Interesting.

 

The story behind the shelby is that yesterday while I was at work my brother decides that even being a die-hard gm guy this shelby would be awesome. It was for sale in perfect running order for $8500, which was a good deal as it is. So he asked if I was willing to go in on it and I said lets look at it first. Then he calls me back saying the guy had "bad news" about it and he thinks the supercharger locked up while he was driving it that afternoon and he had just had it towed home. So we went an looked at it. Turns out he was picking it up from getting an oil change. He only got 2-3 blocks away when white smoke started coming out and it shut off. He tried to start it at home with no luck. Well with gobs of oil in the exhaust and coolant on the dipstick it was obvious that it was not the supercharger. He gave us a criminally good deal on it cause of that. So we were able to drain the oil within 6hrs of the incident and took a sample to get analyzed to see if there bearings are all good. I will update when we find out exactly what broke, whether it be head or head gasket and update on my first one as well when I can.

 

Bad news on the shelby. Piston #1 is gone, somewhere in the oil pan i'd imagine. My best friend brought over his bore scope and the cylinder is trashed with the connecting rod wedged up into the bottom side of the cylinder and no piston in sight. So now we gotta find a motor.

 

I'm guessing the shelby's didn't have different pistons than the stock hypereutectic ones, in which case the problem was probably detonation which shattered it.

 

It is in fact a bone stock 5.9l except the supercharger. It has a knock sensor from kenne belle with a warning meter in cab so I hope detonation wasn't the issue. But the intake is a lake of coolant so we we're thinking blown head or head gasket caused the piston failure. Either way its trashed so on to finding a motor. Also it has an aftermarket intercooler and it looks like someone put a smaller pulley on the supercharger. So my guess is it has to much boost.

 

Too much boost certainly could have been the issue too. The stock pistols are way better than cast ones, but not nearly as strong as forged ones.

 

Well an update on the shelby. Motor is out and we found lots of piston (and possibly pieces of block) in the valley beneath the intake above the cam. I have know idea how they could even be there. I will take pictures and post when the oil pan comes off. Thats going to be fun since it can't be done on an engine stand because we had to pull the converter with the motor due to being so locked up.

 

So I have an update, #1 piston has a hole in the cylinder wall so we ordered a long block from rock auto. When the head studs come monday I'll start on that. Going to do arp head studs and mopar performance head gaskets. Also got a plenum kit from hughes engines.

 

Long block in, seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.......

 

It lives. I'll get a video up soon, just got break in done this afternoon.