At the end of the 2011 race season the 632 Chevy we have been running for several years was clicking off 7.70 ETs at 170 and all seemed good. We took the engine out in November with the idea of having the crank, rods and pins magnafluxed and the aluminum block cleaned and thoroughly inspected.

WOW! Am I glad we had it checked. This is the engine we broke a rod bolt in during the 2010 season and had the block repaired, new rods, pins and pistons put in. We had about 180 runs on in 2010 and during 2011. Here is what we found:

1. The block repair was not all that great as can be seen by the "hole" left in the main webbing. The welding for the sleeve register was good but during the sleeve installation someone gouged the cylinder wall with a die grinder. The sleeves were in need of replacement as they had been honed as far as we could during the two rebuilds the engine has had.

We had used the Ohio Crankshaft H-beam rods for three years and thought we would upgrade to their super-duty I-beam rods. Very nice pieces with ARP2000 fasteners, Jay checked them and all they needed was a little honing on the pin bushing to get the correct clearance.

2. The crankshaft was sent to Ohio Crankshaft and it has several cracks on both the main and rod journals. It would need replaced but it had survived about 600 runs and one rod-bolt breaking explosion. We replaced it with an Ohio Crankshaft ProMax 4.750" stroke crank.

3.The bushings in the small end of the rods were "hammered". I think this was due to us using a new Shell Racing unleaded fuel. We feel it was some detonation that beat the bushings up. The money it would cost to buy new rod bolts and replace the pin bushings was so close to what a new set of Ohio Crankshaft billet steel rods cost that we opted for new I-beam rods rather than repairing the H-beam rods.

4. We had one piston with damage to a ring land and Ohio Crankshaft stocked the piston we used so I only had to buy one of them.