After cam break in

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dartindanno

dartindanno

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Ok guys, I broke in the new cam along with the Trick Flow heads on my 360la. I removed the inner valve springs for break in and everything went well. Did 25 minutes of 2400-3100 rpms and had 70lbs of oil pressure and temp was a solid 195. Moving forward I installed the inner springs and I used compressed air to hold the valves up. After finishing up I turned the crank by hand with the plugs out to check the rockers but I came to a hard stop. Engine will not budge. I backed it up and again came to a stop. Any ideas??
 
dartindanno said:
Ok guys, I broke in the new cam along with the Trick Flow heads on my 360la. I removed the inner valve springs for break in and everything went well. Did 25 minutes of 2400-3100 rpms and had 70lbs of oil pressure and temp was a solid 195. Moving forward I installed the inner springs and I used compressed air to hold the valves up. After finishing up I turned the crank by hand with the plugs out to check the rockers but I came to a hard stop. Engine will not budge. I backed it up and again came to a stop. Any ideas??
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Did you drop any thing down the plug hole? Can you rock it backwards or is it stuck both ways?
 
The crank can be turned almost 360 both ways. I don’t think we dropped anything in the plug holes, we took one plug out at a time and hooked the compression hose up to add the inner valve springs
 
Are all the pushrods seated in the lifters properly? In the rockers? I've missed before and caused some headaches.
 
It looked like they were all seated but I’ll pull the rocker assembly tomorrow and make sure. I didn’t run the engine after installing the inner springs so hopefully this is an easy fix
 
dartindanno said:
The crank can be turned almost 360 both ways. I don’t think we dropped anything in the plug holes, we took one plug out at a time and hooked the compression hose up to add the inner valve springs
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If it goes around and gets stuck in the same spot e everytime I'm about willing to bet you got something inside the chamber in one cylinder
 
wasn't a problem till you installed the inner spring. i bet one isn't seated properly. It's binding would be my guess.
 
dartindanno said:
It looked like they were all seated but I’ll pull the rocker assembly tomorrow and make sure. I didn’t run the engine after installing the inner springs so hopefully this is an easy fix
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Does all the valve train move properly what area it does turn?
 
dartindanno said:
YES it does
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I was thinking about a problem i had one time. I had bought a dodge truck with a 318 in it that the guy said wouldnt run. I turned it over by the crank and it would stop and get super tight in the same spot I could go all the way back around and get stuck in the same spot. So I pulled off the valve covers and sure enough it had a a bent pushrod that had punched thru the rocker. It was wedged in there good. I took out the pushrod and it rolled right over and I drove it home in 7 cylinder. When I got it home and work on it the valve was stuck I smacked it with a hammer a few times and broke it free sprayed it down with kroil put a new rocker and pushrod in it and drove it for several years. I still have that engine! When I pulled it the bored looked rough and the heads looked rougher (more rough) ? Idk! I think it got submerged in water at some point in its life!
 
At least it would be easy to check to see if it is a single spring binding with the rockers off. Seeing which cylinder is closest to TDC at the stopping point would also let you know which plug hole to check for fouling. Best of luck, and let us know what you find there.
 
Take the rocker assemblies off, leave the spark plugs out, and roll it over. If it doesn't bind up without the rockers, there's your answer! You could then put the rocker assemblies back on 1 side at a time to find the offending side.
 
JDMopar said:
Take the rocker assemblies off, leave the spark plugs out, and roll it over. If it doesn't bind up without the rockers, there's your answer! You could then put the rocker assemblies back on 1 side at a time to find the offending side.
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This is step number one! Great advice ad always @JDMopar !! I love that guy! Lol
 
I'am so curious to know what happened! Luckily you turned it by hand first and probably saved some potential damage.
 
Sorry about the long wait but it's hunting season and haven't had the time to check this out. Easy solution for a bonehead move on my part. Removed the valve covers and saw a pair of rockers not touching the valves and the push rods sunk in. I pulled the push rod and it was bent. Biggest mistake on my end was assembling the rocker assembly with the manifold on. The first assembly was done without the manifold and we had a tough time keeping the push rods centered on the lifters while tightening the rockers. Learning experience, cam and lifters are good since the engine wasn't run but it did cost me 2 new push rods
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Nice! I'm all the sudden craving deer tenderloin and eggs this morning...
 
Nice that's a giant congrats! My car progress has slowed down as well. I haven't punched any tags yet tho. Hopefully Saturday I will be able to get something.
 
dartindanno said:
Sorry about the long wait but it's hunting season and haven't had the time to check this out. Easy solution for a bonehead move on my part. Removed the valve covers and saw a pair of rockers not touching the valves and the push rods sunk in. I pulled the push rod and it was bent. Biggest mistake on my end was assembling the rocker assembly with the manifold on. The first assembly was done without the manifold and we had a tough time keeping the push rods centered on the lifters while tightening the rockers. Learning experience, cam and lifters are good since the engine wasn't run but it did cost me 2 new push rodsView attachment 1715624180
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When the pushrod can “fall” out of the cup in the lifter, you have the wrong radius on the pushrod.

That should never happen. IDK when the change occurred, or how many lifters are coming with the 3/16 radius rather than the 5/32 but it’s been most everything I’ve seen lately.

And it got burned by it. Hard. I caught it when I was putting my junk together and I let it slide.

I pulled the rockers to make a change to the oiling system and 3 of the pushrods slid out of the seat. Since I don’t have a mile of P/V it bent 3 valves and nick’d 3 lifters, junking both.

Call Smith Brothers and they will send you a radius gauge if you don’t already have one.

Measure the radius of the seat and call and have them make you a set.

That’s much cheaper than letting it slide. BTDT
 
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