headgasket??

[70challengerdane]

well, rebuilt the motor in school, waited almost a year to find time to finish up the last little bits and get my car started... ate the cam cause i didnt know you were supposed to put locktite on the cam bolt. replaced the cam and got it running yet again for another 5 minutes, this time running much better, and all my freeze plugs fell out due to an unexpected week long snow storm.. finally replaced them and got it running one moree time... coolant in the oil, wont run very long.... what??? i remember being very cautious and careful assembling my engine with supervision because it was my first rebuild and i specifically DIDNT want this type of thing happening.. im very discouraged at this point and want to give up for the first time in 5 years of agonizing body work, thrift, and elbow grease. im getting married in august and i just dont see how i can keep this up if its gonna keep being this way... i really dont understand what couldve cause this to happen. judging by sound and the not as hot header pipe, it appears to be either 4 or 6 i dont remember which as im inside now and not about to go back out in the rain.. sorry for dumping on everyone im just rather depressed about this and nobody around me even knows what a headgasket is haha

 

[moparleo]

Time to check compression to narrow down the problem area, heads must come off. I think most of us have been down this road before.

 

[Juan Veldez]

Don't feel too bad, we all have been there. I remember when I started racing and put a new floor shifter with a reverse shifting pattern in the Nova with a 'Glide (yea, I was a GM guy). Underneath I put the lockout for the shift from low to high as required by NHRA. So I hit the street to test it out, come to a stop, stab it and at about 70mph I slap it into hi and BANG! I'm sliding sideways taking up both lanes, people freakin' out (mainly me) and I finally come to a stop on the side of the road. WTF, oh, reverse pattern, oops, lockout was put on Park to Reverse, and guess that's where it went when I tried to go into high. I can laugh about it now, but the pucker factor at the time would have let me make a diamond out of coal if I was sitting on it! Oh, and the 'Glide kept on going for years of bracket racing BTW. I still have it 30 years later. You find when you do things yourself the first time, you sometimes learn the hard way. And experts screw up too! I seen a new motor throw a rod out the side of a professionally build motor because they missed tightening one rod bolt!

Oh, and you should check the bearings as they tend to dislike coolant, at least that's what I've heard. Anyone agree?

 

[70challengerdane]

ugh ill probably be remotivated in a week or so to tear it down haha right now i dont even want to look at it anymore haha i went from in 15 minutes im going to take this car that hasnt been liscensed since ive been alive on the street for its maiden voyage to... im about to tear the motor down and spend another paycheck on this. again.

 

[moparleo]

One good thing is that you know Everything is going to get checked this time for sure.
Hang in there. It IS worth it. Be glad you aren't married yet and are still able to spend your check on it.

 

[ramenth]

And experts screw up too! I seen a new motor throw a rod out the side of a professionally build motor because they missed tightening one rod bolt!

And those NASCAR engines with all the man hours in assembly and machining can go boom. All the NHRA engines. All those high winding F1 engines... you get the picture. And the guys who do those engines get paid the big bucks. Mistakes happen to best of 'em.

I work on cars for a living. While I'm pretty conscientious, I'll have comebacks. Only one perfect man walked this earth. Don't know about you, but I didn't get an application for that job.

Oh, and you should check the bearings as they tend to dislike coolant, at least that's what I've heard. Anyone agree?

It can be true, depending on the length of time the engine has been run with coolant in the oil. In this case, on a fresh rebuild it probably wouldn't matter much, but it wouldn't hurt to check either.

On some cars I've gotten away with a 4:1 mixture of oil:kerosene. The trick to that, though, is the engine can't be revved.

With an engine that the cam might still need break in, I wouldn't advise it.

 

[Challenger340]

and all my freeze plugs fell out due to an unexpected week long snow storm.. finally replaced them and got it running one moree time... coolant in the oil, wont run very long.... what???

It got cold enough, to pop ALL of your Frost Plugs ?
Now,
you have coolant in the Oil ?

Imo,
I would be checking very carefully, to see if the Block is cracked from freezing ? and easy to check....
If no external leaks, then the next most common area for the blocks to crack and leak INTERNALLY into the Oil, is in the Lifter gallery.
They crack lengthwise front to back, just above the Lifters below the Heads.
Pretty easy to spot with the Intake & Valley pan removed, which you have to do anyways if thinking about pulling the heads....

Apologies for being the bearer of potentially bad news, just something to check if you cannot find a cause otherwise.

 

[70challengerdane]

yeah i thought about that already.. i didnt start it while it was that cold so i didnt think thatd be a problem but at this point im prepared for the worst haha ive done slap together headgaskets on my corolla in my driveway in a few hours and havent had a problem for 5k miles.. but do a good job double checking and in a secure shop with supervision and blammo haha

 

[70challengerdane]

and it only knocked the front four out technically

 

[70challengerdane]

found a 1965 4bbl 383 thats appearently running good and bone stock for 300obo so i might just get that if i find worse case senario stuff.. that way ill have a good core and an already balanced bottom end.. its still i an 880 and has been molested yet so thats a good sign.. appearently spent a while in storage too

 

[70challengerdane]

pulled the intake off and i dont see any cracks... i really hope the heads are ok cause theyre much more of a hassle to replace then the short block :/

 

[moparleo]

If you didn't narrow down the actual problem before you took the heads off, I wouldn't recommend trusting the short bolck. This is my opinion. I would do a total tear down and spend a few dollars at the local trusted machine shop to have the whole thing magna fluxed to confirm every thing is ok before throwing any more hard eaned dollars at it. Not a bad idea to have the used $300. motor as a backup.

 

[70challengerdane]

yeah im using the other motor at this point and putting my bolt ons on it. when i did my motor i didnt have a job and so i couldnt afford machining and the tolerances were barely in spec ad the bores were a little out of round and even though still in spec, i just think this other short block is a much better base for all the top end stuff i have... my biggest question is if the heads cracked rather then the block.. this other 383 has 915s so unless theyve already seen machine work, theyre gonna need valve seats which i cant afford.. i need to start saving my money for the wedding and honeymoon... if the heads are good though ill just put my cam heads intake headers ignition oil pump carb etc on the 65 short block.. i dont think thered be any problems as long as the short blocks decent still... btw anyone know how to tell if the exhaust seats have been hardened?

 

[moparleo]

Only heads built after 1973 would have induction hardened seats. This is done during manufacturing. Other wise the heads have to have seat area machined into the head to insert the hard seats into. The only way to check the heads for cracks is to have them disassembled and magnafluxed and pressure tested. You just can't check things without spending some money. Good luck

 

[70challengerdane]

so after all this time, just took the heads off yesterday hahaha they look good, however the cylinder walls in #4 dont haha so the heads, cam etc are all going on the 65 motor i still have waiting patiently haha in the mean time between loss of motivation i picked up a 78 280z turbo and had to replace some bent valves and rebuild the harness for the standalone ecu it came with and now im driving that beast around but the clutch wont hold past 3/4 throttle lol anyways thats for sale (mpg are terrible) and i finally might try to get the challenger going before i get married and move out haha