BUILD Broke EF turbo LS SC400 Build

[Broke EF]

What is up party people!! Small update on this POS today.

I had a long weekend, so I decided to get to tearing my engine apart finally. Itll be a video at some point, so I dont have a ton of pics, but here is the pile.

Lets just say, it wasnt pretty.

Lifters look terrible, they were brand new.

I also cant get the cam out currently. Some of the bearings wanted to come with it, so that caused some headaches. I am going to rip out the bottom end parts to get better access and hopefully get it out without adding any damage. I am not sure of the condition of the cam, hopefully its good.

I am thinking I am going to go get a new motor this weekend. Then I need to decide how sloppy to go with it. I pretty much like 0% sloppy, but we will have to see what time and budget allow really.

 

[Mr_Roboto]

Tha fuck happened there? Wow that thing is munched.

 

[IDAFC21]

Jesus, you are living My Summer Car Tho I don't mean to make light of your situation, that really really sucks.

Also, I like the subtle Milwaukee flex.

 

[Broke EF]

Tha fuck happened there? Wow that thing is munched.

Complete lack of mechanical sympathy It had no oil pressure, and I said fuck it maybe the sensor isnt reading right. Spoiler alert, it was reading right.

Jesus, you are living My Summer Car Tho I don't mean to make light of your situation, that really really sucks.

Also, I like the subtle Milwaukee flex.

You can make light if it, shit happens. I just wish it was at least fast before it let go.

That was not actually meant as a flex, I just had nowhere else to put them in my messy ass garage. I also wish I had the ratchets since I was only using them to spin the fasteners out. I broke everything lose by hand even though its all garbage.

 

[Boostie]

I have head gaskets, lifters and trays I would donate to the cause if you needed

 

[Broke EF]

I have head gaskets, lifters and trays I would donate to the cause if you needed

I really apprciate that!! But, I already have that ordered up. Plus, I need to feel the sting of my stupidity a little

 

[Broke EF]

Since I am on a clock, I said FUCK WORK and drove for 10 hours straight today to grab a new engine.

Also I looked a little closer to the cam, and its not good

Tomorrow I will tear down the new L33, and make some descions. I apparently also need to pick a new cam. I really liked the one that was in there, it was the Motion turbo cam and it was really good for what I was doing. Howver, seems like I should try something else because why not? Mabye a BTR Stage 2 which has a litte more lift in comparison. Anyway, should see another update tomorrow or Sunday.

 

[Turbocharged400sbc]

It looks like there's still an oil and dust sheen on that journal but the light reflection bars across its face looks like it only shows a couple of ridges. Most of that looks like that was how the factory cam bearings were worn down and this cam was tossed in and riding on worn bearings

 

[IDAFC21]

OOF. I know that sting.

 

[Mr_Roboto]

Since I am on a clock, I said FUCK WORK and drove for 10 hours straight today to grab a new engine.

Also I looked a little closer to the cam, and its not good

Tomorrow I will tear down the new L33, and make some descions. I apparently also need to pick a new cam. I really liked the one that was in there, it was the Motion turbo cam and it was really good for what I was doing. Howver, seems like I should try something else because why not? Mabye a BTR Stage 2 which has a litte more lift in comparison. Anyway, should see another update tomorrow or Sunday.

Are the lobes rough? Think I would ask if that will polish out.

 

[Turbocharged400sbc]

The lobes look good it's just the bearing Journal looks like it was riding on used Factory bearings.

Most of those are aluminum babbit I think with maybe anodizing, they may just be raw machine aluminum with the normal aluminum oxide layer developing.

I know they went for more durability on cold starts with the aluminum.

I'm pretty sure the aftermarket uses both the old tri-metal type construction as well as the newer aluminum stuff which is more rapid production of mass quantities of identical dimensions.

 

[Broke EF]

The lobes look good it's just the bearing Journal looks like it was riding on used Factory bearings.

Most of those are aluminum babbit I think with maybe anodizing, they may just be raw machine aluminum with the normal aluminum oxide layer developing.

I know they went for more durability on cold starts with the aluminum.

I'm pretty sure the aftermarket uses both the old tri-metal type construction as well as the newer aluminum stuff which is more rapid production of mass quantities of identical dimensions.

I think you got it. I dont remeber a cam bearing looking terrible, but apparently it was or went south quick. The one cam journal is pretty rough, bad enough I wont throw it in the new engine. For now I will set everything from that engine to the side.

Yesterday I finished tearing down the old engine. I had to cut the cam bearings out to get the cam out. It looks like a cam bearing is the main culprit of this engines downfall.

Some bearing material under the mains

Most of them looked like that.

After that one was done I cleaned up the bench some

Then got the engines swapped around so I could start on the new one.

And here is the aftermath of the teardown.

So it went pretty uneventful. The crank bolt was really a bitch, I had to get the big boy ratchet and a long pipe to get it cracked lose. Also the main caps were really tight, busted the shit out of my hand cracking them lose. You can also clearly see the heads look a lot cleaner than the rest of the engine. They have been off, probably a couple of times. The headgaskets looked terrible and were for sure reused at least a couple times. I dont trust them to be flat, which means I now have to machine them as well. The bearings look great, the pistons move freely on the rods, rings all seem to have spring in them and they all move on the piston. So all in all I think its mostlty good, but I have trust issues so I think I am going to completely go through it.

 

[Turbocharged400sbc]

Trust issues are a good thing.

 

[Broke EF]

Last night I was at a birthday part for a good friend of mine, and it was pretty much all car guys there. A few of them recomened an engine guy, so today I reached out. He responded quickly, and with actual prices!! After some back and forth going over details and him answering all my questions I was sold. So back to the garage to strip it all down a little more and gret it ready to drop off tomorrow.

The pistons along the back are out of the old engine. They actually still seem fine, and they had new rings already. The dirtier pistons closer to the camera are out of the new engine after pulling off the rings and bearings.

Old heads are closer, new heads are by the welders all stripped and ready to go to the machine shop as well.

The valves are sitting on the old motor, he is going to inspect them, but I have a feeling they will get replaced. New block is on the ground after I figured out I can just pick it up LOL

And all loaded into the truck

The plan right now is clean everything, surface the block, all new bearings, new rings, surface heads, valve job, new valve seals. I am waiting to order all the rest of the parts (cam, lifters, oil pump, etc.) until he has at least started on everything just in case. I am pretty excited to get it all dropped off tomorow and hopefully have a really solid engine that will last me a while.

 

[Broke EF]

 

[IDAFC21]

Oh dayum. NICE

 

[Broke EF]

Not much happening right now since while I am waiting for the engine to come back. I more or less took it easy this weekend to take advantage. I wont be using the rockers that came out of the L33, but I figured I could knock the needle bearings out of them.

Next step will be to run it all through the ultrasonic cleaner, but I need to get some solution for it first so that can wait.

After that I mostly just cleaned up, and I worked on the supra a little. In the process of cleaning, I decided to pull the converter off of my trans. Let me back up a bit first. I seemingly always had a little bit of trans fluid around the front of the transmission. It could have been power steering, but it was there sometime after I had ditched that. Trans was always good, never gave me any issues and fluid was always good too (color and level) so I ran it. I was planning on having it gone though to be safe, that was before the engine debocle. Long story short...

Trans and converter are getting dropped off tomorrow. I am REALLY hoping it doesnt need anything, I dont think my wallet can take anymore!!!

Besides that I ordered some parts for the engine. Some things have changed with that, but I will save that for a specific engine update later. In the meantime, I am open for donations and/or sponsprships

 

[Broke EF]

You guys are ahead of the curve on this deal, but here is the first video with the teardown of my engine.



I am going to start working on the next part today, and hopefully have it posted this weekend. Anyway, check it out and let me know what you think!

Also, I am picking up the L33 stuff today. I am going to hold off posting all of that info for now though.

 

[IDAFC21]

Saw this pop up earlier today at work. Will watch tonight!

 

[IDAFC21]

You're the reason I love playing car mechanic simulator

Also loved the continued Milwaukee product placement

I see you. I see you.

 

[Broke EF]

LOL, I perfer the physical, emotional, and financial sting of doing it in real life. I must be a mashocist.

Its not so much product placement as I just keep buying more and more and have nowhere to put any of it yet. This video was filmed over at least a couple months which is why the stack got bigger. After Sick Summer I am going to start the garage remodel and mount a bunch to the walls.

 

[Broke EF]

Well I am bored, so here is a small update for you guys. Another TCG exclusive!!!!

I have a pretty awesome wife who has been extremely understanding with me hemorrhaging money this winter. Not only that, but she even bought me some wheels!

They are 17" x 4" Billet Specialties Street Lites. I ordered the ridiculously expensive tires for them last night. I have a line on a set of rears as well, but I need to change the rear brakes to fit a 15 back there. I am going to try to have that done for Sick Summer, but it is low on my list right now.

A small upgrade I did was adding a mount for the holley screen. One thing I really wanted to do this winter was add in the Holley Pro 6.86" screen. With everything else going on, that wasn't going to happen. I still needed to mount my current baby screen somewhere though so I bought the Motion mount for it.

Please ignore the absolute nightmare behind it! Anyway, it works better than the ball of zip ties my buddy tried to cobble together in the pits last year. I dont think I like it on the column like that, but it will do for now. At some point I need to figure out the dash in this car, but that's way down the road.

Next up I worked on cleaning some parts for the engine. I got a parts washer a while back, and have been putting off filling it. This weekend I found some stuff from Harbor Freight that was cheap (of course) and seemed to be decent. I picked it up and went to work.

Just messing around with an old windage tray.

The pan off the old motor before

The baffle before

The pan immediately after (I got it better after this, it had some residue on it still)

Windage tray, baffle, and pick up all clean

There was a little bearing material floating around in there!!

This past weekend I also took some parts off and brought them to work to get powder coated. One of the perks of my job is having access to a multi million dollar powder coat system, so I took advantage.

Well that's all for now. Engine updates are coming soon though. That's the good stuff

 

[IDAFC21]

New wheels, clean parts, powder coated goodies, whats not to love about ALL of that!

 

[Broke EF]

New wheels, clean parts, powder coated goodies, whats not to love about ALL of that!

I figured if it cant be fast it may as well look decent. I am still failing on that front too, but I am trying

 

[Broke EF]

Its new parts day! But before we get into that, lets talk about my engine a bit. So we all know that the old one was junk. The heads seem ok, and now I am going to reuse them (more on that later), but the rest was no good. I brought the new L33 into the shop and ended up having to do EVERYTHING to it. The cylinders were trashed (pitted) and he actually had to order pistons twice because he had to go bigger than he expected. When I dropped it off the conversation was more along the lines of maybe we should do pistons and rods because that way we have fresh cylinder walls. I said lets get some pricing, maybe I can make it work. Turns out that was the right move since the one cylinder would have never sealed.

Anyway, when it was all said and done I had the block cleaned, decked, cylinders bored and honed, mains align honed, new cam bearings. The crank was balanced with the new weight, polished, and he welded the reluctor wheel for me as well. Then we did K1 rods, Wesico pistons with upgraded pin, new bearings and rings. He sized the rods, and I had him hang the pistons and also gap the rings for me, but I will handle the assembly.

I went with a Summit PRO LS Stage 2 Turbo cam, and I am using ARP main studs

In an effort to save SOME money, I am going to reuse my old heads. They were already surfaced, 3 angle valve job, new seals, new exhaust valves, BTR dual springs, new hardware, and Comp Cams trunion upgrade. I will probably leave this setup until I do some aftermarket heads later. I did however get new everything else, LS7 lifters, new trays, new tray bolts, new cam retention plate, new cam retention plate bolts.

And here we have the BTR small bore MLS headgaskets (same as LS9, but smaller bore), Melling high volume, high pressure oil pump, ARP head studs, King main bearings, summit block plug kit (wont be using the oil barbel), new starter since mine died, assembly lube, ring compressor because of the bigger pistons, and a new wideband O2 for a spare.

Sac City Corvette oil barbel and font plug

And finally tires to go on my new wheels

I am planning on starting the assembly this weekend, and then I can measure for pushrods and get those ordered up. Considering I didnt want to do anything to the engine at all this winter, things have really snowballed! But at the end of the day I will have a bad add (for me) engine that should make really good power and last me quite a while!