Long awaited update.
Been a crazy year with starting a family and now taking care of my newborn son who entered this world at the end of August. The car has been up at Atlanta Speed Company since July occupying their interior storage while we waited for a good time for them to tear into it.
Over the last couple weeks, the professionals at ASC took my engine out and fully disassembled it.
This is what they found. As evidenced below, Mazworx did not assemble and seal my engine correctly. NSFL Warning.
Sealant noodles all up in the oil pickup screen.
Sealant where it does not belong in the oil passages in both heads.
Not pictured: At least one of the Supertech valve seals was not seated correctly and likely causing the smoking on cold starts that I was experiencing.
No sealant where it belongs on the corners of the headgaskets as directed by the service manual. Was sweating oil there too just wasn't enough to drip.
Intake cam sprocket detent plate which fell off upon inspection. This was originally causing slow response codes on the driver's intake bank on my first few drives. I thought it may have been the 40 weight engine oil I had in the sump, so I changed it out for some 20 weight, which made the codes go away once I got the oil good and hot on a summer afternoon. Thought that was the end of it and whatever small blockage was causing the AVCS on that bank to be unresponsive was cleared up. I understand the sprockets rely on a specific oil pressure which is controlled by the OCVs in front of them. I also know that the detent plates on early builds are known to become dislodged from where they are initially pressed in and allow too much oil pressure through them and cause the same family of cam response codes to be triggered. When Mazworx was assembling the engine, I reached out and asked if they could pull the sprockets off an inspect them to ensure the plates were securely in place. They said it was not possible with the cams still in the carriers and they normally just leave them in place when rebuilding these engines. I watched the tech at ASC remove the sprockets from my cams while still in the carriers in about 10 seconds by simply removing the 3 bolts securing them to the ends of the cams.
The sleeves, bores, pistons and rods all appeared to be ok and I had no indication otherwise during the break-in miles I put on the engine. Mazworx did all of the machine work on my original case halves and timing cover to install the sleeves and Reimax high capacity oil pump. That all looked good to us.
I emailed Mark Mazurowski, the owner at Mazworx, on 10/11, the day I went to ASC to see all of this for myself and document it. I reached out and explained what we found and shared the photos- asking what could be done about it. He has not responded as of today, over two weeks later.
After talking things over with ASC, we agreed that the rotating assembly and short block were likely just fine since the miles on the engine were minimal and all at low RPMs with no boost, so there was minimal risk of bearing damage due to starvation. I'm just glad I took it to them when I did.
ASC finished up the reassembly this week with a new full engine gasket and seal kit, new intake cam sprocket, professional surface prep and sealant application that fully adheres to the factory service manual's specification. They also put in all new Supertech valve seals to make sure they were all seated correctly and would not leak as they did previously.
While I am very disappointed in the job that Mazworx did with the assembly of my engine and their apparent lack of responsibility for doing it so poorly, I am trying to stay positive and be grateful for the awesome work that Atlanta Speed Company did to get Melanie back in action! FINALLY!
They definitely treated her right and made sure she was squeaky clean again, and most importantly free of oil leaks and excessive sealant.
Driving her home for the first time in a long time was a real pleasure.
Still needs some tune tweaks, an oil change or two, and new front rotors before hitting the track again, but I'll get to those items as soon as I can. For now I'm just celebrating having it back in my hands with more confidence than ever.