Not Quite Dead (feeling better, actually)

Thank goodness for those that know more than I do. (At the same time, where were they when I needed them?)

I thought the 351 was a goner a few weeks ago but now it seems it ain't as bad as I thought. Had the giblets inspected by a couple of local builders and they declared it still had a steady pulse. It appears the only real damage was to the bearings and a little scoring of the crank.

Cam, lifters, etc. are all Ok. Block is at the machine shop now getting a boil out, new cam bearings, galley plugs threaded, rods checked, crank checked and polished if required. Should have it all back this coming week.

The culprit was the builder (me) putting the rocker arms on upside down in relation to the pivot. The machined area for the rocker arm nuts was pointed down towards the base of the studs and the lock nuts were galling and eating themselves and pushing metal through the system. I thought it was odd when we adjusted the valves a few weeks ago that the lash on all valves had opened up to .036 from the original .023 they were set at. I was having a hell of a time trying to adjust my fuel curve and ignition timing with that much lash.

So I feel better and wiser. And a bit foolish at making such a rookie mistake. At least it's a mistake I will not make again.

Plus, while everything is apart I can finish up some other details. Found a crack in my tailshaft housing so that gets replaced, I can weld in the header bungs so I can istall the evac system, and today I finished getting the car all into black suede.

Since I'm only facing a $300 - $500 freshen up instead of a $2000 - $3000 rebuild I can take a little extra time to check and recheck everything and still make the track by late June.

Today we celebrated by having friends over for waffles & strawberry daqueri's. And we raised our glasses to all vets from all wars and quietly prayed there would be no more.

Thank you, Veterans.

Murff

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Just Livin' the Dream, Baby! (One More Time)
'68 Futura, Enderle injected 351W (Rising)
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<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Murff on 5/28/07 11:46am ]</font>

Good news indeed! Nice to hear it!
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Bravo!!
I was pulling for you. Now, make sure you get some new videos when you get it purring again. Prefereably a video of a wheel stand [img]/forums/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]
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Awesome man, that was really a bum deal, and I'm glad you got it worked out!

Cris
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<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font size=-1>Quote:</font><HR></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT SIZE=-1><BLOCKQUOTE>
On 2007-05-27 20:46, Murff wrote:
The culprit was the builder (me) putting the rocker arms on upside down in relation to the pivot. The machined area for the rocker arm nuts was pointed down towards the base of the studs </BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR></TD></TR></TABLE>

I did the exact same thing the first time I installed a set of full roller rockers many moons ago. The valve lash was almost dead quiet when they were first installed, then got louder and louder as the lash opened up. After a quick inspection, I saw that some of the fulcrums were flat on top, some round. I needed all the flats in the UP position, but in my haste to get them installed, didn't pay any attention to whether those flats were up or down!

Lesson learned. Thanks for not being too "proud" to admit the error. You're not the only one who's made that mistake! [img]/forums/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]

Good Luck!
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Good on yah, Murff!
Ras Daniel [img]/forums/images/smiles/icon_cool.gif[/img]
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Now that is always great to hear!! Woohooooo!!

Deb

Still waiting for the machine shop to finish up the block & crank. I'll give them a nag-o-gram call tomorrow and see if it'll be ready on Friday.

Spent this week in the garage cleaning all the rest of the internals. Rinsed quite a bit of debris out of my rocker arms. Disassembled my solid lifters and washed them out, debris there too. Polylocks are goners, need to replace them. Got the oil pump, pickup and pan washed out tonight, too. Everything is sitting in my parts cabinet, just waiting.

The reason I tattled on myself on what I did wrong was so that some other wannabe builder might read this and would not make the same error. When you think you have everything right, re-check everything.

Hmmm, wheelstand video. Should I try to impress the neighbors with that or wait until I get back to the track? Decisions, decisions.

Murff
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