03DSGGT
SN95 Supporting Member
Well, it seems that I have a lot of catching up to do with you guys. For those of you that may or may not remember, I had my car apart this past winter doing some painting and detailing stuff under the hood, and I ended up getting a set of Cushman Stage 3 N/A cams while everything was apart. So I get the car all back together this spring and fire it up. The cams sound nasty and everything is good. After the car warms up, I start to hear a tick. Now last fall I heard a slight tick develop over the last month of driving the car, and I assumed that it was an exhaust leak, because I welded in cut outs into my H pipe, and the covers kept blowing out the gaskets. So over the winter I bought an X pipe, and the ticking got worse this year, so I knew that it wasn't that. The tick was coming from the rear of the passenger side valve cover and it was decently loud in the wheel well. So I assumed that it had to be one of two things...an exhaust gasket, or an infamous lash adjuster tick. Ok, no problem, I run up to Summit, buy 8 new lash adjusters and use a spare set of header gaskets on that side. I get everything installed, fire it up, and still ticking...awesome. At this point I can only assume that it has to be a rod bearing. Everyone that I explained the noise to said that's what it has to be. Ok, so motor comes out. I get the shortblock up on the stand and start pulling main and rod caps...no spun bearings. Now mind you, this is the first bottom end that Ive ever built, and I never plastigaged or checked any sort of clearances when building it...I was just trying to see if I could do it, so when the talk of bearings came up, I wasn't surprised because I figured that something had to let go sooner or later after 3 years of beating the hell out of it..lol I was more surprised to see that even though I had a good amount of wear on the bearings, none were spun. So at this point Im lost. Everything looks good, and now Im starting to doubt if its even the motor making the noise...what if its something in the tranny and I just pulled the motor out and tore it down? So I go in the house, and after racking my brain, I decide to go out and start tearing my heads apart. I never gave the heads much thought because they are 3 year old Trick Flow heads with under 5K on them, no boost, no N2O, and not getting reved to the moon because I still have a somewhat stock bottom end. Well I pull the intake valve where the noise was coming from and holy CRAP! I find a valve guide that is not only split in two places, but its opened up so much that I could wiggle the valve around 1/4", no joke. So I pull the rest of the valves out and check all the guides. They all have some play in them, but nothing like this bad one. So I call Gregg at Trick Flow and tell him what I found. He also sounded very surprised and told me to bring them up asap. So this past Friday, I ran the heads up to Trick Flow and dropped them off. Im hoping to hear something back this coming week. So with that being said...I am going to start yet another build for the car. Since I would have reringed and donr new bearings in my iron block anyways, the wife said "well maybe this is a sign that you should build that Teksid block that's been sitting in the garage for years." I never really thought about it, but heck, why not? So I dug the block out of the corner, threw it on a stand, and started getting a plan together. What Im going to do isn't anything crazy, but it will be nice and stout. Basically a rundown of the build will be as follows:
Teksid block bored .020" over, block decked .006
New OEM cast crank de-burred and enlarged oiling holes from Modmax with King bearings
Modmax 4340 forged rods with King bearings
Keith Black forged pistons (-10cc) with Total Seal file fit rings from Modmax with a C.R. of 11.6:1
TSS billet oil pump gears
3V full length windage tray
Canton oil pan
Im upgrading to the 125lb. valve springs from the Trick Flow R head
Im going to degree my Cushman Stage 3 N/A cams
I plan on keeping the plastic intake for now just for moneys sake, but eventually will upgrade to the Eddy or new Street Burner intake from Trick Flow. Im also gapping my rings so that I can spray a shot of juice eventually. I have an NX plate kit that's been sitting next to my Teksid block for years as well, so Id like to put that to use. SO all in all it will be a pretty simple build, but should hold up to some RPM and N2O. Here are a few pics of where Im at:
Heres a couple pics of the car running for the first time. I started noticing the tick getting worse as I was taking these pics
Heres how the car sits now. About 2 weeks later from the first set of pics and its back in the air with no drivetrain
Here are my engines that are accumulating in my garage lol. At first when I thought that it was a rod bearing, I was just going to swap my stock shortblock back into the car. This was before I found out about the heads, and before the lady put the bug in my ear about the aluminum build. The engine on the stand is the stock 45K shortblock out of the car, and the one below it is the NPI shortblock that I just pulled out.
And heres the Teksid block. I got this block from Kar Kraft up in Detriot a few years ago when they went out of business. I got this block for like 200 bucks, and I got to pick this one out of a few rows of them that were stacked along the wall. I wish I had a wad of cash on me that day. Ive been doing little things like pulling the freeze plugs out, removing the seized up head dowels, etc.
So there it is folks, my next, and probably not last engine combo. This will be a slow going build since this is all unplanned and I don't have any money saved. So Im just going to save little by little and my goal is to have her up and running by this time next year. Im bummed that I have to go a whole summer without the car, but its for the better. Ill keep this thread updated for those of you who are interested.
Teksid block bored .020" over, block decked .006
New OEM cast crank de-burred and enlarged oiling holes from Modmax with King bearings
Modmax 4340 forged rods with King bearings
Keith Black forged pistons (-10cc) with Total Seal file fit rings from Modmax with a C.R. of 11.6:1
TSS billet oil pump gears
3V full length windage tray
Canton oil pan
Im upgrading to the 125lb. valve springs from the Trick Flow R head
Im going to degree my Cushman Stage 3 N/A cams
I plan on keeping the plastic intake for now just for moneys sake, but eventually will upgrade to the Eddy or new Street Burner intake from Trick Flow. Im also gapping my rings so that I can spray a shot of juice eventually. I have an NX plate kit that's been sitting next to my Teksid block for years as well, so Id like to put that to use. SO all in all it will be a pretty simple build, but should hold up to some RPM and N2O. Here are a few pics of where Im at:
Heres a couple pics of the car running for the first time. I started noticing the tick getting worse as I was taking these pics
Heres how the car sits now. About 2 weeks later from the first set of pics and its back in the air with no drivetrain
Here are my engines that are accumulating in my garage lol. At first when I thought that it was a rod bearing, I was just going to swap my stock shortblock back into the car. This was before I found out about the heads, and before the lady put the bug in my ear about the aluminum build. The engine on the stand is the stock 45K shortblock out of the car, and the one below it is the NPI shortblock that I just pulled out.
And heres the Teksid block. I got this block from Kar Kraft up in Detriot a few years ago when they went out of business. I got this block for like 200 bucks, and I got to pick this one out of a few rows of them that were stacked along the wall. I wish I had a wad of cash on me that day. Ive been doing little things like pulling the freeze plugs out, removing the seized up head dowels, etc.
So there it is folks, my next, and probably not last engine combo. This will be a slow going build since this is all unplanned and I don't have any money saved. So Im just going to save little by little and my goal is to have her up and running by this time next year. Im bummed that I have to go a whole summer without the car, but its for the better. Ill keep this thread updated for those of you who are interested.
