well @iNewton goin with ur advice we took better look at the motor and realized play in the bearing was normal I blew the balance chain tensioner had to take timing chain cover off and there it was balance chaim was slacked and tensioner is crap gonna do timing chain and balance chain over just incase the chains stretched I think I will be fine after this. Cylinders and rods look good thanks a bunch for the help fixing this as we speak and will post with updates
Engine noise
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Sounds like a grand ole time. I've had the fun opportunity of doing that job. It actually wasn't too bad for me, but that motor was out of the SS.
Can you provide more details on why this part possibly failed?
Can you also talk about your cracked spark plug issue? This intrigues me and I'm not sure I understand. -
The oil pump is driven directly off of the crank.
Wasn't all of the chains and guides replaced with the new engine build?
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The oil pump is driven directly off of the crank.
Wasn't all of the chains and guides replaced with the new engine build?
What he just said, although it's actually driven by the harmonic pulley on the crank, not the crank itself. (Note to Dave, was not trying to be a smartass or correct you, I know you know, just wanted to be more specific for anyone reading...)
which brings us back to asking the builder for a spec sheet of exactly what was done, parts list and clearances used. Else you will be rebuilding that engine for the next 6 months replacing one stupid bolt at a time trying to find why its knocking or breaking or sounding like shit.
Pistons are shipped with a spec sheet with the order, so getting this should be easy. You want to know this list of things:
Piston to bore clearance
Piston to top deck clearance
Ring gaps used on top and middle rings
Conrod big end measurement for both x and Y axis (you want to make sure they are round)
Crank journals measures X and Y (this will give you the bearing to rod clearances. This will determine if you are using 5w/30 oil for stock clearances or heavier oil if the clearances are more than stock oem specs).
Bore measurements at 1 inch from the top where piston is at TDC where the rings are I messure the center of the bore and down the bore where the piston is at the bottom, measures should be taken front to back of the bore (same direction as the piston's wrist pin) and left to right (which is the thrust face of the piston when rod is pushing the piston up and pressing the piston against the wall) from there, determine if the bore is out of round, tappered or has a bulge in the middle of the bore and take corrective measures (either bore the cylinder to match the biggest bore of the 4. What is the bore size of the engine now?Was the top deck and head surface shaved? If not was the measurements taken to insure both decks are straight and within specs for the headhasket being used? If its been machined, how much material was taken off? If this is a lot, it might show the engine has overheated in the past. Can also affect your compression ratios if a lot of material was removed. They shoudl provide you with the deck height measurements too.
Where the cams removed? Valve seals replaced? Lifters drained and checked for problems? Rockers same thing... valve guides replaced? Did they use the GM MLS headgasket ?
Anyways there is a lot of details we don't have on what was done to this engine, not sure if its common practice in the market to just ship an engine block to a client with zero information of what was done to it, I hope not. Its crutial information for the day you run into problems and start looking for solutions. Without these specs, you have nothing to compare with the day you teardown the engine and try to determine where that oil pressure drop is coming from or where that knock is coming from, you can't determine what wore prematurely if you don't know what size the orginal parts are. Stock engine will use the specs of the mecanical handbook of the engine but with aftermakermt gear, there is no way to trust the parts if they have not been messured, weighted and all data writen somewhere for future refernce
You should get an oil pressure / temp gauge installed on the head while you are in there.
Oil pressure will tell you if everything is running as it should, your oil temp will tell you if the engine is ready to play or if you are too cold or overheating which is important with a turbo, Boost gauge will tell you that you are not overshooting your boost target and risking throwing a rod and AFR will tell you if you have fuel issues like a weak pump which can kill your engine realy quick.
With the kind of build you are doing, these are a must in my opinion, but that's just me.
Innovate has a nice boost / afr gauge and dual function oil pressure / temp gauge in the MTX series.
Of course if you are swapping your ecu, you could just wait and get the Haltech wideband controller along with oil temp sensor and hook it up to ecu for logging purpose, though unless you have the IQ3 dash you wont be able to see the date in front of you.
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Hopefully you found your issue. As everyone can see, there are A LOT of variables when building an engine. Because of the complexity and attention to detail, I had a local builder/racer that has experience with these motors build mine. It would have cost me a lot more to learn how to do it myself... time and new tools get expensive fast.
With that being said, I did provide all of the parts needed for the builder to complete the job. The main parts (rods & pistons) that I received from Alpha, had all of the info my builder needed to do the correct machine work. When they were done (I had them assemble the long block), they had a detailed build sheet of everything that was machined and final clearances.
For most people, this information wont mean anything. It is far too complex for the average person to distinguish if something looks bad, ok, or good. This is where you really need to source a good builder that you can trust to make everything right. I am sure Alpha vetted out options and picked someone that this type of build would be an easy task. After all, we aren't talking about building a 10,000 hp drag car motor.
Bad/faulty parts happen and it is very frustrating, but that it a risk you take when you start messing with everything. Hopefully this is the only problem you have and you will get thousands of fun miles out of the motor.
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Engine finally sounds normal drove about 200 miles from mass to lake George and everything sounds and feels a lot better let me know what u guys think
Yeah that sounds a lot more reassuring lol
What exactly dis you replace to get to this point?
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5w/30 is fine unless you race the crap out of it.
Thicker oil is not the best for turbos usually and unless you have wider clearances on your crank and conrods, there is no reason to go thicker.
The way I see it also with the VvT cams is that thicker oil might slowdown cam phasing response because of the extra weight of the oil, though this is just me maybe overthinking stuff.
