427 engine (part 2) - RHS block - Page 132

Benjamin · 01-17-2012, 05:32 PM

if it seals with an o-ring I wouldn't put it past Harwood to reuse the factory o-ring instead of putting a new one on "just because"

IMHO unless the seal is made to be reusable then it shouldn't be reused once it has been torqued down initially.

**Rich Z** · 01-17-2012, 07:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Benjamin

if it seals with an o-ring I wouldn't put it past Harwood to reuse the factory o-ring instead of putting a new one on "just because"

IMHO unless the seal is made to be reusable then it shouldn't be reused once it has been torqued down initially.

I've been checking around, and some people have indicated that the sensor can leak through the center around the o-ring itself. So quite likely, I would just go ahead and order the entire sensor with the new seal, rather than just getting a new seal, and finding that it STILL leaks. Heck, it's only $19.00, so I feel like I'm getting off lightly with this one.....

**Rich Z** · 01-18-2012, 12:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Benjamin

if it seals with an o-ring I wouldn't put it past Harwood to reuse the factory o-ring instead of putting a new one on "just because"

IMHO unless the seal is made to be reusable then it shouldn't be reused once it has been torqued down initially.

BTW, I was thinking about this, and I feel I need to point out that the engine was pulled and the oil pan pulled off while my car was in Aaron's care. Granted he farmed that work out to another shop, but the possibility remains that this sensor was removed at that time, and then simply put back in using the same o-ring seal. Furthermore, Aaron specifically stated to me that there were no oil leaks at all from the engine, and yet there is this obvious, albeit slow, oil leak coming from this sensor that Aaron SHOULD have at least noticed. At this point, I don't know who CAUSED the leak, but the fact remains that the leak still existed after the car was on Aaron's watch.

Furthermore, when the engine was pulled, the heads were removed and Aaron told me they were resurfaced, which he claims is his SOP when dealing with a blown head gasket. As such, the valve train was certainly removed, and it has to be noted that afterwards a rocker arm shaft broke, and Aaron discovered that the valves were adjusted two full turns too tightly. Sorry, but as attractive as that scapegoat may appear to quite a few people, this all just cannot be laid as blame on Chris Harwood. Not 14 months after Harwood last laid hands on the car, in my opinion.

navy2kcoupe · 01-18-2012, 08:05 AM

Hell, Rich, after the last few posts by you........it's no wonder that Aaron was
"antsy" when you drove the car home. All of those sloppy, half done, repairs are
a sure guarantee of a "train wreck". I would be willing to bet that he was
wearing Depends when you took the car home. I would have been if I returned
a car in that condition. BUT............on the bright and good news side........it's now
at your place where you can work on it, AND DO THE JOB RIGHT! It might be a
real pain in the ass, but when you're done with it, there will be some pride in
doing it right as well as some satisfaction in knowing that it will be reliable. All
of the help available to you on this, and other, forums should get you through
the problems and help you to learn more about your car. Been a rough couple of
years, but now that you have the car back and are tackling the problems yourself,
the light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter and bigger and it AIN'T NO
TRAIN COMING AT YOU EITHER! Oh yeah, and one other thing..........I ain't
rooting for the Ravens this Sunday. If you're a Ravens fan, you're on the other
side of the stadium from me!

Andy Anderson

**Rich Z** · 01-18-2012, 11:56 AM

HAH! Honestly, I don't give a flip about professional (or even college) sports. Not since I was a kid and figured out that it's just a business and doesn't have a damn thing to do with local boys playing against some team composed of other town's local boys. Heck, you might as well stand out on the street and root for Lowe's over Home Depot, or McDonald's over Burger King......

RevXtreme 1 · 01-18-2012, 04:59 PM

Sorry I have been gone a few days....but here are some answers:

Torque to yield is in referance to special bolts (mainly head bolts, main cap bolts, and rod bolts) where the bolt is torqued to spec and then a certain degrees past where the bolt begins to stretch, or "yield". Standard in the industry now.

No loctite needed on the balljoint & end joint nuts...they have locking nuts that secure them.

A "flat" is the flat side of a nut or bolt head. Turning 3 "flats" is tightning so the flat side has rotated 3 positions. Same as X amount of degrees past torque spec would be.

The oil level sensor is cheap, replace it.

If the heads or deck was surfaced, then you need to redo valvetrain geometry to acheive the proper wipe pattern and pre-load on the lifters. Thats most likely what broke the rocker.

You will need both a adjustable pushrod legnth checker and someone to look carefulley at the wipe patter. The LS motors are non adjustable rockers and even with adjustable aftermarket ones push rod legnth and wipe pattern can NEVER be determined prior to fianal assy. Most shops "guess" and then say "the sewwing machine/lifter noise is normal". Not true. Even a pretty radical build should have no valvetrain noise louder than stock. Just like degreeing a cam. Most will come close dot-to-dot, but NEVER trust they are. Always degree the cam.

Your pics sure paint a story on the skills and care NOT available during this build. Absolutely horrible. You are doing a good job so far.

And I still dont understand taking the PCM out to bench flash it? Always use the OBDII port unless it is a ong distance flash where the car is not available.

**Rich Z** · 01-18-2012, 07:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RevXtreme 1

And I still dont understand taking the PCM out to bench flash it? Always use the OBDII port unless it is a ong distance flash where the car is not available.

I asked Aaron about this after learning that 3 PCMs hot gotten blown, wondering if perhaps pulling them from the car and laying them on a bench might have contributed to the destruction via static discharges. He told me this was pretty standard and was actually safer than programming via the OBD port. Certainly wasn't "safer" for my front fender....

Speaking of that front fender. I had asked Aaron several times to fix the broken tab underneath. Well I have to admit, his "fix" wasn't exactly what I had in mind....

Not to mention that the fender was jammed up against one of the hose clamp screws on the turbo piping behind it, bowing it noticeably outwards. Darn wonder the paint didn't get cracked there too...

**Rich Z** · 01-21-2012, 05:30 PM

Decided to tackle that broken wheelwell section for the front fender today. Bought a small section of aluminum flashing that I folded over and cut to size. Then filled this aluminum "sandwich" with JB weld and clamped it in place...

When the JB weld has hardened, I can then see where the hole needs to be drilled, then I can drill the hole, and mount a nut on it so I can run a screw through it to tighten down the fender at that point when I put if back together again. I really can't do anything about the later broken section I found, as there doesn't seem to be any way to get to it to work on it without taking the fender off. So I'm hoping it won't be an issue that I can just ignore for now.

Been also doing a few odds and ends to clean up the mess from the car being abused at shops the last couple of years. Been cleaning up the control arms to get the crud off of them...

And I painted the center section of the rotor I have pulled off after getting the rust off with a wire brush...

I bought a knuckle with upper ball joint from a guy to replace mine, since it's possible the ball joint on the side I'm working on got damaged because of the ball joint nut not being tightened down properly. So I'm still waiting for that to come in before I can finish up with the half shaft install on the passenger side, and then get started on the driver's side shaft. Hopefully I won't find anything else on the driver's side that needs to be replaced.

So I'm pretty much just doing odds and ends on the car while waiting for that part to arrive.

**Rich Z** · 01-22-2012, 05:15 PM

Got that section of the fender support fixed. I put in an aluminum pop rivet and then drilled a hole to fit the sliding threaded nut onto for the bolt that goes through the tab on the fender. Seems sturdy enough now...

I'm hoping I can do something similar to fix that broken tab underneath the edge of the fender at the bottom close to the door. That might be more of a challenge.....

**Rich Z** · 01-24-2012, 07:16 PM

I'm thinking I might as well go ahead and replace those rubber brake lines with SS braided ones. I'm sure they are the original ones that came on the car when it was new, and no telling if they may have taken any abuse over the past two years. So while I've got the wheels off, perhaps I should just do this now..... They certainly don't last forever anyway.