motor go boom
 

i spent the last month and a half or so building my first motor and trying to learn from trial and error and figure it out my self after a lot of frustation i finally got it to start with a little help from a freind. the valves were off and when they were adjusted they opened enough to let the three bolts a pivot ball and a rocker arm nut into my cylinders that some one had dropped into my intake wana talkj about a bad night

4 cracked cylinders 1 ccylinder missing half its wall and alot of tima and money down the drain any one had a similair experience

i can honestly say nomy first rebuild/ assembly i had watched /and read enough to know a. when intake is off to have galley covered b. when carb off plug intake ( rag, tape) and to be sure all parts and fasteners accounted for. not saying nothing bad about so dont think i am . just knew possible out comes if i screw(ed) up and the prostpect of thoughing money away was never something i wanted to through in on my learning curve

well when the intake was off valleys were covered and i put the tbi on intake soon after putting the intake on so i dont think it was a accident

i would have to agree then

ya cause it took 1 night to put back together but a while to get back in the truck and get all the electronis plugged up cause the people who owned it before me had "rigged" some of the things together

Re: motor go boom
 

If it makes you feel better about 30 yrs ago (I was only 19 at the time) had a similiar experience. Had the engine done ran for 30-45 minutes got good heat in it and shut it down for the night. Came back the next morning to recheck the valves one more time. After a few minutes it started missing and popping so we shut it down and checked numerous things couldn't find anything. So we fired it back up then we found it. Someone visited us during the night and dropped a bolt down the carb, it traveled from head to head and finally bent a valve bad enough to get in the cylinder and it stopped.
We saved the crank and the cam.

Now you said this was dropped down the intake :?: How in the world did all these parts get thru the valves :?: I mean if i am reading this correctly :? :? The valve would have to opened at least 1/2 inch for a rocker ball,nut, and three bolts to get pass them :!: :!: Now maybe thru the spark plug hole but even at that i kinda dought even that :!: Now i am not disputing your word but i think i would look for another way they got in :!: :!: :!:


''JUST MY TWO CENT'S WORTH''

something smells real bad here! any jealous so called friends?

That's what I think happened to me. :cry:

Sounds like you need to do some a$$ whooping, & get some new 'friends'

Tough break. Keep you chin up.

1) Was there beer involved in this installation?

2) BE very sure before asking /accusing a friend,especially if they were helping. It's easy to get mouthy/emotional when something like that happens,you don't want to lose a friendship over it unless you are sure..and in which case they weren't your friend anyway.

3) When I work on my engine, NOBODY is allowed in the garage.....I'm serious.... I lock the door. You would be surprised at the silly mistakes that can happen while you are yacking/shooting the bull. Steps get skipped or forgotten etc.

Keep on working bad stuff happens to everyone.

Heh heh, X2

:roll: Something about this whole post has me questioning it's validity. How much lift would the cam have to allow those parts to pass?
Dave

Not me, It'd take just enough lift to let an errant part hang a valve open. That'd be plenty, 'to git er done'. After that, it's just gonna eat. No offense intended Dave. :)

No offense taken... but what do you do when you adjust valves and come up a ball and adjusting nut short?
How could you crank the engine to blow it up? The starter will turn over untll the motor comes to a dead stop - no more than two revolutions.
JMO of course.....
Dave
*Edited for spelling*

the way i see it after pondering this there had to be spare parts put in. cause i know we always "get close" before firing and would have noticed the fact that they werent there. but so idk one this one anymore. thes are just my humble opinion and experiences

Ain't exactly crossed this bridge, But here goes: I reckon I'd run madly thru the general shop area, waving my arms, screaming I'm one rocker ball, and one adjusting nut short!!?!! :oops: :lol: Then, I'd get to finding it. But if I didn't know it was in the intake....
Maybe it didn't fall thru the first time the valve opened, It ain't such a stretch to see something not falling thru till, it bounced around the intake some. I've seen weirder, How about you?

see thats where i know it wasnt my mistake cause it wasnt missing off of my motor i had all parts accounted for i triple checked that i was attempting to be very careful and it didnt happen because if i was missing the rocker ball and adjuster nut i would have noticed when setting the valves but the worst part was mowhay set the valves and it ran fine with his valves settings because they were wayyyy to tight and didnt let the extra parts fall through but when the valves were set correctly they opoened enough to let them flow freely right to the cylinders

and please dont think i am sayin bowhay did it thats not my intentions at all he is noit the kind of man to destroy another mans property especially his truck

Did you just say BOWHAY? :shock:

Maybe my engine skill's are slipping away but i thought if the valves are adjusted too tight then the valves open too much, And sometimes if adjusted tooo tight rockers can even hold the valves open and not let them seat :!: :!: :? :? Causing rough running or not even starting up because of loss of compression :!:


''JUST MY TWO CENT'S WORTH''

I agree.

One other thing. Answer me this. Are you one of those guys that piles tools, bolts etc all over the fenders and cowl area while you work? If so it may have just fallen in.Not hard to imagine if you are pulling valve covers plug wires etc to get to the rocker arms. Obviously it isn't a rocker ball from that engine if you adjusted the valves.

Piling crap on the cowl is a terrible idea if you have the engine open up or the carb/tbi uncovered. It is very easy to knock stuff off without knowing it.

I read an article by David Reher about an engine that blew up on a dyno. What they discovered was a weight or something off of a ceiling fan in the dyno room had fallen off and just happened to land in the carb while the engine was running.

i do acasionally but most times have a table beside the truck and yes bowhay and sorry im backwards i meant too loose my mistake but yes it didnt open enough to let the parts fall through and once adjusted they did

Jezzzz, glad we got that straight.
Sux what happened, but chalk it up to experience, learn from it and move forward.
Make changes in your work habits, if I were you I'd take Tods approach - lock the door! :shock:

And dont feel like the lone ranger here, similar situations like this have happened to the best mechanics, whether they choose to admit it or not.

Cp

thatswhatim doin already got the new motor in and runnin

3) When I work on my engine, NOBODY is allowed in the garage.....I'm serious.... I lock the door. You would be surprised at the silly mistakes that can happen while you are yacking/shooting the bull. Steps get skipped or forgotten etc.

( Tod74 ) man thats some good stuff,we have a friend that comes by to ( HELP ) and I allways. make damn sure i give him the shortest ratchet and the shortest wrench's we have.,because if you dont, he will snap it off,,and then he says,,if it aint tight it aint gonna hold,,but he does try to help..it gets pretty amusing sometimes..

Ok guys i am rebuilding a 604 cid indy aluminum hemi it has a 0.770 lift roller cam, now what i done last night was to adjust the roller rockers to spec's, I rolled one of the cam lobe's to full lift then i took a Chevy rocker ball and dropped it in the intake port of the head, it would not go thru, Now i don't think the engine in question has a camshaft this large it might though, I think that if it would not go thru it would just sit on the valve and bounce untill the valve broke from the vibration of ball bouncing. The ball was close to the valve opening but would not go thru. Soooo i don't know :!: :!:


''JUST MY TWO CENT'S WORTH''

I'm not saying it didn't happen, but it's never happened too me. I work alone, i build a few engines a yr. and if i get a visitor to my shop (which is rare, i live in a one dog town) i simply cover up the engine until they leave. I have been building for 50 yrs. and that's alway been my procedure. I don't distrust the visitor i just don't need the distraction when i'm putting together a $5,000.00/$10,000.00 motor.

JMO

Zip.

What did it do to the head? A rocker ball can't get past the rings and it had to of smashed into the head for it to have busted the block...in which case the piston would be toast too...but you didn't mention any damage to the head or piston...,just the cylinders. :?:

Not saying it didn't happen I just find it odd no damage to the head or piston.

Slowly your story is unraveling....

Well, I'm going back to my corner of this little shop, sit down on the stack of slicks, drink my coke, and STFU. I'm now convinced, That I'm wrong, And I apologize to all involved. I take it all back, except the part about running around madly, waving my arms. My wife says that's a regular occurence around here. SHE IS, the only person around these parts, who's never wrong. :lol: If y'all say, what I thought happened, didn't happen, that's good enough for me. Anyway, once again I apologize!

I'm wondering how big the bolts were that he mentioned. 1/4" ???

Did I read that correctly? YOU have CHEVY PARTS in your garage?!@!

:lol:

I had the exact same thought. :P

DEM CHEVY PARTS GONNA GIVE MARK A RASH :shock: :lol:

nah he gonna have to get used to chevy parts oh man that means i gotta get used to mopars ewwww

Sure i have some Chevy-Ford, even Nissian parts :!: :!:



''JUST MY TWO CENT'S WORTH''

Well....I think the secret is out now. YOUR MOPAR has a CHEVY ENGINE IN IT! :o