Originally Posted by
Itoldyouso
Charlie, yep, it sure was a shocker and I couldn't believe what I was seeing in the pan.
Pat, those are my feelings too, that they didn't strake them in properly. When the first one came out my machinist guy said "It probably spiked oil pressure and blew it out". We were watching the oil pressure gauge and it ran no higher than 65 lbs, my 350 Chevy ran at 70 lbs going down the expressway and never blew out a plug. He showed me the straking tool they use and explained how the process works (I had never heard the term "strake" until that day)
These were not installed deep at all, just flush with the block surface, and as you can see by the 4 marks, the straking wasn't very deep. I couldn't agree more with you regarding the machine work in this area. I've been using this same guy for 25 years and he has generally been the best in the area, but he lets his guys do lots of the work, and the talk around town is that if he personally does the work it is better than if one of the others in the shop does it.
I'll also make sure the new plugs don't block any ports, as you suggested. What do you think about that side of lifters getting reduced oil flow.........could that have been the noise I've been getting?
Don