Can I borrow the supercharger & brackets for a few months? It would bolt on to my motor in about 2 hours, you know... ;-) (plus my block is already o-ringed!) Seriously, best of luck getting it back together! And remember, going lean on a supercharger is just as bad as going lean on nitrous... -Bob Cunningham
Rich, If a blown out head gasket is all you are looking at then I would consider the weekend another "learning experience". Considering you had to do the "three stooges whew-whew-whew" just to make it to the meet, you and Chad learned some valuable info about the car. Now, kick back, weigh all options, and make the necessary changes. You know the potential is there for 10's or possibly 9's if you have the "walnuts". I'm watching your progress so I can make some choices for my build when the time comes. Hopefully there will be some new block castings to choose from by that time. Keep the faith Rich! Good things come to those who are patient and carefull. :TU:
Yeah....Lean is no good, that's for sure. That's why I always start on the rich side. THe alky is really good for tuning. If it's bogging with the alky on, you know your pretty FAT. When the gasket blew, we were probably about 2 to 3 jet sizes fat on all 4 corners... Man the thing wanted to run even still!
Hey Bill, It's all been a learning experiance :grin: One thing we learned for sure is the car NEEDS taller Gears :Brow: . I'm still not sure what we were seeing through the spark plug hole............. but oh well. I'm just happy all the work we did wasn't shot to He@#$. I think we will start playing with shim gaskets or possibly brass ones. were not in a big hurry this time, but I think we found out compossits aren't going to work under boost very well....... I will keep you all posted as to what's done, You can count on that :Brow: As for the fresh build, I have a very good Idea as to what parts and peices would be used at this point.
Right on Rich!!:TU: I'd say that's MUCH BETTER than a piston sideways in the bore!ou: What brand of gasket was that?? And what other composites have you tried? Time for O-rings yet??:spank: :spank:
Hey Jeff, The gasket was a "Detriot (AKA corteco)". It's comperable to the Orange Crush gasket (made by detroit for TA). I've run the orange crush, and felpro as well. Chances are, I'll be trying a Copper gasket this time. I'm not sure about 0-ringing just yet. I'd like to see what I could get away with before having that done :Brow:
I really hate to ask this Rich, but is there any chance that there was water/oil or any other poopoo in the block threads? Anything that would have given an inaccurate torque reading? I really hate asking the obvious, but it does get overlooked sometimes. I just put a cyl head on Chev 2.2L today and if I hadn't of cleaned and chased the threads in the block I wouldn't have been able to torque the head down right. Two of the threads were half-full of crapou: o No: o No:
It's all good Jeff, The Treads were clean. The intire block was cleaned at the machine shop from being honed. I was dealling with good treads with nothing but ARP moly on the treads. The motor was running the stongest it every had. New fresh cam, total seal rings, and the combustion chamber work I did on the heads made a HUGE differance. Infact, I didn't post this, but I had to jet it up 3 sizes just from rebuilding it. Freash cam and heads are all that changed. The cam was the exact same crower (cam card was the same and all). He motor was just flat making more power / cylinder presure than ever before............. It's got an easy low 11 in it now. Before it was rebuilt (mexy style :grin: ) it would have been tight getting a 11.6 or so out of it. We almost pulled that running it fat and out of gear at the 1100 to 1150 ft mark this will a larger pulley too! I feel that cutting the wall down on the back side of the combustion chamber did a world of good. Anyway, feel free to fire whatever questions, comments, or input.
I think you can cut O-rings into heads also, not just block. Just something to think about. Easier than block, that's for sure. I don't know if one way is better than the other.o No: I think I've heard of using a comp gasket w/ O-rings. IMO, you should step up to studs. Much stonger and better than bolts. I'm sure this would help a little. Some people have had nothing but grief from copper head gaskets, some swear they've never had a problem. Most of the problems are from coolant leaks though, not blowing them. Even on boost. Man you REALLY blew that gasket!! Big time.. Best of luck!:TU:
I don't think I took any before pics. I do have an after one tho. If you have a pair of untouched 70 heads, you would be able to see what I did to the head. I probably will step up to studs. I've also heard of having the heads o-ringed. I'll have to check into it and see if I can find a shop that's compitant in doing it.
BOOST Rich, What kind of boost numbers were you pushing when that gasket let loose. Not sure I want to run them on my turbo motor now. Brent
Re: BOOST Brent, To tell you the truth, I'm not exatly sure. But with the larger pulley on the charger (less boost) I'd really be supprised if it were over 7 1/2. I wan't watching the gauge when it let go, but I wasn't seeing over 8 psi
Hey Rich, I find it amazing you blew a head gasket when your only running 7 1/2 lbs. of boost. Did you not put lowwer compression pistons in while you had the motor out? The only problem SO FAR I'm having is blue smoke coming out of my exhaust at WOT going up through the gears. The ATI pros said to let my PCV valve vent to atmosphere, that helped but didn't clear it up all the way. I hope I don't run into any major internal problems I'm sure the advice you gave me earlier helped save me big time As soon as I find the time to take out my 308's and put back in my 373's, I'll let everyone know my times. Good luck, Rick
Hey Rick, Yep the car was running really good with what little boost it had. The only thing I can figure is the total seal rings were not letting any of the presure by (no blow by) and that's what cause the head to lift. I'd think about moving to 3.73's. As you saw in my post, I ran out of grear at about the 1100 to 1500 foot mark. While the blower your running isn't quite as big, you should still have some really good potintal there to do the same thing. I'm more that certain if we hadn't have talked and your continued to run the thing like you were, you would have been dealing with a pile of rubble by now :eek2: As for the PVC gig..... I'd look for a in-line break booster valve that has a 100% block on the preasure side. Your parts store should be able to help you with this. The will keep your crank case from presurizing via the PVC. The only other thing that could be causing the smoke is a bit of blow by and possibley running a bit rich. How much boost are you running and what's your jetting? How do your plugs look? As always, give me a call if you have any questions or need any help with it. Rich
