Mustang had to hauled away

Seems pretty lame to me. You took reasonable measures to ensure the engine was primed, checked the pressure and followed the suggested break-in procedure. In my opinion, you should get to root cause and then figure out what's fair. If the failure happened because of a clogged oil galley or some other engine assembly issue, then I would say the mechanic should eat the whole repair bill. If the root cause is due to something out of his control, like machine shop work, BUT he sub contracted the work to the machine shop, then I think he is still responsible, but should work something out with the machine shop. Unless the problem is caused by something you did, I would expect the mechanic to stand behind all parts and labor assuming he is in the business of building engines and not doing this out of his house on the side. Let us know what the tear down shows.

fastdave said:

We agreed that it will need to be completly tore down & rebuilt again. I will buy all of the parts @ his cost & he will pay for all of the labor including paying the mechanic who pulled the motor and who is installing it. Then he will start it and break in the cam. This sounds fair to me but how does it sound to you guys?

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Sounds fair to me. You've got to discount your total loss by some percentage to take into account the uncertainty regarding the cause. Bad cam blank? (Comp's fault.) No oil supply to the cam lobes? (Builder's fault) (Is it possible to get oil pressure to the gauge and no splash on to the cam lobes?) Or failure to follow proper break in procedures? (Your fault.)

If both you and the builder knew to a moral certainty what the cause was, you might be able to agree to a more perfect result. But in an imperfect world, what you've agreed to now is fair.

Good luck.

68keyblr, any pics of the whole coupe?

MAN, nice paint there. Any pics of that whole thing?

68keyblr said:

I'm just down the road from you in Queen Creek...what shop/mechanic did the work?

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Haven't there been several postings in the last month or so about Comp Cams that have failed during break-in or soon thereafter?

I know this is too late to say, but if the engine is making too much noise initially, shut it down right then. That will not hurt the cam.
Just some info for future reference: Be sure to coat the cam with the moly lube provided. Let the lifters soak in oil for awhile, then use a oil squirt can and pump oil into the lifters through the holes. After assembly, remove the valve covers and use the oil primer to make sure oil is coming out all the rocker arms. Rotate the engine every now and then while doing this. I've done this on every engine i've built and never had noise as you're describing.
It could have been a bad cam, so i would definitely talk to Comp cams about it and see what they say.
Thats why i like our steel billets and roller lifters in the race motor, don't have to worry about all that crap.

Where in chandler? Pecos/Mcqueen here.. can give you a hand if you need it..

Get a can of GM's EOS...

TechNote:

Under pressure from the major Detroit automakers, the engine oil manufacturers have removed the zinc additive from engine oil. The really bad news is that this increases camshaft and follower failure rates enormously during the break-in time. If you can find a zinc additive for engine oil, that helps greatly. GM's EOS break=in lube has been a faithful option, too. I have heard that the Valvoline racing oil that's labled "not for highway use" may still have the zinc in it. Napa has made a commitment to keep this oil in stock.

There have been no changes in camshaft or follower materials or heat treatment from ANY of us in the racing aftermarket. The increased failure rates are due to the missing zinc in addition to the usual assembly related problems we've been discussing the last thirty years or so. Keeping open spring pressures as low as possible is now more important than ever.

I've heard this from a few different engine builders too..

Make sure you dont over adjust the rockers either, what kind of cam BTW?

Another problem might be the rocker arms bottoming out on the stud or maybe the valve spring retainers hitting the top of the guides..

Did you adjust the rocker arms with the intake off? If you didnt, you might do it just to make sure the lifters arent colapsing..


BTW, I work on riggs/mcqueen