teksid block help

[slammed03]

I recently replaced my 03 cobra engine with a teksid block that I found on craigslist. the machine shop that did the work on my engine told me the block was already bored .030" over by the previous owner so they honed it slapped in some manley pistons, my 03 cobra rods and crank. Afterwards I assembled the rest of the engine and upon initial break in the car ran great, after about 10 miles I had the car tuned for drivability on the street and I wanted to put some more miles on the engine before I did the WOT throttle portion of the tune. know I'm at 150 miles and the car smokes under load and once I park it still smokes at idle.

recently I pulled all the spark plugs and almost every piston top has at least 1/2 a teaspoon of oil sitting on it. I did a compression test and most my readings were at 90 psi (warm) until the autozone rental tool broke, the next day I got a new tool and started over with a cold engine, this time my readings were all between 60 and 90, with #6 at 120. I then did a leak down test on #1 cylinder on its compression stroke, air started hissing out the oil dipstick, I was pretty pissed so I didn't bother doing the other 7 cylinders.

anybody experience or hear of horrible compression on these modulars? my iron 03 cobra block was solid, 75k miles and tired but still made 600rwhp, before I tore it down and put the teksid in. also the idles and drives pretty decent, I haven't gone wot but all the way to 6,000 rpm there's no apparent knock, miss or unusual noise

 

[NastyNate420]

What kind of rings did you use ?

 

[slammed03]

I'll have to ask the machine shop, i cant remember it was back in march when they assembled my shortblock. I do know they were "manley"brand. Do certain rings take more time and pressure to seat?

 

[slammed03]

My box of manley pistons says 594130C-8 with top ring .220" from deck. I guess ill have to wait till monday to find out the answer on what rings

 

[Nightmare302]

Those are 30 over pistons, did they give you spec sheet that shows PTW and ring gap? Sounds like they "honed" it and left it extremely loose and you are getting blow by and low compression. It has nothing to with the material of the block but once you heard it was a 30 over block you should have tossed it and started over. The chances of an already beat up 30 over cylinder being clean enough to just "hone" is pretty slim.

 

[slammed03]

No on the spec sheet, ill have to ask on monday. I got myself in a pretty pickle now if thats my issue. Im in hawaii and this place is definitely the import scene finding a clean teksid block will be hard, or shipping one here will cost me just as much as i would pay for it. Hell craigslist only had 5 mustangs for sale last time i looked in the oahu section

 

[badcobra]

Try and find a complete Mark Viii engine if you can and just use the block from it. You made a mistake trying to re-use a block that was already .030 over and unfortunately it's gonna cost you. Make sure your shop has torque plates for a mod motor also.

 

[MalcolmV8]

Teksid blocks are maxed at 0.020 over according to every machine shop I've ever spoken too. Apparently the liners are to thin beyond that so starting out with a 0.030 block was a failure. As mentioned above its possible the cylinders may not have been in good shape and it needed more than just a hone job.

What was your break in procedure?

Hearing air hissing past the rings into the crank case, when doing a leak down, which you'd hear in the oil filler on the valve cover or dipstick tube as you did is normal. What percentage leak down did you get?

 

[slammed03]

The shop just told me drive it normal but dont beat on it, they were not very specific. I read so many opinions on breaking in a engine so i just went with: normal driving changed oil after 10 miles, next drive i got the rpms high and let off, allowing the engine to decrease rpm on its own and repeated about 5 times, let it cool down and did it again. All was done valvoline 5w 30 dino oil. I didnt use a leak down tool, i just jerry rigged a fitting in the spark plug and applied compressed air, my friend is giving me hos leak down tool monday

 

[MalcolmV8]

The shop just told me drive it normal but dont beat on it, they were not very specific. I read so many opinions on breaking in a engine so i just went with: normal driving changed oil after 10 miles, next drive i got the rpms high and let off, allowing the engine to decrease rpm on its own and repeated about 5 times, let it cool down and did it again. All was done valvoline 5w 30 dino oil. I didnt use a leak down tool, i just jerry rigged a fitting in the spark plug and applied compressed air, my friend is giving me hos leak down tool monday

That break in should have been fine. Did you have any head work done? Valve guides can leak oil and make the car smoke something horrible.

 

[slammed03]

No porting on the head, just cleaned up the surface and installed new exhaust valve guides and valve stem seals. Machine shop .22 top ring and .20 second ring. He has to dig for ptw and final bore, he says he cant find it

 

[Livernois Motorsports]

We can send you out a quality short block in a matter of weeks if we don't have one already done and ready to ship.
We have aluminum as well as cast iron ones 298-323cui
Don't get hung up on the texid thing all of our aluminum blocks are built with the strongest 4.6L based block available the 3V.

 

[MalcolmV8]

No porting on the head, just cleaned up the surface and installed new exhaust valve guides and valve stem seals. Machine shop .22 top ring and .20 second ring. He has to dig for ptw and final bore, he says he cant find it

I had guides replaced by a machine shop once and they somehow managed to botch the job. Engine smoked something horrible even with brand new seals. The oil leaks between the replacement guide and the head which is supposed to be a sealed press fit but apparently is not always the case if done incorrectly.

Be worth trying to identify the source of your oil / smoke problem before tear down.

 

[Nightmare302]

I had guides replaced by a machine shop once and they somehow managed to botch the job. Engine smoked something horrible even with brand new seals. The oil leaks between the replacement guide and the head which is supposed to be a sealed press fit but apparently is not always the case if done incorrectly.

Be worth trying to identify the source of your oil / smoke problem before tear down.

Please tell me that wasn't the local KC shop that starts with an N. lol.

 

[Wicked46]

As Malcolm stated, a teksid block thats already .030 over bore was a bad start. It's at the end of its life already. If you have oil on top of the pistons, you have a failure somewhere. Plus, 90psi of compression tells more of the story and it doesn't seem like your machine shop knew what they were doing. I'd pull the motor out and start fresh.

 

[slammed03]

If my rings are culprit, which i will comfirm today with a leak down test, will the 3v block swap right in? I found a guy selling a whole 2006 3v engine for $200, he claims it had vupper engine noise, whatever that means. Ill check that out today

 

[Wicked46]

Yes, the 3V block will work great and bolt right in

 

[badcobra]

Yes you can use the 3V block and that's a good deal! You will need to cut the knock sensors down in the valley and upgrade the dowel pins on the front of the block. I HIGHLY suggest doing as minimal a bore as possible and ordering some custom pistons. Make sure your machinist is on board with your plan. Get the block machined first, then order pistons. I went with Gibtec personally.

 

[Livernois Motorsports]

Guys we have these engines already done in a variety of proven combinations.
If we don't have what you need ready as long as we have components we can get something together in a super timely fashion.
Iron or Aluminum 298-323 500hp-1500hp (iron, under 1000hp flywheel only)
It's not worth chasing all over looking for parts and dealing with machine shops that may or may not know what they are doing...
Mod motors and Coyote's are not something joe q machine shop is familiar with or generally tooled up to handle properly and that's reworking for stock power levels let alone big power reliably.

 

[NastyNate420]

Mod motor and coyotes might be a lil bit different then some but Any competent machine shop can build one! Why pay the additional cost of shipping if you can have one built locally?!? The mod motor has been around since at least 96 it not NEW engineering! If fairly easy to build a 1000hp capably motor with some research. Personally I would and did find a competent machine shop and then i built the motor myself. All that being said if I WERE to have some a motor built it would be by Livernois and NOT that other 3 letter company!!