My sentiments exactly...and my engine block machinist also. On a recent race engine I needed to replace the pistons and I said to him, "I guess we'll have to go .040 over?" He said as long as we were ordering custom pistons (Diamond) we could order .035 over and save some iron for future rebuilds. I used .030 file-fit rings and there was plenty of ring to file-to-fit end clearances.

 

I definitely agree that roller rockers would be great. But, my issue is that from everything I've read/heard, I technically *should* be okay with regular stamped steel rockers. So why am I not? What is causing them to chirp and squeak so bad? I'm worried that if I don't track it down, it'll follow me from these, to the roller rockers, and then what do I do?

If some synthetic will fix it, at least that'll just let me know it's a lubrication issue.

But yeah, I have 1200 on the engine, and on my last check I had 175 compression on all 6 cylinders, so it's nicely broken in.

That's what I thought with the original set. Maybe they were just some cheap knock-offs I got off eBay for $50, and they weren't machined right. But when the Comp set started doing it too, that kinda shot that theory in the foot. I asked Comp about some spots being mirror shine shiny while others dull and untouched, and he said that they all simply have to have a spot where contact is made, and it usually isn't perfectly distributed. Dunno.

We're going with a racing quality synthetic made by Driven. It's about $12 a quart, so hopefully some good stuff!

 

If the $12/qt. works, I would try a more normal synthetic on the subsequent oil change. It, too, might work and would save you a great deal. If it did not work as well, you could try half and half. If necessary, you could then go back to the expensive oil.

 

royal purple is great stuff...as are amsoil products. used them both myself.


I don't work for either company lol...nor do I get kickbacks for throwing in shameless plugs for their lubricants. Just speaking from past experience.

 

I use Amsoil in my air cooled engines (Harley) where I feel a premium synthetic is warranted, but the syn, or semi-syn Rotella works for everything else and I've had good luck with it.

All varieties of Rotella go on sale and have rebates time to time, so a gallon of the full syn can be got for close to $20 if you pay attention. My old '81 F100 is due for a change right now and will go with semi this time I think.

Regardless, AB should use what he's comfortable with; $12/qt is still a cheap fix for the chirps if that works. I'm hopeful that it does.

 

AB, I'd stop paying for 'maybe' resolutions and buy the r.rockers. Good luck.

 

Hi everyone!

So it's been a little while since I posted updates.


First of all..... As I'm sure some of you have noticed, Photobucket is now charging $400 a year to be able to link photos to their site. There's no way I'm spending that, so my entire collection of pictures for this engine rebuild are now just blocked pictures.

I'd love to upload them to another site and swap them all out, but that's going to take quite a bit of work, so I haven't done it yet. In the mean time, here's a link to the album if anyone wants/needs to reference pictures.

Engine Rebuild by Justin Lloyd | Photobucket

Second update. For those who remember my post from a few months ago about my wife and being diagnosed with cancer... That's going very well. Chemo and radiation were exceptionally successful and reduced it by about 75%. Enough so where now in a few weeks, they're just going to do surgery and remove the rest. She should be out the door the next day and that's that. I'm very thankful! And feeling blessed. In another month, this should all be a thing of the past. Really really happy about that.

Next, back to the rockers. The Comp rockers made no difference and they were squeaking/chirping within a week, so I sent those back. Next, an engine guy my mechanic knows suggested synthetic oil as they've had problems with chirping rockers and that solved it. The synthetic *helped*, but not a lot. It's noticeably quieter (maybe 20%), but it's by no means remedied.
Interestingly, there's no noise at all on the first start up of the day, and then it starts chirping after 20 - 30 seconds of running (and it's really loud). Then, as I drive it, it slowly gets quieter. After 30 minutes of driving, it's quieted down enough that you'd have to point it out to someone for them to notice. But, shut it off, let it sit for a while, and it's back to full volume right when you start it up. Odd odd.
But, after almost 1000 miles on them, and it isn't any louder than it was when it first started, so it's not getting worse.
That said, my less expensive attempts haven't worked, so it's onto planning for some roller rocker arms. It's just going to take a bit to budget and afford them, so I'll have to put up with the chirping for a bit longer.

Otherwise, the engine is running great! It's smooth, powerful, and fun to drive. SO much stronger, and very healthy. I'm really pleased with it. I have a bit more carb tuning to do, and one I get the chirping noise gone, I know I'll have a real winner on my hands (already do). So it's great.




I also had quite the "little" bonus find this weekend. My brother was over and he came in and asked me if I knew my 4x4 hubs were locked! I thought he was joking until I looked at them myself. I have no recollection of when I locked them last. I know I did over the winter, but I usually unlock them. I'm thinking I locked them to just lubricate the front end and then just forgot. Either way, I think it was since before I put the engine in!! Wow, can I feel a difference. I feel like like I just unhitched a trailer from the back. So, yesterday and today I've been enjoying my engine all over again. I also imagine my gas mileage numbers are going to go up a bit. Hah, oooops.

 

I am very happy to hear the good news about your wife!

I was sure to download all my photos as a zip file from photo bucket extortion before they denied me access. You should follow suit. K

 

Thanks K! It's been quite a rough year, but fortunately, things have gone very well. I know that's not always teh case, so I have a lot to be thankful for.

As for the pictures, extortion is right. Fortunately, I didn't delete them from my computer before I uploaded them, so I still have my own copies of them all.

 

I hear you on photobucket! Man that more then ticked me off. I had a lot of pictures of my projects/builds on there. My 54 F100 build thread is almost 10 years old and 34 pages of pictures that were almost all on photobucket. It ticked me off so much, I saved all the pics and deleted them from their website and closed my account with them.

I've been having good luck with Postimage.org ? free image hosting / image upload so far. So I'll be using their site for posting my pictures.

It's great to hear your wife is doing well. Hopefully everything keeps getting better. I'll be keeping you guys in my thoughts.

Hopefully once you can get them the roller rockers will finally rid you of the chirping.

I've been there and done that with the locking hubs. Good thing your brother pointed that out to you. And now you were able to fully unleash the beast! That should definitely help your fuel mileage.

 

Thanks for the update on your wife and the bronco. I have been following this engine build from the beginning and miss the updates and education. I'm willing to donate the rocker arm fund just to keep it going.

 

There we go! I'll throw in $20. AB, do you have a paypal acc.? Let's see if the forum will buy you a set of r.rockers?

"Roller Rockers for Squeaky!" aka Abandoned Bronco, aka Justin.

 

Count me in for $40.

Justin, glad to hear your wife is doing well.

 

20 bucks here. paypal???

 

First and foremost, that is great news regarding your wife. Keep praying!

Regarding the engine, it sounds temperature related in that as the engine comes to normalized temperature [~30 minutes], things change.

I remember you changing rockers [stock, after market, etc.] and still not where you want to be. Didn't you have the head modified for threaded studs for the rocker shaft? If so, is it possible that during the drilling process, the studs are not properly aligned? That would cause the rocker shaft to not be square and perhaps some rockers contact the pushrods and valve stems other than square.

Does this make sense? Be gentle!