454 L29 1997 moves to next stage of repair
So the trouble started last September when a fill up in NJ, (55 gallons), yielded a pinging and suspected bad gas. Then with confirmation it was not the gas, and after idling with octane booster, the ...
Forum Discussion
The #3 wristpin appears to have let go in mine. I haven't done a postmortem yet but it's loose in the bore. It looks like the connecting rod got under it and jammed it into the head. Pushrods and valves are bent, piston is broken and the bore is trashed. So I have a trashed block and potentially a trashed head.
Since mine's an '84 I don't want to invest a lot in it. I picked up a complete 47k-mile 454 out of an '85 RV for $1k. Going to replace all the gaskets (have to anyway because it need to be stripped to a short block to get it in the RV's door) and give it a spray can rebuild. If it holds up for a couple of seasons I'll be happy.
With regard to the OP a "tick" could be just about anything, but nothing major...yet. It's not likely a spun bearing. A spun bearing would cause a deep knock and/or a "death screech". It would also take out the crankshaft almost immediately, which would add to the cost of a rebuilt. If I were in that situation - with a complete, running engine with presumably no head, crank or block damage - I'd have it rebuilt. It would be no less reliable if done properly, be a fraction of the cost of a new engine and probably even cost less than a Jasper engine. You could even have the rebuilder tweak it a bit for more power (heads, intake, cam tweaks for example) and still come out pretty good cost-wise.
Since mine's an '84 I don't want to invest a lot in it. I picked up a complete 47k-mile 454 out of an '85 RV for $1k. Going to replace all the gaskets (have to anyway because it need to be stripped to a short block to get it in the RV's door) and give it a spray can rebuild. If it holds up for a couple of seasons I'll be happy.
With regard to the OP a "tick" could be just about anything, but nothing major...yet. It's not likely a spun bearing. A spun bearing would cause a deep knock and/or a "death screech". It would also take out the crankshaft almost immediately, which would add to the cost of a rebuilt. If I were in that situation - with a complete, running engine with presumably no head, crank or block damage - I'd have it rebuilt. It would be no less reliable if done properly, be a fraction of the cost of a new engine and probably even cost less than a Jasper engine. You could even have the rebuilder tweak it a bit for more power (heads, intake, cam tweaks for example) and still come out pretty good cost-wise.
