Outdrive1

Maybe the cam was just bad???? It's strange that the cam rounded off so bad that it had grooves worn into it. The roller tips on the rockers are also ruined. I would like to know what caused it. Like I said before the stud girdles were on backwards and had to be pried off with a pry bar and hammer. The new builder had never seen them on like this and had no idea how they got them on in the first place. I couldn't tell you if they were or not so here's a pic. Anyone know if these are right?

2112

Not to harp on just one issue of a bigger story, but if the spring pressure was wrong, would all of your lobes be toasted? When my tappets splayed, it was every last one of them.

I know you are angry, just trying to learn from your misfortunate experience.

Outdrive1

I ruined all the roller tips first. Maybe that gave enough clearance for the rest of the lobes not to be worn off???
It really didn't have much run time.


Mistakes happen and hi perf. motors break. You would just expect that you builder would stand behind his product for more than 1 trip to the lake. If I ordered a motor from Teague, Sterling, Zul, Mercury, Pfaff, Peto, Boostpower, Illmor, etc. I bet they would. I also bet they wouldn't come up with some lame excuse about 10 an lines ruining the motor. I'll be going over the invoice, parts list, and having some people go through this motor, if I find him neglegent, or charged for something that isn't there, I'm going to sue his a$$. If I can't pin point why it happened I'll still be quick to let everyone know how well this guy stands behind his work..............

Tailight warranty only.

Outdrive1

Had a good look today. The springs had three spacers in them to space them 130 thousands and 50 thousands on the keepers to increase spring pressure. From what we can figure the he was trying to make the wrong springs work with this cam. Since the heads were set up for hydraulic roller from AFR he used the springs and figured he would space them up until he got the spring pressure he wanted. Worst part about it is that when I dropped the heads off I told him that my distributer would exchange the springs at no cost. What ended up happening is that since they were spaced so much (180 thousands total) they were collapsing and binding with the 700+ lift cam. The motor was doomed from the get go because of the valve train. The valves he put in have shiny spots on them from being bent side to side from all the spring pressure. All the roller tips have wear marks, some have grooves starting to wear in them. The cam has grooves on all the lobes with the front lobes almost wearing off. The cam didn't have the proper cam button in it. You can see on the end it's so beat up that you can barely read the numbers in the casting on it. It was doomed no matter what the spring pressure was. Time bomb waiting to happen. The distributor, set up by the builder, didn't have a bronze bushing in it. The new builder said it was a time bomb waiting to happen as well. So in the end the entire valve train was set up improperly and destined to die.

The heads were only ground on on the intake side. The floor of the intake has grind marks on it. I was told that these AFR heads are so good out of the box that you should never need to port them. Not only that I was also told that if you port one side you should port the other side?????? Why would you only port the intake side on a blower motor? I was also told that you never touch the floor of the runners, you only port the sides and top. The actual intake ports are so ground on that you can visually see they are no longer straight and you would have to cut the intake gaskets so make them fit. I'm saying the intake ports are not rectangle where they meet the actual intake gasket and intake, they have curved edges from so much grinding.

Outdrive1

The thing ran super rich, all the pistons have black soot all over them. This guy was paid to set up the carbs, boost reference them and paid to tune it once it was up and running. Nice work.............

Hard to tell what died first, especially after looking at the valve train. The missing cam lobes could have blocked oil passages anywhere. The fuel could have washed the front cylinders down and started to melt them.

The motor is supposedly a 548. The bore size is 4.50, it may be able to be salvaged. Although one of the mains will have to be welded up and it will need two main caps.

Outdrive1

Remember that after we heard the original rod knock, we took it back to the builder for him to listen to. That's when he said it just needed a valve adjustment and that it was just fine. He wrote on the receipt that it had noise but that it was coming form the bell housing. He also wrote for or five reasons for motor failure, just to let everyone know.
He wrote that improper fuel systems will lead to detonation and ruin a motor. (the motor ran pig rich with 8an supply lines and 8 an bypass line on the regulator)
He wrote that improper cooling lines on the intercooler will ruin a motor. (again it shows no signs of detonation, even the bottoms of the pistons are not discolored in any way)
He wrote that improper oil line sizes will ruin a motor. (we've already established that 10an with swept an fittings, is sufficient for oil lines)
He wrote that insufficient cooling lines will ruin a motor. (This has a off shore pick-up, with 1 1/4 lines and a sea strainer, what more could you do?)

He basically knew the motor was junk, wrote up a bunch of trash to cover his a$$ and sent it on it's way to blow up somewhere else. As I stated before the valves varied so far in adjustment after leaving his shop that it's obvious he never adjusted them.

But here's the kicker.........After letting us leave his shop, after dissembling the motor, I found a zerk fitting where the oil temp sending unit was. Actually the new builder had it on the table with all the dissembled parts. I asked him what it was for and he showed me the spot on the back of the motor below the distributer where he pulled it out of. That just happened to be where I put the oil temp sending unit. Now why would some one remove that and put a zerk fitting there? (Zerk fitting was a cheap "plug") I guess so it would get run and no one would notice the climb in temperature before the motor put a rod through the side of it.
If that isn't one of the shadiest moves ever.............

Getting screwed is tuf, some times it's just tuf-enuf to make you want to quit boating all together................Then again what comes around goes around.

Big Block Billy

theres a shop in NJ that sleeves the main bearing bores with an almost like an oversized bearing insert. JT (Jaze Tech) told me about that.
Your motor was the work of a moron, What shop dosen't own a paper clip at least and check for .050 coil bind ? I've never heard of such stupidity. BBB

Big Block Billy

Every motor builder has to walk before they run.
They must fully understand every basic principle, and do thier homework before attempting to build an all out blower motor or something exotic. They also need to put their tail between thier legs and sometimes deal with another builder to ask questions and end up coming out of it all with a great motor, as well as enhanced knowledge, instead of assuming everything and entering uncharted waters.

Reed Jensen

Then there are the clowns that claim to be the "undisputed authority" on offshore engines... and their engines grenade after 6 hrs.... go figure... But they continue to do a "Marion Barry" when the truth comes out. That is what I experienced.

Big Block Billy

I did a favor for a friend last week that has a Skater with outboards. I found out a few problems and told him that I'll drop one of the gearcases for free, so he doesn't have to bring the boat to the guys shop.
In actuality I'm not only qualified to drop the case , but I could have rebuilt it too.
This friend did not want to let his mechanic know that anyone else touched his boat. I just ended up changing gear lube.
He stated that he didn't want his mechanic to talk to me, and he knows everything. If he thinks he knows everything, he is setting himself up for a big fall. Even the guy that makes minimum wage sweeping the floor at a shop might know or notice something and his input may be of importance.
His mechanic is working on so many boats, he may have overlooked something I had seen, and could have been advised by even me. BBB