383 problem

three counties · Post by **three counties** » Thu Mar 30, 17 1:57 pm

hi all,would like a bit of advice please,went to start the charger a week ago.fired up ok.as soon as it was running,it felt like it was missing a bit,running lumpy.thought at first it may be the spark plugs.so left it ticking over for a while.didnt make any difference.had a look around the rear of the car,and there was a lot of water comming out of both exhaust tail pipes.checked the water level in the rad,and it had gone down.so then i removed both cylinder heads,could not see any cracks in them,and the head gaskets where both fine.so then had both heads checked at the machine shop,they put them in the hot tank,they came out ok.i think now i may have sussed out what is going on.have just checked all the piston bores and i can see a mark,or what looks like a crack from near the top of the inside of the bore,down to the piston head,can feel it on my fingernail.if that makes sense.bit gutted realy as i had the engine fully rebuilt about 2 years ago.but these things happen.when the engine was rebuilt,had it rebored to 40.so may be the inside of the block was a bit weak,?dont no if the block can be repaired,if it could be sleeved?or i will have to look around for another engine.forgot to say that the exhaust system is a dual,without the centre balance pipe.so they may be another crack on the other side of the block?as the water was comming out of both sides of the rear exhaust,any advise on this please,mick

Pete · Post by **Pete** » Thu Mar 30, 17 2:02 pm

Ivor Searles at Soham will sleeve a bare block for you and bore it.

Keep the Lifters in the correct positions or you will them and the cam off in about 20 mins....

octanejunkie · Post by **octanejunkie** » Thu Mar 30, 17 4:21 pm

What a bummer. Silly question, but did the car have anti freeze in it over winter?

MilesnMiles · Post by **MilesnMiles** » Thu Mar 30, 17 4:33 pm

Duncan Watts usually has 383 motors available as I recall.

three counties · Post by **three counties** » Thu Mar 30, 17 6:43 pm

ok pete,have got to pick up the heads from burwell machine shop,will ask them if they can do it,ivor searle did do all the engine rebuild,and the rebore.yes,it did have the anti freeze in,have done about 2ooo miles since.would like to try and keep the engine which i have ,will hopefully find out what can be done to it tomorrow,thanks

Pete · Post by **Pete** » Thu Mar 30, 17 9:13 pm

Fingers crossed!
It sounds like you have more than one issue to sort, sometimes you get core shift when they are being cast.

I had a 440 go through into the water jacket at a +.030" Over-bore; gutted or what?

three counties · Post by **three counties** » Fri Apr 07, 17 7:27 pm

have now pulled the engine out and have taken it to the machine shop,hopeing to find out this comming week what went wrong with it,and if it can be fixed.also,before i had this problem with the engine,i was out in the car,stuck in traffic,and the throttle cable got stuck down a bit,it all happened so fast,sounded like a was doing a burnout,held the brake pedal down and turned the ignition off,first time that has happened to me,pretty scary,and it sorted it self out.replaced the throttle cable as this was the problem.checked all the carb linkeage and took of the kick down rods,it is all free and works fine,but,sometimes when you go to drive of the engine speed is a bit high,but when you get going all is ok,when i removed the engine the drivers side engine mount had broken,so i thinking is it because of the engine mount,makeing the engine move a bit and pulling the throttle cable?any help on this please,mick

mopar_mark · Post by **mopar_mark** » Fri Apr 07, 17 7:47 pm

It's not uncommon in my experience to break an engine mount in the drivers side, be it through; old age & deteriorated rubber, too much heavy launches, yada,yada

I doubt if that was the main cause of the bore crack, most likely due to core shift. Engine mounts are a relatively easy change/fix & should last a long time. Again, their life is dependant on how the motor is being treated. An engine torques strap will help to reduce stress on the motor mounts.

As for the incident with stuck throttle, unless the car was in gear it would not of caused any stresses to the motor mounts.

Hard to answer the engine idle question, I would expect the RPM to be higher in neutral & drop slightly when gear is engaged. But lots of other variables to consider.

Pete · Post by **Pete** » Fri Apr 07, 17 7:48 pm

The broken mount may have affected it.

As ever, you just have to go through the car thoroughly when you are re-assembling everything.

shovelheadrob · Post by **shovelheadrob** » Fri Apr 07, 17 8:24 pm

Sorry to hear of your engine woes, Ivor Searle used to be one of the best machine shops around, I don't know if that still stands as I've been out of the trade for a while.
Sticky throttle, you haven't lived until you've had one stick on a bike (Laverda Jota no less!) at full chat, close to 140mph, the cable had frayed at a point where it was only possible to jam at WOT, proper brown trouser moment!

Pete · Post by **Pete** » Fri Apr 07, 17 8:28 pm

I have had the Bee stick at WOT flat out in top.....turn the ignition off, do you feel lucky, Punk?

three counties · Post by **three counties** » Fri Apr 07, 17 8:32 pm

thanks for the reply,what i meant to say was i no what happened to the throttle cable,,and it was not related to the problem with the engine, but i was thinking if the engine moves a bit when i am starting to pull away,could the throttle cable be pulled back a bit at this point?

three counties · Post by **three counties** » Mon Apr 10, 17 11:36 am

hi rob,yes,ivor seale did rebuild a buick engine for my brother,and i fitted it in the car,this was done around 14 years ago,he has not had any engine problems at all.going to get in touch with the machine shop today and see if they have had a look at the engine,hope it will be good news

three counties · Post by **three counties** » Mon Apr 10, 17 12:19 pm

have just been told,that they have taken out the pistons on one bank,and they found that the con rods where fitted the wrong way round?the inner bore is not split,but the rings have marked it,and the main bearings are all worn,regarding the water issue,they said it may be that the heads where not faced.which they are going to check,in fact all the bores have got marks on them,from the piston rings.have got to pop over and see them,to find out what and if can be done.there not impressed,

Dave999 · Post by **Dave999** » Mon Apr 10, 17 7:10 pm

Pistons in the wrong way used to be a trick that in theory altered the fiction against the bore

racer trick

rods the wrong way round. unless you have some kind of special radius to the sides that sit next to the crank fillet i can't see how that would cause too much of an issue. unless there is something about v8 rods that offsets something one way and it should be the other. but i'll admit i don't know v8 engines at all

caps on rods the wrong way round might cause issues, i'd expect the bearings and the crank to be a bit of a mess, would cause an issue as they are honed or machined and resized as a matched piece. you would expect the hole in the big end to be in the middle but i guess not based on the fact that they don't seem to get the small end in the middle on production rods. the forgings vary and the distance between centres needs to be exact so you sometime get a rod that's a bit thin in one side of the small end. which end do they bore first??

bit rubbish really

Marks in the bore hopefully a hone.

if not i guess next size up + pistons

I too had a engine full of water recently. i had my heads checked pressure tested while hot, thinking cracked. nothing wrong

the gasket looked pretty damn good with no obvious damage.

obvious indicator of grief was the nasty black gunk in the inlet and exhaust of 1 cylinder,

had head refaced and new gasket and its been ok for the first 100 miles

i do have everything crossed.

hope the news is ok, engineering shops see perfect bores leaving the shop everyday, they are bound to be disgusted at anything less than perfect

Dave