An excuse for an engine swap - NJFBOA - Home of New Jersey's Camaros and Firebirds

NJSPEEDER · 10-13-2005, 05:40 PM

well, a combo of lame with good timing happened today on the way home from work.
my commute is onoly about 15mins and the camaro has never been any trouble at all(other than the lack of a functioning choke on cold mornings, but that is the result of my laziness)
so i pulled out onto rt95 in pa and headed home. cruising along at 60mph when all of a sudden the motor starts making a horrible clattering. at first i thought i just knocked the exhaust loose on one of the many potholes i have to navigate each day(thankyou PA :finger

i looked down at the gauges and saw the water temp up to 240!!!! not good. i took the first exit in jersey adn slowed way the hell down. it is only about 7miles from the exit to my house.
i got about 1 mile closer to home when it clakced really loud and shut off. huge plume of white smoke out the exhaust and she went silent.
pulled off onto a side street and it was clear it was terminal. motor is locked up solid.
the up side, sort of, is that after a 3week back order my GM replacement motor showed up on monday. a swap i was planning to do tomorow eveing into saturday anyway. now i get to start tomorrow morning instead since i clearly can't drive the car to work.
dunno what the hell happened. oil level was just checked and topped off on tuesday along with all other fluids. nothign discolored at all when previously checked and never any sign of trouble until this afternoon.
whatever happened i hope there is no block damage. i wanted to rebuild it as a spare bullet, always nice to have one around apparently.
the car will be at grudge day if the weather is good. not sure if i will have enough miles on it to trust running it full tilt yet though.

later
tim

Tru2Chevy · 10-13-2005, 05:44 PM

Damn....that sucks. It'll be interesting to see what was the cause of death.

Lemme know if/when you need a hand swapping

- Justin

bad64chevelle · 10-13-2005, 05:55 PM

same here Tim i should be around this weekend if you need some help.
Jon

Ian · 10-13-2005, 06:52 PM

maybe the water pump took a crap? I never had any sort of problems with the car either. That sucks big time man. If you need any help with anything, let me know

Pampered-Z · 10-13-2005, 07:15 PM

Did the engine turn over after it cooled down? hopefully it's just a thermostat and hopefully the block is OK. Should be sounds like it stop at low RPMs.

If things don't go planned and you need a hand Sunday let me know.

JB

NJSPEEDER · 10-13-2005, 08:55 PM

thanks guys. i will let everyone know how things are lookin tomorrow some time.
i tried to crank it before i came inside and the motor is completely locked up. i will drain the oil and coolant in the morning and see what they look like.
prolly won't have a cause of death until some time next week since getting the new motor in and runnign good is the priority.

later
tim

camaroracer1992 · 10-13-2005, 10:00 PM

damn dude that sucks!!!!! kinda sounds like me in june coming from teh delaware show. my car is all ready for sunday. im getting my nitrous tanks filled tomorrow and the car is all ready for sunday! get taht thing running man so we get that side my side shot!!

skorpion317 · 10-14-2005, 02:36 AM

white smoke = coolant. that would explain the 240 degree reading on the gauge.

did you lose anything else, other than cooling capabilities?

camaroracer1992 · 10-14-2005, 09:51 AM

anyone know any updates on tims car... that motor out yet or what?

NJSPEEDER · 10-14-2005, 09:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by skorpion317

white smoke = coolant. that would explain the 240 degree reading on the gauge.

did you lose anything else, other than cooling capabilities?

i don't know what happened. water temp can spike for a number of reasons before an engine lets go.
everythign was normal until about 3 minutes before it seized up.

later
tim

GP99GT · 10-14-2005, 10:20 AM

if ya need a hand with anything while im down there sat, i can help...i'd just need to get back to north jersey ASAP for a party 8)

just dont ask me to do anything too technical cause i know nothing of swapping motors

Pat · 10-14-2005, 12:34 PM

i'm home this weekend, so if you need somebody to stand around and drink beer let me know

edit: but you'd have to pick me up and drop me off since i don't have a car right now

Ian · 10-14-2005, 05:27 PM

I've pulled the motor and put it back into that car two times. if you need a hand with anything...908-698-2952 8)

camaro2you · 10-14-2005, 05:38 PM

damn that sucks man, if i was closer you know i would help.

12secondv6 · 10-14-2005, 06:46 PM

You should put a neon engine in it!

That would be hot! 8)

BTW, sorry for the engine death

Savage_Messiah · 10-14-2005, 06:51 PM

I'm in the same boat as Matt except that I have nothing to do at nigth really, well nothing that can't wait, all I'm doing after ur place is going by Jon (bad64)'s place to check some stuff out

j0n · 10-14-2005, 08:05 PM

same as everyone else...i can help if ya need a hand

NJSPEEDER · 10-14-2005, 09:46 PM

i drained off some/most of the oil and i have a theory. there was a lot of dirty oil that came out first followed by some cleaner lookin oil. this is something that i ahve seen in engines that have been sitting a while.
my theory is an oil pump failure of some sort. i will know more once i get it apart.

later
tim

NJSPEEDER · 10-15-2005, 04:20 PM

the block is toasted. windowed it pretty good. pics to follow.
shame, it was an 010 block too.

oh well. everything is off the motor and trans and everything is ready to lift out tomorrow morning. picked up the 20hp chrome alt bracket at autozone today too.

looks like it will all be back together and runnign tomorrow afternoon and hopefully out for a first drive tomorrow night.

later
tim

Savage_Messiah · 10-15-2005, 05:56 PM

yea that was a nice little opening in the bottom

at least you have the new stuff ready to go in tho

NJSPEEDER · 10-15-2005, 06:01 PM

it is down to the easy part now. i am going to try to get a start on it early tomorrow. start transfering things over to the new motor.
i can't wait to hear it running. with a week to get it all tuned in i should be able to rip a 12second pass. i will have to get some tweaking done on the rest of the car in the mean time to make sure it hooks.

later
tim

NJSPEEDER · 10-15-2005, 07:34 PM

[/taps]

later
tim

Savage_Messiah · 10-15-2005, 08:39 PM

yeeeeeeeeeea

NJSPEEDER · 10-15-2005, 08:43 PM

one day this week i am gonna go for a walk along the road where she popped. i wanna see if i can find that missing chunk of the block. lol

later
tim

Squirrel · 10-15-2005, 08:53 PM

if im around tomm, ill def. stop by and heckle 8)