lololol, have another update

[nubuilder]

.....no stock motor......no stock motor......no stock motor......

This has been a long journey (and thread) to see it end because of a plug.

I think it is safe to say that we're all pulling for you!!!!!

[BonnieBoy08]

[yourgrandma]

Its not just a plug. At this point, the bearings are probably all shot and at very least Ill never trust the engine or the car. The diagnostic method they used was to literally idle my engine (not yet broken in, by the way) for hours on end, thinking the 15psi it had was more than enough oil pressure. I cannot imagine any good can come of that. Not to mention that my rings were never properly seated and the head studs are seeping coolant.

The entire engine needs to be completely rebuilt for me to ever trust it.

In other words; Time for a new hobby.

[MattStrike]

If it only idled, then at 15psi it will be fine. At idle there is negligable thrust on the bearings, as long as the bearings were getting oil they won't wear out from idling. If you're that worried about it pull the oil pan and the rod caps and see for yourself. Even with mine, that darn lifter was making noises at idle for months, it wasn't until I hooked up the oil pressure guage in the SSEi that I discovered 2psi at idle. About 27,000 miles I put on it that way, as I didn't get the one cam bearing gapped correctly, and that was with 5w-30 the whole time.

Don't worry about the rings, they will still seat. Brand new cars fresh off the assembly line go through hours and hours of tests sometimes before they pass and get taken out to the lot; and the new thing is the car gets punched to WOT now right after it exits the building. But the whole time they are going through testing they sit idling...



Don't be apprehensive to remove the rod caps! On a scale of 1 (oooh, what's that shiney round thing?) to 10 (I've rebuilt a transmission), a short block rebuild is a 3. Anybody that can turn a wrench and read directions can do it. And if the rod bearings are fine so are the mains. The mains feed the rods.

Machine shops are good at one thing only. Machine work. They are not good at performing rebuilds, unless it's a Chevy 350, it's usually the new guy that does that grunt work (ability if 1-2 on the scale). So I'm not surprised they couldn't properly install a plug. My bet is they swaged it in.

[yourgrandma]

Well I've been driving it around a bit this weekend. I put 10w-40 in it and the oil pressure hasn't dipped below the mid 30s. The only thing that has me worried is the leaking head stud. So far I haven't witnessed it myself, but theres some condensation under the oil cap. Oil hasn't shown any evidence of real water contamination.

Had a big pucker moment when the pressure side fuel line popped off yesterday. Watching gas steam off the headers and other hot engine parts was a little scary.

I have the bumper cover back on for the moment but it will come back off later to redo a lot of wiring and figure out why my rear marker lights are flashing with the turn signals.

[yourgrandma]

I've really missed my stereo. I'm literally sitting in the car parked in the garage listening to it. So nice.

[yourgrandma]

Heat exchanger tucks nicely in the bumper cover. Might make some mods for better airflow in the future. For now Im more worried about making it reliable.

[nubuilder]

Looks great!

It looks a lot like 2003 SSEi's setup. I haven't seen any posts of his as to whether or not he's having cooling issues though.

[yourgrandma]

Pat has a different heat exchanger. His looks quite a lot taller than mine. I believe he also has fans on his. I havent felt mine get much warmer than ambient so I doubt ill have a "problem" per se but obviously the cooler the better.

I ran it for a while with a 2.8" pulley and saw up to 4* of KR while climbing hills in 4th, so I put the 3.2 back on til i find a 3.0 to try.

[2003 SSEi]

because cooling......




Yes i do have a different heat exchanger. You really need a Air Temp sensor in the LIM or at least a water temp sensor for the IC to tell if you are really getting any temp drop

[yourgrandma]

What's the other radiator on top of the bumper?

[SC-Type]

Sounds like ou got through the rough patch. As for the head studs, no need to pull the whole motor. All you have to do is remove the valve cover after a run, see where the coolant in pooling, should be very evident. drain the coolant, pull the stud, and suction out as much fluid as possible get a rag in there to get it nice and dry, apply some thread sealer, and re-install head stud, torqued accordingly. I did this on all 16 of mine after the fact :/ one at a time... lesson learnt.

keep the updates coming!

[yourgrandma]

Just seems like it would be an incredible pain in the butt to get the studs out, clean the holes and retorque properly with the engine in place.

I used permatex thread sealant on the studs. I think the instructions say to use too little of the stuff.

[2003 SSEi]

What's the other radiator on top of the bumper?

.....because cooling

[nos4blood70]

Cool ALL the things. lol

[yourgrandma]

Indeed... Is it for the IC or did you tie it into the engine cooling circuit? Ive been looking for a cooling upgrade for the engine for quite some time.

I need to make a better EGR blockoff plate and the new one with have a 1/8 NPT threaded hole. Feel free to guess what for.

[2003 SSEi]

its for the Intercooler...

Remember i have a Custom 1" thick radiator from the Bad SSEi Racecar

[yourgrandma]

I hate you sometimes.

I need to look at a GXP rad to see why I couldnt make it work.

Thinking about driving it to work today. Those poor snow tires are shot.

[redzmonte]

the inlet/outlets are in different locations... I would think you can make some custom hoses/pipes and make it work.. the passanger side hose connection on the SSEI is on the bottom the GXP is on the top. someone did a L67 swap in a GXP and put pics of it..

[SSEiMan01]

GXP rad has different inlet an outlet as said above. However check out an L26 Lucerne radiator, when Don was up here he happened to notice the thickness of the radiator on my grandma's Lucy, was much more than the SSEi. Worth a look anyway. Pretty sure they would swap easily.