Thread: I found what blew in my engine!

Tweet

I mentioned that when we were coming home from Turkey Run in Daytona the engine in my 27 started making a loud racket, like something in the valvetrain blew. I shut it off immediately, took Don's T off of his trailer and put my 27 on it. We went to a U Haul and I rented a truck and car trailer, to the tune of over $ 480.00, but I was 250 miles from home and had no choice.

I pushed the car into the shop and haven't wanted to look at it, but today my curiousity got the best of me. Because of the way the engine tucks 4 inches back under the firewall I have to pull the engine to get the tall valve covers off. I know, bad design, but that is the price I am paying for roller rockers and valve covers that will clear them. I spent most of the day and got the engine finally out and onto the garage floor.

When I got the valve covers off everything looked normal. Pulled the heads, everything was still fine. Removed the lifters, and they look great. I then spun the water pump pulley and it would barely turn and had a terrible grinding sound when it did turn! Holy crap, MY WATER PUMP BLEW!!

We removed the back off of the water pump and found the difuser ring that was spot welded to the vanes had come off, and was rattling around inside the pump. The welds didn't go all the way through. The thing that really ticks me off is that this is the pump I airfreighted in the week we left for Daytona, it was brand new. The first pump had a couple hours running time on it and it started blowing water out the bottom. The second pump failed in Daytona, showering me with antifreeze. I repaired the gasket in Daytona, and my repair held, but the welds did not.

These are Ford Racing short water pumps, and cost about $ 140.00 each. I bought the first one from Jegs, and the second one from Summit. I will be on the phone bright and early Monday morning with Summit Customer Service. At the very least they owe me a new pump and hopefully some help with the $ 500 towing bill. The worst part is, I am afraid to put another one of these on my car. I am also going to call Ford Racing, because whoever is modifying these pumps for them is doing a lousy job.

At least there was nothing wrong internally on my motor, but I am still not very happy right now. Here are some pictures I took to send to Summit. That loose ring is supposed to be welded to the vanes. You can see the dark marks from the spot welder, but they didn't penetrate the vanes.

Don