bad C10 mishap!

[andrewt2]

Well, i have been working on my 69 c10 for roughly a month or so now when i bought my truck the motor had a slight knock to it, nothing major well when i decided to do the restoration i decided to replace the motor with a fresh 350. We'll after running into every homemade fix you could think of on this truck (horrible hillbilly wiring, ducttape then bondo over rust holes. years of neglect had sure had it's way on this thing.) i get the new fresh 350 in relatively easy with very few problems with the fresh engine i upgraded to an hei style distributor....for test purposes i wired it direct to the battery just to test fire the motor and make sure everything was in working order. of course i made all my inital checks, fluids, hoses, clamps, everything looked good, i get inside the truck hit the starter...fire it up, starts to die so i give it a little gas....return spring on the new carb sticks.....motor sores up in rpms pegs my 8k tach out.... i instantly removed the key from the ignition only to realize that wasnt going to do me a bit of good..... i had to hop out of the truck and run to yank the wire from the battery to coil. moral of the story.... dont ever take short cuts no matter how excited you are to hear your new toy run!

[LMN8UR]

I hope you got her down before she wiped. . . Did Ya ?

[brianthelion02]

I remember when i was about 16 i wanted to hear my new motor run so i did the same thing,decided to drive it around the nieghborhood,didnt have the motor mounts bolted down yet.Got on the gas a little bit ,the motor lifted and cause it had mechanical throttle linkage it pulled the throttle wide open,lmao!!!!!!!!!!That was a fun ride!!!!!!!!!!!!!After that i learned to have it 110% done till ya fire it up!!!!!!!!!!!!

[andrewt2]

i think so. i didnt hear any loud thuds no dents in the pan any where, it did throw the front drive belt from spinning so quick, will wire it right and fire it up again sometime this week. keeping my fingers crossed everything is ok... i dont think thats exactly the best way for a proper break in of a fresh motor tho!:

[Boog]

Well if that didn't hurt it it will be a good one.

[corn]

Originally Posted by Boog

Well if that didn't hurt it it will be a good one.

Got that right.

[krue]

[andrewt2]

Yeah if it handled that 6 second *seemed like a lifetime* thrashing at well over 8 grand i think i've got a good motor! but im real nervous so im gonna get out there hopefully tonight or tomorrow wire it the right way and fire it up. just to see!

[Premium72]

if it didnt pop from that you got a beast on your hands..ha. hope its all ok. good luck.

[FRENCHBLUE72]

Hope shes still in one piece.... Keep us posted..

[Ole Blue 68]

I had a similar run in with a return spring last year. Luckily I was sitting in my driveway and, after a second of panic, I killed the ignition. Sure is a horrible feeling though.

[stllookn]

Had your "fresh" motor had the cam broken in yet? Did you already have some pressure lube into the bearings and upper end? Was this a newly rebuilt motor or did you just put new bearings and rings in the old one? Hopefully you don't have any work to do but I would not be optimistic about the cam/lifters/bearings. That much rpm on new bearings without the pre-pressure routine could spell trouble. I hope you are lucky with this one.

[Brock]

My luck I would have knocked it into gear while trying to kill it.

I worked as a pilot/gopher (take this and pile-it over there and go-for that) at a dealership when i got out of highschool. One quiet morning customers were bringing thier cars in, everything normal, typical service-lane proceedure, get em written up, pull them out. The other guy jumped in a caddy, started it up, put it in gear gave, it a little gas...WHAM it went wide open. Squalled through the shop, out the back door, down the ramp, around the corner...he Finally got it shut down. Stumbled his way back in and announced he was going home.

[70rs/ss]

Well 8k on a stock 350 might be a little optimistic, but wide open none the less. Top fuelers do it.....












of course they tear it down at the end of the 4 second run, hope you don't need to redo it!!

[2bits]

I remember when I put my 3rd engine in this truck, I think I had the dizzy stabbed one tooth off and we were running the engine and it idled good but clattered big time when I tried to drive it down the alley. I pulled it in and turned the key off but it started dieseling. and kept going.. and going and going! Nothing we did helped, and it wouldn't start up again by turning the key on. I don't remember what actually finally killed the engine but I do remember I was crapping because it was dieseling there for at least a full minute!

I hope your engine is ok and runs for a good long time!

[andrewt2]

yeah i guess i shouldnt of really called it a "fresh motor," we got it from a guy who had done a rebuild on it from what he says about 1,000k miles ago which i do believe it's a pretty clean motor. so im sure all the bearings and valve train had been broken in unfortunately i wont have any time to get to tinker with it till thanks giving day! lol thats my next day off lol ill have to sneak away from family time to have truck time! will keep everyone posted on how things faired!

[67_C-30]

If it has hydraulic lifters (which it probably does) I wouldn't sweat it. If the bottom end is sound on a SBC, it actually extremely difficult to blow one up as long as it has oil in it. **Don't ask me how I know that** I'll only say that being 22 yrs old, plenty of Seagrams Gin, a rusted out, beat up 1977 Monte Carlo with and a skipping 305, and an 8" cinder block is a helluva way to spend an evening!!

[brianthelion02]

Its A Chevy,itll Be Fine!!!!!!!!!!!

[JCA1972]

I know the feeling, I had just installed an engine in my car I got everything hooked up exept the exhaust because this was a bigger motor and it the manifolds ddin't fit. I just wanted to start it up for a minute just to listen to motor run, I cranked it up and it sounded bad ass so I gave it a little gas and fire started blowing out of the exhaust and it burned up my fuel hose filling my engine compartment with a ball of fire, I tought I was going to burn the car down but as soon as I turned it off the fire went out. Lesson learned make sure it's finished before showing off.

[special-K]

Wiping and blowing are two different things.Wiping will come up and bite you latter and blowing is,well...done deal.Sometimes wiping out a bearing or cam has immediate consequences and sometimes you just knock thousands of miles off it`s life.I hope for the best.
You learned the hard way and have given great advise.Be patient,it`s worth it.

[WorkinLonghorn]

It happened to me once briefly.I put an extra return spring on that truck.
Nothing seemed to be damaged except my nerves. If you have old stock springs then you just floated the valves.I doubt that you did any damage.
P.S. Get that tach checked.

[67_C-30]

Originally Posted by WorkinLonghorn

P.S. Get that tach checked.

X2!

[andrewt2]

i know i know, it had me scratching my head too seeing that, im pretty sure my tach is junk, it was one of those deals where it came with a bunch of other parts at a swap meet....makes me wonder about the msd 6al box i got off the same seller! i hate buying electrical items used!