For those interested here are some pics of previous engines I have built.
This is the aftermath of the thrown rod on the engine I posted in T.J.'s thread. The #1 rod exploded at 6500 rpm in second gear. It sounded like a shotgun went off. Smoke blew out of the cowl hood and front fenders. I had to drive my dad's hoopty for about 6 months to save up for the next one.
Caprice 007 by
bjohnson388, on Flickr
Had some valve piston kissing. It bent the intake valve.
image0117 by
bjohnson388, on Flickr
Ripped it open like a tin can.
image0118 by
bjohnson388, on Flickr
All that was left of rod #1. It bent rod #2
image0119 by
bjohnson388, on Flickr
Next engine I built was this one. Another 383 stroker. I used as many parts from the first one on this one. Pretty much the whole top end was ok. Took the heads all apart and cleaned them and had the valves and guides redone.
Not sure what I was thinking on the Yellow. It seemed like a good idea at the time. The 64' El Camino in the background was my dad's daily driver for about 15 years. It had a 283 in with a ton of miles on it. My dad drove it the whole time taking care of it while I blew up 3 motors in less than 3 years. What did I learn from this keep the motor stock if your going to drive it daily. Hence why the truck's motor is all stock and just looks like a hot rod.
388 stroker by
bjohnson388, on Flickr
I even fogged the engine bay.
388Stroker01 by
bjohnson388, on Flickr
The Yellow engine above had a couple of cam lobes go flat. This was the time when they had pulled the zinc from motor oils and no one knew. Obviously the old flat tappet cams still needed it. I didn't know anything just thought I got a bad cam from Edelbrock as they had moved their machining to China during this time.
So I finally built this engine. A 388 c.i. stroker. Again using what I could. It is in the Caprice right now. It had the cam go flat as well. I put a new Summit cam in it and got it running so I could move it from my house out to the big garage. As I pulled it in the oil pressure dropped to 10 so I guess this motor is toast now. It has been sitting patiently waiting my care since April of 2013. When I get finished with the truck I will give the Caprice some love.
Caprice 003 by
bjohnson388, on Flickr
When I put this engine in I put everything back to black.
DSCN4910 by
bjohnson388, on Flickr