Starter issue

ESGWheel

Senior Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Aug 29, 2015
Messages
664
Well, its decision time. If I may, please consider the following:
  • Rebuilding an engine can be very satisfying and provide lots of bragging rights.
  • If you have kids of the proper age, what fun to get them involved
  • Unless you have a hull integrity issue, fiberglass boats last practically forever
  • A project like this is a great excuse to buy some new cool tools
  • You will not be alone in your rebuild, this forum will help and guide
:)
 

ESGWheel

Senior Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Aug 29, 2015
Messages
664
Useless the OP found the head of the valve (or pieces thereof) inside that chamber, it got chewed up and spit out. This is a real mystery: was running fine and then on the next try cannot start, in fact did not even turn over, only a ‘click’. So, no time for that valve disc to be chewed up and spit out....
 

alldodge

Moderator
Staff member
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Mar 8, 2009
Messages
42,737
Useless the OP found the head of the valve (or pieces thereof) inside that chamber, it got chewed up and spit out. This is a real mystery: was running fine and then on the next try cannot start, in fact did not even turn over, only a ‘click’. So, no time for that valve disc to be chewed up and spit out....
my wow was to the OP, not your statement
 

ESGWheel

Senior Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Aug 29, 2015
Messages
664
I shoud haev been more clear > I was adding to my Ouch! and your Wow! as to how this condition could be.... a sort of half rhetorical, half serious question....
Any insight on how this condition could be?
 
Joined
Jun 24, 2009
Messages
27
Yes with the head off I get full rotation of the crank. Did not hear a thing when I ran it last time. Or the time before, no granted it was for 10 minutes each time to get it up to temp.
I am assuming this is not something that would have happened in the past and I would not notice. Is it possible that it broke off and them when I tried to start it , it got wedged.

I did look at the broken part of the valve that is still in the spring and it was not rusted. Looks like there was a failure of the head gasket between two cylinders. Not sure if that caused the valve failure.
 

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ESGWheel

Senior Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Aug 29, 2015
Messages
664
Have you found any bits and pieces of the valve head?
I still cannot wrap my head around how this happened…..
 

ratdude747

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Sep 30, 2023
Messages
325
For me it still looks like a full rebuild
Need one piston but doing one suggest do all

Heads and everything
Agreed. Engines (and to be honest, any major assembly with many internal parts) get to a point that once there's enough damage, "repair" is no longer the correct term. As much will need to come apart to fix this, at least a minor rebuild is warranted.

(For the next paragraph, I'm going to be referencing the time in 2020 that I did a "minor rebuild" on my 1984 F-150's 300 that had blown 5/6 upper compression rings and chewed the bores real bad).

Not to say that certain things may be checked out and found to be OK, but having a machine shop check out components and do some refurbishing as needed isn't all that expensive. In my case, that was having the block bored 0.030" over (due to the ring/bore issue above), having the head magnafluxed (because boy genius here dropped it in the driveway while cleaning it with the block), having the crank polished (always a good idea when the crank is out), having new cam bearings and freeze plugs installed (because they were removed and nuked as part of being hot tanked), and having new pistons installed on the stock rods (since my wrist pins are shrink-fit). All together (keeping in mind this is a straight 6, not the OP's V8) costing a mere $300. However, since my failure wasn't with the valvetrain, I was able to get away with not messing with the heads other than replacing valve stem seals (since I had all that apart for cleaning).

In this case, obviously there's at least 1 piston needing done and a head that needs serious rework or replacement... that'll require tearing down the short block, so new bearings and a crank polish is highly recommended. And since new piston means new rings, that means checking the bores and seeing if any boring/piston size changes are needed. Not to mention that there may be other valvetrain damage... rockers, lifters, pushrods, and even the cam itself are suspect.

All of this is assuming the valve failure didn't cause any block damage due to metal debris getting scattered. It's very possible the block survived, but nobody sane tears an engine down just to replace a piston... check everything out. But also don't be afraid to not replace non-consumables if they're still in good shape... check everything out!

Edit... low and behold in my YouTube suggestions, here's an example of a head failure (in this case, a dropped valve seat) causing block damage. The shop is able to fix it (that's what they do!), but more damage than initially suspected...

 
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