Engine troubles......water LT1 intake

[mrvette]

on an L 98 engine....highly modified with an HEI in back the way God intended.....I have had a issue with it, the forward two bolts on the left/driver's side were basically loose as a goose....my question is HOW/why??

Engine was is hydro lock, so pulled the heads, took all the top end crap to the head shop, manifold straightened...that area with the lose bolts was out by about .021 inch, I sort of thought it would pull in ok with the new gaskets, but they found a ton of bad valve springs too, so they rebuilt the heads.....

I had another failure on the serpentine '88-91 vette a/c compressor bracket....it was cracked yet again....

my buddy the welder TIG'd it up nice again, and during the welding I asked about how in HELL those two bolts could back off that one of them was thumb/finger tight and the other had no torque to it at all.....

HE is a pro welder, and his opinion of aluminum in general is that it's just such a funky metal that he thinks it happened naturally, just a failure.....

I don't think so....I think that someone loosened them deliberately...as in sabotage.....

what say you guys????

 

[rtj]

Did you take it to a shop? If yes, did you have issues/arguments?


Years ago, I had two cars shipped. First one arrived damaged and I complained. Second car arrived fine, but a week later one wheel snapped a couple of studs. All the nuts were loose, but I got it towed home before any more studs broke. I always wondered if they did that as retaliation for the complaint and insurance claim.

 

[mrvette]

I not getting into the BS that went on here almost 20 years ago.....

but the question is.....do those intake bolts have a habit of coming loose over time??? I think not, but my welder buddy says maybe....

:suicide:

 

[BBShark]

If bolts loosened up on aluminum parts there would be dead cars littering the roads. Probably more like incorrect bolts or incorrect torque.

 

[rtj]

I not getting into the BS that went on here almost 20 years ago.....

but the question is.....do those intake bolts have a habit of coming loose over time??? I think not, but my welder buddy says maybe....

:suicide:

So nothing like an argument recently? Didn't someone run into it recently and it needed paint?

 

[mrvette]

I not getting into the BS that went on here almost 20 years ago.....

but the question is.....do those intake bolts have a habit of coming loose over time??? I think not, but my welder buddy says maybe....

:suicide:

So nothing like an argument recently? Didn't someone run into it recently and it needed paint?

Yes, last 2/20 this year, a jacked up muddy pickup with a blacked out rear window, backed over the entire front end of the vette, wiping out the nose, right fender, and hood.....it went to Gordon Chevrolet down the street a ways on recommendation of a friend, but they kept it two weeks and did basically a day's worth of work and not done well at that....so I picked up the car and took the hood they refused to fix to another guy, he fixed a little bit of it, but screwed it up but good.....I'm out 550 bux and nothing to show for it, Insurance paid me directly about 2700 bux in total, in other words I got ripped there also.....I finally went to Sherwin Williams Auto paint store looking to match up a bit of the paint on the car, and they recommended this fellow who did FANTASTIC work on the car fixed a ton of shit, including the hood and the back deck that I never got right from many years ago when I took out the asstro vent grills......so the car went to Macco and it was painted all over for only 550 bux....not a purrfect job but one hell of a lot better than I can do......

SO it is my suspicion that someone at Gordon Chevy saw that car, and sabotaged it.....over the last few months I have noticed an increase in water use, and have had some starter/battery problems......related to the water in the combustion chambers....another 200 bux shot on that crap.....

I am still trying to get the engine back together, as the weather out in the garage is so HOT and HUMID I can't work in it....sweat just dripping off me all over the engine, I finally took a RAC and set it in the shop door, and blocked it off, and stuck a fan to aid the flow in the garage, and ran it over night last night, garage is somewhat livable now this AM.....so to get to work.....age 72 now, hard to keep up with all this BS.....

:suicide:

 

[mrvette]

OK, got car together again this morning.....so took it for a drive typical 100f temps today, radiator was full up, drove it about 5 miles with a few stops....no biggie, gauge is about 10f high on reading according to the IR gun and the gun was calibrated with a Fluke meter and temp reading add on that was proved on boiling water on the stove....so close enough.....

Rad was full, and not long ago I noted it LO in the rad so HOW lo is ~5" of water in the rad?? about a quart, I don't have an overflow tank, so question IS.....it that normal for expansion and so forth to toss out a quart of fluid/water in just one trip up to 190-200f????

Pardon my pair of noya....but I have to know......

:sos:

 

[JPhil]

Seems to me that's not bad if you had the cooling system drained. A couple cups to allow for air in the system, and yeah a cup or two for expansion which would be lost if you have no expansion tank. Just keep an eye on it, top it up and see if it keeps going down.