Fellas,

This thread will have a lot of topics in it which I welcome you to freely comment about. *The first of which deals with what I was thinking to be the beginning of a dying alternator. *I started to notice the car would die during idle and it would take a bit more effort crank-wise for the car to start after each stall out. *I started to witness this on the 29th of August just after I installed a recently powder coated valve cover from a local shop that does good work on muscle cars. *I received good recommendations within my build thread and I felt pretty good about progressing as directed. *I dropped my car off to Archie on the 5th in order to get a battery relocation done if the alternator was good, as well as have the Buschur double pumper and Amsoil filter put on since I was going to be out of town until the 22nd. *Archie asked me if he could take the car for a spin while I was away to see how the FP Red feels with the 2.4LR and I told him, sure. *On the 6th, I receive these two emails:

I wrote that last email when I stopped at a gas station a few miles from my house. *It does not look so good since I started to feel the ringtone through the clutch pedal. *That is an indication of worn bearings, mainly thrust bearings. *I will bring tools tomorrow to pull the valve cover and see what it looks like in there. *If there is metal in the oil, it wil be collected in the cyl head and I will be able to know if it's bad or good. *Sorry to give you bad news. If it is bad, now we know where the metal is coming from.

The engine needs to be pulled apart. *I wanted to pull the valve cover to see if there was metal in the oil. *It's much easier to see. *I started by pulling the oil cap and inspecting the oil dip stick. *The results are not good. * Definitely metal in the oil, and it looks to be iron. *This is usually an indication of a worn crankshaft. *The engine needs to be pulled out to fix this.


I talked to Archie briefly over the phone and the bottom line is that he told me that he was doing a 1-3 sprint and when he took the exit, the low oil pressure light came on, so he stopped at the gas station to send me the two emails above.

I drained and put new oil in the car the day before I took the car to his shop. *He said he would have the car towed back to his shop from his house and I would like for him to still put in the double pumper, large air intake filter, test the alternator, and if that is good, do the battery relocation kit for me before I return on the 22nd.

He said that he is totally against moving the car via starting it up again. *It is in his garage and he does not want to start it. * I talked to him this weekend*and it seems like gloom and doom from his end. * I told him I wanted to drive the car until the engine "goes" if it "goes". * He mentioned overhauling the engine and it costing about $3,500. * I told him straight up that I was not paying him for that work and it goes back to the idea and risk of me driving the car until the engine dies.

I told him about the new valve cover and he said that could be the issue and he would venture to assume that there is about an hour of engine life remaining before it is destroyed but how can he tell that?

I realize if there are shavings in the engine that eventually the engine will catastrophically fail. * I am perfectly fine taking this risk as there can be a myriad of things going on right now. * I do not want to go through the check "this" and then check "that" situation as that will get pretty expensive and*I am not there to confirm anything as I am out of town until the 22nd of this month.

On the topic of the powder coated valve cover, after I installed it, I had to take it off two days later due to a little water issue. *You can read what I am talking about in my build thread. *When I took the valve cover off, there were no shavings in the head at all. *OK. *Archie has not changed the oil nor verified anything in the oil pan. *He has only mentioned the oil dip stick. *I changed the oil after my water issue and saw nothing in the head as I cleaned it nor did I see any metal shavings on the oil drain plug.

*I was told by Archie that there is a difference between the valve cover of muscle cars and the EVO as the EVOs have certain parts that need to be covered as muscle cars do not. * I was told that sometimes when bleed blasting is used, the underneath surface could be dirty afterwards and once heat is applied from the oil, it causes the particles to mix with the oil and damage the engine. * I do know of Dave Buschur experiencing this but I have never read a thread about it.

I am in a tough position as I know*when an engine spins a bearing the last part you will see shavings is in the head. *I will have my wife check the oil I took out of the car as I used a brand new container. *I will tell her to shine a light in there to see if she sees any reflections of metal parts. *I know nothing about rod knock again as I am not there to hear it myself.

This is my last response: *You are not the cause of my frustration but I do need to vent as I type. * I do not understand how this stuff can just happen the day I leave my car at the shop. * I mean, I have never felt anything in the pedal nor have I seen any medal shavings when I change the oil and inspect the magnetic drain plug. * I might be mistaking "shavings" and the visual that comes to mind as I have had to wipe off a small amount of a gummy substance from the drain plug. * If this is due to an accumulation to "shavings" then I understand. * I am scratching my head on this one. * I also have to somewhat believe that the engine is still going through its break-in period as I am still under 1,000 miles. *At this point, I cannot believe that simply replacing the crank and worn bearings will fix this as I know that other parts might also be effected. * I am of the frame of mind to keep driving the car as it is until something catastrophic happens to the engine and it is 100% unable to be driven before I have you remove the engine at this point. * At least I would know I need a completely new block. * At this point, please continue with the plan we discussed when I dropped the car off.


I trust Archie and I just wanted to share this with you guys for more opinions. *I just want to say "bump it" and drive the car until the engine goes if that is the case. *Then, that might not be the wisest decision. *I have even contemplated selling the car instead of dealing with this issue as I have invested a ton of money into this car.

Please help me.

 

Someone help this guy! He's helped me a ton, hate to see something so unfortunate happen to such a nice person. Best of luck buddy!

 

I would not drive the car any more. By driving the car you're making the damage worse. The more you drive it, the more parts you are taking the chance of ruining.

Most places that powdercoat valve covers will bolt the VC down onto a table with a gasket to prevent beads from getting in the baffles. However, if they did not do this, beads could have gotten in your baffles, thus coming out when you ran your car after putting it on.

I would not let this make you want to sell your car for the exact reason why you wanted to sell it. Since you have so much money into it the only way that you'll 'get that back out of it' is to fix it and enjoy the car.

These instances are quite disheartening, however, you have a community full of people here to help!

If you need anything, let me know.

 

At this point, the only thing I feel comfortable in doing is to make sure the double pumper and filter are with the car and have the car towed to my house. *I will start the car one time and put it in my garage and then worry about the direction I will take. Selling it will be an option and I will pick up an M3.

 

Thanks. Right now, I am beyond discouraged.

 

I doubt if all of that prep work was done with the valve cover as the price was very cheap.

 

Sorry to say, but if there's metal in the oil, this engine build is dead. I wouldn't drive it - as other's have said, you'll only make it harder or more costly to rebuild, and that doesn't benefit you if you keep it, and it doesn't benefit the next owner if you sell it.

If you're wondering what killed it, my first guess would be the powdercoated valve cover. Its too bad that you weren't aware of the hazard. One misstep can cause a lot of heartache, but it comes with the territory when doing a big build and big power.

 

Levar, surely find out the means that the shop takes to get the paint off of their valve covers. If aircraft stripper was used you can likely look elsewhere to find the cause.

 

Sorry to hear the bad news. Did you by chance keep the old oil filter around from your last oil change? You should be able to cut it and look for evidence of metal shavings in it. This way it should give you some idea as to when this episode started.

 

On another note, if the shavings did somehow "originate" from the valve cover then you should've seen that evidence while you had it off, as the magnetic drain plug would have caught some as well during your oil change. They would have traveled straight down from the head into the pan...

 

No, sir. I had no idea about this and yes, it is an expensive lesson to learn. I do not plan to drive the car at all until I decide the route I want to take.

 

I did not keep the last filter that was on the car. I did have the oil container as it was brand new when I drained it. My wife shined a flashlight in it for me last night and said that she saw nothing out of the ordinary. When I checked the magnetic drain plug, there were no shavings whatsoever discovered. I will call the shop to see what, if anything, was used to clean the valve cover and how. I am still out of town until the 22nd so this is pretty tough.

 

I talked to the owner of the shop that did my valve cover. He told me that the valve cover was sand blasted laying flat on a table. For cleaning, he said that the valve cover was pressure washed and steam cleaned immediately afterwards.

 

I don't think either of those two things will get bead out of the baffles. We can't really diagnose too much further until she comes apart, unfortunately. If my mind serves me correctly, thrust bearing normally means out of balance.

 

Thrust bearings...? Crankshaft bearings...? Oh the mystery of things.