| Author | Message | ||
     Gabriel Guay (Gearhead) Member Username: Gearhead Post Number: 89 Registered: 04-2002 |
Sorry for the long post but, this may be interesting to some of you contemplating the same job in the near future. Had vacation this week and had planned to pull the 120K mile motor and do a valve job and if needed replace the short block with a new spare short block. Well, I started out on Saturday morning at about 10:00 AM and started to prep the truck for pulling the motor out. Took all day just to disconnect the wire harnesses, hoses and radiator. Ran out of day light since the truck no longer fits in the garage. Pulled out the motor Sunday morning. ( I was working by my self so it was slow going ) image/{Motor Out} image/{Motor on stand} I was pleasantly surprised when disassembling and found the following: 1. The knocking noise was not the main or rods but, a really bad stuck exhaust valve. 2. The main & rod bearing clearances were all within spec. Granted a little looser than mid spec but, well within spec. Hand polished the main and rod journals and installed new std bearings. 3. Even at 120K miles running 5W50 Syntec it was still very clean. Golden brown varnish but no sludge or crust. Only had a slight crust on the valve cover baffles. 4. All the exhaust valves had carbon in the guides. # 4 was so stuck, I had to tap it out with a mallet. 5. Can looks good, no wear pattern on the lifters but I did replace a bent push rod on #4 exhaust. 6. Cyl bores looked good and once carbon ridge was scraped off with plastic scraper, no detectable ridge could be felt. ( old school finger nail method ) so I left the pistons & rods in place. Knowing the bottom end was sound. I then set out to get a valve job done. None of the local machine shops in the Elizabeth City area could do it within a week and source parts so I contacted Rover Club House in Durham NC. ( A 3 ½ hour drive ). Larry at RCH said bring in Tuesday morning and they have a Machine shop they use that can turn them around fast. I then drove to Durham and met Larry at 9:30 AM Tuesday morning. We dropped off the heads with new valves and seals at 11:00 Am Tuesday and visited with the RCH gang for a while swapping stories. Larry called me Wednesday Morning at 11:00 AM and said the heads are ready for me to pick up. An overnight turnaround on heads is out standing. Drove to RCH and picked them up Wednesday evening. Reassembled the little rover on Thursday and had it in the truck Thursday night by 5 PM. Finished up Friday bay 4:30 complete with a new Flow master 50 on the stock exhaust and started her up Friday evening. Sounds and runs great, no more funny noises and can’t say enough about the gang at RCH. For those who will ask, The Flow master 50 Delta flow with full stock tail pipe and resonator sounds about like a new stock mustang GT. Similar noise level and tone. Rumbles nicely around town and barely noticeable at highway speeds. On the road again and still have spare short block in the crate. Sometimes, Life is good. GG | ||
| Robin Cooper (Cooper1) Member Username: Cooper1 Post Number: 65 Registered: 12-2003 |
Hm, interesting, thanks. | ||
| Kenny Bissett (Jetson) Member Username: Jetson Post Number: 154 Registered: 07-2003 |
Awesome! | ||
| Big Ed (Sandman) Member Username: Sandman Post Number: 80 Registered: 02-2004 |
GearHead, Whenever I complete a huge job like that I usually have a few left over parts too. But hell, I've never had a leftover short block! Great Work! SandMan |
