Yes, they have a metal sheet over the bypass, which is exactly why you can't see it, and most people don't know it's there.

Mine looked perfectly fine until I poked at the screen with my finger, and saw that it was loose enough to let a pretty big piece of crap pass through and get in the bypass hole.

gtex, if it was a piece of soft material, it could very well have seized the pump, broken the shaft, and then gotten chewed up enough to pass on through without leaving any marks.

One thing I would do is cut that oil filter open and see what's in there.

 

Hey gtex, any idea why they installed the lash caps? The only reason for them is valve train geometry issues on getting the roller to sit evenly on the valve stem. My boat motor had them so when I put the engin back together I just figured I would reuse them. WELL, later on I broke a rocker stud at about 5600 RPM on the bottle and that inturn took out that pushrod and the one next to it plus popped both lifters out of their bores. I decided to take a look at my geometry. I colored to top of the stem with a felt tip marker and put the rocker back on, adjusted it and rotated the assembly a few times and removed the rocker. It wasnt centered on the tip with the cap so I took it off and did the same thing and no more prob. I also found out that with the cap the polylock was'nt threading on to the stud for enough so it fatiged the top of the stud and popped it. I should have caught this durring assembly but was a rushed job before the weekend so my bad.
How bad was the block when you tore it down? I have seen blocks that were so bad that even after the hot tank there was still carbon build up in the gallies. It seems like with the damage being on that one side that there might have been some carbon that came loose after the oil pump and filter and found its way into that gally.
After you find the oiling problem I think you should take a good look at the geometry because with new valves you really should never need lash caps.They dont like high revs either.
Fry

 

Gtex,

There are instances where lash caps are appropriate. I will be using them on my exhaust valves to create the proper geometry.

-Scouder

 

It's beer:30!

I've been wrenching for 3 days. 3 different trucks. Up until this afternoon, nothing was even running. I finally got the 352, orginal from the 67, running. It's under the 69 body, but is not driveable.

SO, out of 3 old trucks, I've got one running motor and nothing I can actually drive :-(

To top it off, I injured myself on the "Fast Orange" hand cleaner pump

where's that beer?

 

Greg, I hate to say it, but when its so bad you get injured washing your hands, it may be beer thirty!

-Scouder

 

What kinda beer you drinkin Greg?

 

i think someone at that shop you took it to screwed up your truck. you never know what they do maybe he was a dumb chebby mechanic and didint now anything about FE's. anyway my only expierence with people working on my things has been bad. screwed up my motorcycle, screwed up jeep whole bunch other stuff. I just plain dont trucst people with stuff no more, id rather work my tail off then not know what happened under the hood.

 

That's exactly what I was thinking.

 

i think greg took it to a professional mechanic if i remember right, but i guess they all can screw up sometimes who knows, lets just hope greg gets it figured out and doesnt give up on us, we need guys like him around here, good luck man

 

Greg, the mighty 446 isn't dead. It got into a fight, got beatup pretty badly, but it ain't dead. There are a couple of things that come to mind.....1st, have you spoken to the folks who made your first oilpump driveshaft ? You could explain how there are 10s of thousands on the internet reading about how their part caused a catastrophic failure. I don't think they will pay for everything, but if you could twist their arms into buying you a gasket set, some bearings and some new rings, it might be some very good low-budget PR for them. Who made that first pumpshaft ? Do they want the FE community to buy their stuff or not ? 2ndly, you should be having some serious words with your original builder. Take a few large friends and a baseball bat with you. Explain the 10s of thousands on the internet thing. I have to wonder, from looking at your pictures, if your rings ever seated properly. It could be that the finish on the bores was not right, or it could be that the first carb you tried washed down the bores with so much fuel that they never had a chance. Where did that first carb come from ? I like to breakin a new engine with a known carb, whenever possible. What cam does your engine have ? If you have the smaller Crane juice roller, it is too small anyway. What springs do you have ? Be aware that the springs that Crane's tech reccomends for their roller cams isn't really enough. I would like to see about 150lbs on the seat and 400-450 over the nose. Yes, I know that sounds like a bunch. But FE roller lifters aren't light, and neither are those 3/8ths stem valves. Smith pushrods were a good choice, no problems there. 3rd, why did the shop doing the spring change add lash caps ? Did they believe the first shop had the geometery wrong and they were trying to fix it ? Or did the caps throw the geometry off and cause the problem ? What is the seat tension of the springs they put on ? Pressure at max lift ? Some of the threads on your rockershaft studs look stripped... is that just the pic, or is that really happening ? No oil to one side of rockers- did the spring change shop get the stands mixed up or what ? What kind of head bolts are you using ? Some of the Edel heads have a dry rocker problem with certain bolts/studs. Did any of your shops know to check for this ? Name names, please. Tell us who did what. Some of the FE guys in your area might want to know who to trust ( like smith ) and who to avoid. If I screw up a customers engine at work, the Boss makes me fix it. If it needs something beyond my abilities, he helps. We wouldn't even think of giving an engine back to a customer in worse shape that when he brought it in. Let us know whhhen the engine is out of the truck, and you have measured the crank. My thinking is that you can polish the crank, put in fresh bearings, and hone and BRUSH the bores ( yes, brush. I'll explain when you're ready ) and the short block will be okay with some new rings. Tell us what the cam looks like after removal and then we'll try to figure out your valvetrain issues. DF

 

Sorry to hear about the engine Greg. DF is right, it is not a total loss. Here is what I think you should do: Rebuild it yourself! You have plenty of knowledge and whatever you are missing can be picked up here. Nobody will take more time and pay more attention to detail to your engine than you will. Since almost all of your hard parts are still in good shape you shouldn't have too much money going into a rebuild. I rebuilt a 289 for about $450 a while back. That was with new/rebuilt crank from the parts store and ARP rod bolts. The heads needed no work and the pistons were pretty new. I don't understand the pushrod thing. I bent a pushrod so bad I had to remove the intake to get it out and the cups didn't bust like that. Your valves must have been floating hard for a good while. Think of all the extra money and time you will have now considering you can't visit the local dancing joints!

 

I'll be doing the rebuil myself. Originally, the short-block was built by Flatlander Racing. They have terrible service, and I would not know ehere to begin about trying to find someone there that knew anything about my short-block. They just contract there work out to many different shops.

The Pump SHaft was a Milodon, and I called them. All I got was a "Thta's not typical" response. They said they could analyze the shaft remnants if I shipped it to them.

DF, you might recall that the springs were upgraded not long ago. The Springs from crane that matched my cam did result in valve float. That's when the truck was getting Dyno tuned for the ne BG Carb. So, I let that shop replace the springs. He put COMP springs in. I know they are in the 400 lb range when open. This is when he install the lash caps. I don't believe he was trying to resolve any geometry issues. there wasn't a "first shop". I did the original valve train setup. (Actually, a local machine shop did swap from the Edelbrock to the Crane parts on the uninstalled heads, then I installed and adjusted the rockers).

As far as the running rich. It was running very rich with that Edelbrock carb in the first Dyno and A/F runs. That's one of the reasons I went to the BG carb.

I'll probably take today to do something else, not wrenching on trucks :-) I'll get back to it next weekend. The pushrods and rocker ball studs are on the way. I'm probaly not going to use the lash caps. I'll probably check the bearings and the other cyilnders for sratches. I'll pull the pistons to make sure there is no debris left. If I don't find any worse scratches, she'll probably go back together as is.

 

Above all my friend don't give up, that engine is what mine dreams of when it grows up , I got to see that thing run the quarter mile.
Now if you need big guys with bats for some ones attitude adjustment me and my brother love FE's and I'm 210 he is 235

 

Sorry to hear that. Ouch! Take heart that these things can be fixed.

One thing I didn't see mentioned here yet is the pushrod to manifold clearance. When I was putting mine together I noticed that a few of my pushrods were actually contacting the sides of the pushrod holes in my E'bok Performer RPM manifold. It was nothing that the die grinder couldn't fix before assembly. I think I had my intake on and off two or three times before final assembly.

Here are a few problems I can think of on mine, and this was only during the machining/assembly/installation phases (almost all were my own fault, by the way):
Bungled threads on 427-style core plugs
Wrong stroke on sunnen hone
wrong intake valves arrived (twice from different suppliers!)
429 oil pump drive in 390 packaging (from Summit no less)
Rocker to pushrod clearance
Rocker to manifold clearance
not enough RTV on manifold front gasket
cracked timing cover with too long of oil pan bolts (because of compensating for Canton windage tray).
Gauled-up front crank bolt because i tried to pull on the dampener with same threads
forgot tranny to engine plate
forgot to tighten motor mount
broken shift arm on C6
i'm sure i've forgotten some things and I'm not even running yet

I'm just about to fire up my freshly rebuilt 390 and now you got me nervous.

There is a lot of excitement, adreneline, learning, and character building with a non-stock motor.

Good luck and is it ok if we all pray for you?

--Matt

 

You're not the only one! I will be starting my 511 about this time next month, and I am nervous enough about it that I have three sets of eyes coming over to help me. One hi performance engine builder, one 40 year aircraft/auto/motorcyle mechanic, and one friend. I figure that between watching the guages, the initial tuning, and watching/listening for problems they should be able to handle it. I will probably be in a fetal position in some corner of the shop afraid to watch!

-Scouder