2 years into a 40 Mark 1 build and two weeks before a booked a UK IVA test my engine decided it didn’t want to turn over very well. An internal inspection with an endoscope revealed water droplets on the pistons and rusty colouring around the top of all 8 bores. The engine, a 365 bhp 302 with a Quickfuel (Holley) carb is only 18 months old and has run for less than 3 hours.
It was a crate engine supplied by ATK Performance Engines of Texas who have not been very helpful. The engine is only warrantied in the USA and the fault was apparently caused by me because I did not check the head bolts after 500 miles and only used water in the cooling system. Left with the choice of returning the engine to Texas with all the time and cost involved or strip it myself and have it rebuilt in the UK I opted for the latter. To my surprise the headgaskets are fine and show no sign of leakage. The two ali heads have been pressure tested and are fine. From what one can see of the bores with the pistons still in there is no sign of physical damage. So a lot of head scratching as to how water could have got into all eight bores.
The engine is now at a specialist who will fully strip it and hopefully rebuild it in the new year.
In the meantime does anyone have any ideas or had this problem before?
It was a crate engine supplied by ATK Performance Engines of Texas who have not been very helpful. The engine is only warrantied in the USA and the fault was apparently caused by me because I did not check the head bolts after 500 miles and only used water in the cooling system. Left with the choice of returning the engine to Texas with all the time and cost involved or strip it myself and have it rebuilt in the UK I opted for the latter. To my surprise the headgaskets are fine and show no sign of leakage. The two ali heads have been pressure tested and are fine. From what one can see of the bores with the pistons still in there is no sign of physical damage. So a lot of head scratching as to how water could have got into all eight bores.
The engine is now at a specialist who will fully strip it and hopefully rebuild it in the new year.
In the meantime does anyone have any ideas or had this problem before?