kaboom!!!

Well my motor is toast...I recently had rod knock and yes I did drive it till it broke I had no choice I had to get to work. I know I'm bout to get the u dumbass posts but I had to drive it. I have no idea how extensive the damage is or what collateral damage there is. when I did pull the dipstick and ran my fingers over it,it had a good amount of metal on the stick so the best I think to hope for is my turbo is still good, and the crank and cams but even then that's a long shot! So now I've gotta plan out my motor build I need help with this from the guru's on this forum to build a better shortblock then oem.

You can look through the vendors here and get a oem short block, have your heads rebuild and your good to go. The oem short block is $2000.00

 

Or you can find a local trusted shop, have them pull the engine and have it rebuilt.

 

Plan in 5,000 to 6,000 by the time it's back running, may be a little less if you have a automatic.

 

Unless you have your own tools and can DIY.

 

You'll need to make sure the turbo is ok too.

can put in a buick v6 in for under 1k

plan for a longblock + turbo. sorry, you made the decision.

There is a guy on the nasioc new england forum who does rebuilt shortblocks for around $1300. I think he has a longblock for sale currently. User name is riderdude.

I bought my shortblock from him. So far no issues with it.

He'll also build with aftermarket components, priced accordingly. Good guy, but not on the internet every day, so expect a day or two between e-responses.

bummer bro, maybe you should change your username to lgtkiller

 

just went thru the same thing. Final cost was about $5700-5800, but that got me an upgraded clutch, fmic, vf52, 257, and some new(used) heads

There is a guy on the nasioc new england forum who does rebuilt shortblocks for around $1300. I think he has a longblock for sale currently. User name is riderdude.

I bought my shortblock from him. So far no issues with it.

He'll also build with aftermarket components, priced accordingly. Good guy, but not on the internet every day, so expect a day or two between e-responses.

 

Is that riderdude125 ?

 

http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2209008&highlight=riderdude

Is that riderdude125 ?

 

http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2209008&highlight=riderdude

yup

 

http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2282932

I just did a google search for the name and that came up. It was easy.

I can do the rebuild myself. my last 05 lgt I did everything except for the shop work. If you where in Mi frankster I would do the Buick conversion but ill just stick with the boxer. So my thoughts r acl bearings,upgraded rods,forged pistons,nitrated crank and maybe better cams and bigger valves. Has anybody stroked there motor yet? That's also a idea I've been throwing around also. Also where is a good source to do research about cams and bigger valves?

Determine what caused the rod knock first. Was it: driving habits? Bad OCI? Wrong oil? This will help you plan to avoid it with the new motor. If it was abuse then you will want to steer clear of an OEM block and go for ACL race bearings and forged pistons.

 

Then determine if the parts are salvageable. Many times, the heads are in reusable condition. Your turbo could be fine, only an inspection can tell if the bearing is damaged - maybe send it in for an inspection and repair if possible. Your crank could be salvageable as well with some machining and proper replacement bearings.

 

I know the tendency is to run away from the OEM block and go for a race block, but first determine if that's actually required for your HTA68 HP levels. If the stock block holds up fine for your driving habits, are the extra few thousand dollars worth it for a forged piston setup? A factory 257 shortblock is $2k.

 

You can reuse some of the parts from the original motor, but one that is recommended to replace is the oil cooler since it's inexpensive insurance (in the scheme of things).

 

Make an Excel spreadsheet of replacement parts costs, machining costs, and advantages/disadvantages to each setup to help plan out the replacement.

 

 

Edit: you ninja!

 

nitrided crank = stock crank. NO need to use anything other than stock. The stock cranks are proven to 600hp

 

I think these motors are already huge displacement for what they are (bored out 2.2). The stroker kits don't generate much return on investment from my research. They also lead to excessive wear and will break faster.

I had jp pistons in the last motor I was thinking using the same brand and eagle rods. Any input on them two parts?

I had jp pistons in the last motor I was thinking using the same brand and eagle rods. Any input on them two parts?

 

 

I'd inspect them and see if they had any signs of failure. Caveat: I've never rebuilt an engine.

 

That being said, I can't see why, upon positive inspection results, you couldn't reuse the pistons with new rings and hone. If in doubt, throw it out or get a second opinion, however. Anyone correct me if you disagree with that.

 

I guess the bottom line is: I have no idea what carnage looks like in your engine. If the pistons met the heads, it's game over and you're going to be doing a lot. If the bearing just spun and there was no contact between the heads/valves and piston, you might have a lot of salvageable parts.

only hard part about the rebuild is getting the heads off/on due to them requiring a 2 different big ass wrenches for the cam sprockets. other than that, it was not too difficult.

Oh, and replace the plastic cam sprockets if you remove them.

Determine what caused the rod knock first. Was it: driving habits? Bad OCI? Wrong oil?

 

+10. Assuming OCI, and driving habits are OK, would it be caused by the infamous oil pickup tube once again? I hope you (stikiller) will find out why this happened to you. Good luck.

What does OCI stand for? As for what caused the rod knock I can only tell you guys that previous to this happening before all the mods I put on goin from cobb stage 1 to stage 3.5 it ran good always using amsoil changing it every 3500 miles or so. After the mods I got tuned by a guy here in Mi tony is his name.

Cause 1 he did not do a good tune. Reason...always took about 12 cranks for the motor to start only on a cold start then when it did start it stumbled very bad like it was firing on a couple cylinders and I could hear like back firing in the motor again only at cold start. Then I was hitting my boost cut in all gears because he said the ecu can only see 22 psi of boost and once it goes over that it hit a brick wall.

 

Cause 2 my old turbo blew and metal got into the motor

 

Cause 3 switched to royal purple after that is when I started hearing rod knock immediately changed to rotella after that.

 

My driving habits are pretty harsh I guess WOT 2 3 times a day I guess

Oil Change Interval.

 

Do not use Royal Puple oil in these engines.

 

Use my Tuner http://www.tuningalliance.com Mike has done great work with my car. He has been a Tuner for a long time, his brother had ones of these cars so he played with it a lot.

 

He can email you map's.

My guess is the turbo failure and subsequent oil contamination is the root cause.

I'm sure the crappy tune did not help either.

crappy tune would have no effect on oil circulation, volume, quality, ect, assuming it was a spun rod bearing

crappy tune could cause detonation which cause extra pressure on the bearings.

Agreed max

Basically, your car has had insult on injury on injury.

i was looking into stroker kits. but there still wayyy to expensive.

 

and so is the cam change stuff...

 

get a new crank i have one sitting on the shelf here and u can get them on ebay for 300$

 

get a new set of rods check pistons. and there is absolutely no problem with reusing them.

eagle rods for 300$

acl bearings

most important is the cam bearing clearences!!!!!

 

other than that you could fix it for under 1 k but expect about 40 hours labour at least.

 

i have a customer in holland michigan i or my friend is going there very soon.