Might cause night mares - sand in pan new engine

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I will make this comment based on a new factory engine my brother bought in about 1972.

It was one of the 250 CID Chevy inline 6cyl crate motors that was supposed to be a universal replacement for both cars and light trucks. This was a factory Chevrolet crate motor bought from a regular Chevrolet dealer.
The car we put the engine into was a 63 Chevy II Nova. It came from the factory with the wrong oil pan, oil pump pickup and dipstick. The Chevy IIs had a front sump and all others had rear sump engines.

The dealer gave us the other parts and we pulled off the factory delivered pan and oil pump pickup. Inside the pan we found about a teaspoon full of foundry pattern sand that would have been sucked up by the pump. Since the engine had been tested at the factory there was probably some of the sand already in the system. We cleaned out the block as best we could. Most of the loose sand seemed to have drained into the pan with the oil. We completed the engine swap and it ran great. We changed the oil after about 100 miles. That engine was still producing over 185 PSI compression on all cylinders when it was sold about 15 years later.
 
Originally Posted By: aquariuscsm
I wonder if was saw Synth Sand or earthen dino sand?
Dino sand ! Syn sand won't let the engine break in.
 
Originally Posted By: CT8
Originally Posted By: aquariuscsm
I wonder if was saw Synth Sand or earthen dino sand?
Dino sand ! Syn sand won't let the engine break in.


Good point!
thumbsup2.gif
I missed that one
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Originally Posted By: FordBroncoVWJeta
"new" from a junk yard?


I think perhaps you missed the phrase "foundry pattern sand" in the first post.

The OP is saying that this was OEM sand, used during production to form the casting mould, especially voids in the casting, and supplied new from the factory.

I've heard of this happening with new BMW motorcycles of similar vintage and I'd guess it could happen with just about anything using castings, with a probability dependent on the level of QC.
 
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I found a similar thing in the same time period - 1974. I was rebuilding a Toyota Corona engine, for the 3rd time, and when cleaning the block found pockets of grindings in the crankcase webs. Someone hadn't cleaned the block after the rebore, but made sure I did.
 
Heh heh . The first SBC, the 265, burned oil from the get-go. The factory fix was Boraxo hand soap tossed into the cylinders to scuff up the bores. The Chevy 6s were a pretty good engine They were better than many of Chevy's later efforts.
 
GM and the other domestic makes just did not care back then because they had the market share locked up.

Remember reading one horror story of one GM engine plant back in the 1970's having a bad batch of engine piston oil rings. Rather than having the line stop, one of the managers just went down the assembly line stations and deposited the known bad piston oil rings at each station so one cylinder in each engine that day got one bad ring.
 
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