Zinc Yellow Terminator being saved from the crusher.

[_Lariat]

Well. Took a half day at work, and pulled the engine/trans. I initially was slated to have the day off for Ice Cream Cruise, but I'm too butthurt to go now. Started tearing it down a little bit and keep getting more confused/irritated. I'm fairly certain I can slap a piston it in and save the short block peeking in, but I'm not seeing any identifiers of what ACTUALLY happened. I'm not certain that I can say it dropped a seat at this point. None of the lash adjusters are overcompressed indicating the valve has recessed to take the space of the missing seat. I was able to use a good bore scope and don't see any valvetrain issues in the chamber. Doing a relative compression check before removing the engine showed NOTHING out of the ordinary. I do NOT have a leak down tester to use, so I'm going off of what I have.

One ferrous chunk which I am lead to believe is valve seat, but nothing else ferrous. Everything else is either aluminum or porcelain. Nothing is missing on the throttle blades, or bypass valve blades. Even then, they should have gotten caught in the IC brick if it was those.

Either way, it's still coming apart. I'll keep everyone in the loop when I can stomach tearing it down further.

P.S. the lower cage is a BIOTCH to get off after some miles!

 

[LS WUT]

Well. Took a half day at work, and pulled the engine/trans. I initially was slated to have the day off for Ice Cream Cruise, but I'm too butthurt to go now. Started tearing it down a little bit and keep getting more confused/irritated. I'm fairly certain I can slap a piston it in and save the short block peeking in, but I'm not seeing any identifiers of what ACTUALLY happened. I'm not certain that I can say it dropped a seat at this point. None of the lash adjusters are overcompressed indicating the valve has recessed to take the space of the missing seat. I was able to use a good bore scope and don't see any valvetrain issues in the chamber. Doing a relative compression check before removing the engine showed NOTHING out of the ordinary. I do NOT have a leak down tester to use, so I'm going off of what I have.

One ferrous chunk which I am lead to believe is valve seat, but nothing else ferrous. Everything else is either aluminum or porcelain. Nothing is missing on the throttle blades, or bypass valve blades. Even then, they should have gotten caught in the IC brick if it was those.

Either way, it's still coming apart. I'll keep everyone in the loop when I can stomach tearing it down further.

P.S. the lower cage is a BIOTCH to get off after some miles!

Sorry bubba, this sucks ass. However as annoying as it may be, at least you’ve got the knowledge of how to fix her up, and get it going again. There are some people out there who don’t know how to get as far as you have. Be grateful my friend, I know it’s hard in times like this. Keep your head up, and keep it moving forward.

 

[_Lariat]

Sorry bubba, this sucks ass. However as annoying as it may be, at least you’ve got the knowledge of how to fix her up, and get it going again. There are some people out there who don’t know how to get as far as you have. Be grateful my friend, I know it’s hard in times like this. Keep your head up, and keep it moving forward.

To be 100% honest, I've been turning wrenches since I was 12. I've gotten pretty lucky on privately owned stuff for the last 15 years. I've been waiting for the hat to drop. Unfortunately it was on something I have a decent amount of cash invested.

If it was easy, everyone would do it!

 

[LS WUT]

To be 100% honest, I've been turning wrenches since I was 12. I've gotten pretty lucky on privately owned stuff for the last 15 years. I've been waiting for the hat to drop. Unfortunately it was on something I have a decent amount of cash invested.

If it was easy, everyone would do it!

Good stuff man. Happy to hear it, sometimes it’s generally the expensive stuff that goes. I’m in the midst of gathering parts for my black coupe as we speak. This will be my 2nd cobra im messing with.

 

[03' White Snake]

Well. Took a half day at work, and pulled the engine/trans. I initially was slated to have the day off for Ice Cream Cruise, but I'm too butthurt to go now. Started tearing it down a little bit and keep getting more confused/irritated. I'm fairly certain I can slap a piston it in and save the short block peeking in, but I'm not seeing any identifiers of what ACTUALLY happened. I'm not certain that I can say it dropped a seat at this point. None of the lash adjusters are overcompressed indicating the valve has recessed to take the space of the missing seat. I was able to use a good bore scope and don't see any valvetrain issues in the chamber. Doing a relative compression check before removing the engine showed NOTHING out of the ordinary. I do NOT have a leak down tester to use, so I'm going off of what I have.

One ferrous chunk which I am lead to believe is valve seat, but nothing else ferrous. Everything else is either aluminum or porcelain. Nothing is missing on the throttle blades, or bypass valve blades. Even then, they should have gotten caught in the IC brick if it was those.

Either way, it's still coming apart. I'll keep everyone in the loop when I can stomach tearing it down further.

P.S. the lower cage is a BIOTCH to get off after some miles!

Could have dropped a seat and the piston smashed it back into place. That’s what happened to my friends car. Running fine…. Intermittent misfire. Changed everything. Plugs, coils, harness. (It was a bastardized cobra swap) decided to compression check and boom. Dead cylinder. Pulled the motor out of it and the seat was mangled around the valve, but still intact and there. 5K later at the head shop and it’s fixed. Both heads and cams….

I hope yours is a simple fix, new head and replace the piston and good to go.

 

[_Lariat]

Could have dropped a seat and the piston smashed it back into place. That’s what happened to my friends car. Running fine…. Intermittent misfire. Changed everything. Plugs, coils, harness. (It was a bastardized cobra swap) decided to compression check and boom. Dead cylinder. Pulled the motor out of it and the seat was mangled around the valve, but still intact and there. 5K later at the head shop and it’s fixed. Both heads and cams….

I hope yours is a simple fix, new head and replace the piston and good to go.

It's looking more and more like that

 

[_Lariat]

Well, after some back and forth with myself, my wife, and friends. I will probably be reapproaching this project here soon. I was SOOOOOOO close to parting it out and cutting my losses. I needed to step back and re-evaluate where I was. A bump in the road, but not a fatal blow.

I sat down and ran the numbers on what I have into this thing, which prompted my deep thoughts on where I began thinking of parting it out. To put it into perspective, I could jump into a similar mile car (120k) with matching body color panels for what I have invested into this car. Is this car it worth it? Hell no. Am I living out a dream? Yes.

I keep telling myself it will get better, so let's make it better! That being said, the engine will be coming back home after I reorganize my garage, and I'll tear it down to ascertain the damage.

 

[2003RedfireVert]

Stick with it.

 

[_Lariat]

Got the engine home from the shop today and separated the trans. Noticed it came apart a lot harder than I expected it should have. Got it apart to find this... it had to be JUST touching. When I put the trans in, it fell perfectly in, and I did NOT pull in with bolts. I could shift it just fine and not have any problems. I did note reverse was a little bit of a process, bit chocked it up to being a poor shim measurement on my side. (I had plans to yank trans after ICC, but the engine had other plans.) The only thing I can think that caused this is the pilot bearing shaft. The steel spacer pate was in.

Onto my theory on the pilot bearing shaft... when I got this trans several years back in 2019 for my 97 cobra, the old pilot shaft was damaged. Noting the t56 had several parts that would interchange with a t45 I did some looking, I found the t45 billet shaft in my broken trans and t56 were interchangeable. So, financially challenged me at the time swapped parts and made due. Never had a problem. Fast forward to current me with a twin disk, and I have problems...

Fortunately/unfortunately the trans has to come back apart to fix it. I'll need that input shaft to align the clutch disks when I go back together. Lmao! As for the damage on the disk hub. I'll probably file it down. They're very very very minor imperfections. I'll run this RST until it's done and upgrade to an RXT. After all, it was a used clutch when I bought it. As I didn't want to be breaking in an engine AND clutch at the same time.

Side note! Buddy of mine sold my/his old 97 cobra and picked up a really nice 99 EG coupe! It's not perfect, but for what he paid, he didn't get hurt. Fresh paint on that bumper will solve 98% of the body issues less the few chips and small dings it has. Getting hard to find clean unbeaten sn/new edge cars...

 

[_Lariat]

Pulled heads off tonight. Looks like I'm starting over... again... may try grabbing a spare block I have and have it cut to the bore of these pistons with 2 replacements.

The damage looks like it was something that was ingested. All my seats are in place. I'm beside myself. I didnt see anything missing from the blower, but will dig in further.

 

[_Lariat]

Oh, I forgot. I was noticing an oil leak from the front. Hoping the throw out bearing collar didn't kill the thrust on the crank.

 

[LS WUT]

You’ll get her back up and running better than before brother! Keep your head up!

 

[_Lariat]

You’ll get her back up and running better than before brother! Keep your head up!

I've got a lead on some fox lake ported heads... so that's a bonus at the end of this I suppose.

 

[LS WUT]

I've got a lead on some fox lake ported heads... so that's a bonus at the end of this I suppose.

**** yes.

 

[_Lariat]

Pulled the blower back off the turkey pan for inspection. I'm at a loss on how anything got into this thing.

Rotated the cams through and inspected all seats throughout this thing. All seats are in tact and happy

Best I can determine is it was a cam gear key. Compared damage with a spare key I have. *all my spare keys are accounted for. Nothing I dropped or lost.

Unless someone has some wild idea, I'm at a loss here.

 

[03' White Snake]

How are the spark plugs? All intact?

 

[_Lariat]

How are the spark plugs? All intact?

Aside from the one that was tore up with shit bashing around, all straps are accounted for, and everything looks good.

 

[01yellercobra]

Been there. Had a piston in an old engine that looked like a spark plug electrode had been impeded in it. Perfect rectangular impression. But the plug for that cylinder was fine. Never pulled a damaged plug out. I cleaned the intake and everything associated multiple times before installing the heads and all that. Even the seats were fine. Never figured that one out.

 

[_Lariat]

Well, tentatively I have a new engine build lined up for a really good deal.

CNC Fox lake heads, 9.5:1 comp DSS pistons, reuse my block, crank, and rods.

The one kicker.... I gotta drive to Texas to help the guy on his powerstroke. Very well known builder in the modular world with receipts to show his knowledge. (My engine builder was just fine as well no knocking him.)

Trading labor, parts, and knowledge helps quite a bit. We'll both be coming out on top.

 

[CobraBob]

As much as this issue has sucked, you are seeing some light at the end of the tunnel. That's a positive turn of events Hopefully the new build will put a huge smile on your face when done. Continue to keep us posted.