We received an extremely well restored Chevelle SS in the shop recently…but it wasn’t running correctly. If I sound like a broken record again, it’s for a reason. The pictures of the engine tell a different story of “things gone wrong” with a rebuild. When this happened is up for debate, but what transpired after a problem was found is not. Once again “Attention to Detail” was missed.
- At some point a leak occurred at the rear of the intake manifold. In an attempt to stop the leak, a large quantity of RTV silicone sealant was applied on the outside edge of the mating surface of the block and intake. Needless to say, it didn’t work, but why it was done on such a finely restored automobile is beyond comprehension.
- Now the rest of the story. Besides the leaking intake, the engine was running on (7) cylinders. Once we determined which cylinder was misfiring, we removed the valve cover and found one of the rockers off the valve stem. Additionally, we found the push rod tip was destroyed and missing metal. Since metal has a way of making it through an engine oil gallery, we pulled the motor and disassembled the main crankshaft bearing caps. Low and behold we found metal impregnated into the bearings…along with damaged crankshaft journals. So a full engine rebuild is in order.
It’s not rocket science in assembling an automotive internal combustion engine. The primary difference between a “hack job” and a “quality job” is time and attention to detail. Like you haven’t heard those words before. As they say, any job worth doing is worth doing correctly.
