I am taking apart a 7.3 out of a 1988 f250. The engine has been rebuilt recently it has .030 oversize pistons. When I started taking the Rocker arm pedstals off 6 of the 8 sets had a thin shim under the intake side pedstal what in the world we these be for.

 

Might have had the heads shaved. And instead of shaving the valve stems, they shimmed the rockers????

Dunno for sure. Never heard of that one.

 

How much did you spend on/for the motor........

The cylinder walls were too thin from the factory, 30 over would to me say it is a very good candidate for CAVITATION ASAP.

You should NOT bore 7.3 cylinders or skim heads!!!! The heads were at minimums when built.

 

Probably for adjusting the valve train. Even though they are hydraulic lifters like in 351's etc. I was told years ago that when you installed rockers on Ford motors to set your lifter on the inner base circle and put a shim under the rocker so that when you tightened it down you mash the pushtube down in the lifter .010 to .015. I was told that by the same guys that said to put factory pistons in backwards so that you would put the rod to piston offset on the other side of rotation. That would give you more torque. Dyno proven. The same bunch showed me about grinding every other tooth off of a synchronizer in an old muncie or a toploader transmission. They called them "crashboxes". You could pour them in gear. Those old timers had tricks back then before you bought your performance parts out of a catalog.

 

When you say "Ford motors" you mean gassers, not Navistar/International?

 

A little history this engine is a Ford authorized reman .030 over bore .010 under rods don't know the mains yet. It doesn't have very many miles on it (don't know exactly) It broke #7 rod the crank appears to be fine. Two pistons are unusable. The block is ruined. Heads look new. I have a good block and crank. I will try to find two matching pistons and then rebuild my other block will check the crank for straight and decide which crank to use. This motor was in a truck we bought for next to nothing due to the blown engine. It had a Banks sidewinder turbo on it. I suspect that is the reason for the broken rod. The complete turbo system will come up for sale pretty soon. We put the engine out of the 2wd f350 into this 4wd f250. will try to put the engine back in the F350.

 

I referred to Ford motors because they are traditionally hydraulic lifter motors meaning they "self adjust". Since these are hydraulic lifter engines, it would apply to them also. Always told me that to helps insure the valves open and closed better. That is important. Cam duration is an important part of you engine and performance. If I was going to build one of these up I would do some checking on cam duration and possibly getting a cam custom ground. Common with truck pullers. My brother is an expert on 460's and pretty much other Ford gas engines. Pulled for years and the guy that did the machine work he didn't do is, probably one of the best there is. Very well respected in the racing world still today. I grew up around pulling. Kentucky tradition. I have seen some crazy things that WORKED. I have seen cams ground down on a grinder. Welded up with hardfacing rods then ground again to get the profile they wanted. Crazy. I have had a fortunate life when it comes to seeing goofy things in shops as a kid and meeting some well connected people that know their stuff. Lucky.

 

Wtroger, sounds like you are in business. One things that is a good idea is to have the block line honed. As a block "seasons" like a good cast iron skillet. I love corn bread cooked in a skillet. My wife of 20 years is handy. Anyway a block will move or shift. Line honing it will clean that up. Some blocks are worse then others but they pretty all will do it. Pullers hate to loose blocks. Heads aren't so bad other then money because they get chopped up on so bad anyway but good seasoned blocks are not something that it easily replaced sometimes. I have my brother go through 15 blocks sonic testing them before he found a good one for pulling with.

 

That's one thing I like about IDIs is the hydraulic roller lifters/cam.

 

I guess I like solids myself. You do have to run an over head every once in awhile but they don't cause problems. I have gotten used to adjusting valves.

A friend of mine has a 1911 with the noise brakes on and with the discharged item on the heavy side it is quiet as a mouse.

 

Well my Cummins has solid lifters but I prefer hydraulic for ease of maintainence.
(Just bought a '92 donor about a week ago for my Crew Cab project)