harvs ek 327 wagon

[Harv]

and I got distracted with my latest acquisition.

I forgot to ask... just what did you buy?


(.... fingers crossed, Merlin engine, Dunstan head, Olbis injection, FED....)

[Errol62]

Get on the FC site Harv


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[Harv]

Get on the FC site Harv

Aaahhh.... Rob's bought an FC. I need to convince him to drive it over to my place, to convince The Middle Daughter that she needs an early Holden for a first car. She wants a Mini (one of the new-shaped ones). I've never owned anything that new.

He drove his grey/red trimmed early sedan over at one stage and managed to convince Number 1 Daughter that her EK ute would look awesome in grey paint (... thank goodness, because it was requested to be pink with sparkles ).

Cheers,
Harv

[Harv]

Engine builder got back from holidays, so engine out and body shell returned back home again. Found that all the header bolts were loose. Pretty damn confident I tightened them when I bolted the engine in. I'm using the fancy reduced-head bolts to try to get around the CRS headers... will have to think that through before they go on again.

The builder should start stripping it down this week, so will be interesting to see what went wrong.

Cheers,
Harv

[Harv]

Engine builder now has the 327 stripped down. #1 and #2 big-end bearings are toast. Looks like they have been either run at a bazillion rpm, or have been oil starved (more likely the latter). Crank is gouged to 36 thou deep, with enough slop in the big ends to let the piston start running up at the head gasket level. Light scuffing on the pistons. End float had increased from 7 thou to 9 thou. Looks like a new crank, new bearings, quick hone and put back together. Hopefully rods and pistons are recoverable.

Not real comfortable understanding how this thing has come unglued. Doesn't sound related to the timing being found waaaaaay to advanced. It came out of the builder's shop sounding OK. Ran up and down the driveway a dozen times, and done two 5km road trips (exhaust shop, dyno shop). I've changed the oil in it, but have never had a low oil level. Has done one run up the M4 at 100km/h to set the speedo, which is when I suspect that it has done the damage. The hard bit is that I have had the engine home for over a year, so difficult to point fingers.

Engine builder suspects Number One Son has been revving the guts out of it in the driveway to impress friends whilst I am at work. Sounds odd though.

Cheers,
Harv

[EK283]

Harv,

Chevs are pretty bullet proof and it is surprising that the big ends have burnt out. Oil starvation could do it or clearances not correct from get go.
Revving well that is debateable, I have a small block and it cops 7000 rpm and hangs in there, even after a year of track work the big end bearings looked brand new when torn down.

The finger pointing for me goes to incorrect clearances or no pre lube on start up which really shouldn't happen if done right.

Hard to prove in any regard ! Have you got another 327 crank ? Is it small journal or large ?

Greg

[Harv]

Gut feel tells me it is assembly. I'm pretty confident it has always had oil in it, and I too struggle to think of how hard you would need to wring it's neck to flog out the bearings. Number One Son is enthusiastic, but not 12,000 rpm enthusiastic in a car sitting in a driveway. From memory, the MSD dizzy has an inbuilt rev limiter factory set at 10,000rpm. I haven't changed it, and assume the builder would not have either.

The only thing that would suggest that it was not assembly is that it spent a considerable amount of time on the engine dyno before I picked it up. You would think that poor assembly would show up at that point. Maybe not though.

Not sure which journal the crank has. I have a spare smokey runner 327, but really don't want to cannabalise it just for the crank. Builder believes he can lay his hands on one. Worst comes to worst, SCAT make an aftermarket job... costs a fortune though.

Cheers,
Harv

[Errol62]

Gee that is harsh. Assuming no evidence of blockage to front big end journals when it came apart.


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[Harv]

None that the builder has admitted to. Hard to tell without having supervised the dissassembly though.

Gutted. Had hoped to have the thing on the road in February. It is turning into a money pit.

Cheers,
Harv

[FireKraka]

Hi Harv
Sorry to hear the bad news about the engine mate it is hard when you get setbacks like that.

In my working world of large marine (very large, 4 story high 2 strokes) diesels and 4 stroke generators I drive my guys to check and double check clearances etc before even hitting the start button, it's been my experience that 90% of failures that we see are caused by human error, my guess with your engine is that the failure was caused by assembly as the other guys have said.

I also know that these things don't necessarily happen straight away, I could give you many examples but one comes to mind I was commissioning a V12 210mm bore generator that had been fully overhauled we were 18 hours into the on load runs when it dropped a bigend so your short runs and the time on the dyno what not really have taken much time in the big scheme of things.

Anyway hope the get it right this time mate and I would expect the engine builder to at least accept some responsibility.
Good luck
Regards
Neil

[greenwagon62]

That's bad luck Harv, hope you get it sorted ok. If you have trouble finding a crank, you may be able to get a reco one from rock auto in the states, they are normally fairly cheap and good freight prices.

[Harv]

This damn wagon is possessed.

Builder (finally) finished with the engine rebuild. New crank, new bearings, tidy up. Dyno run for an hour all good. Got the phone call to come and pick up the car, builder only had a slight miss to fix (suspected he had crossed a plug lead when putting motor into car).

Got a lift to the workshop, only to find the bonnet inoperable. Stupid me had installed the bonnet lock, and never tested it. Builder had pushed the Hood knob in... cable went in too far, and got stuck. Hood knob could not be pulled back out.

Resist temptation to have-at the wagon with a ballpein hammer.

Remove front bumper, front indicators, then grill all with bonnet locked shut. Cut leads off to fancy LED driving lights to allow grille to come forward. Snap new shiny Rare Spares bolt off in grill. Swear. Reach up and unbolt latch mechanism from bonnet (3 bolts). Pull latch mechanism from bonnet steelwork, then lift bonnet up. Remove Hood cable from mechanism, and give it the evil eye. Engine builder puts #7 and #8 plug leads back in the correct order. Put indicators back for drive home. Once home, reassemble front of vehicle.

Car is now running well. Will spend some time checking everything over again, then book the engineer for final inspection. Aiming for rego before years-end.

Cheers,
Harv

[gpi]

fortunately it happened in the workshop and not on the side of the road.
were you able to get the bolt out with an ezyout?
more importantly what destination have you planned for the first drive?

[Errol62]

Your patience is being sorely tried, yet meeting the challenge. There will be a point where the joy is pure, and it is getting pretty close.


FB ute fixer upper, EK van on rotisserie

[EK283]

At least its back in and running Harv !

What was the verdict on the motor ????

Interested to know what went wrong.

Greg