[gtorich]

Originally Posted by HWYSTR455

Well, excessive oil leakage and leaking rear main seal is usually from an inoperable PCV and/or ring blow-by, but no, no one has yet commented on that.

OP - What rear seal was used, condition of your PCV, and how many miles on the existing engine? When it was last rebuilt, was an OE crank used?
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HWYSTR............the rear seal was the one piece from BOP as well as the one piece oil pan gasket............so far i have put in about 6-7 different PCV valves, and a OE crank was used..............im thinking i have alot of blow by or something wrong with the rings, it is more noticeable at 4-5 grand, pretty good amount of smoke coming out the back end.

Hoping to find someone within driving distance from me, to take it apart and see if they can find something one way or the other...........i have a spare block, hoping to just transfer whatever is ok with the one to the other.

Rich

[HWYSTR455]

Did you file/sand down the hash marks on the crank before installing the BOP seal? That's the #1 issue with using the BOP seal with an OE crank.


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[gtorich]

Originally Posted by HWYSTR455

Did you file/sand down the hash marks on the crank before installing the BOP seal? That's the #1 issue with using the BOP seal with an OE crank.


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That i do not know, Dave Hillard put this together in 2010, i assumed he did that........he no longer is doing motors.............not blaming this on Dave in any way, probably something i did when i got the motor, had the a/f so mixed up messing with the tri power, who knows how much gas i had running into the cylinders...........other than this issue, the car runs really well........Rich

[HWYSTR455]

You could ask him, see what he says. But that's my first guess.

Yeah, could have washed out the rings, plugs and compression/leak down test would tell you.

Otherwise, rear pan seal can get tricky, especially with aftermarket pans.

What kind of pan is on there?

You might be able to get away with a hone & re-ring, but honestly, if you tear it down, it's just about the same cost as a new rotating assembly, since you have to check all the parts anyway. (And just to say, the stroker rotating assemblies are cheaper than the standard OE throw cranks)

On tripowers, for a fresh engine startup, you can pull the bars of the outer carbs and use just the center. After initial startup is done, you can add a bar/carb at a time, too.

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[gtorich]

Originally Posted by HWYSTR455

You could ask him, see what he says. But that's my first guess.

Yeah, could have washed out the rings, plugs and compression/leak down test would tell you.

Otherwise, rear pan seal can get tricky, especially with aftermarket pans.

What kind of pan is on there?

You might be able to get away with a hone & re-ring, but honestly, if you tear it down, it's just about the same cost as a new rotating assembly, since you have to check all the parts anyway. (And just to say, the stroker rotating assemblies are cheaper than the standard OE throw cranks)

On tripowers, for a fresh engine startup, you can pull the bars of the outer carbs and use just the center. After initial startup is done, you can add a bar/carb at a time, too.

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Oh, boy...........not good news on that..........so your saying my forged rods & pistons would not be good to transfer to the other block..........my plan as of now, now sure this is a good plan or not, but have the spare blocked honed to .035 its at .030 now but not done with a torque plate and have them switched over..........now on the stock crank i have the mains turned .010 and the rods turned .010.........was looking into a aftermarket crank, seems no one has one and you dont know when they are gonna get one......

Other choice , seen a 400 on FB with rotatating assembly, quite a bit of machine work done to the block, but thinking it was damaged somehow, but fixed now..........not sure on that deal.

I looked into the butler rotating assembly, this is with the 400 they provide, said 5 months...........but saw on the forum where a member just ordered the rotating assembly in Jan, and just got it the other day...........so who knows how long that would take.........im 71 now and i dont even plan on what to get for supper..........might not make it till then. lol...........

Rich

[78w72]

i gave a few suggestions to gtorich on how to approach this, looking at it from a cost perspective with the parts available- it seems the best approach is to bring the engine to a good shop to tear it down & see if theres anything obvious causing the oil consumption issues. since the engine runs good aside from the oil leaks, its safe to assume the rotating assembly & other parts are good, so it will probably just need new rings & possibly bearings but if it was built right the first time the bearing are likely OK, easy to replace if needed. also check the heads to have good seals & guides etc. then simply reassemble it & have the shop do a quick run in to verify no leaks... & if you want, even do a few dyno pulls to give you a number to brag about or know what kind of power & torque curve it has.

unless this will be a 600+ hp engine intended for heavy racing or regular high rpms, the stock 455 crank is more than strong enough to use, lots of guys would prefer a seasoned 455 crank over a new chinese crank, especially as far as cost goes for a street engine. he already has forged rods that are the weak point, although i beat the crap out of a 455 for 10+ years with the same stock rods that were beat on for 20+ years before me, but today thats not too smart when entry level forged rods cost close to the same as reconditioned stock rods.

seems like the best thing to do is just stick with the current rotating combo, have everything freshened up & only replace what is bad if/when its needed. most good shops will have a backlog of other work but for a basic freshen up & minimal machine work, it wont be but a couple-few months to get it done.

if you dont want to stroke it or have future plans for big power needing a forged crank, just keep the current parts & have a good local shop freshen up the short block & assemble the rest yourself if you can, or pay a little extra to have the shop assemble it all.... if you might not make it past dinner, no need to drag it out longer than needed so you can enjoy the car.

[HWYSTR455]

So my thoughts were if the rings washed out, pistons would be scuffed too. Can probably use them, but would have to be checked, and, you don't really want to bore a block without providing the pistons to the shop that's boring it. (Honing usually brings the bore to the correct size for the pistons).

Rods, have to have them checked, regardless. If any resizing needs to happen, there's a cost there.

You might get lucky on the crank where you may only need to check and polish it, but also needs to be checked.

All I was saying is that the cost of a prepped rotating assembly is close to the same cost of having that work done on your parts, and you still may need to replace some of your parts. (not necessarily the rods or crank even).

I personally would never trust a used engine, short block, or parts, and would still have them checked prior to assembly.

The cast cranks in the rotating assembly kits are fine up to a certain power level, you don't HAVE to go to a forged crank, can save some money there. Pretty sure the cast cranks are readily available too. (cam basically dictates the power level).

The rotating assemblies for the 4.210 and 4.250 cranks costs the same, might as well go for the 4.250, especially since they are more readily available. (Call and ask).

Personally, I would trust a new crank over a 50+ year old crank any day. And have personally seen, and had, OE 455 cranks fail.

If the engine is apart, 'getting by', and 'doing it right', are not that far different in cost. If you have to do it twice, it certainly will be more.

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[gtorich]

Im thinking of going with Scott suggestion.........might as well find out what the problem is with this motor..........just hard to find anyone in my area that is somewhat trustworthy.......i have trust issues. lol

Hwystr...........i hear you, good points...........problem im seeing is these rotating assembles are not in stock anywhere.............or who knows whey they will come in.

I do appreciate all the help im getting from you guys...........this stuff gets so confusing really fast...........Rich

[HWYSTR455]

Which ones are not in stock, the 4.210 cast crank ones or the 4.250 cast crank ones? Pretty sure the 4.250 cast crank ones are in stock.

That's fine if you go the other route, but I would be curious to hear what the cost at the machine shop is, and a break down. I bet you will find you could have bought a kit for maybe 300-600 more.

Could have offset the costs too by selling what you have.

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[gtorich]

Originally Posted by HWYSTR455

Which ones are not in stock, the 4.210 cast crank ones or the 4.250 cast crank ones? Pretty sure the 4.250 cast crank ones are in stock.

That's fine if you go the other route, but I would be curious to hear what the cost at the machine shop is, and a break down. I bet you will find you could have bought a kit for maybe 300-600 more.

Could have offset the costs too by selling what you have.

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Sorry about that, i was talking about the forged cranks .........checked with scat, they said, they are not gonna even make one for a pontiac untill next year, if that.........if i go the other route, i will inform you.............your probably right. lol..............i should have done this years ago, when parts were easy to get...............hopefully this turns out good for me...........once again, thanks for all the help............you can see i need it.

Rich