12/90 BG Engine failure head and long cranking answer - ZR-1 Net Registry Forums

LGAFF · 01-27-2014

A few weeks ago I bought a head from Kinsler along with an intake. The parts were at Kinsler solely for test fitting intakes; the parts were received in 1991 and sat there til last week. The head had no cam cover and they offered it to me for $350.....I passed and we ended up at $125; with the thought I could match a cam cover and have it machined. Nice surprise was the head had valves, springs, caps/keepers. Date stamp on the valves Oct 1990. The head is a 1991

In December of 1990, production at Mercruiser stopped due to an engine failure at Bowling Green. The failure was a front camshaft bearing/journal. GM and Lotus dispatched Graham Behan to investigate. They soon discovered an impatient GM employee starting the cars at Wide Open Throttle in the dead of winter. They also discovered that CPC had shortened the crank to start time(This answer your long crank questions) ...the big kicker was that Bay City did also not bother to check the journal sizes before shipping. All of which contributed to the failure.

So back to my purchase, upon examining the head, I find front cam lobe damage on a 1991 head....with parts produced after 10/90. I wonder if this might be that head...maybe Graham will chime in....

01-27-2014	#1
LGAFF Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Crystal Lake, IL Posts: 7,188	12/90 BG Engine failure head and long cranking answer A few weeks ago I bought a head from Kinsler along with an intake. The parts were at Kinsler solely for test fitting intakes; the parts were received in 1991 and sat there til last week. The head had no cam cover and they offered it to me for $350.....I passed and we ended up at $125; with the thought I could match a cam cover and have it machined. Nice surprise was the head had valves, springs, caps/keepers. Date stamp on the valves Oct 1990. The head is a 1991 In December of 1990, production at Mercruiser stopped due to an engine failure at Bowling Green. The failure was a front camshaft bearing/journal. GM and Lotus dispatched Graham Behan to investigate. They soon discovered an impatient GM employee starting the cars at Wide Open Throttle in the dead of winter. They also discovered that CPC had shortened the crank to start time(This answer your long crank questions) ...the big kicker was that Bay City did also not bother to check the journal sizes before shipping. All of which contributed to the failure. So back to my purchase, upon examining the head, I find front cam lobe damage on a 1991 head....with parts produced after 10/90. I wonder if this might be that head...maybe Graham will chime in.... __________________ LGAFF 90 #966-150K miles-sold 92 #234-sold 1987 Callaway TT #17 1991 ZR-1 #1359 Last edited by LGAFF; 01-27-2014 at 11:20 PM.