Engine carnage, Incorrect clearance Options

[nine14cats]

As many of you know I missed a shift earlier this year and blew up my 2.7L 6 at Buttonwillow. I'm currently building a new car with a 3.6. I sold my burned up motor to a raceshop and they tore down the engine. What they found was that I did not bend valves as suspected. I broke the rings on every cylinder due to incorrect head clearance.

My missed shift was going to do damage, but not this much if the machine shop I used had done the clearancing correctly. What is interesting is that on the last rebuild I did with this engine, I used a large, nationally know engine machine shop and thought I was safe.

Even if I didn't miss a shift, my engine was living on borrowed time. It appears the pistons and heads were touching. It kinda makes me lose faith in everyone I talk to in this business. I'm not a master mechanic, but the lack of of attention to detail I have run across over the past 2 years has been really disappointing. Maybe I'm just cursed.

Anyway...here's some pics of what happens when your P's hit the heads.

Bill P.

[nine14cats]

Hi Demick,

I know. It sounds really weird. But the shop that I sold the engine to races ALOT. Everyone here knows them. And they can't believe it either. I told them who I had the machine work done with and it is the same place they use for alot of their work that they sub. The owner of the shop says he's never seen something like this before from that machine shop, but they measure everything and said that something was terribly wrong.

The good news is that I am splitting the cost of new pistons with them as they can get a really good discount considering I have the receipts and they do business with them. I received good money from the race shop for the engine with the thought that it was just a bent valve, not broken pistons.

Very strange....

Bill P.