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I took the 390 to Craig Caulk Racing in Houston. The rings were wiped out and one cylinder is scored and will have to be sleeved. After a lot of measuring, we discovered the one cylinder was oversize. This is the one that the first machine shop started the bore in off center. Apparently they went larger to help fix their goof....which made things worse. Also, the crank did need turning. Pobably .010 .010 but even that might not get it. That's another thing the first machine shop said was ok. I've learned my lesson....I will be buying all the right tools to check measurements before I do another one. In addition, after I was having the smoking trouble the parts house said to run it in with synthetic...so I had put in royal purple. Craig said that was probably what finished it off. I've heard from more people now that synthetic oils are not that great...especially for a new rebuild. Craig runs Shell Rotello in all his racing stuff. He said something about higher sulpher content....I don't know...I think I had already heard on here that the Rotello was really good. I did have Castrol 20 50 in it before I changed to the synthetic. I have always run the Castrol 20 50 in these old v8's without any problems. I'm going with the Rotello this time though. I should have my parts back by next weekend and I hope to put this thing back together.
Sorry to hear that Tracy...and yes Rotella is great from what I hear..I havent used it yet..I use to run Valvoline Racing Oil..it has a higher Zinc content in it...as does Rotella
Sounds like a string of bad luck. Sorry to hear it. I would have made the first machine shop that screwed it up buy me a new block right then and there, but the time for that has passed I suppose.
On to the oils. Basically what they are doing is running a conventional diesel rated oil. These have all sorts of good things in them. Increased anti-wear additives (ZDDP), more anti-foam additives, greater ability to neutralize acid. I do think that 20w50 is too thick. If you can find the Rotella in 10w30, that would be the stuff to use. Here's a link to the oil that I use in my engines: http://www.docs.citgo.com/msds_pi/591239.pdf
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