ScienceguyXJ
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Colorado Springs CO
I've got a 4.9L Titan stroker and it's been blowing the front and rear main seals. Spare me any "should have stayed away from Titan..." It's been a great motor so far besides this problem. Anyways It's been doing it for about 1.5 years and I've replaced about 3 fronts and 3 rear main seals. Only has about 12k miles and is about 3 years old. Called and talked to Chuck with Titan about it a few times and he finally came up with the solution of trying some different seals. He recommended trying a double lip offset seal for the rear (Felpro BS40612) and a seal saver/speedy sleeve for the front. I just tried these new seals along with a new oil pan gasket and it lasted for all of a day until it started to leak again seemingly from the rear main and maybe one whole side of the oil pan gasket. I've had multiple shops install the seals and they are always good quality Felpro ones.
Titan built my motor with Chevy pistons that stick out of the bore and apparently can move around in the bore by grabbing on to the connecting rod making piston slap that I can hear from time to time. A guy in my home town who makes Jeep strokers claims that by using these Chevy pistons, and because they stick out of the bore so far, that it creates too much crank case pressure (from blow-by I assume) and causes the seals to blow. He recommended replacing the pistons with custom ones which could be around $4k when it's all said and done... I haven't been able to find anything in my research to support this claim and I've had a leak down test done on the motor which came out normal which to my understanding would mean that it's not having any blow by if I understand it right. Only other thing I can think of is maybe the oil pan, but it's been the same oil pan the whole time and it didn't start leaking until after 1.5 years. Or possibly since the pistons can move around in the bore it's wearing down the rings allowing blow-by but I don't understand how the leak down test would be normal...
Not trying to knock Titan, Chuck has been very helpful to me and he claims he has this same piston set up in his motor and doesn't have any problems with it. Has anyone else ever heard of this problem when using Chevy pistons in this application or has anyone else ran into similar issue with their Titain 4.9L? Cheers!
Titan built my motor with Chevy pistons that stick out of the bore and apparently can move around in the bore by grabbing on to the connecting rod making piston slap that I can hear from time to time. A guy in my home town who makes Jeep strokers claims that by using these Chevy pistons, and because they stick out of the bore so far, that it creates too much crank case pressure (from blow-by I assume) and causes the seals to blow. He recommended replacing the pistons with custom ones which could be around $4k when it's all said and done... I haven't been able to find anything in my research to support this claim and I've had a leak down test done on the motor which came out normal which to my understanding would mean that it's not having any blow by if I understand it right. Only other thing I can think of is maybe the oil pan, but it's been the same oil pan the whole time and it didn't start leaking until after 1.5 years. Or possibly since the pistons can move around in the bore it's wearing down the rings allowing blow-by but I don't understand how the leak down test would be normal...
Not trying to knock Titan, Chuck has been very helpful to me and he claims he has this same piston set up in his motor and doesn't have any problems with it. Has anyone else ever heard of this problem when using Chevy pistons in this application or has anyone else ran into similar issue with their Titain 4.9L? Cheers!