No, I didn't.

 

two paths, sell it, take it apart.

 

Well, I have two reasons I'm not gonna sell it:

1. I would feel like I'm admitting defeat, that I'm giving up. I don't want to be a quitter.
2. This car started out as a father-son project. I mentioned putting it on Craigslist to my dad on the phone, and he said he would drive to Detroit from Wisconsin, pick it up, and bring it home before he let me do that. So he's about as emotionally involved in it as I am, and I can't do that to him.

So yeah, I gotta take it back apart. But not now. I need to take a break from this. It's just too much right now.

 

well take it apart. was your royal purple oil synthetic? if it was that saved your rotating assembly and all your bearings. I'd have the block magnafluxed just to be safe.

 

Yes, the Royal Purple is synthetic. You say that saved my rotating assembly and bearings, what about synthetic makes that the case? Keep in mind that I don't think I've run this thing more than 60 seconds at a time (never above idle), I just started it a few times and that was it.

 

well from what I've read normal oil breaks down with coolant when its under pressure and it turns into an acid that eats your bearings. synthetic oil doesn't break down when subjected to coolant so it continues doing its job even when its a 'milkshake'.

 

Never heard of that, but IF it is true, it would probably only apply to synthetic oils that use a Group IV base stock. Those are true synthetics. Anything using a base I, II, or III is just extra refined crude oil. RP uses a group IV base stock. Either way, I wouldn't want to dump half a gallon in my car to find out.

On a side note, that RP milkshake looks gnarly.

 

So yesterday, my dad and I spent the whole day tearing this thing back apart. Long story short, we got the head off, and here's what we found:



So yeah, the head's pretty much FUBAR. If you look closely, see how there's an inflection in the light by the water sleeve? That's where the water was getting into the cylinder.

I plucked this piece of debris out of the head. What do you think? My theory is a piece of piston ring, it looked to me like it used to be flat, round, and thin at one point in time. But hey, what do I know.







So yeah...literally back at square one. Not a good feeling. Not at all. All that time and money spent on the motor and on the car over the past 11 months, all for naught.

 

I don't see how part of a ring is going to get past a piston/wall gap that's way less than the size of the ring.
A washer accidentally getting dropped or sucked in, possibly a lock washer from the looks of it, is more plausible.

 

yeah...you're probably right if that's the case, something probably fell in the intake runner when I was swapping intake manifolds.