[Chevelle-List] Welcome notes; engine rebuild tip

[Craig A. Ellis]

Just wanted to post a note to say thanks for the warm welcome, not to mention the info on tires and wheels. Thought I would also mention an unusual problem solved in the hope that a mistake is avoided in the future for others.   When my 402 was rebuilt, the intake was hot tanked and, in preparation for this, the heat shield removed. When the shield was re-installed, whoever drilled and tapped the rivet holes to accept screws drilled through on one of the holes. Ordinarily, this is of no consequence but, when they tried to reinstall the shield, the holes were not exactly lined up and they put only two of the four screws in. Not even this is an overly big deal, but as luck would have it, one of the missing screws was the one that had been drilled through. Engine vacuum when the motor was run sucked oil up from the crankcase resulting is a whole bunch of oil smoke. It was a perplexing problem because it only smoked when hot. The natural thought is cracked ring or valve seals, etc. But my mechanic found it because cylinders 1 and 7 and 4 and 6 were very wet with oil while the others looked almost (but not quite) normal. Dual plane manifolds feed "banks" of cylinders (1,7,4,6 and 2,8,3,5). So there you have it - re-installed the shield by enlarging the screw holes to mate to the tapped holes, plugged the holes with a dose of RTV and screws. Engine now runs flawlessly.   Craig