Thread: I found what blew in my engine!

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Its still a shame that it had to come to this to fiqure out that they were`nt right.

Yeah, you're right. That inch and a half I shaved off my engine sure ended up costing me a bunch of trouble and money. That's what I get for liking sbf engines, they are just so **** long.

Don

Don just read this whole thread tonight. Glad to hear you found the cause of the noise.
When I was building my engine I had a heck of a time finding the right pulley setup, but it seemed March performance was my only choice. The problems I had were they under or over drive pulleys trying to get extra power out of the engine, since I used a high flow water pump, I didn't want to overdrive the water pump with a small pulley, and vice versa under drive the alternator. I think ultimately there are just fewer choices for us Ford guys. I ended up using the stock pulley on the 460.
I'll have to take a look at Runne-Rite so I can see if they have any options that will work on the 460! Hope everything goes smooth from here on out.

You'da figured being local Merch would want your business ... just goes to show you ...

Good to see that the end result is you've found the right combo that'll make you ride ... a dependable ride.

Oh ... Happy New Year Don.

Paul

Same to you, Paul.

Don

I don't think the water pump rpm had anything to do with the welds breaking--it was a marginal design change for a non-existant reason---and an inferior method of manufacture.
And then there was the mix/matching of non compatable pieces---Ford shortened the water pump to allow the 302 to be put in the t bird/cougar late 80s or early 90 as the engine was too close to the front of the car for federal crash specs---there was a complete series of parts involved with everything that had to do with the accessory drive / mount system. Your mounting and modifying( what rodders do) of these components ( shortening dampner drive hub) might of had more to do with setting up a vibration/harmonic in the drive system that caused an faulty weld to fail.

I think you might be right, Jerry. The guy I spoke with at Runne-Rite told me he used to work for Ford Racing and said " They know they have had problems with that pump, they should have told you that." I figured that pump and timing cover had to come off of some stock application, like the T Bird you mentioned, but I have never been able to find what stock pump it is. The guy at the Ford Racing booth at Turkey Run said this is a custom made unit that they machine the end off of to pick up 1.5 inches, but I can't see them not using a stock pump and timing cover if possible. Wish I could find out the exact application.

The weirdest thing was how that flat steel plate was totally reshaped into a cupped plate by the spinning vanes, I guess. What ever did it rolled the edge of the flat round plate into a perfect lip..........never seen anything like it.

Don

Don - it kinda looks like an Explorer pump and similar to what came off my crate motor - but yours is standard rotation - I believe ?????

Yes, they make this one in two versions, standard rotation for V belt, and ccw rotation for serpentine.........mine is V belt. When I was running around Daytona that Friday, trying to round up parts to fix my pump, the parts guy at a Ford dealership made me a printout that shows this pump as being used on a 351 mid 80's Ford F150 , but they didn't stock that pump. I took that info to a local NAPA and Advanced Auto and their pumps for that truck were totally different than mine.

I do know that to make this setup work I needed to buy a special timing cover that appears to be late model because it has that proviision down low for a crank sensor. It had some part numbers on the inside of it, but I didn't think to write them down before I installed it. Those numbers might have clued me in as to what this thing was designed to fit.

I almost chucked the whole setup and was going to order a Snow White short water pump assembly, but I am so deep in this thing now moneywise that I have to give it one more shot. I have a feeling that this may be the cure.

Don

Probably should keep this this thread handy to link to the next "How come there are so many small block chevies........." thread..

I kind of pushed my luck with the 65 dollar C-4 thats in my 55 on the trip to Daytona and back,I noticed it making a noise when first fired up after sitting over night the next day after I got back. I would had a much larger tow bill since my trip was about 950 miles each way but it made it back home. We had snow since I got back so I have not driven it to see if then trans still shifts.

well the welds failed you have two parts....don for the force you can form flat metal on a lathe called spinning it cool if you ever seen it .most lathes are not powed by a sbf so its not hard to roll tin up

As much as March pullies go for, you would think that they would try to be a little helpful. Thats to bad I was looking at one of their set ups for mine too.
I guess I'll have to start looking else where.
Kurt

Pat, that makes sense. It sure didn't take a lot of time to do it either. That plate was flat when I tore it apart in Daytona and I only had a little bit of driving around on Friday night, Saturday, and then we only got about 5 miles out of town on Sunday before it went.

Steve, and here I thought you were an Olds guy!

Kurt, I can't say anything about the quality of their products, those look pretty good and very complete. My only complaint is how rude and short they are when you call them. I mean, we are neighbors almost, and I was trying to buy some of their products. But all I got were one word answers, no suggestions as to what might work, and the feeling I was really imposing on them.

We finally did buy March pulleys for Don's 302 3 years ago because they were the only game in town, but we had to ship in 3 different sets to get one that we could work with. Luckily, Summit was good about taking back the ones that didn't fit, but it took a lot of research time and phone calls back and forth to figure out a setup. March could have probably cut that way down if they would have just had better customer service.

Don

Don i'm a ford guy deep down, I did my time at JW Automotive, You may remember them as they ran the GT40's that won 1966 LeMan 24hrs when 3 crossed the line abreast, Then they ran the Gulf Mirages and then the Porche 917's.

Cut my teeth on 289 and 427 Fords and had many in my hotrods over the years, this was my favourite, 29A Coupe with a 427 and twin n2o kits reliable 10.6 quarters and used to drive it 80 miles to work each day.







Don't know why the pics wn't show ???