Stopped by the shop on Monday, I checked out the intake gaskets still in place on the intake manifold and found that one inside corner appears to have failed as well as you could see “leakage” on three or four holes on the head gaskets (.017 steel) along with the wear on main bearings. They were checking the crank again for balance etc. I stopped by the shop again today and the engine is all back together repainted and ready to go back in tomorrow. So the question is did the problem get solved? We are not sure what went first the intake or the head gasket (as per Adam) but when the shop checked the balance they found that everything balanced out except the fly wheel was not zero balanced (this obviously was not done before, woops), it was out 70 grams so that is what caused the bearing problem. So now we are zero balanced, new intake gaskets and changed from the steel head gaskets to composite ones that are twice the thickness plus, (heads and block machining checked out) We put in a new clutch with the engine before and it did not feel right so we changed to a Luk which feels much better (had a slight vibration, now I believe balance played a part in that). All in all the timing was good as well as fortunate it all happened about the same time. The shop did their best to sort out the issue, acknowledge it, take responsibility and resolve it. I know it makes a lot more sense to me now. Look forward to the test drive, soon.
Thanks for your responses, looking forward to BendJJJ
Eric…
Joel Adams
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