Anyone rebuilt their 8.1 liter vortec? Replaced ect?

[gogger]

We surfed for three days straight ran great. Yesterday headed out was just cruising around and started hearing a horrible sound. Sounds like a crank bearing spun to me. Could be a rod bearing. Anyways want to get it rebuilt quickly. Wondered if anyone had any insight.

[inair]

Hi Scott, great to be out on your boat a few times while it was still going strong and really heart breaking to hear that horrible knocking noise the very first day a lake Nottly! I haven't had to do this with my boat yet but but when I do I think I'll do pull the motor strip the accessories off and take it to a machine shop. Ive had good luck doing that with several auto teardowns and have faith in my local engine shop. That is probably one of the least expensive options but likely take more time.

I just looked at Summit racing and saw quite a few 8.1L marine crate engines starting at about $4500 and up. Depending on how fast you want to do it that might be a good option plus it will come fresh from the GM engine plant with a warranty.

[Jetlink]

I just looked at Summit racing and saw quite a few 8.1L marine crate engines starting at about $4500 and up. Depending on how fast you want to do it that might be a good option plus it will come fresh from the GM engine plant with a warranty.

And it will not have been run in brackish water either.

[inair]

Are you home yet Scott? Have you had a chance to look into it any more?

[gogger]

Still at lake Nottely. Headed home in the morning. Hope to have most of it tore down by tomorrow evening and it if the boat by Monday. Too nice to leave this beautiful lake.

[michael hunter]

When you surf do you tip your boat to one side or the other? I heard Malibu had problems with their Imdmar engines loosing oil pressure because the boat was tipped and the oil pump pick up was sucking air. They had a fix it was a different oil pump pick up for surfing.

[wotan2525]

The recall was actually just to replace the dipstick with one that required 1 quart extra oil. They will send you the new dipstick or you can just overfill by 1 quart.

[michael hunter]

The sump pick up was sucking air and starving the engine of oil when tipped to the side . Indmar has came out with a different oil sump tube PCM never had the problem.

[cadunkle]

Definitely will want to check for oil starvation and pickup tube/oil level issues as mentioned. Personally I'd be inclined, if my 454 calls it quits, to build a 460 based stroker motor for my Saltare. BBC is an inferior engine. Not sure if the 8.1 fixed any of the deficiencies in the 454. If doing a full rebuild I'd spend my time and money on something better. May be more complex fitment issues in a vdrive though. In any event, you won't know how to proceed until you get the engine out and torn down to see exactly what failed and how it failed. May get away with bearings and a polish on the crank, or could be looking at line hone and resize mains, rods, or any number of things. Certainly understand the desire to get it fixed quick being middle of summer, but just gotta decide to pull it apart and go from there or order a new short or long block and gamble on rebuilder quality vs doing it yourself and knowing it's right.

[92SupraComp]

The 8.1 (496) Is an extremely heavy duty 454 based motor. 4 bolt mains (with an extra main added I believe) and 4 bolt end caps. The heads though use a 18 bolt pattern.

GM took the 454 and built it up to a dream block, and then ruined it by changing the head bolt pattern...

[gogger]

Well I got it pulled and took it to a performance engine rebuilder on the north side of Columbus. He is going to try and get it tore down fairly quickly to let me know the extent of the damage. Between surfing it and the oil leak I am not expecting good news.

I talked to indmar and they did not update the oil pick up. My rebuilder seems interested in trying to modify the pickup. Once the pan is off we can then figure out the current set up.

Indmar no longer has manifolds for my engine. That isn't the news I wanted to hear. Anyone have a lead on a set of exhaust manifolds for the 8.1?

[wotan2525]

http://www.michiganmotorz.com/indmar-aluminum-exhaust-manifold-package-2001-2011-p-3601.html

[gogger]

Thanks for the link.
Starting to have depression due to lack of boat. Pretty much takes up most of my life during the summer.

[gogger]

In my search for manifolds I looked at Barr Marine's website. They had 8.1 Vortecs in stock that had been remanufactured by Indmar. They are the high output engines that were used by Supra in my boat. So I decided that would be much quicker than having my engine rebuilt. And honestly their price was very fair. Probably less than if I had mine rebuilt. So I went and picked my engine up that I had dropped off at the engine shop. I brought it back and started pulling stuff that I needed on the new engine. I found the sensors very confusing as there appeared to be two temp sensors and two different type of oil pressure sending units. Called Indmar for some help on the sensors and it turns out that there are two of each one computer type for the ecm and another old school one for the analog gauges. So that explained a lot.

So if you need manifolds or an entire engine I highly recommend Barr Marine. Their prices are great. And the service great also. I actually drove 6 hours each way to pick up the engine and manifolds. Just so that I could get started on it right away. I will post some pics once I get caught up. Today I almost got it ready to drop in. Just need to finish a few things tomorrow afternoon and then drop it in the boat. Hope to test run it Saturday.

[Poorhouse]

Nice work. You got to a act quickly with a short season.