rebuild question

[meangreen93]

ok heres the deal: I have a 1993 mustang LX 5.0 HO automatic, I decided in the begining of spring to slap on a set of ported and polished factory heads with 560 lift springs stock valves with a five angle valve job done to them and an F303 cam I got real cheap.
the engine already had GT40 intake, 24 lbs injectors, 65mm throttle body, 73 mm maf, mac shorty headers and 1.72 roller rockers (non adjustible pedestal mount) no cats and a set of flowmasters on a stock AOD / converter and 327 rear gears. I sent the heads to get checked for leaks and cleaned up and proceeded to install my 1.72 roller rockers and installed the cam. upon puting everything back together I used engine head set part no. FELHS9280PT and bought new head bolts part no. ARP154-3601 and lightly coated the headbolts with permatex white thread sealer and tightened the headbolts to 65 lbs per the ARP instruction sheet provided. I tightened the lower intake bolts to 24 lbs witha dab of permatex T.S as well for good measure.
all went well with timing and startup until I noticed the temp gauge reaching overheating and the lifters where still ticking well after the time they should have pre=loaded. when I run a radiator pressure test I notice pressure drops and I remove the oil drain plug and find water pouring out. I dont have a compression testing gauge so I decided to try my luck and change out the lower intake gaskets out but to no avail, has to be a head gasket. My question is what did I do wrong here? was it the gasket choice or the headbolt torque down or the wrong thread sealer and also the excessive rocker noise, could it be the 3 shims that I re-used from the old stock setup?
any advise would be quite helpfull here

 

[Black1987Stang]

hmm did u put the head gaskets on the right way did they both say FRONT on the front side of the block. If u changed the thermostat, is it in the right way, about the rocker noise youll probably have to reshim them, about the water pouring out, could have been from when u took off ur lower and heads and all the antifreeze went to the oil pan, it never seems that u got coolant in the oil but it always finds a way to get down there. Did u lose coolant, did u buro the system to get all the air out?

 

[meangreen93]

hmm did u put the head gaskets on the right way did they both say FRONT on the front side of the block. If u changed the thermostat, is it in the right way, about the rocker noise youll probably have to reshim them, about the water pouring out, could have been from when u took off ur lower and heads and all the antifreeze went to the oil pan, it never seems that u got coolant in the oil but it always finds a way to get down there. Did u lose coolant, did u buro the system to get all the air out?

the head gaskets are on correctly as is the thermostat and the water issue well the motor was pulled out of the car and all the work was done on a stand so I made sure the engine went in dry, its when I pressure tested the radiator when water started to spew out of the oil drain plug. who here has an F cam on thier stock bottom end 5.0 and how many shims if any do you have with 1.71 roller rockers?

 

[macx]

It would be best if you'd actually check preload on your lifters, and to make sure you've got the right length pushrods.

both Crane and Comp have good instructions on how to determine proper pushrod length by checking the travel pattern on the valve stem tip.

This link shows how I set my preload with pedestal rockers.

http://www.lincolnsonline.com/article78.html
I guess I should have included that after you're set up
on the pushrod, screw the pedestal bolt down just till
the pushrod starts forcing the lifter plunger down. At that point, zero out your dial indicator then finish tightening the pedestal rocker bolt. The amount of preload on your lifter will be the amount of movement shown on the dial indicator. The stem of the dial indicator needs to be parallel with the pushrod so it reads correctly. On my
1.72 roller rockers, I couldn't find a spot on the pushrod
end of the rocker, right over the centerline of the pushrod, that was flat enuf to get a good accurate reading with the dial indicator stem resting on it while it moved while I tightened the pedestal bolt.

I took my time cuz I wanted it right and had never done it before, and had to get 2 sets of shims and still do a little mix and match to get within the tolerances I wanted. Turned out good, engine runs nice and quiet w/no valvetrain noise. I think Crane recommends a range of
from .020 to .060 preload. I held mine to 030 to 040 on the intakes and 040 to 050 on the exhausts. That allows a little room for error instead of starting right up against the max or min.

 

[Vipersix]

Sounds to me like you have a leak at the heads. If you are certain the intake gaskets are on correctly the only other place the water can be leaking into your oil pan would be through the heads unless you have a cracked block... and that would be bad.

I have never heard of such a low torque number for the heads, especially coming from ARP. I would go with the head manufacturers recommendation for the torque on the heads. I believe I torqued mine to 110 ft-lbs. If you don't have those bastards secured good and tight you'll get all kinds of leaks. That would account for the water in the oil and your overheating problem.

As far as the ticking... double check your valve lash. I notice you didn't mention getting new rods which you prolly should have going with a different cam and larger rockers.

 

[twolo4u2c2]

I aggree on the tq for the head bolts...110!