Nothing about MSD surprises me at this point. After my distributor died following 12 minutes of use I had to send it back for repair. It seems the module had failed, and I could hear a high pitched squeak when I rotated the shaft. They called to say they couldn't re-use the Crane melonized iron gear and asked for a new one.

I called Barry R who sent them a new gear. MSD now can't find the gear, but the new problem (9 weeks after I sent the distributor in) is that they don't have any shafts to repair my distributor, and don't know when they will. I suggested that it was unreasonable and they should just ship me a new one, and they said they don't have any new ones either.

I had put my old autolite distributor back on, but it had some issues and now it seems the shaft is jumping up and down in the distributor and cutting up the posts and arcing inside the cap.

Thinking I may need a non-MSD option here but there don't seem to be many good ones.

Not really, why should they have all the headaches?

My 445 is still very fresh - it doesn't have 100 miles on it yet, probably two hours of "on" time, so it is not completely surprising it has issues. As a refresh it is a 445, Prison Break package, with BBM heads, a Street Dominator intake, QFT SS 830, T&D street rockers, hydraulic roller lifters, and the cam specs are posted below.

I've added an MSD 6AL box, and it runs a Pertronix Flame Thrower coil. My MSD Ready to Run died, so went back to the original Ford distributor for now. Timing is around 14 at idle, 35 total at 3,500.

It was idling a little fast, so I backed off the idle adjustment today when it had been driven and it is around 750 right now. Here are the issues, I'll list them all since there may be some relationship:

• I'm getting a lot of oil on the heads - it has the restrictors under the oil stand but it also has pushrods with holes at each end to pass oil - there is enough oil under the valve covers that the hose from the PCV to the vacuum port under the carb is wet
• My vacuum is around 6 inches, I've been told with this combination it should be up around 10.
• It tends to run on after it is turned off - it usually fires about 3 times.
• I had issues with the lifter pre-load and have had to do the adjustment 3 times after we started it the first time. Problem has been combination of loud ticking once, and hanging valves twice
• Today after running it two days ago for about 15 minutes and today for about 20 it had run very strongly, but when I got it home and went to back the idle off (it had been a little over 1,000) I noticed a pronounced tick. We put a stethoscope on it and I'm pretty sure it is in the same rocker area as the last time it got loud.

https://youtu.be/3erWvuPCBgk

http://i1135.photobucket.com/albums/m637/410dyno/Cam%20Card.jpg


Do any of these things seem related? Any thoughts on why it won't hold a lifter pre-load adjustment? If it already has restrictors under the rocker stands, do I need to go to closed end pushrods?

Put in an new 6AL box, 8595 distributor, new wires, and it ran for about 200 yards. The whole neighbourhood seemed to get involved to help me turn it around and tow it back to my place.

Looks like a bad pickup in the distributor. I looked at the distributor on Summit to check something the other day (before I installed it) and was surprised at the really, really bad reviews of this part. Not huge numbers, but out of six reviews, four said they had all failed.

Mine lasted about 10 minutes of running time before packing it in. Curious what the folks on here who build engines have had as experiences with these?

I'm going to pull a new ignition wire since the sheathing on the one in the truck is crumbling. I might as well pull the oil pressure and water temp sensor wires. I haven't been able to find a part for the slip on connectors that are moulded onto the end of the factory wires, but I note that both sending units have threaded bolts that the slip on connectors attach to.

The oil sending unit is kind of buried, anyone know the nut sizes for them? The oil unit seems to be larger.

With my truck put away for the winter, I am thinking ahead to starting to tune the carb, then the timing on my still very fresh 445 (I managed to get it to run well enough to put an hour of driving time on it).

I'm considering buying an O2 sensor to help with tuning and am wondering what I need to know. For example, should I be looking at an A/B sensor (one for each bank), on that installs in the truck, or one that has a hand held unit.

I don't know a lot of people who have one. One point, I don't have a second vehicle that could use one, so being able to move from vehicle to vehicle would have limited value.

So a short recap - I previously posted some videos of my 445 running pretty roughly and described some other issues including hard starting, poor power, and low vacuum. I also mentioned that I had a loud whistle coming from the carb.

Howie (ScotiaFE), who hasn't been around in a while, suggested my main problem was I was hanging valves. I re-did the lifter pre-load following Barry's advice - turned down the adjustment screw until it made contact with the pushrod, and then one more full turn. This made a difference and I saw vacuum come up to about 10 inches, it started easier and ran smoother, and seemed to have a lot more power.

In addition I took off the carb and adjusted the rear butterfly to close it a little more - this eliminated the whistle, and I adjusted the idle mixture a little. Without going any deeper I stopped there with the carb but I did check the timing and turned it up to about 16 degrees of advance and it ran most happily there.

At this point I took it in to have new collectors made and new headers installed to stop all the exhaust leaks, and when I dropped it off I had to move it and on the warm restart I had a kickback on the starter suggesting it was too far advanced. I got it back this morning with the new headers.

The exhaust shop is also a bit of a local hotrod garage and the owner and his mechanic are well respected in the hobby locally. His experience with FEs is not great, but he has worked on some. He told me that he was pretty sure I had a miss when it was cold (popping though the exhaust and running very rough) that went away as it warmed up. He said it sounded to him like I was still tight on the valves. I told him how the pre-load was set and he was surprised - his experience with the other team suggested 1/2 turn of pre-load after contact with the pushrod.

We discussed setting it up and he told me to check the exhaust temperatures on the pipes when I got home, and the temperature range I was looking for would be between 325 and 375, particularly on the rear pipes, possibly a little lower on the front ones. I drove it home (about 15 minutes) and noted that it was not running as well as the morning I took it in a week ago. In particular in 3rd (really 2nd since you start it in 2nd) it was balky and choppy at low RPM after the shift.

The results were surprising - my pipes at idle with a motor that had run for 20 minutes were (in degrees F):

• 1 - 270 / 5 -420
• 2 - 475 / 6 - 475
• 3 - 430 / 7 - 275
• 4 - 315 / 8 - 215

I checked it a couple of times and the numbers bounce around a bit but they were consistent enough. I also checked the timing to reduce the advance and to my surprise it was not at the 18 I set it at but was now up around 28 degrees. I went to take the vacuum advance hose off and it was already off - it is usually connected to the timed port on the side of the QFT. I backed the timing down to about 16 degrees advance, and checked the vacuum. It was at around 5 inches at 28 degrees and came up to about 8 at 16 degrees. A few weeks ago it had been up around 10 inches, since the last time I checked the vacuum I had reduced the richness of the idle mixture slightly, and closed the rear butterfly a smidgen.

I hope to get an O2 sensor on it this weekend and get some other info, but I am confused about the exhaust temperatures and the fact that the timing seems to be shifting. It has a new balancer and I doubt it is moving, but I may have to check it. The bolt was tightened enough that I couldn't move the distributor without backing it off. I also note that this is not the first time I've been surprised that the timing didn't seem to be where I left it.

I posted a couple of videos of the first start of my freshly built 445 - BBM heads, Comp roller cam, T&D roller rockers, and Prison Break stroker kit. We saw a few minor problems after it started and shut it down after about 20 minutes, but the engine itself ran nicely. When it ran we were able to get it settled down at about 13 degrees of advance, but it was rich at idle so we had the screws turned almost all the way in. In fact, we turned them ALL the way in at one point and it still ran - pretty sure we had the primaries open too much to keep it running and didn't have the time given the other issues (no temp gauge for starters) to work the carb (QFT SS 830). We saw some dieseling but it restarted fine, and after a short test drive (lots of snap at 1/3 throttle but tended to fall on its face above 1/2) it shut down cleanly.

The next day I sorted out the tach and temperature gauge and a coolant leak, and tried to start it. No joy. Lots of coughs but it wouldn't light. Made what was probably the wrong assumption that it was a carb issue, so we decided to  go back to a carb that ran on the previous 410 - an Edelbrock 600. Still really hard to start, and we had to mess big time with the ignition timing. We didn't have a timing light at the time, but with the Edelbrock we did get it started, but it ran very rough - much worse than it had on the QFT.

The next day tried to start it again, bought a new timing light, and checked the timing even though it wouldn't start. Timing seemed to be at around 30 degrees advanced, got it back to around 13, but couldn't start it. Saw some inconsistent flashes from the light - lots of missing flashes. At one point I saw no flashes from #1 but lots of flashes when I put the pick up on the lead from the coil. We changed some plug wires around, and then had the light flashing on #1 again. Pulled a plug and confirmed spark, and gave up needing some expert help.

Decided to go back to the QFT - we backed the idle screw out to the factory setting (pretty sure it was open to far) and opened the secondary a crack to help with the rich idle, and set the mixture screws back to factory. I also got replacements for the Pertronix Ignitor and Flame Thrower coil. Tonight I had a friend who is a mechanic by trade (heavy diesel) but who has done a lot of custom builds (everything from Quads and dirt bikes to a 521 in his 68 F100) help me. We were messing around with the timing and again we saw a lot of missing flashes. Then no flash on #1, but flashes on the coil to distributor lead, checked and no flashes on #2, pulled #5 plug and no spark. At no point tonight did we even get a cough. We are getting fuel and air.

We have oil pressure, so the cam is turning the distributor and oil drive shaft, and the rotor is turning. We saw and felt some movement on the flat spring on the rotor that makes contact with the top of the distributor. Good voltage to the coil.

All we can think of is we have a bad rotor or distributor cap. They are new - bought them from Napa but that is no guarantee they are good. I'll pick up new ones tomorrow as they are relatively cheap.

Any other thoughts?