Removal of 2nd engine 3/15/2014
After months of work, time, effort , blood, sweat, even tears at times and scraped knuckles, the new engine fired up but has a vibration starting at 1000 rpm's and is consistently there through the rpm range, absolutely no joy driving it this way. After examining and readjusting various systems like carb, timing, valves, distributor again, I felt the new flywheel and the new pressure plate were the culprits due to unbalance of these parts. I decided on my 65 Corvette that it was much easier to pull the engine and tranny together than trying to pull the tranny by itself, especially since I'm not working with a lift, on my back with car jacked up. Once the engine was out, disassembled the tranny and took flywheel and pressure plate to speed shop (Hartbeat Racing in Mt. Dora, Fl) to be balanced, something I've always done in the past. Don't know why I didn't do it this time around! Live & learn the hard way! Stay tuned.
Start of a bad nightmare 3/18/2014
Once the engine came out and the tranny removed, took the flywheel and pressure plate to my speed shop pro, Dave Hartman in Mt. Dora. The flywheel & pressure plate had a 1" burn mark on the respective surfaces due to improper clutch adjustment (or lack of) on initial startup of the engine. Unfortunately, as Dave explained, because the engine was externally balanced, he cannot balance the flywheel & pressure plate without the crankshaft and balancer. So on Tuesday, 3/18, I removed the intake and exhaust manifolds, water pump and pulleys then I loaded up the engine in my pickup and delivered it to Dave's shop. Without knowing the full parameters of what was done to my engine initially and thru lack of co-operation from the engine builder (Shaw Engines in Fresno, Ca), Dave & I came to the conclusion that he'll have to disassembly the engine completely, checking all the necessary clearances, balancing the flywheel and harmonic balancer with the crankshaft. The old adage goes, "YOU GET WHAT YOU PAID FOR". Doesn't always pay to shop around for cheap bargains. We'll see how the internals to my engine come back as Dave goes thru them, painstakingly, one at a time.
STAY TUNED.......
STAY TUNED.......
The nightmare continues......3/26/14
After Dave finally got into the engine internally this past week, the dreaded phone call I was waiting for came through. He had a list of things that were supposedly done by the previous engine builder (supplied him with a copy of the work sheet that was "done"). The block was never honed with torque plates, the block was never properly line bored, the #4 main was almost spun (only 4 hours of run time or less so far), the rod bolts used were too short so only 3-4 threads were holding the rod caps in place (matter of time before it snapped on of these off). The cheap cast crankshaft being an externally balanced engine, had more holes drilled in it than swiss cheese. Needless to say, you get what you paid for, I went cheap to save a buck and got a crap Chinese engine with very inferior parts and sloppy machining. I called the engine builder to explain to him in a calm and orderly fashion what I had just learned about his engine work. Well the professionalism was gone at the 1st mention that anything was wrong with his build. The screaming and acquisitions were rampant and the screaming from his end got sooooo freakin' loud, couldn't even understand what he was saying and he simply hung up on me, very professional!
BUYER BEWARE- LIVE & LEARN !!!!
Thursday, 3/27/14 I finally got the chance to stop and see Dave at Hartbeat Racing in Mt. Dora, FL. He showed me my engine completely torn apart, not a pretty sight. I actually got to see the Scat steel crankshaft that was originally an internally balanced crank butchered into an externally balanced pile of junk. There were so many unnecessary holes drilled into the throws of the crank that even Dave had no idea why they went that route. On their balance machine with the new GM harmonic balancer and new LUK steel flywheel connected, the entire assembly was off at one point by 33 grams and 32 grams at another point. So much for perfectly balanced engine.
He then showed me the engine block and the shiny spots at the top of the bore indicating that the block was not honed with a torque plate attached. BTW, all 8 cylinders looked the same way. The rods were connected by bolts that did not protrude all the way thru the cap, only about 3-4 threads were holding a cap that could spin to 6500 RPM's. That was a disaster waiting to happen. The so-called 10-1compression ratio was utterly impossible with high domed pistons installed. He showed me the main bearing that was already starting to show wear and fatigue, would have eventually spin. The block was supposedly line bored be the main caps showed absolutely no sign of any machine ever touching them.
Hopefully, Dave can work his magic and being the professional that he is, he'll get it working the way it should have been built in the 1st place.
I can say from experience that anyone planning to buy a "rebuilt big block" form an online vendor, better think twice unless they're related to you.
STAY AWAY FROM SHAW ENGINES out of Fresno, Ca. He presents a "good write-up", doesn't back up his work, is a liar and cheat in my book and sells plain junk!
BUYER BEWARE- LIVE & LEARN !!!!
Thursday, 3/27/14 I finally got the chance to stop and see Dave at Hartbeat Racing in Mt. Dora, FL. He showed me my engine completely torn apart, not a pretty sight. I actually got to see the Scat steel crankshaft that was originally an internally balanced crank butchered into an externally balanced pile of junk. There were so many unnecessary holes drilled into the throws of the crank that even Dave had no idea why they went that route. On their balance machine with the new GM harmonic balancer and new LUK steel flywheel connected, the entire assembly was off at one point by 33 grams and 32 grams at another point. So much for perfectly balanced engine.
He then showed me the engine block and the shiny spots at the top of the bore indicating that the block was not honed with a torque plate attached. BTW, all 8 cylinders looked the same way. The rods were connected by bolts that did not protrude all the way thru the cap, only about 3-4 threads were holding a cap that could spin to 6500 RPM's. That was a disaster waiting to happen. The so-called 10-1compression ratio was utterly impossible with high domed pistons installed. He showed me the main bearing that was already starting to show wear and fatigue, would have eventually spin. The block was supposedly line bored be the main caps showed absolutely no sign of any machine ever touching them.
Hopefully, Dave can work his magic and being the professional that he is, he'll get it working the way it should have been built in the 1st place.
I can say from experience that anyone planning to buy a "rebuilt big block" form an online vendor, better think twice unless they're related to you.
STAY AWAY FROM SHAW ENGINES out of Fresno, Ca. He presents a "good write-up", doesn't back up his work, is a liar and cheat in my book and sells plain junk!
Friday, 4/11, 2014 Talked to Dave about the rebuilding process on this engine. It became cost prohibited to spend more that $5800 to replace and machine what was never none properly in the 1st place. The crank was the worst, seeing it was an internally balanced crank that got butchered to make it externally balanced. That can be used as a boat anchor for someone. After a long deliberation and discussion with some "in-the-know" friends, I decided to distance myself from this nightmare for good. Drove to Mt Dora to Hartbeat Racing to pick up what was still salvageable from this nightmare engine. Dave bought the block and the rest of the parts went up on eBay. Hopefully, I can recoup some of the monies I originally had spent on this engine. As the old adage goes, "LIVE & LEARN". You think after all these years under my belt that I would have been more investigative and shrewd about making large purchases such as an engine of this nature, sight unseen. Very hard pill to swallow. Now, the question remains what engine do I put back into my engineless 1965 Corvette. My initial reaction is to go big block again because I had switched a lot of the parts to BB parts in the car. I lean as of this writing to buying a GM crate motor, probably what I should have done from the beginning. Stay tuned !!!!!
BTW, I did call the original builder and explained what we found. He totally denied any wrong doing about his engine. The conversation didn't take long for him to begin shouting and making acquisitions about Dave and his methods. Instead of beginning professional and stepping up, he totally lost control over the phone screaming where I couldn't even understand his murmuring. He simply hung up!
STAY AWAY FROM SHAW ENGINES out of Fresno, Ca. He writes up a good writing and sells junk! He goes under clewwho40 on eBay.
BTW, I did call the original builder and explained what we found. He totally denied any wrong doing about his engine. The conversation didn't take long for him to begin shouting and making acquisitions about Dave and his methods. Instead of beginning professional and stepping up, he totally lost control over the phone screaming where I couldn't even understand his murmuring. He simply hung up!
STAY AWAY FROM SHAW ENGINES out of Fresno, Ca. He writes up a good writing and sells junk! He goes under clewwho40 on eBay.