Pulled my oil pan last night to replace the pickup tube o-ring, and found metal shavings in the pan that look like bearing material. I need to pull some rod and main caps and pull the cam out and see if I have a spun bearing somewhere, but regardless of whether there is damage or not I'm seriously considering building a 408. So.....should I fix the LQ9 and keep my current setup (in sig) or go bigger? The 408 is what I want eventually anyway, and if I can sell the motor and Radix I will just about net out to zero (might cost me a couple hundred, not much beyond that.....). I'm going to turbo the 408 at some point in the future, but it will be NA for now, shooting for about 9.5:1 compression. Considering a 408 short block that Texas Speed & Performance has available with Eagle crank, Scat rods, and Mahle pistons with some stock 317 heads and the 216/224-551/551-115 cam I have in there now. Eventually will be running a turbo at about 15 psi with a good reverse-split turbo cam. Drivetrain is not a problem, my tranny is built for 900 rwhp. Considerations? Vote?
thunder550
Metal shavings in the oil pan.....repair/rebuild, or go bigger?
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A bad motor is worth its weight in scrap. Maybe $50 if you're lucky. It's a core now. Cam is too small, that motor will top out at the low 5000rpm area.
Do a 408, they're about $3700 new. I think you could sell your blower for about that.
Why a reverse split? Do you have intake restriction somewhere? Unless you're making HUGE power (much more than 500rw) turbo/nitrous/blower cams are worthless.
Do a 408, they're about $3700 new. I think you could sell your blower for about that.
Why a reverse split? Do you have intake restriction somewhere? Unless you're making HUGE power (much more than 500rw) turbo/nitrous/blower cams are worthless.
Turbo is in my future, just can't afford to do it all at the same time. At 15 psi I think I'll be in the 600-700 rwhp range.
I promise there isn't that much of a difference. I've read all about it, hell check out CarCraft. They did a BIG writeup on them a while back...
May be smart to do something about that crap called a 10 bolt out back, and no... not just the carrier.
The weird thing is that I never heard any rod knock or any strange noises. I pulled the pan to see if a pinched o-ring was the cause of low oil pressure and got a nasty surprise.
I pulled the engine out of the truck last night, gonna be diving into it tonight to see if I can find the source of the shavings.
I pulled the engine out of the truck last night, gonna be diving into it tonight to see if I can find the source of the shavings.
Well I tore into the motor today, all of the bearings looked great, put everything back together, swapped oil pumps from my old 5.3 to see if that would fix the oil pressure problem, sealed everything up, everything looking good, and then......threads inside the crank snout strip out while I am putting the balancer back on :bawl:
So the motor has to come apart anyway now. Might as well rebuild it with 408 components.
So the motor has to come apart anyway now. Might as well rebuild it with 408 components.
Well it's official. I'm doing the 408, Callies crank, Manley or Oliver rods, Mahle pistons, worked heads, etc etc. I bought myself a DD yesterday, 85 Supra, for $950. I'm also getting another 85 Supra parts car for FREEEEEEE this week 
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I was excited when I got it, the guy had it listed for $1500 but had a set of seats picked out for his Mustang for $1000, so he let it go cheap to pay for the seats. It has a few minor problems, but I would expect that with anything this old. And I think it will be a nice candidate for an LS2 and T-56 at some point in the future too
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