F-Body Europe

A little history first.

This was a 4000 mile 347 LS6 block with forged callies rods and forged diamond pistons. It had a stock crank. With AFR 225's on top.

At the track I was running it up to 6500-6750 RPM (MAX). It made it 3 runs and on the fourth run it blew after the 3-4 shift. I let off as soon as I heard and felt a strong vibration. At first I thought I blew a right rear tire. The noise progressed quickly as I coasted to the end of the track. As soon as I exited the track the noise got unbearable and I looked down to see 0 oil pressure. Thats when I cut it off and realized it wasn't a tire. We found a quarter size hole in the block above the starter. Wedged in the hole was 1/2 of an ARP 2000 rod bolt. That is when I got the sinking feeling. I can deal with a $300 tire, but this was going to hurt much worse. I was amazed and greatly appreciate all the compassion I got from everyone there. It was a great group of guys.

From there it was towed back to my house (Thanks ADAC). I have been making progress tearing this dude apart nightly. I had already pulled the passenger side head because I wanted to see how bad the pistons were and make sure there was no head damage. The pistons seemed fine, but the plugs looked very lean (white powdery residue). I spent today pulling the nose piece and A/C off. Then tonight Trevor (bahndrvr) showed up ready to work and helped me pull the driverside head. THANK YOU VERY MUCH TREVOR! We found much more than I expected. The #8 piston got ahold of the head and valves. It doesn't look too bad and should be repairable. It just wasn't what I expected. Apparently it wasn't the #6 or #8 rod that let go like I initially thought. It is now looking like the #7 is the culprit. It didn't get far enough to damage the plug, but all of them were lean looking except for that one (it was oil coated from the piston moving in the bore). So, that is where I am at right now. Other than researching a new motor, I will continue to pull as much apart as I can now. Then I will tow it to the hobby shop and drop the motor with the help of a lift.

Here are some pics from tonight. Arrrrrrgggghhhh. Nevermind they are way too big. I will try to get some up another route.

Damn man. Sorry my trailer is too narrow to give yo a lift back down the track. That really sucks.

What the heck? Who built the engine?

Upload to the Gallery should work ... then just insert images with the [ img ] code ...

Yeah, I took RAW pictures so he could send them to the builder of the engine. All and all I'm impressed with the LS6, I have never worked on one, seems that it is put together pretty good, was looking forward to seeing the pics but honestly it was just after 130 am when I got home last night, and promplty passed out, I had to lead PT at 0630 this morning so I'm struggling a little right now. Too bad you have to work this weekend as Eric is down from Bitburg and is actually on the lift at the hobby shop right now, we could help you pull it out as well. Did you get that header out yet?

The head took some contact from the valve but it just needs to be cleaned up a little and maybe the combustion chamber expanded, sorry dropping compressiong a little but I think it will be necessary. The rest of the engine looks GREAT, and yes, it was ran Lean as hell, plugs tell that tell, think Chalk White:( It looks like the Number 8 let loose and got thrown out the passenger side:( Also if you weren't there it looks like it fugged up his windage tray as there was random little pieces of metal in there, hopefully his pan is alright and I think he will be able to sell 7 of those pistons of his with ease. Hold on, I just noticed you Said 427 on the Stock CRANK. What is your bore? how the hell is that possible on the Stock CRANK? I was thinking 383 maybe, you sure it's a stock crank? What is the LS6's standard size? Now I'm confused.

Anyway, everything has came off relatively easy so far, except for his drivers side header and the power steering pump, but with two hands it was easy to come by.

Looking forward to seeing more, and the pics are HUGE, think 10.1 MPXL in RAW so they are about 36" by 42" so he could send them to the builder and see all the damage it recieved. Hopefully they will post in a good size so everyone can see though.

No it was a 347! Get some sleep dude . Thanks again for your help.

Check to see if it lifted the head gasket or the sleeve in the #8 cylinder is cracked. It could has seeped enough coolant in it to pop the rod. Boring out the LS series stock liners is questionable. Even at only 10 thousandths over they can become too thin.

Cool I'll look into it. How would coolant cause the rod to go though?

Hydrolock, it would fill the combustion chamber and throw the balance off as you were filling it with fuel, which would cause no fire from the coolant and fill it up and cause the rod to break, makes pefect sense, but I think the rod bolt wasn't torqued properly to be honest. They say that detonation is the equivalent of a sledge hammer hitting the tops of your pistons, if the cylinder filled up with non combustable liquid, it would be like 2 tons of pressure with nowhere to go except out the back side of the connecting rod, and that would easily cause the bolt to break.

The head gasket was/is MLS "multi layer steel" and it looked fine, one of the first things I looked at on both sides when we got them off. Did not check the liners at all though as the 8 cylinder is almost at TDC right now, once we get the crank out and pull the pistons we'll look it over REALLY good, and of course include pictures. As I stated before the heads are straight except for #8 and it's not bad at all, it will require headwork though from the valves hitting quite a bit probably from the remainder of the run down the quarter after it blew:(

So, what is the stock displacment on the LS6? I was thinking it was 5.7 of course, but the LS2 is 6.0 right?, didn't realize it was that damn big, guess I don't know much at all about the LS series engines, YET:)

I thought the LS6 had the same 346 displacement as the LS1 ... !?

It does. That was my bad. It is/was a 346.

If it is a 347 then it is the stock block bore 10 thousandths over. I make a whopping 1 CU difference.

Here are some pics. These are very large so you can go to my album http://fbodyeurope.org/Gallery/main.php/v/fbemember/chevroletfreak/ and select the drop-down for full size.

The contact made was not too bad. It is mostly on the outboard side at the edge of the quench are near where the spark plug comes through. The spark plug was not damaged other than oil from the goofed piston. Maybe I can clean it to save $4!

You are making progress. Interesting as to what TTS or whatever their name is has to say, if anything for that matter. I can't wait to see the bottom end.

Yeah, I can't wait either. I think I will leave the shop out of it until I can confirm what happenened.

Hopefully I will get to the hobby shop this coming weekend to pull the shortblock.

Damn, where did my post go?

Whatever, I'll be out of town Saturday but I should be able to help you on Sunday of this upcoming weekend, or any evening. Honestly pulling the engine from the bottom won't take us long at all now that it's just the shortblock, then we can tear into it pretty quick, looking forward to it man.

... the engine on mine was dropped, too ... at lot easier than through the top, especially if you leave the tranny on the motor ...

Plus, having the whole front end apart will give you a chance to clean up those suspension parts ... looks like at least the LCA's could use some sanding and priming, probably as well as a couple other parts ... at least that's what I did

I'm with ya Garry. Thats exactly why I pulled the nose. I plan to do a lot of engine bay cleanup and painting. I have heard about powdercoaters around here so I am still researching that also. I've done the wire mod on the passenger side and will do it on the driverside also. I am also doing the whistler mod. Plenty of fun stuff to do.

I'll be powdercoating when I get stateside:) My parents just gave me an extra oven they had so it will be starting with my engine bay once I get there:)

Let me know when your going to be at the hobby shop, can't wait to see the inside of that block man.

Man, that sucks Brian. I was wondering why I haven't seen you around base since that one day I saw you. If you ever need a hand shoot me an email. I'm not very good at working on cars but I'm damn good at standing around drinking beer and watching other people work on cars.