All Hail Megatron Build - MAP 2.4LR by Levar

4 minute(s) of a 95 minute read

As you fellahs already know, I had a little oil mess to clean due to not having the backside of the valve cover sealed. As stated, I opted for the Simple Green and water approach mainly because I feared brake cleaner would have damaged the powdercoated parts in the engine bay. Yesterday, I sprayed down the parts of the engine bay that had oil on them and water them down. I must have done this at least 4-5 times as I wanted to ensure that all of the oil was completely off. Since it is sunny and hot here in Arizona, I decided to let everything dry off overnight and then take the valve cover off the next afternoon. Fast forward to this afternoon, about 2PM, I go outside and start to remove the valve cover after seeing that there was no sign of oil anywhere in the engine bay. "Good job" I am thinking until I take the coil-on-plug system off and there I see water having a good conversation with my spark plugs. "Oh dang" I am immediately thinking at this point. There was a small puddle of water (hardly visible) in the 1st, 3rd, and 4th cylinder. But there was a good amount of water in the 2nd cylinder. "OK" do not stress and just dry the water out as best as possible. So I used Q-tips and shop towels to get the water completely dried and I am starting to feel good about things until I take the valve cover off and I see an oil mix with a hint of water. Now I am starting to really stress. I completely dried up the cylinder head thinking that was the end of the issue until I realized that oil passes through the cylinder head and into the shortblock. The biggest unknown that I have at this point is: What, if any, water is now in the shortblock?

The timing of this is terrible as I go out of town early Wednesday until the 22nd of September and now the car will just sit in my driveway. From a preventive perspective, I am going to drain all of the oil out of the car but what else can I do? Is there something that I can spray or wipe on the cylinder head in order to prevent any potential rust? Is there anything I can pour into the shortblock (either prior to or after) I put the new oil in? I already have new spark plugs that will go in at the same time. I just hope that I have not destroyed my shortblock with less than 1,000 miles on it. 

9-3-2012

Happy Labor Day everyone!

Yesterday, I was able to put the valve cover back on with a completely new gasket kit. For an added measure, I also put some silicone along the valve cover itself as well as the usual places along the cylinder head.

I put some new spark plugs in the car as well and left them gapped at 0.027. Archie (my installer) convinced me to keep them gapped at 0.027 for driveabilty. He swears by this gap distance. I figured it cannot hurt so I am giving it a shot.

I drove the car for about five miles and it seems like everything is fine and dandy.

I uploaded the latest .rom file that Tom sent to me in order to finalize the 91-octane tune. The car feels phenomenal at 24PSI. I am having some issues trying to get my boost to log properly as it keeps showing 28PSI on the Virtual Dyno chart but I know that Tom said that it was 24PSI. Until I can get this figured out, I will but unable to post those results for the community. Hopefully I/we can get this figured out before I go out of town on Wednesday.

I believe it is 100% time for me to do the full-size battery relocation into the trunk. As the car sits at idle, that joker will just fall dead. This is, of course, after a full charge of the mini battery. Each time the car falls dead, it takes a few more cranks for me to get the car to start. 

I believe it is the battery but could it be the alternator?