Recent build, 390 with Edelbrock heads, morel roller lifters, adjustable Ford iron rockers, PI intake. Motor is in a nice 1970 f100 I built for my daughter. My initial valve setting was one full turn after zero lash.

Maybe 5-600 miles on the motor. It has run fine, but always ran a bit rich at startup. Once it started getting cold here, I noticed it started sounding real fat with a bit of a burble. I finally modified the EFI tables to lean it out a bit at cold startup. Oddly, that didn’t make much difference. It got worse as it got colder.

Finally, I decided to investigate a little more and listen closer as the motor was warming up after a dead cold start. What I hear is the distinctive sound of a valve (or two) hanging open, not a fat burble. Once the coolant temp gets above 125 or so, it starts to clear up. At temperature, the motor runs great.

So, it seems I have one or two valves that are a bit tight? Haven’t pulled the covers yet, but looking for other ideas and things to look for before I reset the valves. I thought about pulling the plugs before it gets to temp and look for a couple wet ones. If it was distinctive and only one or two, I would back off the adjuster 1/4 turn on those.

With hydraulic lifters, wouldn’t they have to be REALLY overtightened to overcome the full travel?

My McLeod organic/ceramic clutch finally needed to go. It was starting to chatter and it turns out something was bouncing around, as the clutch, pressure plate and flywheel had little gouges in their surfaces.

The throwout bearing was shot and one of the spring clips was missing...possible cause of the indications. That pressure plate never really fit right in my mind and needed to be adjusted all the way to the end of the adjustment rod from the beginning.

Bought a Ram pressure plate and Powergrip clutch from Brent and installed it last weekend. Plenty of adjustment on the stock rod to put the throwout surface at the right gap. Finally got to take the car out this weekend for some very mild break-in miles. I have to say, the light pedal feel is a nice change for a street car. I never thought much of Ram as compared to McLeod, but the feel of this setup is nice so far. I need to get a lot more local miles on it to break it in before I can hammer it in 4th to make sure the 428 won’t drive through it. I’m sure it won’t, but I can’t get it through my head that a setup with this feel will hold the power too.

The McLeod clutch I installed 13 years ago has started chattering. Time for something new, but haven’t decided yet...wanted to pull everything and see if I’m going for a flywheel too.

Anyway, when I installed this, I seem to remember plastic pieces had to be removed from under the arms (Borg & Beck style) after the pressure plate was mounted. That only occurred to me after I started to loosen and remove the bolts. With half of the bolts out and the others loosened, I realized there was still a lot of force on those bolts. I assumed after a couple threads, the pressure would be off. I guess I’m too used to stock setups. The bolts aren’t very long, either.

It was getting late anyway, so I tightened everything back down and walked away. Do I need to add some spacers back under the arms to remove the load, or can I replace half the bolts with longer ones and relive the pressure on the way out?

I guess it's just my turn. In the core plug discussion recently, I threw my method on the table for discussion, along with many others. Never had a leak, although I don't build engines for a living.

This weekend I fired up a 390 I just finished and it all went very well...until I noticed a small pool of coolant. Driver's side forward plug is weeping (my wife wants to know why it's so sad).

Installed the same as always with a thin wipe of gasket shellac on the plug as well as the bore, let tack up and then sent it home. I never press from the center of the plug, always the outside edge. Plugs are Dorman #565-036, brass 1 49/64". This one looks like its got a bit more cup to it, but could be an illusion provided by staring at it while on my head in the bay of my F100. Also may be driven in a touch too far?

I guess I'll clean it real well and the replacement will get some sleeve retainer like Blair suggested.

Getting ready to put together another mild hyd roller. Can't find this oil at my local auto parts stores.

Before I pull the trigger on a Speedway buy through Amazon, any suggestions? Also need some 20w-50 for the 428.

This stuff used to be on the shelf at Advance and Napa.

Put the cam bearings in a 390 block tonight after finally getting it back from the machinist yesterday. Spent a couple hours cleaning it, even though I paid him to clean it. Just wasn't up to my expectations (you know, clean!).

Anyway, put #5 through #2 in with the oiling slot at 4 o'clock (actually, at 4:18 just to add fuel to the great debate). Put #1 in from the rear to help ensure it was in square. Verified the two oiling holes were aligned by reaching up through with a wire. Block was on a low bench at this point, so I could install the #1 bearing and then put the rear plug in before mounting it on my stand. My mistake was not grabbing my mirror and verifying before doing so.

After getting the rear plug in with a little green Loctite, I mounted it on my engine stand with the intent to install the cam next. Well, looks like I'll be ordering another set of cam bearings first. Weekend is shot.

A piece of the bearing surface to the rear of the bottom oiling hole popped out.



I didn't have any burrs on the block and the bearing looked very nice prior to installing it. Nothing evident on the tool and I'm very particular about loading the bearing and expanding the tool while full contact on the back of the bearing is maintained. I'm chalking this up to a bad bearing, unless someone has another suggestion on how I could have contributed.

The packaging has gotten increasingly absurd.

Most recent box included several gaskets and full order of bearings. The box was huge, to accommodate the largest gaskets. I get that, but there was hardly any filler used, The boxes of cam, crank and rod bearings were floating around. On top of that, the rod bearing box was completely empty and the bearings were in a pile in the bottom of the box. Of course, this depends on which end you consider the bottom, but they were always at the bottom...meaning, I heard them before I opened the box.

On top of that issue, I can't find any material that would have been protecting the Speed Pro rod bearings when they were in the box. I can't remember what they use, but I assume there should be some sort of divider? Not to be found within the box or among the packaging. So, did a disgruntled Summit employee empty the box of bearings into the bigger box before taping it up and sending it on its way?

Frustrating. All the bearings are marked up from each other and I'll be sending them back. Luckily, I took pictures as I opened the box, because I could hear that they were loose.

Ended up buying a complete new set.
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I need a replacement .020" over piston to put a motor back together. Probably should be considering a stroker setup with modern style pistons, but really don't want to change out the brand new cam. Cracked a cylinder wall and have the ability to just swap existing rotating setup to a new block.

If I don't find a piston, I'll probably be looking at a new set of pistons and have to have the setup re-balanced.