Alrighty, it's been another 4 months, and I have achieved catastrophic failure. This time I took my time and correctly identified a crack in my block at an oil galley. I am picking up a new engine to start building. The new engine came out of a 97. I know the front cover on the 97 motors was different, but is there any reason I can't bolt all of my accessories up to the new front cover? I spoke with CNC and they said my HPOP can bolt to a 97 front cover, my Dieselsite water pump is listed as a 95.5-97 pump, so that should work. As far as I can tell everything should work out. The only other difference I am seeing is the oil pickup tube and oil pan are different. Any advice from the folks on here would be appreciated. At this time I am planning on using the motorcraft overhaul kit with delipped pistons, ARP head studs, SS injector cups, welded piston oil jets, Melling LPOP, and Fluidampr balancer. I'm still debating on if I should get new lifters, I only want to tear into the bottom end one time, so if anyone has suggestions of other things to take care of please shoot them my way!

 

94.5-e95 have a different thermostat so keep that in mind.

If your HPOP is a 94.5-e95 you will need the 95 cover because the HPOP has a anti drain valve in the pump itself and not on the timing cover, and even at that I've used the 94.5-e95 HPOP on my 95 with a 00 front timing cover as well as my 00 f250 with no problems.

 

maybe I’ll call them again to confirm. I told them I have a cnc stage 2 for a 95 and they said it would work on a 97 front cover, but one for a 97 wouldn’t work on a 95 front cover

 

I'm expecting a call from the machine shop any moment, I was told early this week for completion. They are boring 0.030 over, align honing mains, decking the block/heads, complete head job including new valves, seats, SS injector cups, and new comp 910 valve springs. Had them magnaflux the bock, heads, and rods. Balanced rotating assembly from fluidampr to clutch. Got ARP head studs, main studs, and rod bolts. Machine shop is providing pistons, gaskets, seals, o rings, etc. Picked up new lifters, front cover, oil pan (tig welded a new dip stick adapter in), oil pickup, oil cooler mounts (my rear mount was missing the spring/washer/plate thing), and melling LPOP. Pretty much the only items that I'll be pulling from my old motor are push rods, injectors, HPOP, and water pump. Ended up getting a new clutch and flywheel so that I could have the assembly balanced while keeping the truck mobile, plus everything got soaked in oil anyways. Also snagged some S&B body mounts to help make some more room. I ordered some high temp sound deadening material and plan to install it on the exterior of the firewall while the motor is out. If all goes well, I will have an assembled motor this weekend, and will try to get it in the truck the following!

Motor prior to machine work

small portion of the new parts

TIG welding cam gear

 

What SBC clutch did you pickup?

I have their OFE in mine.

 

that flywheel looks like a SD one

 

I went 1 step down from that with the 6OR which is rated to 400hp/800ftlbs. With my setup that should be enough

 

That is correct, I have a ZF6 out of a SD

 

 

Alrighty, l had a very productive weekend. The machine shop finished up my motor right at close of business on Friday but they told me in advance so I could pick it up. Spent Saturday organizing and painting. The Duplicolor "Ford Red" is a little more orange than I was hoping for based on the cap color, but oh well, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, the Duplicolor "New Ford Grey" is a really cool color. Sunday I got the main pieces assembled. ARP main studs and head studs installed (machine shop installed the rod studs for me since I had them balance the rotating assembly. Everything is cycling well. In the last pic the oil pan is just laying there, at that point I was informed that all of the sudden it was 8:30pm and time to vacate my friend's shop. Tonight and probably a few other nights this week I'll get the remainder of the parts on that I can before pulling my motor (oil cooler/mounts, oil pan, LPOP, HPOP gear, HPOP reservior, and I might have a few accessory mounts laying around I could toss on). Everything else will need to be transferred once the other motor is out. Only weird thing I noticed is that I'm missing one of the large oil rail plugs on the head. Not sure if the machine shop removed it for some reason or if I never had one, but either way I have some heads in the garage I can steal from. Does anyone have a thread sealer they recommend for that plug?

 

https://www.riffraffdiesel.com/cylin...nd-plug-set-4/

these are updated design

Ford and Navistar's instructions require the use of LocTite 277 threadlocker on the Oil Rail End plugs

did you put on the passenger plenum corner bolt before the font cover went on?

 

I'll snag a set of those, I'm guessing this design doesn't require the 277 threadlocker since it's updated? Well crap... I did not. Might be taking the front cover back off already. Thanks for catching that, would have never thought about it until I went to pull my plenums from the old motor

 

loctit still needed with them. Old ones are shorter and orings leaks faster in the rear from turbo heat

you can shorten a bolt and shave the bolt head down to make it fit

or do plenums with front cover off

gasket on oil pan? i keep hearing they fail after a bit and ford TA is the best with a Milwaukee caulk gun to bead it in two minutes

 

Gotcha, I'll get those ordered today. I have heard mostly good things about the moroso pan gasket. Haven't really seen anything where it failed after a while, most complaints I have seen seem to be from guys that installed them while the motor was in the truck and never got a good seal

 

I haven't used loctite on the rail plugs that I've installed and haven't had leaks or had them come loose, but do it by the book just in case