1968 Colony Park 482

[shady]

Dumb question, but do you by chance do you have the spacer installed that comes behind the original ford top timing gear? Most aftermarket gears have the spacer built into the gear so you throw the spacer away.  That will make noise as the chain will hit the cover.
Ask me how I know this.

[FirstEliminator]

No spacer there. A friend had run into that on an engine he put together and mentioned to look out for that issue.

   I have a feeling I know how you know this....

[FirstEliminator]

Today I was able to take the CP out to lunch. It drives good. The engine feels good and has a lot of pep. There is some noise, it does seem less intense than before. There is a vibration around 1800-2000 rpm. Not tune, it does it on accel, cruise and decel. Trying to be good, I installed an SFI approved flexplate. It has a bit of wobble.  I've seen this plenty of times before on vehicles and it was never a problem. To be sure it isn't the cause of problems I ordered a stock flexplate to try. The other thing is the starter gear mesh is very noisy. I wonder if there is a problem with the block plate. The previous starter and flex plate on the 390 were very noisy as well. The only thing that has stayed the same between the old engine and the new has been the spacer plate. I will change that along with the flex plate. Perhaps this spacer is for a manual trans?   

   Thanks,
      Mark

[shady]

I've been told that all spacer plates are the same except for the holes drilled for the galley plugs.

[My427stang]

Today I was able to take the CP out to lunch. It drives good. The engine feels good and has a lot of pep. There is some noise, it does seem less intense than before. There is a vibration around 1800-2000 rpm. Not tune, it does it on accel, cruise and decel. Trying to be good, I installed an SFI approved flexplate. It has a bit of wobble.  I've seen this plenty of times before on vehicles and it was never a problem. To be sure it isn't the cause of problems I ordered a stock flexplate to try. The other thing is the starter gear mesh is very noisy. I wonder if there is a problem with the block plate. The previous starter and flex plate on the 390 were very noisy as well. The only thing that has stayed the same between the old engine and the new has been the spacer plate. I will change that along with the flex plate. Perhaps this spacer is for a manual trans?   

   Thanks,
      Mark

It would be very hard for a block plate to be bad, unless it was damaged and didn't fit the starter.  If it's not rubbing, it's located and sandwiched by the bell, then the starter sandwiches it to the bell yet again.  My gut says you either have a bent or bad flywheel, or the starter alignment is off for some other reason and smacked the flexplate when you started it originally.  Hopefully the flexplate swap makes multiple things better

[FirstEliminator]

Tonight, I swapped the flex plate. The noise is still here. I found another spacer plate and it matches the one in the car perfectly. I stayed with the current spacer plate as it was cleaned and painted. One improvement is the starter gear mesh sounds proper now. It was very noisy before, like a GM needing a few shims. Also, the vibration between 1800-2000 is less than half of what it was before.
    I haven't a clue what the noise is. I'm going to run it for a bit to see if anything changes. 

   One funny thing. When I attempted to start the engine, the starter was lagging and I saw some smoke rise up. I looked under the hood and saw my long 3/8 extension that I used to tighten the middle starter bolt still laying in place. It was a little stuck there as is got welded to the cable stud on the starter. After removing it, the engine cranked and started fine.

[FirstEliminator]

I've been driving the  CP482 around. The noise is still here. It sounds like a 7.3 diesel. Not a rod knock. There might be some rocker tick now. I ran it to 6200 or so a couple times. I'm curious to run the 1/4 with it. Can't wait to get rid of the 3.89 gear and back to the 2.80 so I can cruise. Anyway, any thoughts about what would make it sound like a 7.3?

[turbohunter]

Some of the Comp XR cams can sound like a sewing machine (or a diesel).
Don’t remember what you’ve got.

[FirstEliminator]

It is a Comp hyd roller lobe. 283 adv. 227 @.050.

[blykins]

Some of the Comp XR cams can sound like a sewing machine (or a diesel).
Don’t remember what you’ve got.

It's one of my cams, he's safe on that one...

[My427stang]

Mark, if it is indeed as loud as a diesel, I am not sure I'd be hammering on it, or driving it at all

However, loose flywheel or converter bolts, rod knock, piston clearance, wrist pin issue, pistons hitting the heads, if much lesser, lifter preload issue, PS pumps can make some funny noises, fuel pump, etc,  if a Motorsports fuel pump eccentric they can hit the timing cover.

I am not going to Massachusetts anytime until maybe early next year, but man I wish I could go inside and do some looking to try to help. 

ON EDIT: I just listened to your video, it sure sounds like the rear of the engine.  It also sounds reciprocating to me, not rotating.  It was hard to compare the Sept and October video, but some questions

1 - How did you determine pushrod length and did you end up with more than one length pushrod? 
2 - Which rockers are you running? Did you check clearance for the cup if adjustable?
3 - Did you check clearance at the rocker baffle (it sounds lower than this to me, but there can be interference there)
4 - Have you had the valve covers off to see if any bent pushrods or collapsed lifters? 
5 - An FE stroker only slows about .250 of skirt at BDC, but did you notice any scuffing when you checked for clearance?
6 - Did you check all pistons for clearance to the crank at BDC?
7 - Any chance there is an exhaust leak hiding in there too?  I know not THE issue, but I hear a few things

To me I hear a definite valve train noise that is consistent in both videos, I also hear what I think it piston slap in the Oct video, but I think you need to verify preload is correct first.

[FirstEliminator]

I was able to get a .006 feeler gauge under the skirt. Figuring the piston is a barrel shape, I would think the skirt to cylinder clearance would  not be useful. I could wiggle the piston around on the bore from underneath. I took a video of this.
 I ought to take this apart before the block or heads gets ruined. Something is going on. There is definitely enough clearance between the skirts and crank. I used a bore scope through the sparkplug hole. The piston tops did not appear to have any contact. I got the number off the piston top which shows this Mahle piston to be for a 4.25 bore. I did not measure the cylinder bore during assembly.
Ii have Brent's non-adjustable roller tip rockers. A push rod length checking tool was used, then measured with a Starrett 12" dial caliper.  All push rods are the same length at 8.750. When working on the heads I used a seat height checking tool. They were all very close. Most of the vales required a a little trimming on the stem tips to be at the same height. All push rods lengths were checked. Some were a little different and without looking through previous messages I don't remember how much. But I recall it being close enough to easily be absorbed in the lifter.
Here is the video of piston Movement. I've never tried this on another engine, so not sure if this looks normal. https://youtu.be/lV_yzDTRVaI

[blykins]

Mahle 4032 pistons usually have about .003 piston to cylinder clearance.

I just stuck a piston in a 428 that I’m working on and don’t have that kind of movement, even with no rings on the piston.

[My427stang]

I was able to get a .006 feeler gauge under the skirt. Figuring the piston is a barrel shape, I would think the skirt to cylinder clearance would  not be useful. I could wiggle the piston around on the bore from underneath. I took a video of this.
 I ought to take this apart before the block or heads gets ruined. Something is going on. There is definitely enough clearance between the skirts and crank. I used a bore scope through the sparkplug hole. The piston tops did not appear to have any contact. I got the number off the piston top which shows this Mahle piston to be for a 4.25 bore. I did not measure the cylinder bore during assembly.
Ii have Brent's non-adjustable roller tip rockers. A push rod length checking tool was used, then measured with a Starrett 12" dial caliper.  All push rods are the same length at 8.750. When working on the heads I used a seat height checking tool. They were all very close. Most of the vales required a a little trimming on the stem tips to be at the same height. All push rods lengths were checked. Some were a little different and without looking through previous messages I don't remember how much. But I recall it being close enough to easily be absorbed in the lifter.
Here is the video of piston Movement. I've never tried this on another engine, so not sure if this looks normal. https://youtu.be/lV_yzDTRVaI

So if you were in the center of the skirt, it's valuable info.  If you are able to sneak a .006 gauge in there, it's likely more than that if you measured.  Which would make all of it make sense.  If it's really .008 or .009 then it would be real noisy.

As far as preload, Did you use a Trend checking tool?  If not, there are some adjustments that need to be made for others and just using end-to-end

BTW, I have never done anything like you did with the video, but it sure looks loose

[CDXXVII]

Mark,

It's snowing here so you are likely in for the year.

Any way these crankshafts could contact the windage tray?