Unfortunate accident w/new BB, need advice
 

Here's the deal. My son got his rebuilt 402 back from the engine builders today. It has a $3000+ professional rebuild. This included block trued, rotating assembly balanced, 7 qt oil pan, high volume fuel pump, ground and cross-bored crank, new internals including pistons, rods, lifters, cam, aluminum intake, rebuilt heads with larger intake and exhaust valves, etc, etc, etc.

As luck would have it, during the process of unloading from pickup, the engine hoist let loose and the engine dropped from about 4 feet. It took a direct blow to the oil pan on the lift's support leg and hit the driveway hard. Fortunately driveway is packed gravel so there was some give and NOONE was hurt. The outward damage appears only to be to the oil pan.

Needless to say my son Brian (71402BB on this board) was devistated. He's waited 1.5 year to get to this point!!!

Here's my question for knowledgeable engine builders:
Other than replacing Oil pan and making sure oil pickup tube is intact, what other possible damage may have occurred? This engine was built right, it's essentially new and better than factory. It had no oil or other fluids in it, never run.

that hurts to hear, i was hoping you guys would get it in this weekend. good luck with getting it back together.

The only two things that would have got damage would have been the oil pump pickup tube and the crankshaft. Since it landed on the gravel, there was probably a very slim chance of the crankshaft being damaged.

I'd get some revenge by taking a cutting torch to that engine hoist if that happened to me. Hope everything is OK with the motor.

BTW, I was just giving a worst case scenario.

Sorry to hear the bad news, glad to hear no one was hurt. Other than the pan and pickup tube and not knowing how far the pan got crushed, check the oil pump itself, make sure the oil pump housing didn't crack.

Not only that, but the impact could change the position of the oil pump pickup. It will need to be set to the depth of the new oil pan. I seriously doubt anything else was hurt. And I am glad no one was hurt in this accident.

OUCH! That would put me in a rage for sure. I have never had that happen but have always worried about it. I had to pull 2 3208 CAT diesel truck engines with mine a few days ago. They have to weigh close to 1000 lbs or better fully dressed. I double chain them for safety. I built it myself with a 110 wire welder years ago. I wanted to stress test it before ever trusting it so I lifted up the front end of my buddy's '73 Olds 98! It did not have an engine in it, but i'm sure that was still close to 2000 lbs. hanging there. My cheapo "cart casters" were shot so I put on 4 new steel wheel bearing-mounted greaseable ones before pulling those CAT motors. It now rolls easier with one of those on it than it did with NOTHING on it before!

I think the best idea I implemented when building it was to set the casters "up". The frame is about 3/4" of an inch off the floor. That way, if one of the casters buckles over or snaps off it won't topple.

As long as your engine did not land on the balancer or hit it hard you probably don't have anything to worry about. Same would go for landing on a man. trans flywheel. It does not take much to spring the crank out of straightness when this happens. You might not see it without pulling the crank & checking it in some V-blocks or a crank grinder with a dial indicator.

:flag:

I would check the thrust bearings and mabee the crank too. I dont know what it could do to the balance job. mebee have them (the shop) check it out its better now than later.

Thanks for the replys. The pan took the full blow and it did not crush as much as you'd expect. The main blow was on the lower underside edge of the pan where its "boxed" and welded for the additional capacity. The flywheel and crank did not take any of it, not even a scatch.

Replace the pan, pickup tube, and check the pump. Then put it in, and run the **** out of it!!! That's why you have a BB,right?? Because they are strong!! If the pan absorbed the blow, you got lucky, and I doubt anything inside is damaged.

First off, did any women hear any of the 4 letter words that must have flown through the air?? Second, I would agree with the above, replace the pan, check the pump, install the motor and haul butt!

Thats terrible but could have been alot worse, My motor allmost fell over on the engine stand but I stopped it (it was kinda like when a parent picks up a car to save their child) my dad built our engine hoist its pretty heavy duty it picked up his old 66 burb less motor and trans.

man that bites good luck

i know of a place you can pickup a swb 72 rolling chassis all stock with a 402 that doesnt run... no bed... got rust.. for 300 bucks... about an hour from where i live... i got a number

Sorry to here that, thats any motor heads nightmare, that just confirms to me I don't trust those engine hoists, nothing like the old block and tackle, they got block and tackle lifts at the pick a part, it's like two A frames with a cross beam on wheels now that looks safe,but I think if your not sure, after spending that kind of money I'd take it back to the machine shop for a quick check over, good luck, keep us posted

I'd give a quick call to your machine shop and see if they want to look at it. I hope all is well with it. Yikes.

I doubt if you did any damage to the crank, but you still might want to check runout and endplay. If that is all good replace pan and pump etc....

I did somethng like that to a lesser motor, changed a starter in my car, a 93 olds cutlass supreme coupe, on thursday night, had it all in all worked great, jack itup to let it down, the wheels on the floor jack didn't roll correctly and I must have had the the jack a little far back on the crossmember cause crunch, there went the oil pan and the starter can't turn it over, so I had to get the new rear in my truck real fast. what a sh*tty day thursday was...
Bryce

ouch

I would look to see if the pan crushed to the point of touching any internals if not it should be fine IMO

i agree with Yukon, take it back to your machine shop and have them check it out. They deal with this all the time and probably won't charge you much (if anything) to look it over, as your oil pump is important.

I did the exact same thing while putting the 455 in my old Catalina. Oil pan was junk, oil pick-up was trashed, ring gear was junk. I replaced the oil pump even though it looked okay. It still seems okay.
My problem was in the chain I used, it just snapped. I likewise had spent about a year scraping up every last dime to finish it. When it happened, I just about fainted. I just walked away, laid down on the lawn, and stayed there for about 2 hours.
Then, I just got up, and began again. A week later, It was back in the car. I am pretty sure that the Catalina is possessed by evil.