Bad News

DeeVeeEight

Fast Pedalphile
Joined
Nov 3, 2008
Messages
2,284
Location
Southern New Jersey, USA
I just got back from the mechanics shop. The 383 stroker motor in my 'Vette is trashed. The plugs are fouled with oil and carbon. The car has sat for almost 2 years. My mechanic feels that the rings are shot.
This is what I get for trusting my old mechanic and his incompetent race engine builder (that's another rant). Now I am looking at having to replace the whole motor again and I do not have the money, place, time and skills to do it. It looks like the car will have to go back into the garage and wait until my financial situation improves. It is starting to look like a good reason to sell my boat, I need the money!:crap:

Edit...

Well maybe not so bad after all. I drove the car home with a friend following close behind. Very little smoke at all. Yes your eyes smart from the emissions. I'll check the timing and the carburetor to see where I am at and go from there. While I had it on the street I stopped and topped off with some high test, hoping to flush out the old gas. Fingers crossed. I am considering re registering with historic (QQ prefix) tags to circumnavigate the sniff test. At least that way I can run this motor until things improve.
 
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Put new spark plugs and fresh gas in it. That's probably all it needs.

KV beat me to it......I"m messing with a '85 Dodge 318 work van, I bought it in '92 or so.....with 100k on it, sold it so stepson here maybe 6? years ago....

be amazed what we finding on it....only has 300k+ miles....but no blue smoke....

:bounce:
 
Maybe pull the plugs and squirt in some thin oil and let it sit for a few days. Might free up a stuck ring after driving.
 
Come on, we know the SBC is almost indestructible. If it's not banging away and maintaining good oil pressure, it will probably be fine. Now worn out and smoking, that's another thing.
 
Fresh oil, new plugs, fresh gas..... Maybe squirt some Marvel Mystery oil in all eight bores while you change the plugs..... Why would the engine be toast only because it sat for two years ???
 
Two years ago during the floods my vette sat wrapped for 3 months in plastic. Well when it was safe to drive again the gasohol had went to green sludge and it ran really bad. So with advise from this forum I flushed the gas tank changed the fuel filter and soaked the calibrator housing in lacquer thinner and rebuilt the carb. That did the trick, so now I only use benzine 95.
 
Hmmmmm,

I've just gained immense satisfaction with my Triumph racecar coming back to full song. The difference? I had shit pump gas in there repeatadly plugging all of the precise orifices. A couple weeks ago I got some decent fuel and things are open again. A quartt of acetone helped as well.
 
Hmmmmm,

I've just gained immense satisfaction with my Triumph racecar coming back to full song. The difference? I had shit pump gas in there repeatadly plugging all of the precise orifices. A couple weeks ago I got some decent fuel and things are open again. A quartt of acetone helped as well.

Acetone in the gas?


Spark plugs were cleaned and reinstalled a couple of days ago. I had the opportunity to take the car out for a ride today. I went to a couple of body shops for paint estimates (another story). I was cruising and romping on it pretty good, got 'er up to 110 mph at one point. When I got home I put the car in the garage and ran the RPM's up to about 3K a few times and guess what - no smoke! I have to agree more with you guys (than the mechanic) as far as the motor not being trashed, it ran FINE.:yahoo:
 
I just started a 454 that had been setting since 1978. Fresh oil, primed it, fresh gas and plugs, fired up like it had been running 30 minutes earlier. No smoke, no noise at all. And it had not really been covered up all that well. Exhaust ports were all open, intake had a rag stuffed into the carb base and the dizzy hole. Nature of the beast.
 
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