What did you do today to your 3/S?

[OhioSpyderman]

I hate what I've become. I don't ever reuse any of those gaskets purely out of OCD.

LOL...you and my wife (OCD)...

We love what you've become....

Bob.

[mb3000]

Just toss some new ring leads in there...

[DuTTch]

U gonna be ready in time for the texas 3s gathering?

this was last weekend, but whatever.

Started tearing into my spare "blown with unknown failure" engine. Came from my $400 fiji vr-4 which has already gone to the scrapyard in the sky...

Attachment 4608

the story i got from the previous owner is that he had just installed a 16g kit and "it just shut off" when he was wot. The cams were already out of the engine (along with many other peripheral parts - he had been parting it out before i got it) so no idea if it jumped time.

All 6 cyls had coolant in them. No signs of gasket failure. Stock long block, stock head bolts, mls gaskets. Little to no effort taken in prep for mls to seal - some composite gasket material found. (i've run cars with mls gaskets before. It takes good prep to seal them... And stock head bolts, really?)

Attachment 4609

the prize discovery. #3 piston missing a chunk of the crown at 11:00. The other cylinders have rust forming where coolant was left pooled in them for an extended period. Standard bore now, would have to go .020" over to clear it.

My thoughts? It looks like the previous owner ran too much boost, detonated, and lifted both heads. Then after it stopped, he must have seen evidence of head leakage and monkey-torqued the front head in-place. (i removed the rear head easily, but broke a craftsman 10mm hex bit socket trying to get the stock bolts out of the front head. Redonk-u-torqued.)

the valves looked straight. But he didn't give me the cam bearing caps with the heads so that devalues them a bit.

Haven't flipped it over to tear into the bottom yet. I'm not expecting good things based on what i saw of the top end.

All i've really got out of it to this point is a really good looking spare set of 3rd gen lash adjusters and rocker arms. I just want this thing off my engine stand so i can get both cars in the garage again.

[AdamVR4]

nocar/LSE t-case resealed, reinstalled and refilled
valve cover repainted, letters shaved, reinstalled
removed lower intake manifold and fuel rails/injectors, will reinstall tomorrow with all new gaskets

all that's left after that is to install the polished intake manifold (egr port cut off and welded), the TB (replaced the 3 nipples with 1/4"-20 set screws), my new intake tubes/filters, a few intercooler pipes, the BOV, the downpipe, and change the coolant...

Cutting it closer than I wanted to the TXG, but I should have a good 3 weeks to tune and work out bugs Then again, if that goes like it always does, it will take an evening

[JGreenwood238]

After breaking too many stock differentials in my FWD 3000GT, I finally broke down and ordered an OBX Limited Slip Differential. Wish I had the money for the Quaife LSD but oh well, anything is better than the stock one at this point! I can't wait for it to get here, I'm planning on making a trip to Orlando Speed World if it goes well, I want to see what my 72 can do in the quarter before I start saving for a 74 swap.

[AdamVR4]

took a couple pics... wish i'd wiped off the dusty oil cap, haha

[Boomer3000]

Valve cover looks good, what did you use to paint it?

[AdamVR4]

Valve cover looks good, what did you use to paint it?

vht high temp wrinkle plus. i've got 2 powder coated wrinkle valve covers to compare it to and i like this more.

[james92tsi]

LOL! That's lazy and pathetic.

What's your beef with stock head bolts?

I'd be pretty pissed about the lack of cam caps. That pretty much junks the heads, doesn't it?

Well the lack of cam caps means another set would have to be found and the cam journals re-bored with those caps (similar process to machining a block for a new main girdle). So I think it decreases value of heads by that amount. The valves look straight but I have not checked to see if the heads are warped yet. The decks and CCs definitely need some cleanup.

No beef with stock head bolts on 3S specifically, but if you've got the heads off to do gaskets and you intend to boost to the moon with a 16G kit, why not upgrade? Lots of folks across lots of different platforms go ARP here as cheap insurance...

The way this failed it looks like he lifted both heads. And then he went back and monkey-torqued the front head (so it might be shit).

Eh the whole engine can be junk, I don't care. I just thought the pictures were amusing.

U gonna be ready in time for the texas 3s gathering?

Maybe. This is just a spare (POS) engine I'm tearing down to get it out of my way. The one in the car very much does not look like this.

Had a lot of free time taken up by work crap lately though, so I am behind on the car. Still up in the air on whether I'm going to TXG or not. I mean I could attend in the G35 but what fun is that...

vht high temp wrinkle plus. i've got 2 powder coated wrinkle valve covers to compare it to and i like this more.

Looks awesome. Do you have any remarks on the durability of this finish? I have a couple pairs of spare VCs and might do one in this finish...

[TurboSinceBirth]

No beef with stock head bolts on 3S specifically, but if you've got the heads off to do gaskets and you intend to boost to the moon with a 16G kit, why not upgrade? Lots of folks across lots of different platforms go ARP here as cheap insurance...

I take it you haven't been around the 3S platform enough then to know how well the OEM headbolts work. The ARP studs are actually thinner than the OEM headbolts and fail much sooner believe it or not. Try pushing mid 20s boost on those 16Gs and you'll push coolant because of those ARP studs. They don't hold. OEM has been proven to hold over 1000AWHP and was what Matt set all of his record passes with. A few have seen that after 800AWHP even with Ray's head lift fix it can move around some due to the OEM head bolts so A1 built a beefier set of studs that has already been run on three 1000+AWHP cars. Your best bet would be to wait for another group buy if there is one or else expect to pay $700+ for a one off set.