Here's the thread. Rebuilding the 5.0 in our '92 F-150, affectionately known as "Big Red" No, it's not that big, yet, but it's the same color as big red gum, hence the name.

We bought the truck about 8 months ago, 88,000 on the clock, 5.0/E4OD, a few issues, but for the right price. It always had a startup rattle for about 30 seconds, not too concerning, until it started to develop a "knock" when it warmed up and the oil thinned out. Then a little later it started having a few lifters tapping until it had ran for about 10 minutes. We put it off all winter until we could dig the Lightning out of storage and put it back into Daily Driver use. Now the time has come. I pulled the engine out a few weeks ago, had a side job to do last weekend, so old red got pushed back outside, sans motor. Finally had time to finish tearing down the motor the other night. The knocking appears to be from the rod bearings.









The previous owners either never changed the ****ing oil, or liked pennzoil, I don't know, but the sludge, coked oil and nastiness is what led to it's early demise. Clearly signs of oil starvation as I tore it down.

 

Sludge in the oil pan, and coked up oil flakes blocking the pickup tube.








Here's the hammered rod bearings, I'm guessing they would "knock" everytime the cylinder fired, sqeezing the oil out and making the bearing slap against the crank.

 

Cylinder walls look like crap, no crosshatch visible anymore, scratches, very cloudy & hazy, and these weird white spots.





Off to the machine shop tomorrow. Most likely it'll get a .030" overbore, crank turned, new pistons, hot tank and bead blast. Haven't torn down the heads yet, but hopefully they don't need any work! I'll be putting in an HO cam, some shorty headers from my Lightning, and a good 2-1/2" dual into a 3" single exhaust. I may get after the heads a little with the die grinder, we'll see.

 

keep at it man..lol if i had money id copy you XD

 

Looks like you have a pretty good idea and a plan, that is a good foundation! Keep going and don't get side tracked.

 

I don't have money either, I've managed to round up about $500 so far, sold some ford parts I had laying around, did a few side jobs, and I have a transfer case I'm still trying to sell. The HO cam and Lightning shorties are stuff I have laying around. I'll build the exhaust myself, selling the cats for scrap to help offset the cost. I'm hoping I don't have to put any money into the heads, hopefully the guides and seats are in good shape, and I can just clean them up and put new seals in. It wouldn't make sense to rebuild them, as I plan on swapping the GT-40's from my Lightning on there when I upgrade to some aluminum ones on it. The Machine shop will only be handling the machine work on the block, I'll assemble it myself to save money (unless the machine shop will do it for cheap)

Josh

 

sounds like you have a good start keep us posted. how do you like the shorty headers. i just bought a new set with all gaskets and bolts at a swapmeet that were never installed i gave $50 for them just didnt know how they compare to longtube headers

 

They're not as good as long tubes, that's why I took them off the Lightning, it now has 1-3/4" MAC longtubes. For a shorty, the stock Lightning ones are about the best 1-1/2" primary shorty you will find. I had a set of bbk's and the truck was no faster with them, because the collector on them was crap.

They will be a HELL of a lot better than stock manifolds. On mine the port on the exhaust manifold is smaller than the E7 exhaust port by about 1/4"! And the flange were the pipe mounts is 2" compared to the L header's 2.5" collector. Couple that with a nice 2.5" mandrel bent dual exhaust into a 3" mandrel single, it'll wake it up nicely!

 

Well, just talked to the machine shop this morning, engine was in pretty bad shape. Going to take a .040" overbore, so I guess it's going to be a 308! I'll be going with flat-top pistons instead of the stock dished. Comp 3-way adjustable timing set for the HO cam at 4* advanced. The crank thrust surface was hosed, so that'll be an extra $70 to weld and machine. Mailing him a check today so that he can get parts ordered. He gave me really good prices, so I'll be getting all of my parts through him. I haven't had time to tear into the heads yet, I hope they are OK! I'll check the guides and seats, and if they are OK, I'll just clean them up, lap the valves and put new seals in.

 

Well this is long overdue for an update, it's been at a machine shop for the last 2.5 months, only to given back to me not ready. Looks like my exhaust money is going to a second machine shop to fix this crap right. Read below, I copied and pasted this from my thread on the Corral.

Anybody local to me take heed of this hack!

I should have turned around and walked out the minute I set foot in his shop! After seeing how dirty it was in there, I don't know why I expected my engine to come back clean! I had heard good on him from a guy I trusted, won't make that mistake again!

Red Flag #1 - dirty shop, and he was in a hurry to leave at 4:30 on Friday, I didn't get to ask questions and look around like I would have wanted to. He probably had a beer with his name on it somewhere.

Pictures to follow!

I posted a thread on here a while ago about rebuilding the 5.0 in my wife's (92) pickup.
A guy at work who used to race motorcycles recommended ERIC'S CYLINDER SERVICE Out of the Heights in Billings, MT (towards Shepherd).
I took my stuff there about 2 months ago, just the stripped short block. Told him to measure everything and let me know exactly what work needed to be done. I had left the two screw-in coolant plugs and the soft plug behind the upper intake in, one of the screw in plugs head was stripped, and I didn't have time to mess with the other two. After calling him over the period of the next few weeks, he finally called me back and told me everything it needed. He said he gets a "refurbished crank kit" from his parts supplier with bearings and everything, sends old one in for a core. Cylinders need bored .040" over, new pistons pressed onto rods, etc.

Red flag #2 he doesn't grind his own cranks.

Sent him a check for the parts needed, and didn't hear from him again until I called him a few weeks later, he had parts in and sitting there, but hadn't had time to get to it yet. He finally called a few weeks later and told me it was done, it was $40 or so more for the labor than what he quoted me, but I thought "Oh hell, it's just $40, no big deal, he probably forgot something on the first quote"

I know, I've cut the ####er too much slack already. So now I have a little more time when I pick up my stuff, I ask him about doing a set of heads for my Lightning, if I get some bare aluminums and have him do the valve job. He starts telling me about some "E-force" aluminum heads, how great they are blah blah, Trick Flows are no better, just more money, so I look at them on a 347 he's building (they are procomps), and they are ####, I don't have to look any further than the exhaust ports and valve cover rails to see what an ill-machined piece of #### they are. It also had an edelbrock carb, on an H/C/I 347 :rofl:. Told him I would do a custom cam with the heads on the Lightning, he says "What? those are a waste!" I tell him about the Speed Density on the Lightning, need a tame idle, etc. He tells me to "Put a carb on it so I can run a real cam!" LOL.

Well, the dude is stuck in the 70's and can't build a performance motor to save his life, alright. Hopefully the stock rebuild on this 5.0 is alright! Yes, I'm reaching at this point.

When I ask him how much HP the 347 would be making, he quoted desktop dyno numbers(like they were gospel), I had a hard time not busting out laughing.

The block didn't look super clean when we loaded it up, still had a little paint towards the bottom side, they are usually a lot cleaner when I get them, but didn't think much of it, but made a mental note to check everything really well when I got home.


P.S. Red flag #3 also this whole time I'm overlooking what an arrogant #### he is any time I ask him a question.

So fast forward a few weeks, After getting a few side jobs out of my garage, I finally have time to start putting this engine together. I get it up on the stand, and notice the pipe plug in the side of the block is the stripped-out headed mother ####er I dropped it off with! I pound a hex socket into it until it bites, and turn it out. What do I see but a little pile of rusty #### behind it, so I take the one on the other side out, same thing. Put my air nozzle in the hole and blow, black turds come raining out of the coolant ports in the deck all over the floor. At this point I turn it over and notice that the plug in the rear china wall is still original, they never pulled that out either! Boy I'm glad I removed all the oil galley plugs except that one! ####er woulda really been dirty!

Now here I am with machined, (poorly) cleaned block with cam bearing and freeze plugs installed. The coolant passages are dirty as ####, I can wipe my finger in them and it comes out black. The oil passages (which I'm more concerned about) appear clean, but I can't really tell without taking all the plugs and cam bearings back out.

So I call the ##########, eh-hem, I mean Eric, because I thought he was a one man show, but when I picked up my parts he had another guy assembling. You never know right? His helper may be doing a #### job and he doesn't even know? I want to give him the benefit of the doubt. Called him this morning, told him about all the #### in the coolant passages, (I was very cool-headed and polite, at first) he was pretty cool at first, said I needed to tap on the block with a mallet and blow it out with air. I asked him why it wasn't clean when I got it back, and if they hot tanked it, did they rinse it after and use brushes? (He starts getting pissy right here, building to a temper tantrum) He says yes of course, the scale in the coolant passages sometimes won't come out until it dries, and that's what happened here. I tell him I'm concerned about the other work performed if they can't handle properly cleaning the block? I ask him what the hell kind of cleaning job he expects to get if all the plugs aren't even taken out? I tell him this isn't my first rodeo, and I've never gotten an engine back from machining like this. He asks "Why I'm calling then? he said he'll tap the stuff out if I bring it to him, I tell him I want it hot tanked again, the right way, and that's when he starts to pop a seam, asks if I'm "Just calling to be a crybaby then?" and says "I don't know what I'm doing", (and the one thing he was right about, that I'm "An idiot!" a few other choice words and hangs up.

Yes, as he said, I am an idiot, I should have walked at the first sign of trouble.

I'll post some pics when I get home, again, if anyone wants some ####ty, half-assed work that probably won't make it 500 miles, call up

ERIC'S CYLINDER SERVICE
BILLINGS, MT
406-670-9723

Talk to the head ######## yourself!
When I post up pics we'll talk about WTF I'm going to do with this block also.


Here's the rear oil galley plug that he never removed! Come to think of it, he didn't remove any plugs from the block at all! The only ones out were the ones I took out before I brought it to him! I didn't have a drill and screw handy to pull this one out, and trusted he would before hot tanking the block! What a ####ing scab! Based on how dirty the inside of that motor was, I bet there is all kinds of nastiness behind here, he probably added some grit from his tank to it also! HACK!



ALL the cylinders have these very light scratches? WTF? maybe he test fit the pistons? I can't catch a nail on them or feel them, they are all in the same spot



crap behind the coolant plugs that were never removed





grease around the dipstick hole, it doesn't look any cleaner right here than when I dropped it off.



coolant port plugs that were never taken out, #### caked on the back





bag of the #### that blew out of the deck when I put the air to the coolant port.

 

The pics don't show the plugs behind the cam gear left in also, and a ton of **** that came out of the lifter oil galleys!

The exhaust valves didn't end up looking OK, so the heads and valves got dropped off at the new machine shop also, man this is starting to get painful!

 

Sorry to see you got ####ed dry with out so much as a kiss. Good heads up post. Hope shop two gets you all sorted out ok.

 

I hate when so said "mechanics" do these kind of "work". Sadly most of them can't be trusted...

 

ouch man sad to see you got treated as you did, thanks for the heads up post!! all i can say here is YIKES!!!!!!!

don't worry im sure karma will win in the end....

 

Well, I'm the "mechanic", LOL. All I entrusted him with was cleaning and machining a bare block, swapping over the new pistons, and machining the crank. He couldn't even handle that. I almost, and I mean *almost* thought about having him assemble it, just I just don't have much free time right now, god what a disaster that would have been.