Well the worst that can happen has happened. After I made my best pass of all time with the car a few weeks ago...I noticed the car didn't sound right afterwards. It developed a constant ticking noise sounding like a compression leak. Well I drove it around for a week afterward trying to diagnose this noise. I thought it was the stock cam sensor so I changed that out. Same noise. Hmmmm....crawl under the car and sure enough I see black carbon streaks coming out underneath the cylinder head number 3 cylinder. I'm like oh great I blew another headgasket.
So I tore it all apart thinking I just popped a gasket. WRONG...soon as I pulled the intake off, I noticed a very very fine hairline crack going across the bottom of the lifter valley (right above the lifters) on the passenger side...after further examination, sure enough it's cracked. That would explain why I noticed the crank pulley "wobbling" at idle. The damn crank was out of balance because the block has slightly shifted. I also noticed the pushrods were rubbing on number 2 cylinder (see wear marks in pics). That was my ticking noise I bet. The driver side headgasket didn't look that great but wasnt blown completely.
So now the car is down and out for the rest of the year. I bet the block has been weak all along and now I'm making some pretty good power and it couldn't handle it. Also running the stock rotating assembly at 6065 rpms on that pass with detonation didn't help things. It's all my fault. The whole bottom end had 120k miles on it, driven pretty hard for the last 5 years. Guess it had enough. I calculated I was making around 625-650 horse at the motor to be running the times I was running at the weight. Now it's time to go through EVERYTHING on the car and upgrade accordingly. Looks like I better get in line for Dan to build me a solid 109 block.
http://a966.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/77/l_f1b23094d27faddfb3ae37ece621bb6d.jpg
http://a226.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/85/l_21e542d4668e94f7a21d962b84e26289.jpg
http://a235.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/111/l_bd49e690b27f0200e7f30980bb8f5e92.jpg
http://a599.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/98/l_976e93fd60d1a3848c6eb0f4da72ff36.jpg
So I tore it all apart thinking I just popped a gasket. WRONG...soon as I pulled the intake off, I noticed a very very fine hairline crack going across the bottom of the lifter valley (right above the lifters) on the passenger side...after further examination, sure enough it's cracked. That would explain why I noticed the crank pulley "wobbling" at idle. The damn crank was out of balance because the block has slightly shifted. I also noticed the pushrods were rubbing on number 2 cylinder (see wear marks in pics). That was my ticking noise I bet. The driver side headgasket didn't look that great but wasnt blown completely.
So now the car is down and out for the rest of the year. I bet the block has been weak all along and now I'm making some pretty good power and it couldn't handle it. Also running the stock rotating assembly at 6065 rpms on that pass with detonation didn't help things. It's all my fault. The whole bottom end had 120k miles on it, driven pretty hard for the last 5 years. Guess it had enough. I calculated I was making around 625-650 horse at the motor to be running the times I was running at the weight. Now it's time to go through EVERYTHING on the car and upgrade accordingly. Looks like I better get in line for Dan to build me a solid 109 block.
http://a966.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/77/l_f1b23094d27faddfb3ae37ece621bb6d.jpg
http://a226.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/85/l_21e542d4668e94f7a21d962b84e26289.jpg
http://a235.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/111/l_bd49e690b27f0200e7f30980bb8f5e92.jpg
http://a599.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/98/l_976e93fd60d1a3848c6eb0f4da72ff36.jpg