So i got a 1995 Z28 t56 for free but the motor may be junk. The guy i got it from changed the head gaskets on it because it had some water in the oil and was over heating. After he changed them it still got water in the oil. I though maybe oil cooler or no thread sealant on head bolts but when i got the car i drained the oil and because of the water in it and then added water to the radiator and the water slowly drains out the oil drain plug.... Hole in the block? or something im missing? Im almost done dropping the motor out of the bottom of the bottom but want an idea of what to look for before ripping the motor apart.

 

warped head, cracked head, cracked block, headgasket not installed correctly. all i can think of.

 

its about the same or cheaper to get a rebuilt lt1. hard part doing that is making sure the rebuild company is good and on the up and up. i got lucky and found a new lt1 short block and heads to use in my build. have not seen any lately.

 

Most common issue would be the intake gasket slipped out of place while the intake was being installed.

Head and head gasket rarely blow between the oil passage and coolant passage since there is no oil pressure in the head gasket. If you have water "running" that fast through your cylinders and around your piston rings then you have bigger problems. Since the motor is already coming out you can feed shop air into the spark plug hole and listen for leaks.

You need to take the motor a part carefully. It is a situation where you need to find what happened. If you get it a part and you see no problems then you have to decide if you going to spend the money on getting the block checked. If this motor has been overheated really bad there may be nothing to salvage. I have seen motors so bad that even the intake was not usable.

Water will not hurt oil that much but if the motor was run with antifreeze in the oil then the bearing are suspect. If this is a high miles motor it sure has a lot of things going against it for being a candidate for rebuild. I bought a 1993 Lt1 with 32,000 miles on it for $1000. A low miles used engine might be the easiest way to a dependable car.

Either way the trans is worth $800-$1000 so no matter what you made out.

 

lt1 does not have coolant going to the intake.

 

Well when i get the motor out i will take it apart very methodically and inspect everything to find the issue but today i searched through the car and found the head gasket set he used and it still has one of the head gaskets in it. I also found the left valve cover wasnt screw down all the way and the intake is missing 3 bolts so the more i look at it the more i wonder if the previous owner knew what he was doing. It was a driving car before he changed the head gaskets from what another friend said.

 

What's the part number for the head gasket? Better make sure the right one is installed. From the sounds of it, doesn't sound like the guy knew what he was doing. If you pull the engine, check the clutch fork and pivot point too. It's not related to your water issue, but is something to check now instead of later.

 

Motor is out and torn down the issue was obvious ill add pictures of everything bellow. What i think happened is he was correct it had a bad head gasket but he changed the wrong side because the cylinder with a broke rod had a large gap in the head gasket right to a coolant port. So basically i think he hydro-locked the motor which broke the rod. Has a brand new high torque starter on it. I had a machinist look at the block yesterday and he said the cylinders might all clean up if i go 30 over but if i go 60 over i should be fine and he said the damage done by the rod hitting the bottom of the cylinder and the block isnt an issue so it looks like im going to build a 383 bored 60 instead of 30 over so a 388? Well heres the pics guys!

 

bummer. anything over 30 over is not a good idea. can be done just not a good idea. cylinder walls get pretty thin.

 

summit sale, Summit Racing® 355 or 383 Chevy Remanufactured Engine Blocks SUM-150100-30 - Free Shipping on Orders Over $99 at Summit Racing looks like the blocks have some surfase rust so clean up work would be needed.