You temp gauge reading cooler on the guage could be a guage issue. If you still have the electronic sending unit. On mine the guage read barley on the normal line close to the C. I switched over to a mechanical and it runs 185 pretty much all the time. Those old electronic gauges like to lie!

 

You know J, I'd love to see you build a 300 for a Sport F-150. Slap an SS (Super Snake) badge on it and lower the truck 3/4. I think it would be cool. I'd love to have an older F-100 or F-150 pull up beside me with an SS badge and hear that classis 300-I6 thump-thump-thump-thump-thump..

 

That'd be a lot of fun, especially on someone else's budget.


And Coolguy, I was thinking that about the temp gauges, but one of the things I've always felt lucky about with my Bronco is that the gauges actually work! All of them, oddly enough. The only times my temp gauge went up excessively was when I was low on coolant, or my thermostat got stuck shut. Only time its showed low is while its warming up, or the last time my thermostat got stuck open. (Fuel, oil, and volt all work too.) I've never had much luck with thermostats on this thing, I think I've replaced it about 10 times. They all give out after about six months to a year.

Although, I did find something that probably contributed to my gas mileage, hard engine working drive the other weekend... In my running around trying to finish my project up and then driving home to my parents for Thanksgiving, I didn't check the air in the tires. I had two tires that were 10 - 15 lbs low. One was at 19lbs, and the other at 23. Not sure at all why (they're new), so I'll have to have that checked out. Either way, that's gotta cause some serious drag.



Looked into the rocker arm tick this weekend and well, lets say that it was not a good time. I screwed up pretty bad this time. So, knowing that my rocker arms are a bit old (30 years), they're worn down a little. I don't have the $100 to replace them all, and found out that my tick was because one of the nuts bottomed out on the rocker arm stud before it tightened down on the valve/lifter, allowing it to wobble (and create a tick). So I shimmed up the nut with some grade-8 washers.
In my oversight, I used a washers that were big enough to fit over the threaded part of the stud, but NOT the unthreaded part! So, when I torqued down my rocker arms, all the washers pressed onto the studs, completely seizing my engine up. It took me a good four hours or more with different sized wedges and crowbars trying to pry my rocker arms back off. It sucked.
Finally got them all, but the studs are a little buggered up. Not the threads, but the shaft itself. The washers put some dents in them and now the ball won't slide all the way down them. I'm going to have to see if I can get some sandpaper or the like to smooth them back out...

I also bent a pushrod on accident while prying, but at least they're cheap.

So, things still aren't going well.

 

You think that's bad, take a look here at my fresh cam swap. I was thinking for sure I had this one adjusted a little too tight. Of course, I may have contributed more by just using the ready-to-be-changed oil that was already in it, as the break in oil. Not that I was trying to hijack your thread.

 

Wow,I sure hope it didn't do that, considering it did start up... banged kinda hard when it did.

 

It was a mild yet random tick. Also notable was the light miss at every rpm when it was cold.

 

Considering mine started up while it was this tight, I am pretty concerned right now (haven't got it all back together). It noticeably thumped hard, so I turned it off. Who knows what a few moments of super tight running may have done. Hope nothing.

Anyone have any good recommendations to smoothening out the rocker arm studs besides some good sandpaper? Right now they're all a little buggered up and the rocker arms won't smoothly go back on now that I finally have them off....

 

Some emry cloth would be the only other thing I could think of. Good luck I hope everything is ok and it didnt mess anything else up

 

A double cut file or die grinder and cartridge roll should make short work of it.

 

Hey all,
Got some emery cloth and it made very quick work of the project. I was able to true up all 12 studs in about 10 minutes or so.
The new lifters must be a little different than the ones I had previously, because after getting everything all back together, I still had about 5 rocker arms or so that wobbled even after the nuts were fully torqued.
I also found that since these are completely non-adjustable, that putting a washer as a spacer under the nut gave the nut nothing to torque against (since the nut torques by pressing against where the stud widens), I'll have to double nut them to stay in place. Didn't have the right size, so it'll have to wait until tomorrow.

I did start it up though when everything was torqued how it should be, and it idled smoothly, but there was a lot of rocker arm's clicking, so I didn't hear if anything else was out of place, such as damage to the lifters. Still nervous about that.

 

Well, I'm sorry to say that things don't look or sound good.


I got it running again last night after getting the valves adjusted but it runs rough, has around 16 - 17 vacuum (as opposed to the usual 19 - 21), and just doesn't sound right.
I'm going to pull the lifters tomorrow to see if they were damaged from starting up when the rocker arms jammed, but I'm not hopeful.

When I was adjusting the rocker arms, I had a hard time telling on a few of them when they were up or down as there wasn't a lot of lift. I think I flattened a few lobes.

I'm not in the best of mood.

 

Sorry to hear of your woes.Hang in there youll get it running proper.
Youve done alot of work,keep us posted on how it goes.
Keep up the good work.
This thread has been informitive and alot of help

 

Thanks for the encouragement Sedly. I appreciate it.



Well, there may yet be some light at the end of the tunnel.

I removed my rocker arms, pushrods, and lifter cover and inspected all of the lifters. They looked like they just came out of the box with no visible damage what-so-ever.
Then, with them in place, I rotated the crank and watched them all move up and down and measured the lift on them. Only one seemed to rise a 'fraction' less than the others, as in, 95% of the lift. It may also have just been a poor measurement.
Either way, it seems as if the cam may yet be fine (I sure hope so!)

That brings up a lot of questions though. The main one being.....what's wrong?

Originally, when I put it all together after first finishing the cam, I had a noticeable valvetrain tick. It sounded like a lifter tick, and I was able to track down some rocker arms that were noticeably worn.

As a recap, I put on some washers to shim it up some, but in my oversight, I got washers that were big enough to slip around the threaded part of the stud, but not the non-threaded part. So when I started it up, they wedged onto the non-threaded part of the stud, the engine clunked really loud and hard for a few RPMs and then the engine seized. Not good. I was worried this may have done damage (such as flattening a lobe on the cam).

Still, I got some of the right sized washers and adjusted my valves the old fashioned way (since mine are the torque down and forget type), by using double nuts, adjusting to zero lash, etc. Fired it up, and the engine was noticeably rough, noisy, 15 - 17hg vacuum (as opposed to the usual 19 - 20), and just did not sound like itself at all. Figured the cam was toast until I did the inspection mentioned above.




So...something's still wrong. I know I had it adjusted pretty well on my last attempt, but it sounded way off. Also, some of the rocker arms lifted visibly less than others, but when I looked at the lifters lifting up and down on the bores, there was no difference between them! Are the lifters ruined? They looked just fine, but I don't know about the internals. Either way, I'd much rather replace lifters than the cam again.
I'm also thinking of new rocker arms, but those are pretty pricey, even for stock. ($120ish for the set).

However, I don't know. What are other people's thoughts?

 

Im not sure what the problem would be.
However I have purchased the exact cam kit from Comp that you installed.I have been trying to find out if the stock push rods can be used.
If I remember right,you used the stock rods.
I have been wondering if the stock ones are too long................I dont know.

 

AB--I hate to hear about you struggling like that. I certainly know the feeling, believe me. I'm cheering for ya.

If it were me, I would first pull the p.rods, one at a time, in order, and wipe the oil off and roll each on a piece of glass to determine if it is true. If they are all good, I'd use a flashlight and check the bottom (where they attach to head) of each stud and measure to make sure one or more have not moved due to the strain.

Something in the v.train gave way, I suspect. And just follow me here: The cam is rotating, shoves the lifter and p.rod up, rocker pivots and pushes the v. open. But things were so tight that motion could not occur. It seems to me the weak link would be the p.rods or the lifters. Could it be the lifters were bottomed out, and now some are not pumping up at all, and that is why you're not getting equal lift across the board? One of those would be the least expensive options, so I'm sticking with one of them. If some of the lifters are not pumping up, and some are, then zero lash would create varying amounts of lift because on some lifters the p.rod is actually further down into the lifter than on others?

I don't want to step on anyone's toes here, but I have to say that if washers are needed to torque the rockers, then something desperately needs to be replaced to bring that v.train back to oem specs, or as close to it as possible. Washers would be my last resort.

Another .02: I remember reading somewhere that the rockers and p.rods should always be replaced in a rebuild, because with a high mileage engine, the p.rod creates tiny ridges in its rocker pocket, and those help to decrease oil psi. Of course having said that I've reused them on every engine I've rebuilt, except for the one I now have.

Good luck.