[Deadhead]

After the QP thread, I thought I would start this.

When I rebuilt the 389 in my wagon I found the piston below. It reminded me of a story an old Chevy service Mgr told me. Before he was Mgr a lady brought in a '71 big car wagon she had bought there. She was complaining about a rattling noise in the engine. By the time it got to him, they had already ordered her a counter replacement. When it came time to put it in, he got the job. He said, "Everybody get out of here.", making all the guys leave the bays. He got in the car & floored it for a while. Eventually the flagging from the manifold casting blew out the valve. He sent the car back to the happy owner, and they gave him the replacement motor.

Mine looks like a choke housing screw to me.

What you guys got?

[s2k1]

This was in the 428 I just disassembled last week.

[arbys]

Just last fall I was talking to former Ford service technician. A very good customer was complaining that his 68 or 69 Mustang wasn't as fast as it should be. The service manager wouldn't do anything. Finally he complained so much that he sent the service tech out with the car to check it out. He drove it about 8 blocks to the park and floored the gas petal for what he said was minutes. He walked over to the pay phone to call a wrecker. The owner got his new replacement engine free of charge.

[LeighP]

Had a spark plug break off and leave the base in the head. Took a lot of playing around with Easi-outs to remove it. I made up a small piece of plastic tube and sealed it into a vacuum cleaner and sucked out any little pieces that were in the piston, crossed my fingers and fired it up with a new plug in it.
There was this pinging rattling sound as a little piece of spark plug bounced around the cylinder, I gave it a quick rev and blew it out of the exhaust valve, lol.
I hope never again to do that......

[Bill Eveland]

I work at a Ford and deal with spark plug issues on the 5.4. Whenever we have that issue if something is left down in the hole just fire it up with the plug out to clean it out.


Back to topic, I took apart the flathead 6 in the 41 Pontiac I had for a valve job. The valves are upside down of course so when I took the side covers off, there were still a few shop rags stuck under the valves, they were put there to block the keepers from falling down inside the engine . Still dropped a few in the oil pan, left them there a got some new ones.

Originally Posted by LeighP

Had a spark plug break off and leave the base in the head. Took a lot of playing around with Easi-outs to remove it. I made up a small piece of plastic tube and sealed it into a vacuum cleaner and sucked out any little pieces that were in the piston, crossed my fingers and fired it up with a new plug in it.
There was this pinging rattling sound as a little piece of spark plug bounced around the cylinder, I gave it a quick rev and blew it out of the exhaust valve, lol.
I hope never again to do that......

[Deadhead]

Originally Posted by LeighP

Had a spark plug break off and leave the base in the head. Took a lot of playing around with Easi-outs to remove it. I made up a small piece of plastic tube and sealed it into a vacuum cleaner and sucked out any little pieces that were in the piston, crossed my fingers and fired it up with a new plug in it.
There was this pinging rattling sound as a little piece of spark plug bounced around the cylinder, I gave it a quick rev and blew it out of the exhaust valve, lol.
I hope never again to do that......

The screw on the one I pictured bent 2 pushrods, but the car ran fine for who knows how many years if not from new. Not sure why I even rebuilt it now that I think about it. Glad I did though scoots nice now.

[bird72]

What did you find in your motor?

Jimmy Hoffa's pinky finger.

[RAIV55]

For about 11 years I worked as a tech at a Chevrolet dealership, here are a few that i came across and others that were told about while i was there.

The new car PDI guy told about a rattle from the back of the car. He checked everything under the car couldn't find the cause of the clunk when turning. he finally loaded another guy in the back seat and tried to duplicate the noise. The dude in the back said, "It's coming from this side panel" Tore the panel off and a beer bottle had this note inside, "Finally found it you dumb SOB"

Seen several cases of a screw falling out of the bottom of Q-Jets and going thru the engine.

The old Targetmaster engines were awful. Had instances with crank woodruff keys and valve cover/timing cover bolts left on pistons before the heads were installed. Got so bad toward the end of my time there we were probably warranting 1 out of every 4 sold.

Installed a new 454 in a class A motorhome. Almost made it out the door before a couple rods started knocking. On teardown there wasn't an upper main bearing installed on #4 main. Had to pull that pig all apart again under warranty flat rate.

Had a good customer who bought several trucks a year for his business. His own personal pickup was a loaded Silverado which had a 400 with an oil consumption problem. Back in those days Chevy wouldn't tear an engine down without an oil consumption report. So after GM dicking this guy around, the used truck manager called a wrecker to pick the truck up on S. hiway 79 and then drove it out the door. When the Silverado returned about an hour later, a rod was hanging out the side of the block. Installed a new engine and oil consumption was cured.

[HaloMedic]

Years ago I had a 66 GTO convertible 389 .30 over royal set up with a 800 cfm quad. on a edelbrock hi rise torker manifold 4.11 posi

What was found at the end of the race was a blown engine missed third in a very bad way over revved found after tear down down a piece of piston connection rod on top of the cam cam broken in 4 journals and a rod thur the block

Best time in my life Damm straight I won the race too

[Carl S]

Originally Posted by RAIV55

The old Targetmaster engines were awful. Had instances with crank woodruff keys and valve cover/timing cover bolts left on pistons before the heads were installed. Got so bad toward the end of my time there we were probably warranting 1 out of every 4 sold.

I've been in GM parts longer than I like to admit! My brother runs a repair shop. Years ago, I sold him a Targetmaster 350 for a customer of his. He put it in, started it up, ran ok. Shut it off to top up the anti freeze. He was pouring and pouring and pouring in antifreeze, still not filling up like he thought it should. When the antifreeze finally showed up, it was coming out the top of the carb! On teardown, it had exactly as you say, a valve cover bolt (all 8 were already present on the engine) was on top of the piston and on the up stroke had pushed its way right through the head into the water jacket.

Brand new replacement engine came from GM, no questions asked.

[AROWHED]

After 2 seconds of sudden rod knocking that came on as I was topping 5500rpm, a loud crunching bang and then silence, I found this. A 1971 400...it has been collecting dust for several years...a dern expensive paperweight.