Did you ever have one of those days when your hot rod project went better than expected?
Me neither.
It almost happened when I was testing the fuel pump in our 5.3L LS powered 1948 Chevy pickup project. I was trying to cycle the Terminator X to check the fuel pressure at the rail and check for fuel line leaks. The temporary ignition switch went past the "run" position all the way to "start" and hung there.
The good news was that the engine actually fired and ran for a few seconds before I could release the ignition switch. The bad news was that I wasn't ready for that. Robert came out to see what the noise was and asked, "Did you know you have a big pool of oil under the truck?" The reason was that I didn't even have an oil filter installed yet.
So, I cleaned up the mess, installed a filter, topped of the oil level and then checked for fuel leaks (I had some), fixed those and then got prepared for more testing. I had heard an unusual sound during the short run time, kind of like the starter was not disengaging so I unhooked the Terminator so I could just cycle the starter without the engine running.
The engine turned over a few times and then just quit. I put the truck on the lift so I could see if the starter had locked up. Nope.
I put a socket on the balancer bolt and the engine would not turn over. I tried turning it backwards and it went about 180 degrees before stopping again. Turning it back and forth a few more times produced a mechanical noise from inside the engine. Not a good sound.
You know what that means don't you? It's pan pulling time.
I won't keep you in suspense any longer. I found a broken rod and piston.
Something had made its way into the intake port and into the combustion chamber where it wreaked havoc with number 8 piston and rod. Fortunately, there was only a minor scratch on the cylinder wall which honed out just fine. We dug up an extra rod and piston and, with new rings, number 8 now has the same compression as the other seven cylinders.
Tired of the engine teardown and assembly process, I shoved the truck into a corner and waited for my enthusiasm to build back up so I can tidy up all the details that will let me hear the engine run again. On purpose this time. And that time finally arrived.
Check out Chapter Two where fiasco turns back into fun!