Follow up on ERA717

[mrmustang]

Originally Posted by fdjake

I'm not mad at all...I'm just being honest.

My FE guy immediately mentioned the common issue of intake gaskets on FE engines. BUT....He took the time to FOLLOW me for a few miles while I ran the car through the gears to see exactly when it smoked....So, he did a leak down test of the passengers side bank of cylinders because (as you also stated) the majority of the smoke was coming from there. The motor had good leak down numbers. As your compression test confirmed. BUT...As you know, that doesn't mean everything is OK...So he ran the bore scope down. I stood NEXT to him as he scoped those cylinders. That fouled plug you have a picture of??? Take another look at that cylinder. You missed it.

Your expert missed the PITTING on the cylinder walls. It's there man...Recheck the passenger side cylinders CAREFULLY. Once my FE expert spotted the pitting on the cylinder walls there was no point in doing the work you just did....It's all coming back off to fix the real issue.

That motor is going to use 1 Qt of oil every 100-150 miles until that engine gets a rebuild.

ERA replaced the intake gasket set and when that car was picked up it didn't smoke like it did when you purchased it, but it still was using 1 Qt of oil every 100-150 miles. Wait....You'll see, your oil consumption problem has not been addressed.

I don't care if that engine has a fuel injection system installed on it. It's not changing the fact that the cylinder walls are pitted from what looked like rust. If you drop a bore scope down a cylinder and can easily see pitting and even rust in those pits you have a rebuild in your future.....And as I'm sure you know, a compression test will show great numbers as long as those pitted areas are in the middle of the cylinders. BUT, your engine is still gonna use excessive amounts of oil until the cylinder wall issue is addressed. This isn't rocket science. Pits in cylinder walls will cause oil consumption. End of story.

A gasket set and carb change isn't fixing it.

I wish I was wrong.....But that bore scope doesn't lie. I had ANOTHER shop check the same cylinders and they found the pitting in 5 minutes after rotating the crank just a few degrees.

Re-sleeve that motor or get a short block and you'll have a perfect car!!! As stated is the ad.

But telling folks a gasket set fixed it is not reality.

I cannot believe the motor did not smoke when you drove it back from ERA, the gasket was torn and a bolt forced through a side of the gasket, the hole in the gasket was that far off from where it should have been. Our dropping of the pan (which should have been the first thing your expert should have done) and our scoping of the upper combustion chamber did not show any pitting, nor any rust, perhaps you let the car sit too long with a spark plug out, and surface corrosion started to show. For us, I had just driven the car 30 miles to his shop and let it cool for the day before we tore into it the next day. If you know what you are looking at, then you know how to interpret it properly. Again not going to argue with you as I am getting ready for my anniversary trip, we'll find out one way or the other who is correct when I get back in a week or so. We can then either put this to bed one way or the other. If I'm wrong, I have no problem admitting it, how about you?


Bill S.