Pics of my new motor during assembly

[addo]

Seriously Eric - it's not just me telling you this time. Pull it down again or you are going to kill the cam and lifters. There's almost certainly no warranty comeback on it either - since by your own admission:

I don't remember us putting anything on the cam lobes. I do know that we soaked the lifters in oil for a week before installing them, and there was plenty of motor oil on them when they went in. I will call the machine shop today and see if they put anything on the cam.

For the sake of a $30 head gasket, do this bit again and get it right.

 

[Bort62]

Seriously Eric - it's not just me telling you this time. Pull it down again or you are going to kill the cam and lifters. There's almost certainly no warranty comeback on it either - since by your own admission:

I don't remember us putting anything on the cam lobes. I do know that we soaked the lifters in oil for a week before installing them, and there was plenty of motor oil on them when they went in. I will call the machine shop today and see if they put anything on the cam.

For the sake of a $30 head gasket, do this bit again and get it right.

+1

 

[Eric Rose]

I'm going to call tomorrow and ask if he put anything on them. I will then pull the pan and look for myself. Would it be OK if I put some lube onto the cam and lifters from the bottom? Seems like it'd be easy to get to. Because I really don't have the time/money/desire to pull the head again

 

[60s Refugee]

You'd remember if you did it. It takes time and effort to lube all four bearings, the fuel pump lobe, the dizzy gear, the twelve cam lobes, the rear of the cam, the retaining plate and shim. I just did it myself and I am quite aware of having done it, besides getting the grease all over me while shoving it in! I even put a dab on the bottom of each lifter too (as well as oil). If you don't remember then you probably didn't do it. I doubt your Dad would have forgotten to do it!

There are several name brands of break in grease including Lubra Plate. Ask your parts dealer and he will set you up with something better than Vasoline. Hell, peanut butter might be better than Vasoline .

Harry

 

[addo]

I don't often "name names" but will give an honourable (?) mention to 63DropTop and 67MustangHotrod.

Both had helpers who "knew it all" - better than the combined experience of FSP, apparently. Both spent similar money on parts to yourself, and experienced significant engine problems after installation/startup. The first one mentioned made up a BS story and sold the car because he couldn't bear the thought of trying to fix it properly - the second person above bought a used 302 to install.

Eric, there are two unfortunate things you will learn about adulthood. Firstly, parents are not always right, and secondly there are professional businesses who will lie or evade responsibility for things they haven't done properly.

The hard question you need to ask, is - if it doesn't turn out how you expected, how will you fix it? I mean, time/money/labour. You say you're short on time - if the car is dead with a flattened cam in three weeks - are you "long" on time then?

 

[ludwig]

What a way to harsh the mellow. I thought I was on track and growing up apace. Now you tell me this?

Eric

 

[addo]

I'll put your name down for the next group hug.

 

[60s Refugee]

Don't worry Eric, until you ask your dad if he greased it. If he didn't then its easy to pull the head now while everything is apart. Don't wait until everything is buttoned up to find out. IMO the head is the easy part. It's everything else that skins my knuckles!

I know....pretend you are working in the pit area for Danica Patrick....and she needs this head job done to win the race, and...and... Oh Well,

So far everything still looks 'mellow'

Harry

 

[Eric Rose]

This is going to be a stupid question I know, but can I re-use the head gasket? I put full torque on it but since the engine hasn't ran, hasn't been hot, and hasn't even had oil or coolant it, could it be safe to re-use?

Also, I didn't assemble the short block of the motor myself, the machine shop did. when we got it the crank/rods/pistons/cam/timing gear were already installed. So the guy who assembled it should be able to tell me if he lubed everything followed by me taking off the oil pan to visually confirm there is lube on the cam.

If I laid the motor on it's side, and took the pushrods out, could I push the lifters back a little and get the cam past them? I know that might sound bad, but it would save me the time/expense of a headgasket. Not to mention I can't get another Corteco headgasket unless I special order one or get one from Classic which will take about 5 days.

I will call my dad and have him take off the oil pan and check it out. I can't do anything to it right now myself because it is 100 miles away and I only get to work on it on the weekends. As it is I am looking at taking Monday off from work, if I have to do the whole thing over again I will probably take Tuesday as well.

 

[wallaka]

This is going to be a stupid question I know, but can I re-use the head gasket? I put full torque on it but since the engine hasn't ran, hasn't been hot, and hasn't even had oil or coolant it, could it be safe to re-use?

Depends. Mine wasn't.

 

[Bort62]

I don't often "name names" but will give an honourable (?) mention to 63DropTop and 67MustangHotrod.

Both had helpers who "knew it all" - better than the combined experience of FSP, apparently. Both spent similar money on parts to yourself, and experienced significant engine problems after installation/startup. The first one mentioned made up a BS story and sold the car because he couldn't bear the thought of trying to fix it properly - the second person above bought a used 302 to install.

Eric, there are two unfortunate things you will learn about adulthood. Firstly, parents are not always right, and secondly there are professional businesses who will lie or evade responsibility for things they haven't done properly.

The hard question you need to ask, is - if it doesn't turn out how you expected, how will you fix it? I mean, time/money/labour. You say you're short on time - if the car is dead with a flattened cam in three weeks - are you "long" on time then?

Wait, I don't remember posting this... lol

We had a motto when I was in college that I try to remember every day.

"Never enough time to do it right the first time"

I've re-used torqued headgaskets before (infact, I think the one I am running now, w/ boost!) so I would give that a try if you are short on funds.

Throw this in there - Don't flip the engine over either if you remove the pushrods / rocker assembly or else you WILL be removing the head to put all of the lifters that fell out back in place

Ask me how I know...

(I think that is where I ended up re-using the headgasket, too)

 

[Eric Rose]

Throw this in there - Don't flip the engine over either if you remove the pushrods / rocker assembly or else you WILL be removing the head to put all of the lifters that fell out back in place
)

Yeah, I am thinking of having the engine on its side (90 degrees) and just pushing the lifters up into the bores enough to get the cam past them. Hopefully it won't come to that though. I'm hoping to hear from my dad tomorrow that the machine shop did lube the cam and all is well.

The cam lube that I have seen in the past has been red and purple. And that is something that would have caught my eye when I was putting the oil pump etc on. But if there are cam lubes in gray or black colors it is probably on there and I just didn't notice.

 

[60s Refugee]

I read a post recently where it was said that a 200 cid head gasket needed to be flattened the first time then loosened, then torqued again! I don't remember where that post was.

Ask the short block guy. If he was a pro he lubed the stuff. I bought a reman long block and it was greased. They made other mistakes but the greasing wasn't one of them.

Harry

 

[Eric Rose]

I just got off the phone with my Dad and he said that he did check and that everything was lubed. And he installed the distributor today and lubed the gear on it.

 

[Eric Rose]

And I also noticed that the rear mounted dipstick won't work with the Falcon oil pan. Dad was able to install the dipstick tube in the front of the block

 

[Eric Rose]

Now on to priming the oil pump...

I was thinking of using a 1/4" drive socket connected to an extension and then chuck the extension into a 1/2" drill. Or will that be too much?

 

[mysavioreigns]

Just make sure you secure it VERY well, you don't want that thing to fall down in the oil pan. Nearly happened to me, and it's happened to a lot of people on here.

 

[Eric Rose]

Yeah, I'll use a deep well socket so it stick out of the distributor hole enough to pull it out with my pick-up magnet.

I have a mechanical oil pressure gauge installed, so as I am priming it, should I see pressure on the gauge?

 

[addo]

Yes. You'll also feel the drill load up. Don't do this until you are actually ready to start the car. Otherwise it just dilutes the grease in your oil pump and makes the job harder.

 

[Eric Rose]

About to go get started. Need to get some transmission seals, clean the trans. up, and put another coat of paint ton the engine bay before I can install the engine.

I might get sidetracked today because I found a set of electric windshield wipers I need to go pick up