The Unbuild Journal

[Arith2]

Here's my backstory of why I needed a new engine.

This was reckoning day for my engine. Look at ALL the air I'm getting. Oh and he made me close my hood for the runs. I was a stupid dweeb and thought it'd fine. This happened on June 3, 2019. Thankfully I signed a lease a few days before so I didn't have to tow my car all the way to Gainesville.



My heart was shattered as we traveled the toll road



This was my first look inside the block. Somehow my wife and I managed to remove the heads without removing the headers. Never again. Once inside, I saw alot of carbon build up on every cylinder.



When I got to #6 I noticed something was missing. By this time I had taken my Intro to Engines and my first Power and Performance class in school so I started piecing it together



The reason I wasn't able to reuse the head.


I found this sitting on my started. It caused my rear knock sensor to go MIA.



The first time I saw the hole this whole situation became very real to me. I didn't see the other side for a few months so I thought this was it. I didn't take things apart in a few days so it was a mess.

[Arith2]

The flywheel with 71k miles. Apparently SMGs are not easy on the clutch. Pressure plate was also screwed. The were all covered in oil.



Finishing swapping my rebuilt vanos with fewer miles while also timing the engine. I did this outside my back door and when the sprinklers came on, I had a big brown tarp I would wrap the whole thing in.



Rod bearings looked amazing for an 85k engine. They were also fairly smooth. I was already there so to the trash they went.



I started the bearing install at the shop and finished the torque sequence at home.

My dad and I pulling the old block out. Turn out screwing in some head bolts worked out great! It's not like I could use it again anyways. I would not recommend this method for something that's going back in.

[Arith2]

New engine in that took a few hours to get it. Eventually we figured out I had to physical hug the engine and twist it upright. It took every ounce of strength because this thing weighs like 490lbs. I grabbed it where if it fell, I wouldn't be crushed which also made it a little tougher. It did almost fall torwards the end. The hoist bottle jack got stuck and it dropped about 6 inches almost instantly. Be safe if you're doing this and think about where your hands, arms, fingers, head are constantly. I was safe about it and didn't lose anything.



If only I would've put that steel pivot pin in instead of the brass one I used. I did do the pilot bearings and the thrust bearing though. Respect for those who remove and install transmissions alone under a car.



I threw this crap in the yard and it's been getting rained of for two weeks. There's the major problem I had. I had a slight loss in compression. There's also a knock sensor missing. I never found it either.



All bearings looked like they had 150k+ miles on them. This is what a lack of oil changes does to the S54. Don't go over 7500 miles for oil changes and do it at a minimum of once a year. The sink of the bolts when they came out was atrocious. Who wouldve thought they would stink but it smelt like oily roach crap with some scorching metal smell. It was very unique.



Notice the hole in the pan along with where the rod was dragged along it. Externally it looked fine. I was going to clean it and give it away but not anymore. This is a quick way to not get oil in the right spots.



Here's #6 and #5. While 5 looks terrible, only have of 6's bearing came out. It was black. I'm holding up the rod with two chucks of piston I found sitting inside. Quite gnarly.



You can see the welding bearing. Look at the warped teeth on the gear for the CKP. This was the only journal that had any damaged. All others were smooth with no scoring.

[Arith2]

Look at how dark the metal is from lack of oil changes previously. Definitely was a big part in why it let go.



Upper main bearings look fine. Chocolate milk is from rain, not the coolant. The coolant and oil only mixed when it blew. The headgasket was actually still good.



Lower caps and emphasis on the gear for the hall effect sensor. Journals all were all spotless.



Not bad in general but definitely has accelerated wear. Wouldn't have been an issue though.

[Arith2]

So there you have it. This is the absolute worst case scenario of our engines. Notorious bearing failure didn't cause this, just to be clear. A bearing welded itself because the crank wasn't allow proper oil flow due to build up and old oil previously.

I would always lean towards a 100k mile bearing service for safety unless your car does not have evidence of servicing, then do it immediately. I don't believe regular daily drivers need this but don't become a statistic. We are a community bent on alot more preventative maintenance than reacting to a problem. I didn't have rod knock until I was on the dyno but no one could hear it because of the acoustics of that warehouse.

It is clear the rod bearings were not good but it was pushed over the edge by getting inferior air circulation. Once again, I should've done bearings previously but I'm not sure that would've stopped this. There is evidence of detonation considering my piston is in more pieces than I can count. There was alot of build up on the pistons for hot spots as well. I've been talking about it so there's the story.

[heinzboehmer]

That sucks. Good to see the car is running again though.

[Arith2]

That sucks. Good to see the car is running again though.

I appreciate it. I know enough now to not make the same mistakes. The new engine has it's problems but it still has 6 cylinders at least

[Kdubski]

Cool rebuild. In the middle of something similar myself. Any valuable lessons or tips you can pass on assembling engine itself?

[Arith2]

Cool rebuild. In the middle of something similar myself. Any valuable lessons or tips you can pass on assembling engine itself?

Follow the torque specs to the tee. Rod bolts need to be fatigued so they must be torqued 3 times and removed twice. If you don't do this, the threads will fatigue and your rod caps will come loose. This is BAD. Our engine is not as forgiving as other engines so you may be do an engine swap. Oil all the contact surfaces or put assembly lube on which is loaded with antiwear additives. For the most part, if it isn't broken, don't try to fix it. You don't have to remove the oil pump to do bearings so you can leave it be. I'm not sure what your build is but if the piston aren't coming out, it's pretty easy and simple if you have engine experience. Just make sure you have the proper timing tools and follow the specs. Other than that, there are no real tricks to this engine. It's super easy to work on.

At the end of the day, just enjoy the build. Put on some music and just enjoy yourself.

[liam821]

Ouch, that big hole I don't think should be there. Glad you got it all fixed up and running again.

[Arith2]

Ouch, that big hole I don't think should be there. Glad you got it all fixed up and running again.

It developed what I think is rod knock at 497 miles. I'm not sure why it would because I definitely did proper torque patterns. I'm going to verify it isn't the cyclinder 4 intake valves because clearance was tight when I did the adjustment. It'd be cheaper to just replace the head if that's the case. Rod bearings would only cost a few hundred also.

[Arith2]

Bearings looked great so it isn't rod knock. The coating hadn't even worn off of them.

[Arith2]

Here are the 500 mile bearings. They have a little sand and grime on them but each one looks fine. The coating isn't even gone so the metallic part isn't even exposed much. One has a coating blemish but it functioned fine from the appearance. It was super easy to remove the whole subframe and just wheel it out. That's how we'd remove the powertrain in the shop. So new bearings are in and on initial startup, there was a knock, it warmed up to 165°, I revved it to 3k rpm and no knock. Ran for like 15 to 20 minutes. Cold start next day, same knocking noise on start up, warmed up a little, and disappeared. Today, cold and warm startups with an hour of driving, no knock at all. The engine sounds normal. My lightweight flywheel is pretty quiet. I hear it mostly on deceleration below 2.5k rpm. It's a very distinct vibration. JB Racing tried to actually blame my knock on my car being an SMG 😂 I about lost it.