Part 1 - Finally got my '62 all back together this week. Started off last Sunday by having it ALMOST all together. Had the motor primed, and all I had to do was throw the distributor in it and button a few things up. Well tightening the boost line on the back of the manifold... the 9/32" socket falls off the ratchet, and OF COURSE... falls right into the distributor hole... all the way to the pan. @#$%^&

So the next day I drain all the oil out, and I go fishing with a magnet through the drain plug hole... can't find it. Then after "fishing" for a while, I realize that the socket is probably sitting on top of the baffle... not in the sump. So I jack the back of the car up as high as I can get it... pound on the pan with a hammer, and I get it to roll down into the sump. Go "fishing" for a bit longer, and finally after 1hr plus of trying to get this thing out... I FINALLY get it hooked with the magnet!

Only to find out.... it's about .020" too big to fit through the drain plug hole!!!! I don't know weather to laugh or cry at this point, but after all of that, the pan had to come off.

VERY lucky for me my Dad (dvw) had just 1 week earlier convinced me to cut the K-frame JUST INCASE the pan ever had to come out in the car! So what's funny is I was able to get the pan off in 16 minutes after screwing around with the magnet for well over an hour! ha ha ha... Oh well... lesson learned.



https://youtu.be/BN7NP3u8rSY

Gotta love racecars!

Part 2
So after I get the socket out... I have to get the pan back on it. It's got a late model magnum style pan gasket on it. Overmolded steel stamping... real nice. So it stays stuck to the block PERFECT. So I bolt it back up... WITHOUT sealer...

Get the car fired up on Wednesday... take my wife and kid to go get icecream up the road. Nothing under power, just cruising it. Runs pretty decent. It's a little shaky, but it's got a solid motor mount, sorta feels like it might be missing, but the carb is REAL fat especially for a new build because I want the tuneup safe. Any tip in to show part throttle cleans right up. Pretty happy with everything...

Except for I get home and the oil pan is leaking like a screen door on a submarine... @#$%^&

Part 3
So Thursday night I'm back out in the garage again, taking the pan off AGAIN. Thanks again to dvw's wisdom to cut the K-frame... it all comes off pretty easy. But then I get the fun job of scraping all of the RTV off the block. Then I go to reinstall... remember that nice 1 piece magnum gasket? Well it works GREAT.... IF you are installing it on a stand. The front portion of the gasket goes over the pan like a normal small block piece, but the rear actually fits in a groove in the #5 cap. So if you put it on the block, it wants to fall off because of gravity... if you glue it to the pan first, then you can't get it in the cap. So I get my wife out to help, she does a great job, but I have to admit is NOT happy with the black RTV all over her hands... lol I said it'll wash off. She says, "I see the black stuff under your nails when you go to work every morning... it does not come off." LOL I got her a beer... tightened the pan up, and all was good.

Part 4

Took the day off for some runs at Milan, with thoughts of heading to Columbus right after for the mopar race this weekend at National Trail.

Started off by taking the car for a ride, no oil leaks... all good.

I go to get on the throttle to make sure the tuneup is close...and it won't make boost. 4-5psi and that's it.

So I go back, I check the compressor, the regulator, all the lines, I have the laptop plugged in, check the MAP sensors for the boost controller... it's all doing everything it's supposed to. So then I determine the only way it could all be working and NOT make boost... is that it has to have a REALLY BIG boost leak.

I start looking around and I find one of the clamps on the turbo is loose between the compressor housing and CHRA. AH HA! Must have forgotten to tighten the clamp! Easy fix...





Except... it's not loose... it's broke.



So I start calling around...Good luck finding a 8" V-band clamp in stock anywhere in Detroit! After calling 100 places, I finally gave up. Took it over to HardcoreB's house and he TIG'd it up for me. Good to go.




Get home (now it's 2pm), slap the v-band back on, take the car for a ride...14psi... all good.

Get home... load it up, and we head to Milan at 3:30.

Part 5

HardcoreB and I head to Milan. I'm about 1h15min North of there. Heading there to meet Randy (Dartin) there for some tests. TWO AND A HALF HOURS LATER.... we finally make it through the worst traffic you can imagine.

Now it's 6pm. I get the car off the trailer, run it over to tech... no issues, so I drive it back over to check the tires and get ready for the first run.

Suddenly it starts making this weird clattering noise. HardcoreB and I look at eachother like WHAT WAS THAT? Then the noise is gone... very strange. Not taking any chances, we take the valve covers off. Bump the motor over and check all of them. Everything is good and tight. Climb under the car and check all the converter bolts... all good.

Start taking the plugs out... get to #7 and it looks BRAND new... like it's not firing. It's also closed shut... no gap. UH OH.

I take piston is near TDC, and HardcoreB can see down there that the top of the piston is beat to SH!T from something bouncing around in there. #$%^&... great. Push the car back on the trailer... finish watching Dartin' make some passes and we head home.

Bummer. Not the kind of luck you want. Ron

Part 6
Get home about 10:30... HardcoreB helps me push the car in the garage, and I start to thrashing... Start by trying to figure out what could have gone through there. Maybe when the clamp was loose on the turbo, it broke part of the compressor wheel off? Tak that apart... didn't break it... but definately made contact... so another thing I get to fix.





So then I take the exhaust manifold off to start disasembly..Small piece of what appears to be what's left of a 5/16" sized washer is sitting pretty right in the #7 exhaust port when I took the manifold off. Uh oh...

Part 7
Work until 3am... get the head off and ultimately two pistons...

OUCH...

#7 piston
[/URL]

#7 Head



#7 Head Closeup



#3 piston




#3 Head



#3 Bore




#3 bore Closeup





NOT the way you want your engine to look on the night of your first race day!!!!!! #$%^&

Oh man, what a suckfest. Hopefully your luck gets better as the season goes on.

Watching your threads has me thinking I need to do a turbo in my Duster.

I feel bad for you!
Luck is a pendulum.
It swings both ways.
Sometimes dumb stuff goes wrong and luck isn't going your way.
Just remember how many times stuff didn't go wrong and how good you had it!
The good luck will come back around.....

That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Wow, thats pretty hard core and just one of the pitfalls of what we do for fun.

I give you credit for keeping at it, id of shoved in in the shop and walked away for a week.

I was waiting for this to get better......

Dang i dont have to tell you but that fing stinks,stay at it thou you'll work thru it....

Thats a major... SUCKS... your car still
doesnt hate you as much as mine did... at
least mine is starting to come around.. sure
hope you get it back together soon... what are
you gonna do on that cyl wall.. is that bad enough
to sleeve.. hard for me to tell in a pic.. best of
luck with it Scott.... a lot of that will clean up
with a tootsie roll

Just think of the positive, at least you found the problem. I always have issues and cant find out why.....I am afraid something like that will happen to my hemi....Tim

Totally feel your pain....That sucks....But your phone takes pretty good pictures.

Scott sorry to see your issues with the new build. You are one of the most driven guys I know and that drive will get you past this hiccup and back to the track in no-time. Thoroughly check the pistons to make sure you don't have a pinched ring in all the effected cylinders. When my Son Matt broke a small piece of a valve off it pinched a ring on the other side of the block. Good-luck and great job of getting it apart and on its way back again so quickly.

Check that turbine wheel... It looks like only half of that washer is there.
It doesn't take much of a chunk of anything to damage the turbine wheel.
You end up fixing the engine, then the turbo shakes itself apart, and goes back into the engine.
Another reason to run an intercooler. Big parts "filter".
Any clue of where the debris came from?

Damn man, that sucks.

I avoid all that bad luck by leaving mine in the trailer

Sorry to see this happen but I know you'll get it back together better than ever and out having fun in no time!

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

Glad to hear the damage wasn't worse. Hopefully you'll be up and running again quickly!

Randy

Thanks to my good buddy Dave at EngineCraft, the head is all welded up, milled, and chamber blended.

Had to order two valves...just waiting on those to put the motor back together!

Beautiful work...you would never know it had been hurt.

I don't hear it running yet.

24 days later...all back together. Had to touch hone the block in the car, replace a piston and save another, weld up the head, 2 valves, valve job, and fix the compressor wheel on the turbo (and put bearings in it).

New 76mm billet wheel in the turbo, ready to rock this weekend at the Curt George Memorial race in Pittsburg!

Glad to see you got her back together. See you there.

Scott i love the simplicity of your setup its super clean yet efficient. Good luck this weekend and have fun,try and get some video I love seeing that savoy in action.
Aaron

Toad. Is this set up in the photo finished yet?
Amazing how you got all that hardware in that cramped engine bay.