Blown Motor!!!!!!!!!!!

[MAXVELO]

Well boys, I blew the beast friday. Dont exactly know the reason as I wasnt beating on it. I did play with the pulleys to get mor boost out of her and thought i blew a head gasket. Came of a light (behind 2 cars) and got up to about 40MPH and she started a nasty knock & went south! took her home on a flatbed trailer and pulled the head the next day. I was hoping for a blown intake gasket but didnt get so lucky. Then I was hoping for a blown head gasket and didnt get so lucky again. As I was examining the head gasket to see where it gave, I totally overlooked the fact theat #1 cylinder was full of anti-freeze. After a couple minutes not noticing the anti freeze int the cylinder(I guess I thought it came from the head gasket leak) I noticed a black thing in the anti freeze IT WAS THE DAMN VALVE!!!!!!HOLY CRAP AND THE CYLINER WALL WAS CRACKED IN 3 PLACES!!! I want to know how, and why!! Anyone have any ideas? Guess it gonna be down for a while. any body know where to get a good crate motor!!!! I may just build it myself and get some aluminum heads. Any help would be appreciated. Also, has anyone installed the ford V10 in a Cobra? Are there enough aftermarket parts to make that motar worthy of putting in one of these cars? Ive seen a couple Viper motors intalled but not the ford v10.
Gary

[ItBites]

Did you lose a valve spring?

[xlr8or]

If the head of the valve broke off it could have caused the cracks. Obviously the block is trash unless it can be sleaved but the head may be trashed as well. Is the whole valve in the cylinder or just the head of the valve? If it's all there you probably lost a retainer and it got sucked in on the down stroke. Then it compressed over and over against the cylinder wall.

[MAXVELO]

just the head of the valve broke off...... and she was purring so well!!!!!!!!

[Back in Black]

My new rebuild (514 w/over 700 miles now and seems OK) is doing well but I am wondering if West Coast cars are now cursed, sorta like "Christine" ? I hope not because I am trying to upgrade and save mine from oblivion. Most people would have given up on her after all I have been through. Sounds like you need to start from scratch, new block or at least a Ford crate short block, etc.. and find a reputable builder like mine that will give you a warranty. Mine is written, for 2 years and 12,000 miles and the price was VERY reasonable, including a dyno session which I attended!

[ItBites]

Again... Did you lose a valve spring or a retainer as suggested by another responder? Look at the spring for the valve in question very carefully for broken coils. If you lose the spring, the valve will hit the piston and bent the head and eventually break off.

Did you check valve-piston clearance in the mock-up stage during build? If not the valve could hit eh piston and break the head off.

Did you change cam (longer curation or more lift) since the piston-valve clearance was checked.

Note the common thread here is that it is likely something happened to break the valve and the broken valve did the rest of the damage...

Did you use cheap valves or good inconel valves (or at least Manley Severe Duty valves) for your blown application?

Lastly, the block is trashed (maybe sleeveable (?), but I've never done anything but replace a block with a cracked cylinder). The piston and rod are shot (trust me) and the crank may be twisted (have it checked before reusing it). The head is also likely gone since the valve head was definitely smashed against the combustion chamber when it bent the rod and dented the piston.

I had this happen to a very fast kevlar hull, BBC, tunnel jet boat once and saw the valve head spit out of the over-transom headers into the lake. I was several miles out and fired it up and drove it back on seven cylinders. Ran OK, but the engine filled to the top of the valve covers with an oil/water mix... What a mess...



Sorry to hear of your misfortune. Good luck and do not to forget to be really careful and use the best valves and perform all of the clearance checks and occasionally check the valvesprings if the cam lift is big.

[Karl Bebout]

Well Max, you now have the perfect opportunity. Get yourself over to the "dark side" and buy one of those (Oh So Nasty) 572 Chebby crate motors and not have to worry about stuff breaking and putting you on the trailer. You've already proven that you're a little over the edge by putting the wind to your monster Ford, this would prove to the world that you are really serious about wanting to go fast.

[Great Asp]

B&B wrote:

I am wondering if West Coast cars are now cursed,

Nope, it's just you

Just kiddin ya!

Eric

Get yourself over to the "dark side" and buy one of those (Oh So Nasty) 572 Chebby crate motors

Yeah, and then the value of your Cobra will drop like a rock from a high bridge. Hey, chevy motors are fast, just put em in chevys.

Eric < bleeds blue!

[Back in Black]

Thanks for the vote of confidence

[Chuck Nickloy]

You might want to look at the 4.6 dohc

This one is stock except for the 8psi procharger!

http://premiercobras.com/performance.htm

It's holding up well . . . sorry for the pun

Chuck

[HighPlainsDrifter]

Max,
Sorry to hear your problem.
On blown motors you NEED the best valves, sodium filled preferred. Also the valve springs should be 20% heavier and checked for spring pressure regularly. A weak valvespring is THE #1 cause of the intake explosions,be it nitros or boost. It is a good idea to change valve springs every season.
On street motors I would also stick with a custom ground hydraulic cam with only around .570 lift to keep breakage down ,stay away from the solid rollers.
Hope you get her fixed quickly.
Perry.

[BMK]

Max

Must say I agree with xlr8or.

It appears the valve head has caused the majority of the damage. Then again where is the stem?? Has the head come away or has the stem been mashed on compression??



You guys are able to buy some very good crate motors and I would tend to go in that direction rather than trying to salvage a head and block.

I'm personally not really keen on the 10's. Sorry Double Venom and Ford but just my thoughts.. The blown 514 sounds great and would be ideal to replicate.

The age of the engine may have contributed to the failure as you have indicated that you were not high revving the engine. I would go a new crate motor. Hell its only money.

Perhaps sell some of the bits from the current engine.

Best of luck.

Cheers

Bernie

[Ron61]

BIB,

I always thought having a car like Christine would be neat. No matter what happened, it would completely repair itself that night. Now that I could stand as a curse.

Ron

[BMK]

Hey Ron



Not a big Steven King fan but didn't the car Christine nearly kill the owner or was that the van that nearly killed King

Stay off the side of the road

Cheers

Bernie

[MAXVELO]

*West Coast didnt install the motor, it was ordered by weld motorsports for a blower application and they installed it. BIB where did you get the Mill and what are the specs?

*Im sure the broken valve head did most of the damage. The springs looked good, the retainer was still on, the piston clearance was fine because these were low compression pistons (not to mention it was a Jasper built) they were Manley valves, well, 15 of them still are!

*I do love chebbies but the cost of new headers and all other mods sould put it through the roof! Besides the distributor is on the wrong end, not to mention the $$$$$ I have tied up in my injection and blower system which is all custom fabricated..

*I do like the 4.6 but see previous bullet.

* the motor had very few miles on it when i got it. The car had never been driven regularly as it had never been registered to drive.Weld Motorsports just used it to advertise the wheels.

*Im accually considering parting out my engine and installing a Viper drivetrain (stock reliability) with dual superchargers...........
I see them on Ebay all the time.

[REDSC400]

Max:
Very sorry to hear about your engine. A local engine builder here in CT (Danbury Competition Engines' Joe Lapine) advises that big horsepower is usually achieved with a tradeoff, that being "brittleness", and for that reason, he pretty much interogates most customers with what they want the horsepower for and the typical use of the engine.

I am sorry to hear your engined sucked in a valve. Will the engine builder step up in any way to make you somewhat whole? I hope so.

[Back in Black]

My current motor is the original Ford Racing 514 crate, professionally cleaned and completely overhauled. My shop did the entire work including dyno for less than $2500 ! A buddy and I pulled and re-installed the engine and while we had her apart we tricked out the tranny and clutch and several other goodies including a fan-cooled nose mounted oil cooler with a manual dash switch.. that was nice to have this summer, several times I definitely needed it. The machine shop is Cope Bros in Tacoma, WA. They specialize in high end race motors and always have quite a few unusual units awaiting a build or repair.

A real bargain deal, and the 514 seems to be doing well at this point, now that the rings are seating. I have been a bit over-protective and changed oil and filter twice by now ! Running Valvoline 20-50 non-synthetic "racing" oil (It's a street oil with normal detergents, etc)

I do agree with the comments by more technically knowledgeable folks above, you must use the best and suitable components in a blown motor.. the stress is severe!

Um, as far as Christine, I don't want any car falling in love with ME. It's supposed to be the other way around.. would be nice if our cars re-generated tho.. would save us all a lot of loot

[kitcarbp]

I am bummed to hear about your motor, I have admired your West Coast on this site, especially your motor for some time. I am just starting the build phase for my West Coast and have been planning the motor for a few years. I have concluded the Crate Motors from Ford Racing are the best deal going right now, check them out and judge for yourself. I will use the 500HP version for $5400 from my local dealer.

The valve in the cylinder issue on your motor, could it have been the valve spring retainer or keeper that failed, sounds like a fatigue type of failure if it happened at low engine speed. Best of luck.

[MAXVELO]

I am leaning towards installing "BIGGER AND BETTER"! The plan is to install a Viper V10 with Twinn Turbo's. I will be parting out my motor, basically in 2 parts.
*fuel injection system including the following:
Intake manifold Comlete with fuel rails, 42 lb injectors, 1000CFM throttle body, Accel DFI computer with harness.

See HTTP://WWW.FORCE-EFI.com My system retails for $4,600.00( BEING FORD AND ALL)

*Vortech Supercharger system completely fabricated by "MYSELF"
including Supercharger,all pulleys and brackets.
See
http://www.vortechsuperchargers.com/.../appguide.html (BIG BLOCK SYSTEMS START IN THE NEGHBORHOOD OF $4000.00
* "TCI" C6 tranny Including Tourque Converter w/Reverse pattern shifter $1,400.00
Make me an offer (WITHOUT INSULTING ME)
All items were only used this summer and hadless than 500 miles on them when this happend.
also have a brand new gear drive system in the car
along with a Comp cams Blower cam, W/lifters
I would appreciate comments only from interested parties!

[MAXVELO]

i will be putting this stuff on ebay soon.