- Thread starter
- #51
randman2011
10+ Year Contributor
- 552
- 282
- Feb 26, 2012
-
Indianapolis,
Indiana
I've been trying to stay relatively positive about the engine situation but today I gave up. As indicated previously, I gave Buschur a full day to respond to me about the rods. They never did (and still haven't) so Tuesday evening I bought a set of Manley H beam rods: the ones that I had in the engine before the rebuild that I know will fit. They arrived today so after finishing up work I snapped this quick picture.
Sure, the Callies will be much stronger and have much more material all around, but since this is a 16g street build that's not strength that I would ever need. After all, the old Manleys survived detonation in all four cylinders and only eventually yielded after some extreme temperatures. So I pulled the pistons out of the block, swapped the new rods on, and reassembled. I confirmed that I can now rotate the crankshaft freely. I can. But....
JFC. Pistons are Wiseco K597M855. Meant for 88m bore 150mm rods. Rods are Manley 14022-4, 5.905 inches long or 150mm. So now that I have pistons installed and can finally rotate the crank, I measured the stroke. 94mm from deck to bottom piston. 6mm from deck to top piston. So I magically have a 4G64 crank now. To summarize:
* According to Buschur, standard operating procedure is 156mm rods and 6mm shorter pistons for a better rod ratio. That is what I would have gone with except that they didn't inspect my 150mm rods to find that they were not reusable until after they ordered pistons for said 150mm rods.
* The bearings that I paid for were shipped to a different customer in Dubai. A set of Callies rods were given to me as compensation for that and for the first 6 weeks of delay.
* The rods that were given do not fit my block and because I could not get through to Buschur to talk about this problem I had to buy an additional set of rods that will fit.
* Not only is this crank not the one that I gave them, it's not even for a 4G63 and as a result the pistons that are wrong and the rods that are also wrong don't fit anyway.
* I still don't have my head.
* I still don't have my dipstick tube. That was not returned to me when I grabbed the block and Buschur hasn't responded since before I reminded them that they still have it.
* According to Buschur, this was a one week job. It started on the 13th of January when they received my disassembled engine before they opened and should have been completed around January 20th. It has now been a bit over 9 weeks and while there is a valid reason for some of that delay, repeatedly telling me that it will be done "tomorrow" when you know that you won't have an opportunity to even get to it for another week or two is not acceptable. I'm not necessarily in a rush to get this job done but I have now planned four separate trips to Cincinnati to pick up the engine based on dates suggested by Buschur and yet I still don't have the engine back.
On an almost positive note, I have been calling Buschur's Wakeman facility and have occasionally gotten though to Mike The Welder, who is then making an attempt to forward my information on to Jimmy in Cincinnati. So far all that I've told him is that Jimmy has my head and that I am coming to Cincinnati this weekend to pick it up. I also reminded him about my dipstick tube, but this conversation started yesterday and finished before I had discovered my 4G64 crank today, so that will be yet another call in the morning. Mike The Welder was at least able to tell me that the head has been completed and just never got shipped out.
So that's where things stand. Now that I have assembled the shortblock twice, I get to disassemble it again. I may get my head this weekend but what I'm going to do about this crank is still unknown. I have two sets of rods for this build and I'm already running out of assembly lube.
Sure, the Callies will be much stronger and have much more material all around, but since this is a 16g street build that's not strength that I would ever need. After all, the old Manleys survived detonation in all four cylinders and only eventually yielded after some extreme temperatures. So I pulled the pistons out of the block, swapped the new rods on, and reassembled. I confirmed that I can now rotate the crankshaft freely. I can. But....
JFC. Pistons are Wiseco K597M855. Meant for 88m bore 150mm rods. Rods are Manley 14022-4, 5.905 inches long or 150mm. So now that I have pistons installed and can finally rotate the crank, I measured the stroke. 94mm from deck to bottom piston. 6mm from deck to top piston. So I magically have a 4G64 crank now. To summarize:
* According to Buschur, standard operating procedure is 156mm rods and 6mm shorter pistons for a better rod ratio. That is what I would have gone with except that they didn't inspect my 150mm rods to find that they were not reusable until after they ordered pistons for said 150mm rods.
* The bearings that I paid for were shipped to a different customer in Dubai. A set of Callies rods were given to me as compensation for that and for the first 6 weeks of delay.
* The rods that were given do not fit my block and because I could not get through to Buschur to talk about this problem I had to buy an additional set of rods that will fit.
* Not only is this crank not the one that I gave them, it's not even for a 4G63 and as a result the pistons that are wrong and the rods that are also wrong don't fit anyway.
* I still don't have my head.
* I still don't have my dipstick tube. That was not returned to me when I grabbed the block and Buschur hasn't responded since before I reminded them that they still have it.
* According to Buschur, this was a one week job. It started on the 13th of January when they received my disassembled engine before they opened and should have been completed around January 20th. It has now been a bit over 9 weeks and while there is a valid reason for some of that delay, repeatedly telling me that it will be done "tomorrow" when you know that you won't have an opportunity to even get to it for another week or two is not acceptable. I'm not necessarily in a rush to get this job done but I have now planned four separate trips to Cincinnati to pick up the engine based on dates suggested by Buschur and yet I still don't have the engine back.
On an almost positive note, I have been calling Buschur's Wakeman facility and have occasionally gotten though to Mike The Welder, who is then making an attempt to forward my information on to Jimmy in Cincinnati. So far all that I've told him is that Jimmy has my head and that I am coming to Cincinnati this weekend to pick it up. I also reminded him about my dipstick tube, but this conversation started yesterday and finished before I had discovered my 4G64 crank today, so that will be yet another call in the morning. Mike The Welder was at least able to tell me that the head has been completed and just never got shipped out.
So that's where things stand. Now that I have assembled the shortblock twice, I get to disassemble it again. I may get my head this weekend but what I'm going to do about this crank is still unknown. I have two sets of rods for this build and I'm already running out of assembly lube.
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