ive experienced a pretty hellacious knock, but it was only at idle....any thoughts there??

 

Not likely to be a rod bearing, they usually get worse as the rpm picks up.

Could be several things, maybe a lifter stuck in the bore? Hard to say without hearing it. How is your oil pressure?

 

I am still emailing Clifford back and forth with questions. It seems I can only ask one question at a time or the others are ignored.

The 264 Clifford cam requires new/different valve springs because the stock type springs will bind.

My next question will ask about bumping up the compression a bit to 9:1 with the 264 cam. I need to know if the motor will pass CA SMOG and if 87 octane will work. I want no guess work on my motor build.

I will also ask about the Cloyes timing gears he sells. Are they EFI friendly? Fine or course tooth? Why do they cost more than other metal gears?

For the others with engine problems. I found about 5 or 6 small pieces of bearings in my oil pan. My engine runs really smooth and quiet, but since I have found the bearings I am going to rebuild it before something decides to go. Two different engine builders looked at the pieces and guessed it was babit (sp?). They said cam or rod bearings, but there is only one way to really find out.

One more question. Other than purchasing a cam kit from Clifford or Comp. Cams or ??? is there a good place to get valve springs, keepers, lifters etc. that work with an aftermarket cam?

Thanks motorhead351 for the cam #'s.

 

Here is the kit I am looking at.



Ford 300 87-95 - Master Kit
INCLUDES

Federal Mogul Rings

Federal Mogul recessed head Pistons

Federal Mogul Rod Brgs

Federal Mogul Main Brgs

Federal Mogul Cam Brgs

Melling Oil Pump

Federal Mogul Camshaft

Federal Mogul Lifters

Melling Timing Components

Pioneer Frost Plugs

Victor Gasket
Make: Ford
Model: pickup
Year: 87-95

Category: Ford
Manufacturer: Engine Kits
Model Number: Master Kit #0440
Price: $332.75

I emailed Northern Auto Parts asking if I could remove the oil pump, camshaft and lifters. Hopefully they will do it and it will lower the price.

What is a Victor gasket?
Are Pioneer Frost plugs good?

 

The Moly rings cost $14.62 extra. Is this a good upgrade? Why?

 

Thats exactly what mine does, the more rpms the worse and worse the knock is. I talked to my dad about it and he wants to rebuild it, and suprisingly wants to mod it a little. Since the E-check is done in january, he wants to get headers and a cam. Nothin much, just a little more "umph", plus headers really flatten out the torque curve. Also might have to bore it, depends on the cylinder walls. I aint complaining!! I got nothin better to do for a while

 

Make sure the cam and the indexing of that cam is compatible for EFI if you need to pass emissions.

What is generally not known is that Ford retarded the cam around 4 degrees to pass emissions on the EFI motors. This means the EFI trucks don't have nearly the low speed torque as those trucks with straight up cam timing in the carbed motors. The power band on the EFI truck hamstrings it for towing in many instances.

Believe me, if you want bottom end torque, the difference between straight up (old carbed stock cam specs) versus 4 degrees retarded (EFI) is very substantial. The difference is enough to transform an EFI motor from unusable for towing with a stick shift to perfectly adequate, even with the M5OD tranny. If you have an automatic, it's not as critical.

Make sure they index the cam for torque. No retard.

 

I'm getting ready to rebuild my 6 to it has 202,000 on it but not to sure if i will do a complet rebuild or just replace the bearings.I removed #6 sparkplug today and looked inside the bore to finde you can still see the hone marks on the wall like it was done not to long ago and there is very little carbon ontop of the piston.I got the motor out of a 92 pickup 5 years ago and drive the snot out of it.I get a rattle out of it at startup till the oil presure comes up,had a guy tell me that the crank is bouncing in the bearings till the oil gets there.

 

Possibly the oil pressure relief valve. Try different oil filters.

 

oil pressures fine...

 

While reading all of the above I can say it pretty much looks like a history lesson on me.
First: I had the cold knock (was a hard solid knock) and could not find it . It seemed to come from deep inside somewhere in the middle and was the same on both sides. I even pilled the side cover and started it. Yep it was messy but not there. Mechanics told me wrist pin, cracked piston, rod bearings and a few other things.
I pulled the pan and plastiguaged rods and mains, moved each piston up and down while listening and looking. I did find the rod bearings badly worn and the mains not much better so since I had it apart and they are cheap I replaced all of them. Put on a new stock oil pump too for just in case since oil pressure was getting low.
It had about 150k on it when I did this.
When I was putting the fan belt on I bumped the air air pump and got the sound I had been hearing by pulling the shaft foward and back. That was my knock.
A little over 200k I thought it was time to rebuild so I did, not that it was showing any problems but 200k? My wifes last two chettys have needed it a little after 100k.
Cylinder walls showed less than .010 wear and crank (rods and mains) were still in specs so the crank was not even turned.
After going thru this once the plan on my fresh engine is to change rod and main bearings about 140k to 150k and keep going.
I had to learn this the hard way some maybe this will make it a little easier for someone.

 

OLDNTRD, thanks for the tip.

I have an I6 with epic miles on it. I fired it up one day and heard an unmistakable lower end rattle. I was not surprised because of the milage. Checked the oil, down about a quart so I changed it and the filter. The sound has not re-occurred. I think it was the oil pressure relief valve in the filter stuck partially open, so all the oil had drained into the pan leaving the bearings essentially dry. (My truck sometimes sits for weeks at a time.) So of course I wonder how much that one incident damaged the bearings. (?) [86 F150 4x4 short reg np435 4.9]

 

I purchased Clifford's 264 cam and kit today $393.00 shipped. The kit includes cam, lifters, springs, retainers, valve locks and hardened pushrods. I plan on milling off .060 from the head to bump the compression to around 9.75:1 (89 octane recommended). Larry at Clifford said this combo will pass CA smog and should have about 340-350 ft lbs of torque at 3,300 rpm. 300 ft lbs off idle. The cam is installed straight up. I learned the stock Ford EFI will not handle much more than 4,200 rpm (if that). I will have to get a tach and see.

Northern Auto Parts said the engine kit minus their cam and lifters is $277.91. I will also try to lose their oil pump. I just bought one less than 500 miles ago. Hopefully that will drop the price more. Northern Auto Parts said their timing gears are steel. I emailed them again asking if they are steel on steel or steel on aluminum. I also need to ask them if their "Moly" ring upgrade is Chromoly. Is Moly just slang for Chromoly?

Clifford recommended "Chrome" rings only. I wonder if he meant chromoly? What do you think?

 

I like ordinary iron rings. They seat in fast and the ring wear instead of your cylinder wearing. There are plenty of expensive high tech rings to choose from but they are mostly for racers whose engines spend more time apart than together. They seal tight from the get-go and that's their upside. The problem is that they will wear your block rather than the other way around. Stock rings take several hundred miles to achieve their maximum sealing power but next time you engine comes apart it won't be for an expensive re-bore. I'm old enough to know this by experience, not just theory. I've done it both ways more than onece.

 

Thats what I was thinking.