Brief History of engine, Original Specs.

Original Engine built by Combination in 2005.
2-bolt main LT1 block, 0.040″ Over, hence 384.6 ci, which I’ll round to 385.. Zero-decked.
Billet splayed main caps on #2-3-4 mains.
ARP head and main studs
Eagle Forged crank, and H-Beam Rods
Custom JE Forged pistons – build sheet does not list the dish volume, I will have to cc a good piston to see what it is.
Ported Iron Heads

ATI Procharger running 9-16# of boost, depending on how much the belt was slipping.

I received the motor after it lost oil pressure. The motor was run for ~1 mile before it got shut down (Note to self: put a frickin HUGE oil pressure warning light on the dash so you notice it even when driving in busy traffic with screaming kids in the back seat..). Needless to say, motor came out.

Here’s why it lost oil pressure. Note the offset to the pump gear teeth. Not sure what the debris was, but it was hard enough to not get chewed through the pump, and small enough to get through the pickup screen.

Pump shaft was bent too.
Pulling main caps to see how FUBAR’d the bottom end was… not as bad as we thought it would be.

#1 Main Journal

Hmmm….. not too bad.

#2 Main cap and bearing…..

Things got a little warm in there, note the bearing shrunk in. While it got hot, it DID not spin. Copper was showing on this one.

#5 looked the worst, but still looked decent, if the rod journals look good, this might not be too painful. New pump, polish the crank, new bearings and gaskets, … put it together……….. a strong example of why forged cranks are nice… kill bearings but the crank stays decent. Nice hard journals. A few hundred bucks and we are back in business

But what stuck the pump in the first place???? Time to pull the heads..

All 8 bores are scuffed, I’ll upload pics tonight maybe.

Hmmm, #8 piston looks a little funny..

Where did that piece of metal go?

Ruh Roh…

Heavy detonation on the crown.

Top ring land was flared up near both sides of the broken away portion.

More pics tonight… to be continued.

Well the transmission damage was worse than I thought. Broken bolts in the overdrive housing, intermediate clutch pack was cooked, overdrive clutch damage. TCC solenoid screen was full of converter clutch material. The filter was clogged up with a combination of transmission clutch and converter clutch material.

If there was any doubt before, the torque converter definitely needs to be rebuilt.

Over the weekend Mike pulled the motor apart and sent me the following picture. Forunately, it doesn’t appear to have damaged the head. Mike is going to disasble the heads and inspect the seats just to be sure.

Where did that piece of metal go?

While cleaning up some old files I found this video of the Predator doing a burn out for the Deminski & Doyle show, back when they we on 97.1.

97.1 Burn Out Video

When I picked up the Predator the trans was out and the motor was damaged. The trans fluid smelled burnt, the color was off and there was some sediment floating in the fluid. No reason to take a chance, so I dropped it off for a rebuild. I’ve been using Rick’s Orion Transmission in Ortonville. The torque converter will go out shortly to be cut open and flushed.