Thread: My Baby - 2000 Silver Mist GTP :) lots of pics!

Originally Posted by coolone

And here is a short vid of first start up... Sounds beastly ; )

Very quiet.

Quiet is good. Lol

lol, have no idea why I can't load that vid... Oh well.

So... Took it for a drive and exhaust popped off, fixed it and is temp until I can get my buddy to weld up the Stainless.. Been driving it short trips and haven't had time to dedicate to dial in the tune, so taking it easy with some base settings loaded and she's kinda ok. Trans has calmed down too, hopefully this Saturday will be a little drive to the range, read and adjust, then drive home, with another adjustment...

But here's my angst...



Only on the cap, the stick is clean, coolant too. Will drop oil tomorrow with new filter anyways so will know for sure.

and oh, yeah, some leaking oil in proximity of the front cover, so either a bum seal, or thinking the balancer grove seal? Scotty has great ideas which I'll try as soon as I can get under her and clean it up to see where oil is coming from.

anyways...

Not sure what going on...

was as out for a drive, and it wasn't making boost, so I got on it a little to see if it would change. Seemed stuck in around 4.5#... Gave it a bit more throttle and Bobobobobobob, sounds like the exhaust popped off again, but worse... Hobbled home (3-5 miles), and yeah, but only one side of the exhaust popped of just after the collector.

Been having an oil leak, know it's at crank. Found boost problem, the elec. Connector fell off...

but since the Bobobobobobob... vacuum gauge is at 0 with engine running and it's running like shyt...

starts but but runs rough, almost sounds like missing a cylinder but no DTC, no smoke, nothing else plain to see. Checked plugs, they look ok, a little wet (gas) but I was cranking it without starting to rotate engine when fixing leak. Fixed leak with new seal, also filled that little key way slot with some black RTV and recoat end crank bolt (inside). Lol... Can't imagine how much oil pushes through a small little nick on the crank seal. Just wow.

anyways... Question is, what would lead to no vacuum? I'm thinking a hole in a piston. Will do compression test tomorrow, but are there any other ideas?

You'd have some extreme blow by with a hole in the piston, it would be shooting air out of the oil cap with it off.

It wouldn't run with no vacuum, the MAP would be showing 100kpa if there was none and it was trying to run.

Originally Posted by Fivefingerdeathpunch

You'd have some extreme blow by with a hole in the piston, it would be shooting air out of the oil cap with it off.

It wouldn't run with no vacuum, the MAP would be showing 100kpa if there was none and it was trying to run.

Thans for heads up... Appreciate the info., kind of relaxed some of my thoughts.

update... So I replaced the front seal. Started her up and all seemed good, no oil, so now I could concentrate on the vac issue. Came back next day, took it off jack stands and rolled her out of garage for start up. Sounded like a funny car, mean as hell, but we all know that's wrong with the 3800 lol. On top of that, there was puddle of oil for a two minute run. Not too good!

So, what to do now? Drop the old engine back in and work the engine? Or remove the front cover in car and see if that'll fix issue. I feel the vac and oil are both the same issue but can't see where it is coming from. Anyways, so I decide to remove the front cover in car and replace all the gaskets, seal and such. PITA, lol, but what the hell at this point.

I take it all apart and everything looks ok, except for one little thing. At the bottom of the front cover where it meets the oil pan flange, there was no RTV there... I can swear I put some down when putting it together. But it was clean... Question is, could this be where the oil was pushng out? The front seal seemed ok, kinda, but it only had two minutes on it anyways. At this point it's ll back together, let everything set up overnight, will drop oil and fill fluids and start her up later tonight when I get home. If it's still spitting oil out I'm gonna freak! Everywhere else was dry, heads down checked by flywheel too, all dry. Oil is at front, behind balancer pulley.

Got my fingers crossed and sacrificed a few small animals to the Pontiac Gods for favorable considerations, lol...

Compression test it bruh.

Doit.

Don't bother ****ing with anything else.

Plugs should tell a story, too. If there is any damage...then you know you've done it.

I wasn't flogging on my car when it popped.

Welcome to 3800 business.

Well... Whatever it was... It's done! Dead! La Morte!

Yeah... Only sux because I gotta do it all over again. Was a risk using an unknown history engine block, so my fault alone. Now I use my known engine from my car, 115k young, synthetic oil all along, no issues. So any issues are only those I introduce.

stay tuned cause it may happen soon... Lol, driving me nuts!

Ok, so didn't happen too soon, but here we go again! Will be cleaning up my good engine and stripping it down, new gaskets ordered and will begin to swap heads, cam, etc., over. Want to do it over the weekend.

Two questions:

1. What gaskets (front cover, etc) you guys like best? Fel-Pro/Victor Reinz?
2. Engine & Trans put together, or just pull engine?

lol...

Ok, not good...Bent pushrod and valve...

Hurts. Hurts a bit.

Originally Posted by Odi

Hurts. Hurts a bit.

Yes... Pain is blunted only cause I have another engine (or two) sitting around. Still a PITA, lol...

thinki ki it was detonation cause I heard the pop, can't think of anything else, valve float? Have PAC 105's in there... Oh well.

that sucks. hows the piston top look? it get kissed?

Pistons all look ok, the cylinder with carnage the top has small nick in it, nothing much really, was kinda surprised when I pulled the head. Still don't know where the vac leak was but is possible the valve was sticking? Intake and plugs, all black soot, was pig rich.

is good that I ave the other engines there, probably just should've put parts into working (Known) engine, but has to pull it for trans swap. Seized engine is unknown origin/history. Got 300 miles out of it, before the "pOP", lol

im thinking the keepers popped out, valve dropped bent and busted the push rod. something had to make it all come to a hard stop to bend and snap parts.

hows the under side of the rocker look? it take a hit too?

That's the weird thing, thought the same too, but keepers were intact, valve didn't drop, was still held by spring. Just bent, and is why I though detonation bent it. YT Roller, just a slight nick outside the pushrod socket, otherwise no flat spot, or anything, roller moves fine, no hangup, no gouges. Lifter looks fine too, pushrod ball end looked a lil worn as compared to all the others. Valve train all new, except valves, heads had new guides installed as I got the heads used and there was a bit of play on a few stems. But rockers, push rods, lifters, cam all new.

dont think kr could bend the valve. but if it just bent due to failure that stopped the rocker and busted the push rod.

the rockers on my car are called the franken rockers, cause they came off a engine that let go, two rockers have dents under the rocker, one is on the outer edge of the push rod cup but is no where near where the push rod seats. so they are still good. ive put like 10,000 miles on them now and on a second engine as well.

Originally Posted by Scottydoggs

dont think kr could bend the valve. but if it just bent due to failure that stopped the rocker and busted the push rod.

the rockers on my car are called the franken rockers, cause they came off a engine that let go, two rockers have dents under the rocker, one is on the outer edge of the push rod cup but is no where near where the push rod seats. so they are still good. ive put like 10,000 miles on them now and on a second engine as well.

Lol...

But what then? Stuck? Can't think what would bend it and destroy the pushrod like that... Lifter defective?