Crusader Project

[blazeracer]

Ok, got the motor apart and found the root of the problem. A rocker nut walked up the stud, the lifter ejected from it's bore, the oil pressure dropped and wiped the bearings. Luckily the push rod got caught in the lifter valley so there's no damage there. It doesn't appear to have hit the cam at all.

Pic 1, The stud for the rocker arm. Look how shiny it is. Possibly caused by a split lock nut? The nut will now move up and down the stud freely by hand. No tension on it at all.

Pic 2, The lifter right where we found it.

The fix, replace the screw in studs and nuts with new ones? No telling how many times the ones on the heads now have been used and reused. Reassemble the motor with new bearings and get ready to rock and roll.

 

[KONA77]

shouldn't be to hard to fix,    new bearings,  a stud and nut kit,  and a push rod,  what else???  are the cam bearings ok??

 

[hillbilly68]

Ok, got the motor apart and found the root of the problem. A rocker nut walked up the stud, the lifter ejected from it's bore, the oil pressure dropped and wiped the bearings. Luckily the push rod got caught in the lifter valley so there's no damage there. It doesn't appear to have hit the cam at all.

Pic 1, The stud for the rocker arm. Look how shiny it is. Possibly caused by a split lock nut? The nut will now move up and down the stud freely by hand. No tension on it at all.

Pic 2, The lifter right where we found it.

The fix, replace the screw in studs and nuts with new ones? No telling how many times the ones on the heads now have been used and reused. Reassemble the motor with new bearings and get ready to rock and roll.

cliff remember when i was at your cabin in broken bow and i told you it had a miss in it......now we know why brotha.....at least its a easy cheap fix...........good catch james,  clap.gif  i've had that same issue with them lock nuts, except mine ended up going through the top of the valve cover...  :smile18:... i will never reuse lock nuts on a valve train again, i'll buy new ones everytime now..................

 

[Last Mohecian]

Don't forget David, Cliff dishes it out just as well. Any chance he gets he rushes to his phone to post on THB about anything that might even remotely resemble an issue with a GM product.  Many times the news hits the board before the boat even hits the trailer if he is around.  This even goes for something as simple as a guy running out of fuel.  You don't have to search very far to find posts from him saying something about "Towing a GM bubba"  It is all in fun and Cliff has received plenty of great help from the guys in this area.  Everyone here wants to see him get this sorted out and I am pretty sure he knows that.

you are right he does dish it out, it just seemed like it was getting a lil extreme, thats all i was sayn, everyone who has had a jet or vdrive for very long of a time knows this can happen no matter what it is chevy, ford, olds, etc etc..........they all have problems at one time or another, it just struck me as there was a lot more negative than positive on these 35+ pages and figured he has had enough grief with this motor.......

I hear ya.  Seems to me the BS pretty much just gets turned up when it looks like he is on the way to getting it right.  Like I told Cliff in a text not long ago.  I'll kick ya, but not when you are down. 

 

[Last Mohecian]

Looks like it is headed down the right road now.

 

[spd500]

In truth , I hate to see the problems Cliff is having with his boat after all his hard work . It really sucks to put everything you got into something like that only to have it blow up in your face . Hopefully this will only be a small setback for him and it will be all good from here .





But he is putting the Ford back in , so I fear he has more heartbreak to come . I have owned them and It's not a matter of if they will break , but when .

 

[blazeracer]

cliff remember when i was at your cabin in broken bow and i told you it had a miss in it......now we know why brotha.....at least its a easy cheap fix...........good catch james,  clap.gif  i've had that same issue with them lock nuts, except mine ended up going through the top of the valve cover...  :smile18:... i will never reuse lock nuts on a valve train again, i'll buy new ones everytime now..................

I seem to remember Duane saying something about lock nut issues with the big Fords when I was building my motor. I had poly locks on mine though.

 

[neverenuf]

Ok, got the motor apart and found the root of the problem. A rocker nut walked up the stud, the lifter ejected from it's bore, the oil pressure dropped and wiped the bearings. Luckily the push rod got caught in the lifter valley so there's no damage there. It doesn't appear to have hit the cam at all.

Pic 1, The stud for the rocker arm. Look how shiny it is. Possibly caused by a split lock nut? The nut will now move up and down the stud freely by hand. No tension on it at all.

Pic 2, The lifter right where we found it.

The fix, replace the screw in studs and nuts with new ones? No telling how many times the ones on the heads now have been used and reused. Reassemble the motor with new bearings and get ready to rock and roll.

I would use poly locks on the studs....Also...Im not a big fan of the roller tipped rockers in james picture...If they are from Comp Cams....from my personal experience they don't oil the rocker stud fulcrum/ball properly....the way the oil hole is drilled in the rocker (no deflection) it shoots the oil over the stud and starves the fulcrum/rocker ball...ymmv  I ended up going with Crane roller rockers and poly locks....

 

[Gold Member]

But he is putting the Ford back in , so I fear he has more heartbreak to come . I have owned them and It's not a matter of if they will break , but when .
[/quote]
I will drive my ford powered boat as hard and far as you want to drive your chevy powered boat and see which one gives up first! Oh wait you don't have a running boat.

 

[neverenuf]

You know all this back and forth with Ford vs Chevy is amusing.....me, I was born and raised on Chevy/GM...started working on the BBC when i was 14 (my older brother owned a 396 SS Chevelle) Worked as an engine tech for GM dealers for over 17 yrs....however my jet boat came with a Ford engine....so I found it refreshing and challenging to make my 460 last and run hard...still love GM though!

 

[blazeracer]

I will still stand by that Calverts did their job right and the machine work is spot on. But the block should be broken down with the plugs all pulled and the galleys cleaned along with the crank cleaned and polished and new cam bearings. They're probably scraped clean also.

 

[hillbilly68]

I will still stand by that Calverts did their job right and the machine work is spot on. But the block should be broken down with the plugs all pulled and the galleys cleaned along with the crank cleaned and polished and new cam bearings. They're probably scraped clean also.

i agree james........... if you found small bits of metal in the pan than its in the crank journals and oil passages in the block too, them bits of metal are famous for getting in oil pump gears and destroying them..........

 

[hillbilly68]

But he is putting the Ford back in , so I fear he has more heartbreak to come . I have owned them and It's not a matter of if they will break , but when .

I will drive my ford powered boat as hard and far as you want to drive your chevy powered boat and see which one gives up first! Oh wait you don't have a running boat.
[/quote]

x2 bobby.................

 

[Crusader]

Dropped off the short block at Calverts. He's going to tear down compley, inspect, replace and machine as nessasry, thoroughly clean and reassemble. He said that most motor failures occur because motors aren't clean when assembled.

 

[Devilman]

Glad ya'll got it figured out... kinda sux about the tear down & rebuild part, but you will know that its done right & you can get out & enjoy it.

But he is putting the Ford back in , so I fear he has more heartbreak to come . I have owned them and It's not a matter of if they will break , but when .

Just curious.. but how long does an engine need to run to be considered a success? Then if/when something does happen, its just an accident or normal wear & tear kinda failure... Not just a Ford, but any of them. I realize it will just be your opinion & not fact, but you throw that line out there quite a bit while not ever having anything to back it up with. Is that why you are taking so long to finish yours? If you leave it unfinished you can safely say that it never broke down on ya? lol

 

[Crusader]

Good point D-man. Thanks

 

[blazeracer]

Dropped off the short block at Calverts. He's going to tear down compley, inspect, replace and machine as nessasry, thoroughly clean and reassemble. He said that most motor failures occur because motors aren't clean when assembled.

I really think the rocker arm stud failure is the source of all the woes. Can they replace the studs on the heads and get new nuts? At a minimum replace the one stud that's shiny and all 16 locknuts.

 

[Crusader]

Wayne said there's absolutely nothing wrong with any of the studs. The big "no no" was reusing the lock nuts. They're "one use only".

 

[Patchman]

I guess this means it's time to turn the radio off and listen to the motor while breaking it in man! That had to be noisy! :smile20: Glad they found the source of the problem though! I know BBF's are very reliable when rite! :smile30:

 

[Crusader]

The radio wasn't on during break in....too nervous.

I know David said he heard the motor missing when we ran it on the trailer but the motor has always sounded that way when I first start the motor as the electric choke needs adjusting. Once the choke opens, the motor ran smoothly......I do know what rattling valves and a missing motor sounds like......