What’s the horror stories? I have a Callie’s Dragonslayer. Not sure what the runout is but that’s over .010 for sure.

 

I have the engine apart and dropping off at the machine shop Friday. Needs new bearings and the Crank is questionable. Everything else survived without a scratch.

It seems like most of the issues with the Reluctor wheel / Callies Crank is when it's pressed on without a tach weld.

Lots of folks have had issues with them coming off; especially using a two step. A simple tach weld before balancing prevents the issue.

LME makes a nice Billet wheel that has had great reviews.

 

Interesting, glad mines welded then.

 

 

Sorry to see this... i hate these stories.

 

It's just part of it. It'll be back up soon!

During the downtime, more weight reduction and plan to add a roll bar. I've been waiting to get the roll bar done before installing the Corbeau seats and Atomic's seat brackets so I have a good, safe place to mount the harnesses.

 

The machine shop I dropped the engine off at found a few things that concerned them.

The crankshaft is going to become artwork (probably an expensive lamp). The LQ9 block was poorly bored and hone to 4.030 with minimal cross hatching. The engine had a lot of blow by that never got better. They claim it would of never been any better.

Also, the bearings were a little tight and were not chamfered. With a Callies Crank, the machinist told me there isn't much room without chamfering bearings and it will drastically increase oil temps.

Plan forward, put a 3.662 stroke crank in it and bore the pistons a bit over 4.030 to clean them up and make a good ring seal.

I'll be out a new crank, pistons, bearings, machine work, etc.

It'll be back up and going within 60 days or so.

 

Did they happen to check the reluctor wheel?

 

Wow. And this was a scoggin Dickey shortblock?

 

10-4. It sure was. May have had 200 miles on it at the most. They actually assembled the long block. Changed oil several times and noticed the bearing material (in filter) gradually got worse until the last change. At first I thought it was a bad crank position sensor but couldn't have got that lucky. It idled great...misfired real bad at 1300+ rpm the night I pulled over and turned the engine off. After setting over night it wouldn't start, which at first led me to think it was a sensor.

I don't have a pic handy due to all the parts being at the new machine shop but the bottom of the #8 Piston actually slapped the crank. I overlooked it but the machinist pointed it out. It made contact but not real bad. The pistons are still good but I will need bigger ones due to the clean up needed. Bore will probably be 4.045 or so. Also adding piston squirters and a crank scrapper for oil control. The 4.030 pistons will be stored for a 370 build way down the road hopefully. Not worth it to sell them IMO.

Scoggin Dicky has put out many nice running LS engines. That's why I chose to use them. Bad luck, part of the business.

After the fact, they weren't much help and didn't care about diagnosing the issue(s). After speaking with them on the phone and getting push back immediately, I decided to cut my losses and find another machine shop. Not here to bash, they do have nice stuff roaming around, just my experience.