[BossHogg69]

then is thread is for you! I've been too butt hurt to post much about this yet, but a couple of weekends ago I hurt the motor (.060" over 454 bbc) in my '69 during a little test drive after installing a new AGR power steering pump and steering box. I hit an empty side street, hammered down on it in 2nd gear and spun it up to about 6500 rpm. Right when I let off for the stop sign coming up, I heard a metallic 'ping' (the expensive sounding one!) and immediately clutched it. The engine died as I clutched it and I coasted to a stop in a nearby parking lot. Long story short, I walked home, grabbed my daily driver and my trailer and towed it home. When I got it into my shop, I could see oil and a little coolant dripping out of the tailpipes - not good. No visible signs of anything exiting the block and no oil spray underneath. I left it sitting in the shop for a couple weeks too disgusted to mess with it. I finally got to pulling the spark plugs and found #1 hammered all to hell, coolant poured out of #4, 6 & 7, and #8 was soaked in clean oil. Needless to say the thing is toast, I'm hoping I can save some of it, since I had quite a bit of cash tied up in the valvetrain & heads (custom hyd roller, Crower rockers & springs, etc).

The thing only had about 1200 miles on it. The shortblock was machined and built by a local rebuilder, and after I had the work done I spoke to a few guys around town that said this guy doesn't have a great reputation for building hi-perf motors. An expensive lesson, but those are the ones you learn from or so my dad always told me when I was a kid. It had a couple annoying leaks right from the get go, and seemed to run hot more often that not, despite dual Derale electric fans and a big 2 row aluminum radiator. Just goes to show that if something doesn't seem right, chances are there is trouble ahead. I was easy on it for the first 500 miles, but drove the hell out of it after that. I'll be pulling it all out this weekend to disassemble it, hopefully I can do it without beating the heck out of the engine bay that I worked my a$$ off to get to my liking. I already have another bullet in the works, and no, it's not an LS engine.