ok day 3 and new HG are in...

[GeneralGrant]

Long Post bear with me please.
Well after a long day of fighting bolts, and plugs and everything else that wanted to be a lil biot ch. Its in and runing. It ran a lil hot at first but seemed to cool back down to regular temps after a half hour. There seems to be a small exhaust leak somewhere. But its running and driving.

The bad news is the number 8 cylander only showed like 50 compression. Now since the car doesnt drive like it has a miss or anything. my boys dad is under the impression that the ring just needs to reseat its self. and the only way to do that is drive it. Im not so sure about that type of thing. Im waiting 50 miles to get on it full throttle again to see what happens. We did set base timing this time to about 8 though. Im getting pretty poor gas milage and the no 8 spark plug looked like it was runing a lil rich and i dont know how to fix this (didnt check them all just that one since we compression checked it).

So my question is if i dont get that cyalnder back up to full strength what should i do? If i run the motor how long will it last or should i start making motor plans?

If i do i have 3 plans so far.
a)I can have a motor build with low compression pistons, stock everything else o-ringed with maybe a turbo cam, and new injectors.
2)take the car off the road for a long while (unhappilly) and build up a motor with aluminum heads, intake, stroked type thing.
#)Take all the turbo stuff off sell it for like 3k and build a stout 351 stroker.

Suggestions?

 

[Zero Signal]

If it has low compression and you say the plug looked like it was running rich, maybe the piston rings are damaged. If you were pinging under boost, that may cuase something like that. Is it the cylinder that blew the first gasket? If so, that may also be why it looks rich (oily).

I'm not sure about that thing either, but I would imagine that your compression should be normal wether the gasket is brand new or not. If anything I would expect it to be high, but who knows, I know someone here does.

I'm still really anxious to see how your setup does once it's running right!

 

[VibrantRedGT]

If you changed head gaskets and the compression on number 8 is still low then it's pretty much over. Your option at this point is either getting new rings on number 8 or doing the block over again. I'm in the same boat. I sold everything (blower, cam, heads, etc.) to start over by building a solid foundation. My number 8 also took a crap (ring damage).

 

[GeneralGrant]

What are you doing vibe? what solid foundation would that be?

 

[VibrantRedGT]

Well my first intentions was a Keith Craft crate 408. Cost is $5500 from intake to pan fully assembled and blueprinted. Since it's a 351 based block there are conversion parts that will be needed (bellhousing, headers, lower intake, distributor, hood). Well with all the added cost of these parts it got out of hand quickly. Now I sold just about everything and I'm undecided. A crate 331 or 347 is just as expensive without the extra expense of conversion parts. These motors are rated 100HP less than the 408. So right now I don't have a plan because I don't have the cash. On top of that I'm buying another house for investment purposes so the car remains stripped in the garage until I can gather the money.