So i tore apart my 230 flathead 6 after it blowing up on the flathead reliability run. I needed some time away from the motor (one big *** headace!) so i left it in the car until i was ready to work on it again. That, and its gonna power my FED, so might as well see what i gotta work with. Found some of the reason for the grenade. 2 piston pin keepers failed, and let the pins walk into the wall. Cut a pretty gnarly groove into 2 cylinders, and recked 2 pistons, plus all the rods spun bearings and ate the crank. The cam also went flat, but the valvetrain is decent. I have some spare parts, but im tempted to have the other block i have machined so i only have buy 2 more pistons, not all 6. I also got a spare cam getting sent out to get ground. Heres one rod bearing. Bottom of the oil pan. Thats over 1/4 inch think of metal sludge One failed piston pin keeper, allowing the pin to walk into the wall. Nice little .030 deep groove in the cylinder bore
Ok, now this is interesting to see, usually I'll see a rod get thrown through the pan or something.... Can I get some details on the motor and what you did to blow it up? (I'm building a mopar straight 8) This really interests me.
This was done at haggans, but now im looking for someone else. Gonna talk to DG Machine and see if Dale can do flatheads. The motor is a 1954 Plymouth 230 - 6. Bored .030 over, aligned bored, and decked. Head was milled for 9.3 - 1 comp. Has oversized SBC stainless valves, but i cant remember the size off the top of my head. Was ported as well. Cam was a stock regrind with .485 lift. Had an offenhauser 2 carb intake and langdons manifolds. Crank was turned .010 under, and the rotating ***embly was balenced. Had new clevite bearings too. Guess the c-clips that egge sent me with the pistons wernt up to par, and 2 failed, which ground into the cylinderbore. The resulting in metal in the oil, seized the rod bearings on the crank, spinning em in the rods. Made it 360 miles before the bottom end made the death noise.
Until double Tru-Arc & Spiralox pin clips came out wrist pin locks could kick out and the result were what you have...man it makes a mess. When ***embling the piston ***emblies make sure the sharp edge of the pin lock is facing out so that it digs into the aluminum which can help keep them secure. The foolproof way to keep the locks from falling out is to leave them out...lock the pin in the rod. When the bushings are fitted in the rods have the holes finished to .0005 interference fit and make sure the pin bores have .00025-.0003 clearance. ***emble using a rod oven and happy motoring forever!!! The only reason the old engines had bushings or lock bolts was that none of the manufacturers thought of thermo fitting the pins in the rods. Not only did using interference fit save money it eliminated a potential failure if the clip was not seated well on the ***embly line.
Quarter inch of sludge? 360 miles? WTF?? Could some of this be lubrication failure? That sludge looks like mayo, did you have a water leak? Bill
Aw. Haggans. I still get sad thinking about that place. I've used pacific engine rebuilders in tacoma before if you are looking to check out another machine shop.
OOOOOOHHHHHHH, the horror! That ****s that it was a new rebuild. Still would **** if it was a stocker, just less money involved. At least you've got a contingency block. Best of luck.
Since the damage is all below where the rings ride and 90* to the thrust, is that block really toast? Some teflon ****ons in the ends of the pins allow you to keep things stock and are easy to install, no clips to worry about losing and you don't have to pin the wrist pins to the rod.
The block isnt "toast", but its gonna need to be over-bored again, which means 6 new pistons from egge
yea, it made it home running. Actually ran quite well except for the sound of impending doom coming from the bottom end.
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