Since we don't have a specific "non Mopar" discussion forum, I'm putting this here. Back in February, my truck, a 1975 Ford F250, with a 400 engine I built fresh about three years ago, suddenly lost oil pressure.
I did all the diagnosis I could with the engine in the truck and ultimately pulled the engine and tore it back down. While I did find a VERY small pinhole in the oil filter case, I never found what I considered a smoking gun for a loss of oil pressure. So, I made some mods, per the 351M and 400 engine guru Timothy Meyer (look him up) refreshed the engine and put it back in.
Since a few lifters exhibited some straight pattern wear, I opted to put a new cam and lifter set from Summit in this time. That proved to be a mistake. Although I should have checked to see if the lifters were spinning before complete assembly, I did not and I should have.
Other than "that" I did what I consider to be everything right. I lubed the cam and lifters with ZDDP paste, and assembled. I honestly didn't think about checking for lifter rotation. "I figgered" since everything was new, It'd be alright. That proved to be very wrong. I fixed the oil pressure problem, as the engine immediately fired and I ran the RPM up into the 3K range varying the RPM from 2000 to around 3500. It had an old Stewart Warner 80PSI gauge buried. Even at idle.
But the more it ran, the lower the idle oil pressure got. After an hours worth of run time, I was showing under 20PSI and I had valve train noise with a noticeably rough running engine. I pulled the valve cover and I had several rockers not opening valves very far. So at that point, I drained the oil and removed and cut the filter open. Yup. Stopped up with ground up lifters. It destroyed six lifters badly and the rest weren't good.
So now, I have everything cleaned back up, and @NC Engine Builder (Sean) has been nice enough to reface some NEW lifters I am going to put on this old Crane Fireball cam that has about three years run time. The cam itself looks good. Maybe even better than good.
I mocked everything up as Sean suggested with the cam and lifters dry and used some light penetrating oil on the lifter sides. I stuck the cam and new refaced lifters in, marked the lifter tops with a black marker and rotated the cam. With just the weight of the lifters on the cam, the lifters were rotating. Only a few degrees with each lobe pass, but with the engine running, I believe we got it licked.
I still don't have the timing set or the intake back on it yet, but I'll keep yall posted. One thing's certain. Sean KNOWS how to put a good finish on lifters. The patterns were all perfect and all centered. So if it screws up again, it won't be Sean's fault. I plan on running Rotella T1 40SAE motor oil. If I have another problem, it's going to be down a lot longer, because I will change over to a hydraulic roller at that point.
I simply cannot afford that now. It will take cam, lifters, springs, pushrods and rocker arms and that's just out of my price range, except to do it a piece at a time. So wish me luck. I'll keep yall posted.
I did all the diagnosis I could with the engine in the truck and ultimately pulled the engine and tore it back down. While I did find a VERY small pinhole in the oil filter case, I never found what I considered a smoking gun for a loss of oil pressure. So, I made some mods, per the 351M and 400 engine guru Timothy Meyer (look him up) refreshed the engine and put it back in.
Since a few lifters exhibited some straight pattern wear, I opted to put a new cam and lifter set from Summit in this time. That proved to be a mistake. Although I should have checked to see if the lifters were spinning before complete assembly, I did not and I should have.
Other than "that" I did what I consider to be everything right. I lubed the cam and lifters with ZDDP paste, and assembled. I honestly didn't think about checking for lifter rotation. "I figgered" since everything was new, It'd be alright. That proved to be very wrong. I fixed the oil pressure problem, as the engine immediately fired and I ran the RPM up into the 3K range varying the RPM from 2000 to around 3500. It had an old Stewart Warner 80PSI gauge buried. Even at idle.
But the more it ran, the lower the idle oil pressure got. After an hours worth of run time, I was showing under 20PSI and I had valve train noise with a noticeably rough running engine. I pulled the valve cover and I had several rockers not opening valves very far. So at that point, I drained the oil and removed and cut the filter open. Yup. Stopped up with ground up lifters. It destroyed six lifters badly and the rest weren't good.
So now, I have everything cleaned back up, and @NC Engine Builder (Sean) has been nice enough to reface some NEW lifters I am going to put on this old Crane Fireball cam that has about three years run time. The cam itself looks good. Maybe even better than good.
I mocked everything up as Sean suggested with the cam and lifters dry and used some light penetrating oil on the lifter sides. I stuck the cam and new refaced lifters in, marked the lifter tops with a black marker and rotated the cam. With just the weight of the lifters on the cam, the lifters were rotating. Only a few degrees with each lobe pass, but with the engine running, I believe we got it licked.
I still don't have the timing set or the intake back on it yet, but I'll keep yall posted. One thing's certain. Sean KNOWS how to put a good finish on lifters. The patterns were all perfect and all centered. So if it screws up again, it won't be Sean's fault. I plan on running Rotella T1 40SAE motor oil. If I have another problem, it's going to be down a lot longer, because I will change over to a hydraulic roller at that point.
I simply cannot afford that now. It will take cam, lifters, springs, pushrods and rocker arms and that's just out of my price range, except to do it a piece at a time. So wish me luck. I'll keep yall posted.
