Ive got pics that look like that on the under side of my valve covers, keep plugin.

 

i feel better now, i've been kinda mopeing around here all day since i heard the new, haha, not really but i'm glad it's fixed, now let's get her going, get some vids of how it sounds for right now, get bout 5 or 600 miles on her and let's get some nice burnout vids, then get a few 1000 on there, and get a vid with a 500 shot on it and then get a vid of rebuilding it again

 

Um...this may be a bit late for this but:

You are supposed to clearance the PISTON SKIRTS....NOT the crankshaft!!!, the crankshaft is a balanced unit, the mallory metal slugs are in there make SURE it's balanced, if you grind metal off the crank counterweights...no matter how much or little it is you remove you are changing the crank balance. Also, the #8 piston skirt has to be notched to clear the 24x tooth crank trigger wheel....if you didn't do this you're gonna run into trouble at some point during the build

 

Cody is on his way to his dad's to take his first shower in 3 days and a clean change of underwear . He'll start reassembly in the morning.
Yelo - The only reason there were these problems is due to cutting corners because of time pressure. He has now decided that it doesn't matter when he gets home. He has finally hit the "I don't give a **** stage". I am fully aware of what needs to be done and checked to build an engine right but the speed shop said he checked the clearence before balance but just missed it I guess. The piston barely touched the counterweights. You could still rotate it. Cody wasn't willing to wait the time to have the throws turned and rebalance. I was having to work while a lot of the assembly was being done. It requires at least 6 weeks to check tolerances and wait on machine work the right way. He had to wait on parts for 3 months then tried to assemble, troubleshoot, machine, and install in about 2-3 weeks and there was much hold up with shipping and the machine shop because of xmas and new years. Perfect example of why not to try to rush a job as custom and complicated as this. I basically just had time to check all his bearing tollerences and help him assemble part of the short block. To give Cody credit, he has learned fast and done very well for his first build.

 

Cool....I give great credit to someone who starts off his engine building career with a more-complicated-than-average build and certainly have faith in your ability to help him out. I was just trying to save him the heartache of taking a die-grinder to a rather expensive piece of precision machine work.....I've seen that done before and the results just aren't pretty

MAJOR props to Cody for tackling this build and a serious high-five to you for helping him out with this......

 

 

So Mark, are yall gonna have to wait for another 6 weeks in order to start over again? Oh yea and a great big to what Yelo said!

 

Thanks guys. There were some corners cut for sure with this build which is not a good way to do it especially with the expensive nature of this motor. I have NO choice at this point cause every week Im still in AL and not in Austin TX I loose alot of money cause Im not working. My new job comes with a company truck and I have a bike also so I have alternate transportation. I just need this thing to make it back to TX in one piece then if need be pull the motor again. At this point Ill probably just get it dialed in with Allen of Nelson Performance and run the **** out of it. If it throws a rod through the side of the block oh well. I have worked on this truck/engine constantly for the last 2 weeks. This is the first motor that I ahve built myself mj has taught me alot and if I had to I could build the engine by myself I think. Yelo all the pistons were made to clear the gear cause they had to custom make these pistons due to the 4.100" stroke so they were all forged from the same dies(sp?) so it doesnt matter which piston goes next to the gear. The crnak wasnt ground very much at all. I realize that when a motor is going to spin to the mid to high 6K range and a 1 gram here or there can make a huge difference but IMO the small amount that I ground off considering it was ground off of all of them it isnt that out of balance as you might think. This motor has been nothing but a nightmare from the beginning from ordering/recieving parts to building it to multiple install problems and breaking two damn oil pressure sending units off one on the removal of the 5.3 and one while installing it on the 418 while it was in the truck but that mainly was due to fatigue and rushing. I am so fed up of working on this truck it is not even funny. Who would ahve thought dropping the front diff on my truck would have taken 7-8 hours not me. It was my first time to drop the diff on the truck so next time would faster like anything else. As I am typing this I am turning 20(my bday is the 8th and its midnight here) and I want to learn how to do everything myself. I cant stand people my age and older that just pay someoen to do everything performance for them and couldnt work on the vehicle theirself. There a veryfew bolts on my truck that havent been touched by me the internals of the transmssion and the cv joints ahvent been messed with(yet) by me. Only thing left I need to learn how to do is set up gears and rebuild trans I can remove/install the trans but not rebuild it. I have learned a great deal in the many hours spent on this site and now all the time spent in mjhowards shop and him teaching me how to mic bearings and check tolerances. He has been gracious enough to let me use his shop/tools/electricity/restroom/ and drink many a case of beer over the course of the last couple of months. I will be clearancing the windage tray tomorrow and reinstalling all the **** in the front of the truck and hopefully start it up tomorrow evening. Im fixing to go to bed and get some good sleep and get out in the shop early and hopefully have it running by 4ish. Thanks for the encouraging words guys

 

Good Luck! I assume you will post a vid of it running before you drive back to TX?

 

Hang in there, itll get better. I bet it loped like a sumumubitch!