Starting to think my car is cursed

ibmgto

Club Member
A couple of years ago I had an engine built for my GTO. About 6 months after it was installed it started to have a very strange issue where it would miss, backfire etc. The shop that built the motor tried everything and finally found that the reluctor ring had moved on the crank causing the timing to be off.

It ran great all of last year and had been ok so far this year, that is until today.

We were heading down to Detroit for the Tigers game and right around the Big Beaver road exit it started to tick really bad. We got off the highway found a Advanced Auto and got some tools. I pulled the valve cover and one of the rockers was not touching the pushrod (there was about an inch gap). Great, nothing I can fix here lets call AAA (glad I have the PLUS coverage otherwise it would have been a very expensive).

After a long tow home I pull the heads and this is what I find. :jawdrop2:

The one on the left is a good lifter (obviously).

lifter001.jpg


lifter003.jpg


lifter004.jpg


Well I guess it could have been worse :)

So tomorrow I get to call around and try to find a set of LS7 head gaskets and I think I am going to swap out all the lifters just to be safe.
 
Think it's a fluke or just too just too much preload? Glad it stayed in one piece... sheeew.

It was put back together by the same shop (they seemed pretty reputable) and they used shorter pushrods so I am thinking it was just a fluke. It was the "caddie lifters" from GM Performance Parts and it seems like there has been quite a few failures according to posts on LS1TECH.

how do the valve tips look on the heads ? beat up ?

Not bad - I didn't notice anything really unusual, I did have Yella Terra roller rockers so maybe I just lucked out.
 
It was put back together by the same shop (they seemed pretty reputable) and they used shorter pushrods so I am thinking it was just a fluke. It was the "caddie lifters" from GM Performance Parts and it seems like there has been quite a few failures according to posts on LS1TECH.



Not bad - I didn't notice anything really unusual, I did have Yella Terra roller rockers so maybe I just lucked out.

Put morels in it. If your running alot of spring pressure. Even the ls7 lifters seem to be having alot of trouble as of late. The johnson made factory stuff has alot of issues with deflection and leakdown with certain springs and lobe comboinations. The morels have tool steel bodies and are alot better at controlling valve motion becuase of that body difference.
 
Morel lifters and gaskets are ordered. Everything should be here tomorrow and hopefully I will have it all back together by the end of the week.

I went ahead and pulled the cam today just to make sure it was all ok and it looked fine too.

I think I got very lucky this time :)
 
thats gotta be one of the most fucked up feelings you'll have. hearing something coming from your motor especially if you have tons of money in it.
 
thats gotta be one of the most fucked up feelings you'll have. hearing something coming from your motor especially if you have tons of money in it.

Or doing a 2nd gear clutch dump after you built a motor and hearing clunk clunk and then relieze that you forgot to put the pilot bearing in the crank..

broken input shaft lol
 
Or doing a 2nd gear clutch dump after you built a motor and hearing clunk clunk and then relieze that you forgot to put the pilot bearing in the crank..

broken input shaft lol


or if you have a fbody when you hit the 1-2 shift and the driveshaft turns into a candycane after you dumped your whole wad on a head and cam package with a set of sticky drag radials at the track.

seen that happen a few times.
 
or if you have a fbody when you hit the 1-2 shift and the driveshaft turns into a candycane after you dumped your whole wad on a head and cam package with a set of sticky drag radials at the track.

seen that happen a few times.

lmao been there to!!..haha i couldnt beleive my T5 lived through a 6k rpm clutch dump with slicks..but it grenaded during the 1-2 powershift..i killed 3 trannies with that motor
 
GTO is back up and running with no issues, finished it up Thursday night.

Put about 100 miles on it already and everything seems good so far.
 
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