Blowed Up Real Good

[RallyeMike]

If your oil pressure goes from 80 to 0 in 1 second at 140mph but the car still runs, this is what your valve train looks like:

Luckily, all the broken bolts, keepers, pushrods and fragments stayed in the top end of the motor. The head might be salvageable with some work. An Autometer idiot light for oil pressure is what allowed everything to be shut down fast enough to save everything else. I highly rec. one - you can't watch the gauges ALL the time !

Of course, I'll be back at it faster and poorer next year 

[69charger2002]

good LORD!!! glad it wasn't worse.. hope for the car's speedy recovery. :
trav

[Troy]

That's your new 383??? Bummer. What happened to the oil pressure?

Troy

[firefighter3931]

What happened to the oil pressure?

Shaft broke, pushrod lost contact with the rocker and lifter popped out. Once the lifter vacates the bore, the oil pressure disappears.


Mike, what brand of shaft is that ? Whose rocker arms ? Sorry to see this happen....that bites but hopefully there's no serious damage.  Time for a set of Harland Sharp rockers and shafts. 


Ron

[RallyeMike]

Two races and 500 miles on the motor.

Firefighter the all knowing! The lifters for #1 cylinder were laying in the galley.

Hard to say, but if I had to guess, it appears the second shaft bolt back broke first - the break is very clean, not sand-papery, which means there was probably an inclusion in the steel. Shame on ARP. The second bolt and the shaft went soon after I'm sure. I don't think any shaft could stand that, but yes, I will be upgrading to a bigger solid flat tappet cam (now is your chance to give one of your patented recommedations       ) and likely the Sharps.

Ever had a rocker shaft stand on an aluminum head repaired? The spacer rode up on it and gouged it up pretty good.

[rt green]

owwwwutch!!!! sorry to see your go fast machine went down.  hope you recover fast. thank god it wasnt a chevy. that speed, that tourque, there would be nothing left!   we can rebuild it, make it better than be fore......................................................................

[bull]

Sorry about that, Mike. Sounds like Ron will set you up with a good recommendation and it looks like a good time to implement it. Will you miss any races because of this?

[Johnny SixPack]

D@mn sorry to hear about the blow up, Mike. 

Look forward to the rebuild though!

[Silver R/T]

that would ruin my day, hope you fix it fast and get it back on road

[RallyeMike]

Will you miss any races because of this?

I was on the fence about the Silver State race in Sept., but that's definitely out now. I was 1.8 miles from finishing 130 miles when she went. Stilll, It's better to break at the end of the season than at the beginning  ! 

After wasting my oil pan in 04 and sitting out in the desert all day I vowed to never drive one of these courses without a full cooler of Coors Light in the trunk. So this time around, it wasnt all that bad. Plus, I had a front row seat to watch the SS cars going by at 170-190mph. VrrooooaAAAAAOOOOooooommmmm !!!

[firefighter3931]

Two races and 500 miles on the motor.

Firefighter the all knowing! The lifters for #1 cylinder were laying in the galley.

Hard to say, but if I had to guess, it appears the second shaft bolt back broke first - the break is very clean, not sand-papery, which means there was probably an inclusion in the steel. Shame on ARP. The second bolt and the shaft went soon after I'm sure. I don't think any shaft could stand that, but yes, I will be upgrading to a bigger solid flat tappet cam (now is your chance to give one of your patented recommedations       ) and likely the Sharps.

Ever had a rocker shaft stand on an aluminum head repaired? The spacer rode up on it and gouged it up pretty good.

Mike, the stand can be repaired....no worries there. That's the beauty of aluminum head castings. 

The Comp xs282s would be a good starting point if you were looking to upgrade to a flat tappet mechanical cam. The Howards solid lifters look very interesting, especially in an endurance application. Those have an oil feed hole lasered into the lifter base to pressure feed the lobe as opposed to the traditional splash lube. That cam would be compatible with your current valvesprings as well. ARP makes a rocker shaft stud kit that you might want to consider. The Harland Sharps are pretty beefy compared to everything else in that price range. The shafts are just as stout.

My buddy Blown68 just upgraded to the sharps after he snapped 2 of his crane golds at the fulcrum. The roller cam was too much for the golds even though the spring pressures were considered "mild" at 500lbs over the nose. Others have had similar issues with the crane race gold rockers and mild roller cam spring pressures. If you decide on the harland sharps, just order the whole kit with shafts, spacers, hold downs and the rockers. They fit like a glove on the e-heads. 


Ron

[dads_69]

Been there done that at 136 mph. I stuffed some lifters/push rods and broke a cam in three places while racing. Made a madening noise at that speed also, did it freak me out, heck yeah, but at least, well crap, I lost that race..........
Mark
Hope you get it repaired soon.........

[Chryco Psycho]

Ouch
I would be looking at a set of the Comp Pro Magnum Stainess rockers not any alum ones
some billet hold downs would not hurt either , spread the load some more

[tan top]

  sorry to hear that (RallyeMike)  , i bet you knew that happend  , like you say good job you had a oil pressure light also as you  could of lost the motor . what are you going to do rebuild as it was or make some changes for durability & or more power ,  keep us updated 

[BrianShaughnessy]

Wow!!!  That sucks but glad there's minimal damage to everything else.

I cracked a comp magnum shaft this spring putting in the 528 solid.   My fault  replacement shafts are only $20sumthing online from comp.   But my only symptoms was 1 very noisy lifter - not 0 psi at 140 mph!   
So I got a set of Hughes billet holddowns to put on... they have to be fitted as they are overly wide.   http://chucker54.stores.yahoo.net/hurohodostki.html
The other option is the MP aluminum holddowns. http://chucker54.stores.yahoo.net/rocshafholdo.html 


Good luck!

[41husk]

It looks like you got lucky is wasn't worse.  I wish your car speedy recovery!

[RallyeMike]

Mike, what brand of shaft is that ? Whose rocker arms ?

PRW BlueMax.

[Blakcharger440]

Hope you get her back together soon and on the road!

[firefighter3931]

Mike, what brand of shaft is that ? Whose rocker arms ?

PRW BlueMax.

Haven't heard of that brand Mike....are those a domestic or offshore product ?


Ron

[RallyeMike]

I don't know if they are American-made. They have full needle bearings and look really well built. PRW is a new company (2004?). Check em out at www.performanceracingproducts.com. I'm 90% sure it was a bad bolt that killed the shaft.