The saga of my Hemi has ended

[Phillip marvetz]

Most of you know I bought a 426 Hemi engine from a fellow racer (Name withheld because I have been warned that if I mentioned it again I would be banned here) in Waldo Florida for my stocker awhile ago and had major issue's with what I received. It was completely illegal for stock and has been sitting in the crate for a few years. Since I'm not running stock this year I decided to get some use out of it and put it in the car last week and got it running. Today I took it over to my local chassis dyno to get it dialed in for this weekends B.C old time time drags, On pull number 5 it launched a valve thru #1 piston, and a bunch of coolant out of the left side header bank. It did however make 60 more hp than the bone stock street hemi short block it replaced on pull #4. Total junk.
I'm looking forward to building something that will be legal and run the way a Race Hemi should, It will be awhile before I can afford it though. Hopefully the block will be usable, If not I'm done for much longer.

[Dion Hildebrandt]

well that sucks...at least you are considering doing another engine.

[tj310]

Sounds like an expensive lesson. If you knew there were problems why didn't you have it checked beore you blew it up ? ---Trevor

[Harry 6674]

I didn't read that he knew there was a problem just that it was illegal for stock. I'm sure if he felt there was a chance of the thing blowing up he wouldn't have ran it.

[Dinsdale]

I hate when stuff blows up! Sorry to hear and hopefully some of the parts can be salvaged although as I recall from your original story, not much about that motor was good to begin with.

[gonzo1066]

Bummer deal Phil I am sure that when the next engine is done it will FLY!!!!

[Phillip marvetz]

I'm sure it will, As soon as I sell my trailer Tyler will be getting a bunch of parts new to work with. Just think, 8 new pistons instead of the 1 it came with. I'll be bugging Dave a bunch over the next few month's for advice on making it the best it can be, Now that I have a crossram he'll talk to me about it,lol.
It looks like the block can be saved with 1 sleeve. The head is done for sure, The piston is gone and it shoved a piece of the valve stem thru the combustion chamber. The head of the intake valve is jammed up into the port, I found the head of the exhaust valve sitting on top of the connecting rod. The exhaust guide split open and I'm sure the intake guide is broken also I just can't see in there with the valve in the way.
At this point it looks like the locks on the intake let the valve drop, The locks were still in the retainer along with the button but the valve groove is beat up.
I will man up here at this point and say that I can't blame this on the original engine builder. The heads had some rusty old stock retainers and springs on them so I put all new comp cams parts on it. I'll be looking into what happened to the valve stem more this week to make sure it doesn't do this again.

[nolongerracing]

Take a very close look at two things....did the lash cap have clearence from the locks? and Did the retainer have clearence from the rocker arm?

[Paul Precht]

The 5/16th valves combined with the RPMs that these motors turn has always been a weak point IMO

[Phillip marvetz]

Originally Posted by nolongerracing

Take a very close look at two things....did the lash cap have clearence from the locks? and Did the retainer have clearence from the rocker arm?

The lash cap a locks are still in the retainer but the groove in the valve stem is beat up pretty bad. The rest of the lash caps come off easily but this one is in there real tight now, I know for a fact it didn't go in there hard when I put it together.
Paul, There have been alot of days that I wish I had kept my 64 Plymouth and done Max Wedge instead,lol