Hot Rod Diesels - "OOPS! ... I Did It Again"

Remember we just got through stripping everything and building new motor and transmission less than three weeks ago on Michael's race truck. You may have seen some of the weekend fun pics I posted. He took the truck to the NHRDA Texas Nationals on April 10. Truck had no street miles on it just heat up time to torque and re-torque the heads,etc. Had all kinds of issues, but managed to make the finals and make the finals pass for the Pro-Street class win. However on that pass the main fuse and a few others blew knocking out all power. That meant no gauges (tach) no trans lockup or OD and Nitrous shut down. Motor in 3rd gear with no lockup, turned no telling how many RPMs. Michael did not let off as he should, he wanted the crowd to see a quality run and time. Result motor toast, trans and tc probably toast also.

Well Michael said he could use some help Saturday to get it tore down and see what it will take to get running again (Déjà vu). :doh:

Notice the picture below is the truck leaving the trophy presentation via tow strap.


Michael had the truck on the lift and started around 9:30am Saturday. Did not really have time for pictures, but I grabbed a few.

Transmission and drive shaft out first.


Fenders and wiring disconnected.


Intercooler and Radiator off.


Intake and Turbos off.



Valve covers and valve assemblies off. Ready to pull the motor.


Motor out head off, motor on stand.





All pistons and cylinders have scarring. Number 5 was melting and 3 pistons had valves kiss marks. All in all could have been worse. Bottom end looks ok. No evidence of spun rod bearing and the bearings look good.



Pistons out. They are toast.


Michael did a little honing to see if it looked like the block could be bored .020 or .040. Might be able to do with just .020 bore and new pistons. Head will be torn down an checked. Probably some valve damage at least. Hopefully the head can be decked and reused.

We called it a day around 9:30pm or so. All in all a busy and fruitful weekend day.

Damn that is a big ass intercooler. Keep up the good work!

VMAX said:

Damn that is a big ass intercooler. Keep up the good work!

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Yes it is. One of Joe's custom jobs. Had an update from Michael and things are progressing well. Block at the machine shop, pistons on way to coating, etc. I am sure Michael will have the trans apart tomorrow.

Did you figure out what is up with your truck??

90% sure the right or passenger side teeth on the strange spool spun and are stripped out after the launch I did. I hear the axles are much harder than the spools and should be fine. Rear end will be out tomorrow. Will know for sure then. No telling how many passes were on that spool. Also it very well could have been damaged from the ass end hitting the wall 1st.

VMAX said:

90% sure the right or passenger side teeth on the strange spool spun and are stripped out after the launch I did. I hear the axles are much harder than the spools and should be fine. Rear end will be out tomorrow. Will know for sure then. No telling how many passes were on that spool. Also it very well could have been damaged from the ass end hitting the wall 1st.

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Thats kinda good news. Guess the diesel makes a different kind of power compaired to a gasser. Cant say i have herd of a spool strippin out. But there it is,LOL!!!!
Glad to meet you bro. Will try to see ya at HRP.
TOMMY

Dang Mike:doh: That sucks. I guess everybody needs to quit giving lott a hard time

just get her back together right don't rush things it always causes more heart ache in the end.

TOMTOM said:

Thats kinda good news. Guess the diesel makes a different kind of power compaired to a gasser. Cant say i have herd of a spool strippin out. But there it is,LOL!!!!
Glad to meet you bro. Will try to see ya at HRP.
TOMMY

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Yea it is a bit strange but 1.50 60fts in a truck is a good amount of force. Great meeting you to. Nice to see a clean Gen 1.

I hope he gets it back together soon. Ive met a lot of good folks, but Michael is at the top of my list after the help he gave us in Ennis. Good luck getting it all back together, and for the record, were gonna make you work harder next time!

Mike's good people

he's treated me as a friend from the first day I walked into his shop

after a LOT of work getting the truck ready for the event, pride took over and he stayed in the skinny pedal! LOL

it'll be back together pretty quickly

they all break said:

Dang Mike:doh: That sucks. I guess everybody needs to quit giving lott a hard time

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Hmmm... I wonder what the site rules on trolls are?? :hehe:

Forrest Nearing said:

Mike's good people

he's treated me as a friend from the first day I walked into his shop

after a LOT of work getting the truck ready for the event, pride took over and he stayed in the skinny pedal! LOL

it'll be back together pretty quickly

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By his own admission we have applied some other descriptions of the thought process he used during that run. :doh:

Hopefully back together and on the track very soon. :drive:

Hate to hear this again for you guys. What was the cause you think? It's looks like a timing and egt issue to me, not rpm. Hell I was always gearbound in the truck to the point where it defueled then completely stoped pulling, in the beginning I done this several times while on the hose; hell all I noticed is when it started to pull fuel and the nitrous was still flowing the egts started coming down from pegged really quickly and in another moment or two it would just shut the engine down, Id coast to the rt road, fire it up and take off again. Granted I prob. didnt run as much spray though. Your timing looks to be out of the bowl, how much static was in it; i see you have the 2.5" big open bowls.

Rebuild Saturday Update

Well Michael had a productive week on the rebuild. Block bored and cleaned. Head freshened up. Pistons in and coated. Rebuild miscellaneous parts acquired. Transmission rebuilt. :clap:

I got there a little after 9:00am. Parts all over the place! :doh:

Find all the parts.

Transmission, won't need that today.



Where is everything else?













Ok, found parts. Lets put something together.

Piston and rods.



Bottom end.



Head on.



More together.







I will be back down there tomorrow morning early. I told him I wasn't leaving tomorrow until we fired it up in the truck. Hope I make it to work on Monday.:hehe: