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Alright, final autopsy report on the smoking motor. Needless to say if you've been keeping up with the thread, it's a multiple reason failure, and I'll list in order of probable cause.

1) Lower intake gaskets. They were BAD. Worst I've personally seen. All coolant ports had seperated, one intake port had collapsed, and a few others had seperated too. Oil had gotten into the EGR port through this failure too, causing the nice smoke show out the tailpipe. Might could explain the excessive blowby too.

2) #6 plug wire was burned in half. I didn't see this because another redneck fix was to simply put convoluted tubing over it. Thing is, they didn't tape it, and the "repair" rotated to where the break was visable...and resting on the exhaust This explains the misfire and why the oil was fuel fouled.

3) Supercharger gasket. Probably not that much of a contributor in the grand scheme, but at the very least it caused some vacuum leaks.

4) Valve cover gaskets. The rear cover had been removed at one point and reinstalled, but a corner of the gasket had unseated when being put back on. So oil loss and no crankcase vacuum since that happened.

5) Cracked oil pan. Even though it was sealed with jb, it still leaked and caused a huge mess.

Changing plans here. I'm feeling this motor could probably be saved afterall. Even w/o the other motor, I still would have taken this one out even if it was good just to clean it and regasket it. With that said, that's what I'll do. It didn't knock or have any wierd noises, but I'll tear the caps off to see if there are any major grooves or impending failures before fully commiting. If I reuse this engine, it'll save me the time and cost of having to get new rings, bearings, and the crank maching done, and get this engine done quicker. The block I've been working on will still get built but at my leisure. The ported heads and manifold will go on the old motor, just because I'm impatient.

Sounds like a plan to get it up and running. Looking forward to seeing this car run again.

Pulled the oil pan off this morning to find...a surprisingly clean, tight bottom end

All rods were nice and tight, piston skirts still had that aluminum shine to them, and the oil filter adapter had no sludge in it at all. And no metal parts on the bottom of the pan, so no holes in the pistons or busted rings. (So, thinking back, yes Ed I should have just slapped on new gaskets to see what it'd do, but knowing my luck, I just went ahead and took the motor out)

Once it gets fully regasketed and buttoned back up, it'll get a good cleaning and get plopped back in. For now, I'll just stay with the ported heads and intake. Cam will go to the machined block, and I'll finish that up as a winter project.

Not gonna say "I told ya so", but...

That's alright Ed.







This was #4 piston. Found it when I pulled the head to put the rebuilt one on. Good thing I decided to do that.

So, back to the first plan. The crank is good, the bearings I have pulled from this motor show minimal wear, so the machine shop will just need to polish the journals and nothing else. Nobody around here will do a full rotating assembly balance (that's a shock), so I'm going to HF to see if they have a digital scale in stock and weigh each piston, con rod, and pin and get a good weight spread.

For now, here's a teaser...

Holy crap, that piston was nuked, lol.

I'm wondering what did it in. Don was thinking it might be a bad injector that died at the worst possible time. All of the other pistons are in good clean shape, though a few show signs of ping (victims of low octane probably).

Took a break from the engine build to get some of the frontend rework done. Some bolts were missing (minor frontend collision happened sometime in its past), the lighting harness was unraveled in some places, needed repair in others, and overall just needed a good cleaning.





The condensor needs replacing, so that's why I didn't install that. I'm taking the opportunity to install the trans cooler at this time. I'm leaving the bottom hose intact, the top hose is going to get split and cooler ran in series. Already cut off the steel end, heated, and reshaped it the way I want it. Tomorrow when I get home I'll start mocking up the cooler and the rest of the hoses.

Got the engine in last weekend, with this weekend (mostly today) doing housekeeping and hooking up anciliaries.





Some interesting things came up when I started looking into supercharger rebuilding. The most interesting I found was the use of two lubricants OTHER than the normal supercharger oil. The first was Royal Purple synthetic (didn't catch the oil weight though), which many of the M112 guys use when they rebuild. The second...and I didn't even think of it but should have...is jet turbine oil, which is surprisingly not as expensive as one would think.

The RP oil treatment is a once a year thing, the turbine oil is "lifetime", and is what i am going to use for this.

I have maybe 140 bucks left to spend on getting this running again. Belts, plugs, a 2004 Grand Prix fuel filter (yes I am using the S3 fuel rail), a new thermostat, some vac tubing, and it'll be running. Another 200 bucks will have the ac system updated.

This car sure has come a long way! I hope you plan on keeping it after this transformation!!

Oh yeah...it's a keeper at this point. Bodywork should get started on it at the end of the month and into July, which will give me about 3 months to drive the *dang* thing, and winter months will see the suspension and brakes getting replaced.

It's an amazing transformation! It looks brand new. Can't wait to see her when she's all finished.
Finding jet oil in there is really interesting! I was gonna make a Saab joke...

You misunderstood. It had good ol' whale spoo in it. I researched alternatives online and the Mustang/Lightning/H-D crowd (the M112 group if you will) are using these lubricants. Royal Purple seems to be the most popular due to availability, a few are using the Mobil Jet 254 oil (it can be ordered easy enough, but those that use it just get it local to them at aviation shops)

Link:
http://www.skygeek.com/mobil-jet-254-turbine-oil.html

There are other choices in turbine oils too, and I imagine any of these oils can protect the bearings better than whale spoo, and offer less friction.

EDIT: Looks like they have some greases that can take the place of the rear bearing grease too. Hmm.....

Started bolting on the rear manifold yesterday, or tried to. I can see how it goes in, I just can't get it to turn the way I want it to so it can. Bah!

Gave up on that and started laying the engine harness back in. Front manifold with a *slight* port and cleanup is installed, along with the heatshield from the GP motor. I'm leaving the lift hooks off...I don't see a need for them, as I won't be running the engine cover and that front hook just looks terrible in that spot.

List o'shyte to finish up on the install:
*Rear Manifold and crossover pipe
*Harness reconnect
*S3 fuel rail (polishing it up right now, then swapping injectors to it)
*fuel line mods ('04 GP filter, return line delete, feed line modify)
*Install front spark plugs...rears were done with engine out
*Belts
*Go over all mounting points one last time to make sure everything is tight.
*Clean up airbox (for now I'll run a gutted box with paper filter, winter months I'll fab up a CAI. Already have the piping, just need some sheet aluminum and a K&N filter)

THEN...flush/fill cooling system, fill the oil, change trans fluid, supercharger oil, and hope like hell it lights off. If it all works as it should, AC system is next.

Rigged up the fuel line to the returnless rail because...*dang*....I want to see the thing fire off at least.

Oil primed? Check.
Fuel primed? Check.
Most of the harness is on? Check (still no exhaust, so no O2, no oil pressure unit, and no IAT)

Turn the key...after 3 revolutions, she caught on The freaking thing sounds righteous, and you can tell it has a cam now

Sounds awesome!
I thought you said you won't be running the engine cover?

I was just about to call out the cover as well... And the open intake, but I understand you're just installing it and whatnot...

Engine cover has 2 out of the 3 mount points, so it'll be fine. I also thought I would have some issue with the returnless rail interfering with the fit, but it fits just fine.

Intake box won't go on until I get the rear manifold installed. I hope all I need to do is drop the downpipe and snake it up that way.

I bet you had an ear to ear grin when that beast fired up, I know I did. Cam + Boost =

The first time it fired up, the water pump pulley went flying...I forgot to tighten it down

Scared the sheeet outta me.

It runs pig rich...I have to plumb in the fuel filter with the built-in regulator.