I was at Milan last night too, helping a friend with his Camaro. I couldn't believe how bad traffic was, took me 1.5 hours to get there from Westland. I didn't wander the pits much, so I didn't get back to where you were at, or I would have stopped and said hi. I saw your rig as I was leaving and followed you out the gate.

Dennis

Man, that stinks.

I feel your pain. I dropped a screw down the dist. hole while finishing up my motor about two months ago, heard it go into the pan. Did the exact same thing you did, tried to fish it out with a flexible magnet, couldn't get it out, had to take the pan off. When I turned the motor over, it got lodged between a piston and pin, had to wiggle it carefully to dislodge it, was sweating bullets not to nick anything. Again, luckily it was on the stand but still a huge P.I.T.A.

Hope you get it all back together soon.

Weeks like this is enough to make a Preacher cuss. Hope yours gets better soon!
Brian

Better to have it happen at an idle as opposed to being up at rpm. Could have been a lot worse. Did you figure out where the washer came from

This ¿!

Dang! Hope your luck changes! Washer from the turbo clamp that broke?

Gotta say, Scott took it a lot better than I would have. I got home about 11:30pm and within an hour he sent me pics of the tear down. Sorry to see the carnage, but i know you will have it up and running pretty darn fast. If i can help in any way just let me know. Thanks for the advice and help with my heap too!

Randy

No doubt you'll have it fixed lickety-split and running as fast AS YOU WANT IT to. It's just a minor delay for you. I'll help where I can.

Yeah it'll all be ok. It's just racing... not what you want to happen on a new build, but it happens.

Biggest concern is the bore. My machinist buddy is going to come over and take a look at it. See if it'll clean up with the portable hone real quick, if so I'll put it back together... if not it comes apart. Neither of the pistons pinched the rings, skirts look fine... and I do have one more spare piston so even if one of them is junk I have that going for me.

Depending on what my buddy thinks, we'll either just re-cut the head, or weld it up. The chamber itself looks ok, its really just the quench pad that looks bad. Obviously we'll take a look at the seat when we pop the heads apart. Bearings looked fine.


Honestly I have NO idea where that washer (or at least what looks like a washer) came from. It definitely didn't come from the turbo clamp because the nut was still on the T-bolt. Bothers me that I don't know where the other 1/2 of it is too! It's sort of a pain in the butt, but I think I'll take the hotside off and make sure it's not in the crossover. I looked at the turbine wheel, no signs of it exiting the motor. So it COULD be in the downpipe/exhaust too I suppose. Just need to carefully look at everything, and get it back together. Sucks... but that's racing right!

I find it amazing that the car got ~15 street miles on it before we heard the noise at Milan. It's strange because the #7 plug was hit and closed the gap up. But it must have happened VERY early in the new build because it doesn't look like it's ever been fired at all. ZERO HEAT. So that washer had to be in there from the beginning, hit the plug, and then disappeared back into the intake? Not really sure. I have no idea where it started from. The only thing I can think is that maybe a washer got into the air filter. But you'd think the turbo would show signs of eating something that big through the compressor wheel. Hard to say...

Leading contenders among my friends where the washer came from was...

Ryan did it - So he could come over and drink more of my beer putting it back together.

Dave did it - So he could get more of my money for machine work.

Obama did it - Because he was mad that he missed out on this car the last time cash for clunkers came around.

I sure hope he can hone it for ya...best of luck
on it Scott... yeah eyeball EVERYTHING to see if
you can find the remaining chunk... I'm GUESSING
that its down in the exhaust or muff... might want
to smack the muff with your hand to see if you can
hear it

Good luck! I hate to see that stuff happen.

Sorry to hear that! Hope you get it back together soon and find the bores are ok.

Man I really feel for you. If your luck is like mine, it usually goes in streaks. Remember things are going to get better and probably stay that way again. I have a new motor on the stand now and I am getting my car out of storage this week. After reading your posts I think I am going to Duct tape every open hole on the motor before I put it in the car and remove it as I install things. I never gave the distributor hole a second thought. I hope everything works out, looking forward to seeing that Turbo setup that you have been working on.

DVW did it!
He's your envious Brother. Just kiddin' just kiddin'

Sorry for the mess, but it can all be put back together, stronger, meaner and cleaner.
My good buddy here "Glasses" who has built many many a small block Chrysler over the years once installed the Pistons back wards in one of the banks. Did not notice till he got a few runs in and it all was down hill, but without much damage.
He now keeps the grotto closed when he is doing assembly. I do the same when working on my junk yard dog. It's always fun when chatting with the guys while assembly, but not fun when that foreign sound from within amplifies through your heart.

You'll be back. We all look forward to it.

Sorry to hear this Scotty, let us know if we can help out in any way.

All good. Block cleaned up nice and easy with just a few swipes. Just had to unbolt the master cylinder for #7.



Head is getting welded up, milled, and a look at the valve job. Pistons are getting coated, and turbo goes back tomorrow for the 1100hp capable billet 76mm compressor wheel upgrade.... it ain't all bad...lol

Thats good to hear Scott

Glad it worked out..that's a nice running combo

Do you have one of those video scopes that you can fish thru a plug hole?

It wouldn't hurt to verify that the other piece of whatever that was isn't floating around in one of the other cylinders.

You would not believe how far shrapnel can travel inside an engine.

Kevin

Hate to hear what happened man, was looking forward to seeing you!

But, glad you have it going back together.

Casey