I have a hole .

[ROOKIE1]

1800 miles on rebuild . No oil loss , until today . Where to begin . Pull oil pan ? Stalled on off ramp , ran sluggish . Restarted drove 80-100 yds . Here comes smoke . Laid a patch of oil leakage about 100-130 yds . Shut it down . No warnings whatsoever . Stock rods , did they break , could they have come unbolted ?

 

[2gAWDTalon]

Wgere is the hole? Do you have pics? More details are needed...

 

[ROOKIE1]

Hole is next to front motor mount . No pics . I need to pull turbo out to get clear pic . I just think I need to pull pan . Is it possible for the assembly to come apart ? A shop did bottom . Problem is it took a long time for me to reassemble , so no warranty .

 

[ROOKIE1]

So I pulled this out of my oil pan . No wait , I pulled it through my pan . I also have a hole in block next to front motor mount .

 

[qtxdevilz]

ouch...looks like someone forgot to tighten down the rod cap bolts...

 

[TSG59_Steve]

Stuff like this scares me... I can't afford for my motor to mess up when it goes in...

 

[T9S1i]

ouch, when i put a hole in my block at least it was at 20psi and with methanol, sounds like you were still cruisin and breakin the motor in.

who built the motor?

 

[ROOKIE1]

Bottom was a local shop . Head from SBR . I put them together and installed it . 50 hour a week job and 2 children , took a year to get it running . Now this . Decision time for me it seems . Part out or rebuild again ?

 

[qtxdevilz]

just buy a stock shortblock/motor and throw it on...i have one for sale but you are far away from me...

 

[ROOKIE1]

So I talk to the guy who built the block . The normal statements and questions that I expected were asked . Have you been hard on it , any noise previous , blah blah blah . He says maybe I got dirt in it . I changed the camshafts so I may I have caused problems there . He is going to look at it though . He wants the whole engine , so he can tear it down . Any other sugestions or ideas ? How could the rod cap come off like this ? I was not hard on it . I was in my 2000 mile breakin as he suggested . 4 oil changes , no leaks , no smoke , no noise I could hear (3" t-back ) .

 

[jking29]

Did you replace the rod bolts when it was built? It looks to me that a rod bolt came apart and caused the damage.

 

[drewvr4]

yea cams didnt do that...thats def. a rod cap...i would give the guy hell who built the motor.

 

[snox135]

That's hard to do a year later. I've been in his shoes and all he can hope for is that the guy believes him and helps him out.

 

[GVR4592]

You need to be there when he tears the engine down.

 

[GVR4592]

yea cams didnt do that...thats def. a rod cap...i would give the guy hell who built the motor.

There are hundreds of reasons why the engine could've failed and half of them wouldn't be related to the guy that assembled the bottom end. Throwing the blame around before the cause is determined is a pretty stupid thing to do.

 

[ROOKIE1]

Took block to him the other day . He tells me he will look at it in a couple of days . I told him that was fine but, I want the oil pan pulled now . He pulls it off and what do we have ? A rod bolt nut in the pan . Not stripped off , but obviously fallen off . Another guy that works for him starts telling me all the ways this could happen . It had spun the bearing , broke the rod , put 2 holes in block , broke transfer case , and made the oil pan look like a jack hammer was taken to it . Lack of oil he tells me , I say bullshit . I can see where the mains on that particular end are not burned up from oil loss . He says rtv from pan may have got sucked through oil screen , I say bullshit again . Would have caused problems before that . Meanwhile the shop owner turns tail and goes to other room . Builder then says " I did not do this block , I know I torque everything down three times " . Only reason to make that sort of statement is to save his name as a respected builder . This will be a flame war if he dry humps me on this . I run a retail store close to his location and talk to alot of his customers/potential customers .

Nonetheless , I really just need to have the head repaired . I believe I am going for a partout of the 90 . The 10th was my birthday (35) . The wife knew I was tired of being a parttime mechanic . So she knew I wanted to go look at a new Eclipse . She twisted my arm and we went . So lets say I no longer need to fix that car anymore . Came home with a black 2007 Spyder GT 6spd . So watch the classifieds .....

 

[drewvr4]

oh no a new eclipse? well good luck with that, hope it makes you happy.

yea its super easy for a rod bolt to work its way out if its not tightened, and it sounds like thats what happened, keep pushing it you might be able to get somewhere.

 

[ROOKIE1]

Not a fan ehh . Oh well . I will stay on him about repairs . I figure to get more $$$ apart than together .