Things aren't looking good...

[Fast95Stang]

Last Sunday I was fooling around in my Mustang a bit.

This is the post I put on another forum:
I was going past our house and I punched it in first gear, then I drove a little farther and all of a sudden it started making an odd noise. It sounded like something metal rattling around. I shut it down immediately fearing it was something in the engine. I will admit that I didn't let it warm up like I usually do before I start driving it hard. My 4 year old niece wanted me to go faster so I figured I would just stab it once and be done. Luckily I was only 500 ft from our house. So I started it up to listen to it again and make sure the oil pressure was good. Oil pressure was just fine and the noise sounded like it was coming from the bellhousing. At first I thought it was the pilot bearing but I couldn't get anything to listen to the bellhousing with. I brought my mechanics stethoscope home from work today and it seems like the noise that I thought was coming from the bellhousing has gone away. Now it sounds like it is valve train noise. Since I have put my new engine in (2 years ago) it has made some valve train noise. It is considerably louder now. I took the oil fill cap off (located on the passenger side valve cover) and used my stethoscope to listen in the hole, there is no doubt that it is coming from that side. Good thing I have a new intake manifold that I was planning to put on soon. It will be easy to take off the valve cover and look at all the rocker arms and pushrods, etc. Any thoughts on what I should look for? Are there any common problems? I have Brodix cylinder heads, I'm not sure what brand rockers are on there. I will contact PER to see what Randy says.


Anyway....Here is an update from today...


Well the valve train noise is much more than what I expected.
I am the newest member of the Jack Stands Racing League!

My two uncles came over yesterday to help me out. We found a lot of things that I am NOT happy about at all...We spent a good part of the day taking things apart, and looking at possible causes of everything.

I will post more details later, but at this point it looks like the engine will have to come out and be rebuilt...

Season over...

[Reverend Cooper]

sorry bout that greg really sucks

[Sprayaway Fox]

Were in the same boat, first ride out of the garage I pop a tire, then the cars fuel pump cuts out whenever it wants which was the same problem I had right at the endo the year last year after I threw some parts at it. Then on the way to try to get it home I get pulled over for loud exhaust and get a ticket. My car dies again and wont start while Im pulled over with a flat tire and I had to get my trailer to pick it up to drive 3 miles. This years getting off to a bad time so far.

[nismodave]

Sorry to hear that, Gregg. How bad is it?

[Reverend Cooper]

greg what did you see so far?

[Fast95Stang]

To give a little more detail...

I found that my pushrods have been grinding on the plates they go through in the cylinder head. Every one of them has gouges and a metal ring around it. The reason I believe the engine has to be rebuilt is because now there are tiny metal filings all throughout the engine. Also, I can twist my rocker arms from side to side. To me that doesn't seem right. I will try to get some pictures later today so it makes more sense. I sure hope PER will work with me because in my eyes it is an assembly error.

[Reverend Cooper]

almost sounds that way,like the drivetrain geometry is wrong,or the pushrod length is incorrrect,that would explain the blue smoke last year also if the geometry is wrong the valve guides may be worn also letting oil into the combustion chamber

[Russ Jerome]

Are these pushrod "guides" your rubbing on?

I was helping a guy assemble a BBC and I noticed he
had guides for smaller pushrods, they were available in
two outside diameters and his were incorrect. Im not
up on Fords but I've installed them on my Chevs and
Pontiacs before.

Roller rockers wont pivot but ball/sockets will:
https://www.jrmotorsports.com/Images...G_R1840RST.jpg

[Jon5.0]

Sorry to hear about that.

[Fast95Stang]

almost sounds that way,like the drivetrain geometry is wrong,or the pushrod length is incorrrect,that would explain the blue smoke last year also if the geometry is wrong the valve guides may be worn also letting oil into the combustion chamber

I did notice a fair amount of oil in the upper intake so I'm willing to bet thats what the blue smoke is coming from. I don't know why there is so much oil getting past the PCV filter. I am going to put an oil separator in between the PCV valve and the t-body.

[Voodoo Chick]

VERY sorry to hear, hope it all works out OK........

[Irish]

Do you have guide plates? That could have be where the pushrods are rubbing. I thought to an degree they are supposed to rub, that is why you have to run hardened pushrods.

Also run an oil catch can and that should help eliminate the oil issue.

[Fast95Stang]

Do you have guide plates? That could have be where the pushrods are rubbing. I thought to an degree they are supposed to rub, that is why you have to run hardened pushrods.

Also run an oil catch can and that should help eliminate the oil issue.

Yes I do have guide plates. That is exactly correct that they are supposed to rub on them, the plates are what keep the rocker arms straight. (I just learned all of this myself)
I sent my old push rods back to PER and Randy told me that they were not hardened. Since the engine was built a couple years ago he told me he can't say what happened in the shop or why they didn't put hardened rods in. Whatever the case may be, I should be getting new hardened push rods at my doorstep today. No charge to me.

After talking with Randy, and a couple other very knowledgeable people I determined that doing a series of oil changes will flush out any metal shavings and I won't have to rebuild.

[xxtremeteam]

sounds good back on track before the warm season ever gets here if all goes well

[SMOKDU]

i guess at the very least i would pull off the upper intake and pull out the lifters and check and see if the rollers are ok. make sure the cam did not get nicked bad. just an idea and it is easy to do. good luck

[Reverend Cooper]

i'd be pulling that motor and sending it back to be redone,the right way.

[Irish]

i'd be pulling that motor and sending it back to be redone,the right way.

As much as it would suck to do, I agree. If something else fails as a result of the metal shavings, it would harder to prove later on down the road. Instead of getting 100,000 mi out of the motor you might only get 75-80.
I would give them a chance to make it right. And I would say exactly that. But in a polite way. It sounds to me that they already admitted fault.

[Reverend Cooper]

I did notice a fair amount of oil in the upper intake so I'm willing to bet thats what the blue smoke is coming from. I don't know why there is so much oil getting past the PCV filter. I am going to put an oil separator in between the PCV valve and the t-body.

oil in the intake on a non boosted app is unlikely unless the pcv is stuck open or there is to much blow by. change the pcv and retry if it still does this its a internal issue. my opinion stands they put the wrong timing cover on it and put wrong internals in it. pull it out take it back and demand it be redone with pictures of the process proving it was all done and ask for your old parts back. you paid for new correct,not new incorrect and metal shavings thats bullshit period

[Irish]

oil in the intake on a non boosted app is unlikely unless the pcv is stuck open or there is to much blow by. change the pcv and retry if it still does this its a internal issue. my opinion stands they put the wrong timing cover on it and put wrong internals in it. pull it out take it back and demand it be redone with pictures of the process proving it was all done and ask for your old parts back. you paid for new correct,not new incorrect and metal shacings thats bullshit period

Shacings wow... is that worse than shavings?

[Fast95Stang]

Hello everyone! This is Greg's wife Lynn. I am posting this for him while he is at work. He has been really busy working on everyone else's cars the last week and he still has to fix the Focus before we go to NY on Wednesday, so I am helping him out with this post.

Well the first step of "fixing" the engine arrived yesterday. Randy at PER sent us new the new hardened push rods. We are just curious about the quality and reputation of the brand we received. They are from Engine Pro Racing or the other name on the package is Engine Pro Performance (website). They are packaged in plastic bags, with a cardstock topper (to be hung up when at a store). Since we have never bought these ourselves, we were just curious if that is the typical packaging, as well as the quality/reputation. The part number is 581-6250, the measurements on the rods are 5/16 x .083, 6.250.

The old push rods had a little "ball like" knob on both ends, while these ones are completely straight with rounded tips.

If anyone knows anything about these push rods, please post up! We are starting to get concerned about other parts that are in the engine. These rods were not the only part NOT intended for this engine. (Others include the oil pan and timing cover). We hope that there aren't other parts that were not meant for this engine...

Thanks in advance for any thoughts you might have!

Lynn