Had a terrible weekend, need advice on a crate engine

GM performance parts motors are good motors. Got a 383 in my truck and haven't had any problems with it! Runs like a champ.

 

The builder said he ran it for about 15 minutes once he got it together and he did not see any leaks. He said he has a device that simulates a "load" on the engine.

Is there another way to alleviate crankcase pressure? I am already running a breather and PCV to the carb. I also ran 2 breathers with no luck.

 

Rings that seal and don't leak.
Have you done a compression test ? A leak down test ? Make a fitting from an old plug & Fill the cylinders with air to listen for trouble ?

 

I bought an oil cap like that for my Ford engine, it turned out that the rubber o'ring that came with it, covered the end and did not allow the crankcase to breathe. I had most of your listed complaints until I pulled the oil cap and cut the cup off it....just a thought...

 

Thanks 31 Vicky,
I have not done any of the tests yet, but I should. This could shed some light on what the hell may be happening.

It's just kinda odd. The engine was built the first time and did this, then built a second time and it's still doing it..

 

Ohhhh, I missed the "this is the second time part.
Is there a thread for the first time ?

 

I know this is reaching and i don't want to presume that anyone is a dumbass here but i had a friend who suffered the same problem because the head gaskets were installed improperly. Is here oil in the coolant or coolant in the oil? If there isn't, then you might not have a cracked block at all but bad gasket installation.... g"luck

 

I ran the Goodwrench 290 hp engine in my '32 3 window. Great engine except it was so quiet, you could hear the valve train, even with headers. I replaced the cam with an Extreme Energy 272 cam, which was supposedly recommended for a stock converter, however, if I were to do it again, I would use an 1800 rpm converter. 6 years and the motor ran great till I sold the car.

 

290 hp motor all the way and stop wasting time. who knows maybe the existing block has an internal crack somewhere.
also stay away from the vortecd headed longblock as this will require a new intake and possibly new brackets for the accesorries .trust me been there done that

 

No, I did not do a thread for this last Fall. I did however do a search here on the HAMB trying to research crankcase pressure. Lots of info, but I tried a lot of the advise with no luck.

The guy I built this Model A with owns a body/hot rod shop (he did not build this engine though). He is very smart when is comes to small blocks and has worked on them and swapped them out for decades. Even he is a bit perplexed by this. He thinks I should run it for a while, but says it will eventually have to go.

The guy that built this engine is a very nice guy. He said he would buy it back from me...

 

Wait a minute...no baffles that will make it puke oil. That may be your problem.

 

The valve covers I typically use do have baffles and it blows oil out the bottom of the breather. I typically use the finned aluminum valve covers you see a lot. Oil was present in the finned area of those valve covers on Sunday. My friend then put on these valve covers, theres still oil present but not as bad on the valve covers. I pulled the PCV valve to see if I got "oil misting" and I did not.

Last Fall (pre build #2) the silicone on the front of the intake manifold bulged out and leaked there as well.

 

early sbc had the road tubes for venting,they also had oil filler tube in intake manifold w/ vented cap. if the road tube opening has been pluged,with the late model intake you have w/no vent ,you may not have enough venting for the engine.they used to have a adapter for the road tube hole in the block that had a hose that ran directly to the back of the carb to pull the pressure out of the crankcase.had a buddy with the same problem,swore he had a 350/turn out a 327 with late manifold and the hole pluged w/ soft plug. blew oil all over everything. don't know if this is any help for your problem.but we got his straightend out .good luck

 

Speedon,
Youve listed a number of supposed problems with your engine, numerous persons have reccomended that you do various tests to make sure the engine is functioning properly and you haven't done any of those. If you don't know how or don't have the tools to do those tests take it to a reputable mechanic ( not the one that has screwed up twice) and have the tests performed including determining where coolant is leaking. Also I notice that you are not running a return line from one of the breathers to the air cleaner like most PCV systems are set up, give it a try as this burns off the excess blowby and may help.

 

I pulled the PCV valve to see if I got "oilmisting"and I did not.

Since you have oil leaking out of almost everyplace, that leads me to believe excessive blow by. I would expect you to notice this coming out of the valve cover when you pulled the pcv out.
A brand new engine will have more blowby than one that is fully seated.

Tommy has a thread going "fire in the hole" his new engine wouldn't start due to low compression.

 

My cost as an employee is 1750. They have gone up. It is handsdown the best deal out there. It even comes with the tins attached. It has a healthy sounding cam. And a superior warranty. The 290 horse is a fabulous mill, but GM offers a 270 horse that come with a 3 year 50,000 mile parts and labor warranty. If it breaks, tow it to a dealer and say "your problem"

 

this makes a lot of sense, especially since the problem is the exact same thing on two builds of the same engine

 

Bought myself the 350-290 hp GM crate engine, a great value and brand new. Just be sure to add a zinc additive for the flat tappet cam and all is well.

http://gmhorsepower.com/350.php

 

With all the doom and gloom and a worse case scenario , just replace the block and keep all the new bits

 

I'm also with this. If it's an early 327 you need to make sure the baffle and breather is still in the valley. Otherwise the motor will not vent and will act like an oil pump. As for the water pull the heads and make sure you have everything clean. Put new head gaskets in there. Use the right torque sequence and after running for 1000 miles go back through and re-torque the heads, then intake. One question though when rebuilding the engine did you resurface the heads or deck the block? becaue if you didn;t at least make sure they were flat it'll never take a good seal.

Don't give up, a 327 is cooler than anything out of a crate and you already own this.

Tim

 

Baffle breather in the valley

 

Thanks, also these are 350 heads on a 327 block. I am not sure if the heads were resurfaced.

 

i have a 396 in my shop i guy brought in for me to work on, it had pumped all the oil out the dipstick tube twice, the first thing i noticed was there was no breather, it had a PVC but there was just a plug where there should of been a breather, i pulled the oil fill plug and the engine had lots of what looked like blowby, my next step was to check the compression, #'s 1 and 3 were dead which was kinda funny because it didn't run that bad, but anyway when i pulled the intake and heads it was easy to see the head gasket was leaking in under the intake and that where the pressure was coming from.

 

Had the same problem on my new 350 with oil getting pushed out seals and gaskets.
I discovered I did not PCV the thing properly.
Once I had the PCV properly hooked up and repaired or replaced the gaskets everything was fine with it.

 

Is this the same PCV valve you used on the first round with the engine. It could be stuck shut. Is the other breather the same? Could it somehow be clogged up and not breathing well? There is also full time and ported vacuum port on carbs. Not sure which one you are connected too but just a thought. Maybe your not getting much vacuum from that port. I also agree with the breather in the valley comments. There is something, maybe simple, causing all these problems. I would do all of the tests mentioned here and keep searching. Two rebuilds shouldn't be this messed up. I may have missed it, but did you figure out exactly where the water is coming from? Step back from it for a while and look at it with a fresh mind. Have someone else you trust look it over. Might see something your missing, it happens. Good luck.

 

Caution with a new crate engine. A new "street rod" law in Ma. demands a used engine in a hot rod. No New Crate engins.

Watch out that law doesen't creap into your state. It's spreading all over the country like a plague.

 

x2...
Take off the pcv and it's big grommet, and the other side breather too, and see how much pressure you have coming out at 1500 to 2000 rpms warmed up. Do this first before throwing big $ at a crate motor.

I think you are in panic at this point, and you may fix it with proper venting.

 

Those ATK engines are top notch.
I have the HP32, rated at 351 HP on thier website, puts out 365 HP
You wont be dissapointed.

 

Maybe the "A" is crying out for a Ford in the Ford.

 

What kind of crap is that!? Who cares where the engine came from. Sorry for the thread hijack.