, likely very soon.
 

KillerSix

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Good points. I just planned to replace the rod because it was streched out a bit at the crank and bearing as well as smooth out the crank. The part about unbalancing is something I am worried about, especially cuz I can't stay below 5k for more than a couple days and why I wanted to replace as little as possible, even leaving the same piston in there if possible. Hopefully I can get a picture of the crank up to see if it is doable or not as I really don't want to take any more off there than I need too. If absolutely not, have any of you bought stock rotating assemblies and if so, what is the ballpark price. Like I said, if repairing it is too much I will have to leave it sitting there or worse *gasp* sell it.
 
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