Remember how my car stopped running back in the fall? Well.....

Well i figured out why....

Got the motor out of the car yesterday, took the heads off today and every single last valve smacked a piston. I can see 1 intake valve is still open....open by A LOT. So there's a small compression problem

Now i dont know exactly what caused this. The motor never went above 6200. Ed knew the spring rates when he designed the cam. And when i installed it, i degreed it in...double time. I checked the p-v clearance quadroople(sp?) times because i had A TON which ed said he expected. Its the nature of the 351.

So now, i can only think that the springs were not up to the task of the cam and i had some float up in the upper rpm's causing the contact.

Atleast now i know the problem. Better than not knowing and "hoping" i fixed it when i put it back together.

Who knows. I've had some bad luck...but ya know what when it rains sometimes it pours. Im just looking for that sunshine to come shining through...i know my time is comin

Killercanary said:

Was the timing chain in tact? I'd call Ed if I were you, I would tend to believe that he did not screw up on the spring rates, but he'd be the guy I'd talk to about it. How did you check the PTV clearance? Are you sure you readjusted the rockers exactly like you had them when you checked the PTV? Did you check PTV at a variety of degrees? Sorry to hear about your valves though, I know how much it sucks!

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I already sent Ed an email. If he doesnt respond i will probably just try to call him.

The timing chain was fine. I dont think Ed screwed the rates up...just maybe the spring wasnt at the rate they were "supposed" to be at. Who knows....

I used clay to check the PTV clearance. I did it about 5 times just turning the motor over and im 99.9% sure i put the rockers back the same way. There was a HUGE amount of clearance....i mean a TON!

bill302 said:

did it just stop running one day? and was there signs of problems before it stopped running. i was just going to check your past posts but you have 2,030 posts.

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Yea one day it started...stalled...and never started again. I wasnt surprised as sometimes it still would stall on cold mornings since my cold start up tune was not perfect. No signs of the damage. Well...i take that back...one day on the way to work i got a weird "tapping" sound. I thought it was either a rocker or lifter. No matter how much i tried to adjust the drivetrain it would not go completely away...just got quieter. That happened not too long before it stopped running. A month maybe.

mootang said:

thats to bad about your engine but at least you found the problem.

on another topic you bought my center console! i got home from work and realized that it ended today. i was pissed but at least i know it will be going to a nice mustang. sorry i just had to rant a little.

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Yea im glad i know whats the problem now. LOL about the console! I had a gut feeling that i should just "buy it now" instead of waiting...im glad we didnt get into a bidding war though. There was another one(not a cobra, just a GT) that was ending in 5 days or so. If u know about it, cool, if not i can PM u the link if u want.

I'll definately post up pics of when i get it installed, i got some ideas i want to do with that and a couple other small details on the interior. Should turn out NICE!

urban96 said:

make sure you have the guides checked out

i was going crazy trying to figure out why i bent a valve with only 15 miles on the rebuild and it turned out to be a bad guide. , might be your problem too

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If i had it my way i would send the heads to Ed and have him do them up how they need to be done. Im sure he will check the guides but let me know about anything else so i can double check :SNSign:

While laying in bed last night....it dawned on me. I know how u guys all basically said the timing chain would be at fault but it looked fine. So i kept thinking about how things were when i took them apart....and i REMEMBERED! The pin that holds the cam in place was not in the cam....it had slid out and was basically just in the sprocket for the timing chain. Thus the cam could slide into whatever position right? Probably going extremely advanced or retarded causing the contact?!

Im almost positive this is what happened....what do u guys think?