From the "haven't seen this one before" file.. A GS nats odyssey.

This year we took a Customer's car... Bill Van Matre's 70 GS Stage 1

Engine was last serviced by Wildcat engines in GA, they did head porting and cam development on it.. not sure if they freshened the bottom end or not..

Bill had dropped this off to me about this time last year to "Get the dang thing into the 10's" where it suppose to be.. he had fuel system issues, and needed a whole bunch of repairs and upgrades... We rebuilt the trans, added a 4500 stall version of our 9.5" converter, along with a whole bunch of brake and suspension and fuel system work. Cool Aeromotive Phantom fuel pump kit, in a sump in the stock tank.. works great..

I dynoed the motor last fall just to check it out.. no problem, made 707 HP... told Bill that was plenty to go 10's.. Wasn't leaking or making any bad noise, so back in it went..

Had the car out in August to several local tracks... no roll bar in car, so we ran a restrictor plate, to keep it above 11.49 ET... ran a string of 11.60 passes, a bunch of 7.50ish 1/8 mile stuff.. even won a couple races with it..

Took it to BG to unleash it at WOT... First pass right out of the box, it went 10.93, 121mph... cool..

But turning off the strip, I realized that I had no power steering..

And yes, before you ask, any properly equipped 10 second street driven Buick has power steering... what are we, some kind of animals?

Pulled to the side, and checked.. sure enough, the belts are off.. Huh... must have just been too loose... belts back on, and on my way..

Fine for the rest of the day, ran a string of mid and low 10.80's.... on the last pass, we had adjusted the rear shocks, and were hoping for a 10.7xx time.... Bucy was driving, I was filming it... strange, sure looks like that scoreboard says 10.67... at 124 mph... had run 121 and 122 all day.

That was weird, I thought maybe the track was better.. but 2mph better?.. not likely.

Got my answer when Mike did not come back with it... It spit the belts off it.. 60' time was the same 1.51 it had been running, the et decrease and mph increase was from not running the water pump, clutch fan, and alternator and PS pump, for most of the track..

This time it sheared the pulley right off the crank... the part that bolts on was still bolted on, just the rest of it was gone... Talking to Mike T... he had never seen or heard of that before, but Perry C had seen it I guess.

You think I can find a 455 crank pulley at the GSnats???... Nope, too common, everyone has a box of them at home... which did not help me there... finally one of our board members, knuclebusted, who lives in BG, was kind enough to take one off a motor at home and sell it to me.. yes, that was me doing a drug deal like handoff in the steakhouse parking lot on Friday night...

OK... got the new pulley on it on Friday.. everything looks fine.. pulley running nice and straight, good to go..

Now, I have never brought a car to BG and not run super 16... 10.48 was the cut, but I figured, what the heck, somebody typically breaks.. so I went and got a sticker from Doug, and took that pass.. ran a decent 10.88 at 121... no issues.

I figured that I just paid $75 for a time trial.. might as well also take my bracket 1 time trial.. good thing I did, or we would have loaded it up thinking everything was fine..

On that pass, it went fine for the first 1000 ft, then the thing just laid over.. quick check at the fuel pressure gauge said that was fine, so I lifted... motor shut itself as soon as i pushed it into neutral..

That tends to happen when you just BROKE the crank...



In 35 years of fussing with Buick 455's, I have never seen a crank actually broken in two.. now this was a 494, and I have seen many of them with a crack in the rod radius after several seasons, but never had one actually break.. All the belt issues we had all the sudden made sense.. crank was flexing enough to pop the belts off first, and then destroy the pulley..

Car was scheduled to go home this coming week, but looks like it spending another winter in MN... Rumor has it, one of KBR's new billet cranks may find a home here, for a beefy 525ci next time it sees the track..

We got it loaded on the trailer, just as it started to rain Friday around 11am... Broken crank.... rain.. time to go home..

JW

 

But you Weisley trusted your knowledge and instincts and got out it it before it started spending lots of money.

Missed seeing you this year, hope you winter well!

(had a lot of things going on, so I did not get my '68 Skylark done yet, but if things work out, I plan on bringing it in May!)

 

Wow cant believe you saved it from more damage.

 

You know Jim...I saw that car throw the belt in the staging lane or on the line. I saw the worker guy pick it up off the ground and thought for sure he would tell you before you left the light. I said to my GF, crap that car just threw a belt! Then zoom...down the track it went. You were in the RH lane, I think.

 

Thanks for sharing JW.

 

Wow I wondered what happened. Looks like you caught it before it went boom. Oil pressure was ok? Vibration issues can do some strange things.

 

Might want to have a REAL CLOSE inspection of the torsional damper while you're in there.

Or just give it a "flotation test".

I had a daily-driver in Trade School that blew the belts (and the damper) one fine day. I got a junkyard damper, replaced the missing pulley and belts. About two months later the crank gave up. I was never sure if losing the damper damaged the crank, or if a wounded crank was throwing more vibration than the damper could withstand. Chicken or egg sort of deal.

 

So that's what you guys were so busy messing with! lol I was busy too, or else we would have BS'ed more! Interesting about the crank...…………..

 

Very lucky it was caught before the big boom took place and that sinking feeling in the stomach takes place!

A lot of cracks start internally at the sharp edges formed by the meeting of two drilled intersecting oil passages where you can't get at them to round them over and remove the stress riser.

 

Any feedback from Wildcat to see what work they did? Could have been a 50 year old bottom end!

 

A neighbor had a 455 in a Skylark, engine built several years ago by Joe T. His father stopped by in April this year and wanted to know what to do to fix it, it broke he told me. I told him to get it out and take it to Reichert Engines in Owosso, MI. Well, since I was there a couple of times and saw some friends names on some parts, I asked about that engine, apparently the crank bolt backed out and the harmonic balancer came loose and they just tightened up and then done, and then it happened. Andy said the crank broke at the front. No other info, or pics

 

10.48..... Not the first time I was the "bump"....lol

 

Glad I had the pulley at home. Sucks about the crank, though. The only crank I've ever seen broken was in a late 1970s GMC pickup with the Olds diesel. Made a horrible noise but still ran, sort of. Broke at a main journal. I think the mechanic noticed that when it cranked, the snout was moving in and out.

 

^^I had that happen on a 400 Pontiac. Cruising down the interstate at about 70, suddenly started making noise and vibrating. Oil pressure was still good but balancer (and front half of crank!) would move fore and aft about a quarter inch. It broke right at the thrust bearing. It was a mild build in a street driven 4 speed T/A; engine had been built about 20k before failure.
Patrick

 

Man that’s a bummer.
If you learn something from it then it’s not that bad right.

 

It was cracked to start with.....then it broke.

 

I recall Bill's car (white one?) from back in the day. He's had that forever. LOL on the animals line.

Did you get it apart yet? Do you think the thrust bearing may have played a part in the crank failure creating an unusual axial load?

Sorry your trip didn't go better.

 

Whats the rest of the combo and time slip? I'm trapping 119 at 11.50s. 1.68 60'.. thats with a 4 speed and a full dress 3900 lbs car. I'm wondering how bad I'm doing....

 

Joe,

Stage 2 full port heads, big solid flat tappet cam (no vacuum for brakes) Ported Wildcat intake, 1250 Dominator.. 11-1 494 shortblock

650Tq 708HP on the engine dyno last winter.

My 4500 stall 9.5" converter

Front suspension is stock rebuild, loose control arms, no sway bar.. but also no floppy Trick springs.. this thing still sees plenty of street duty. Power steering, and belt driven water pump and alt, with a big clutch fan.

Viking double adjustable shocks at all 4 corners.

HR rear anti-roll bar

3.73 Geared 12 bolt Chev.

Full weight car, complete exhaust- 3.5 to 3", to the bumper.

Here's a middle of the road pass at BG.. car # 7019

 

Ya, that's the one Brian.. he has had it for 38 years, and this will be the 12th different engine combo..

Have not had it apart completely yet, but I suspect it just simply cracked the front rod journal, and then failed completely.

JW