My 427 SOHC Build..... Finally the time has come!

[cobracammer]

Hey Guys... more food for thought.....  spent the last hour or so reading through other forum posts about people with these same issues.  One in particular was interesting and got me thinking.  This person had the same thing.... gold dust.   Did not end up being a bearing, was not valve guides, and not the distributor gear.....

Before I say what it was, I want to also add that his engine ran beautifully.  No noises to speak of......

After months of guessing and taking the engine apart 1 item at a time and checking, he pulled the whole motor.  Lo-and behold it was the windage tray!  Such a slight interference that it didn't make a sound, but the windage tray (exactly like the one I have!) is gold colored....  I would go as far as to say that its the exact same color as the dust in the oil.....

the coloring comes from the finish they put on it Zinc plating?  Like Grade 8 hardware!!!  I am still hopeful!!!!  Just like him, there was no interference when he had the engine assembled.... and it was probably running the engine that caused the metal in the tray to expand a tiny bit and "rub" on the crank weights....  Possibly.

Hope is still alive!

[drdano]

The transmission goes into and out of gears easily inside the car when you use the clutch with the engine running?

[cobracammer]

I have not put the car in gear yet while its running.  As you can see from that crappy video of the car running, I was running around like a chicken trying to read the handheld, keep a fan on the radiator, and use the timing light  LOL

[cobracammer]

Ok jegs shipment came in. I was able to install the Saleen thermostat housing on the bottom radiator housing and connect the degas tank to the bottom fitting. Unfortunately, the power steering belt touched the hose, so for now, i will leave the pump hooked up with no belt so the power steering system is still closed and sealed

I have the front of the car up on jackstands and will fill the coolant tomorrow. Oil change as well if I can find break in oil anywhere local

Still waiting on the new timing tape, but i have the 2 aircraft toggle switches to hook MSD ignition box and FAST computer directly to independent 12 V source

[blykins]

drdano, didn't you lose a thrust bearing a few years ago?

[My427stang]

Have you tried running jumper wires off the battery to see if the power source was your problem?

I'd hate to see the car wired up with toggle switches to things that should work automatcally.  Maybe you could leave it the way it is and wire in a solenoid or two to power those extra circuits.

Regardless, I'd likely run jumper wires first to see if it changes anything before I cut into the wiring any more

[cobracammer]

3 different techs and another person using the fast dual qaud said the 12 v ign source cannot be shared with anything. I got cool looking flip cover toggles, so im ok with them.

[My427stang]

I am not arguing with you that you have to have a clean signal, most every EFI system uses a dedicated feed, but it would be cleaner to use the existing feed to activate a solenoid fed directly from the battery.  That would have the same effect and would be a much more professional way to do it.

It also would be smart to try it first before you modify the wiring so you don't waste your time if that isn't your issue.

One other point, I understand you are getting a ton of info from all of us and the techs, and often it doesn't agree completely, but realize the guys responding on this forum likely have more and broader experience than the techs.  The techs you are talking to likely aren't engineers or experienced builders, there is no way they could afford to pay someone like that to answer the phone or email

[cobracammer]

Understood. Thank you. Ill hold off on the toggles for now. Want to see if the timing being exact was my issue. To be completely honest, i wanted to toggles just for the look. Lol. But again, going to hold off for now

Got break in oil and gallons of coolant

Hopefully will try starting up again Monday night

[cobracammer]

Ok. Oil changed!  Started adding coolant and could only get about 1 gallon in.  After doing some reading, i see that there is a process to filling with coolant. Something about needing vacuum to pull coolant in once the thermostat opens

Ill add until full once the car is running and warm. Last thing before I start her up again is the timing tape which arrives Monday.

I also kept the first oil filter material in a sealed bag so I can compare to the next filter to ensure issues are clearing up oil wise

[cobracammer]

Hey guys. I was just watching Gas Monkey garage. They were doing the break in process on a ford 289 v8, and when they pulled the oil filter and drained the oil, they said they had bearing issues. They knew because the oil looked similar to metallic paint. When he pushed his finger around in it, you could see the trail

When I drained my oil, therewas no shimmer like metalic paint. Just those darn mini specs of gold. Interesting that if the assumption was that gold spec stuff was deep bearing material, that I wouldnt see the shimmer of the outer bearing material ( metalic paint looking stuff) in the oil.  Oh gosh guys.... Keep your fingers crossed....

Also, now that I ran the engine at about 2000 RPM for 30 minutes, did I really need to fill it back up with more break in oil? Or is conventional oil ( until the rings seat) fine?  When all is said and done, I was hoping to run a synthetic like royal purple

?

[WConley]

Jason -

Looking forward to the next start-up.  As far as synthetic oil, I have always run conventional oil during the first few thousand miles on a new engine.  The rings tend to seat better because conventional oil is not quite as slippery as full synthetic.  Now some modern oem cars run synthetic from the factory, but everything is designed for it.  Not so with our old-style FE's.

Just my opinion, but I've been pretty successful over the years with this approach.  Also, you should drive it like you stole it for the first several hundred miles.  Lots of throttle position and speed changes, especially fully closing the throttle at highway speeds to pull vacuum on those rings.

Again, just one man's opinion.  I did work for ole' Henry's outfit once though!

[machoneman]

2X to what Bill stated. If it were mine....I'd pop the leading oil filter after the next run or two (no need to do both) and, after carefully cutting it apart as Brett noted, spread out the media again and check it. You really don't want to score up the crank's thrust surfaces here IF the thrust bearing is going away.   

[drdano]

drdano, didn't you lose a thrust bearing a few years ago?

Yes, that was me.     http://fepower.net/simplemachinesforum/index.php?topic=581.0

I've got my fingers crossed that isn't the issue here.

[cobracammer]

Hey Guys,

Tomorrow the timing tape arrives.  This is going to sound kinda of weird, but can someone upload a picture (drawing) of what the rotor pointer and the cap point alignment in the distributor should look like at the initial timing of 13 Degrees BTDC?  I want to make sure after I put the timing tape on tomorrow, that I pull the distributor up and readjust so that the rotor point is where it should be. 

If its ok to just have the rotor pointer exactly aligned with the point on the cap leading to spark plug wire #1, that would be easier, but many of you have stated that with the MSD ignition box/ Distributor combination I have, that the spark jumps a little before the rotor arrives to the cap point.

Also, I didnt feel comfortable firing the engine only being able to put 1 gallon of 50/50 coolant in the car.  It wont take any more because it is unable to displace the air in the block....  online, you usuallly fill a Saleen up by running the engine, waiting for it to get hot, and then adding coolant...

In order to get around this, In addition to the 1 gallon I poured in the degas tank, I took the upper radiator hose off the water neck, and was able to pour 1 more gallon down into the block.  Now at least I know there is 1 gallon in the radiator, and 1 gallon in the block......  when the car is running, and heats up, I can add more if it needs it.

Thanks guys