So my new engine with less then 1500 miles on it may be ruined.

[LarsD]

I put a new distributor in my 347 about an hour ago. I started it up and set the timing, it was running and then died all of a sudden. To make a long story short, after some investigation, I found that it seems something was made wrong on the distributor and it was grinding the hell out of the dist. housing sending aluminum shavings everywhere.

This is some I wiped out.

I know it may be hard to see, but it is a mess in there. The dist. shaft on the new one is covered in this garbage, where as my old 150K+ mile dist. is clean. The car literately ran for less then five minutes. You can spin the shaft by hand and feel the grittiness.

 

[Flavadave4]

Oh man that sucks

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[KaLiKo Street]

That blows, Id be pissed. How much time do you have in that motor?

 

[LarsD]

That blows, Id be pissed. How much time do you have in that motor?

Not much time. Like I said, it has somewhere between 1000 to 1500 miles on it. I'd have to dig up my paperwork to see how many miles were on the odo when I stabbed it in August.

 

[NIKwoaC]

What brand dist? That really blows man. Being that is is soft aluminum, you may still have a chance if you tear it apart and clean it out.

 

[LarsD]

What brand dist? That really blows man. Being that is is soft aluminum, you may still have a chance if you tear it apart and clean it out.

I don't want to say yet. I might have to go after them for damages. This is obscene. I can't even begin to think about tearing the car back apart. I just barely got it back together.

 

[1991notchbackLX]

What material was the distributor gear made out of? What cam shaft are you running? Some specify a bronze or steel dist gear. I have heard of high volume oil pumps with hardened shafts doing this as well.

 

[LarsD]

What material was the distributor gear made out of? What cam shaft are you running? Some specify a brass or steel dist gear.

Comp roller cam, steel dist gear. The original distributor has been in it up till now and it is clean with no metal at all on it.

 

[1991notchbackLX]

And the oil pump shaft? Did you swap to the ARP hardened shaft or a high volume pump? I'm not sure what went wrong, just trying to shed some light for guys that might know more than I do who come in here later on to help.

 

[85_SS_302_Coupe]

Man, i would go on an unholy warpath. I'd say there's a chance to save the engine but i'm sure some bearings and the cylinder walls might have took a beating. I've seen worse happen inside engines and they still survive.

 

[LarsD]

And the oil pump shaft? Did you swap to the ARP hardened shaft or a high volume pump? I'm not sure what went wrong, just trying to shed some light for guys that might know more than I do who come in here later on to help.

It's an ARP shaft. I can't remember if it is a HV pump or not. The engine was built by Ford Strokers. There wasn't anything mechanically wrong with it until I stuck this POS dizzy into it.

Man, i would go on an unholy warpath. I'd say there's a chance to save the engine but i'm sure some bearings and the cylinder walls might have took a beating. I've seen worse happen inside engines and they still survive.

I had something like this happen to my Dodge years ago and it was my fault. I pumped a bunch of fresh oil through it, and it has been fine. However that was steel shavings that could be picked up by the plug and filter magnets. Since this is aluminum I'm not sure what my options are other then pulling the engine back out. Honestly I am not up to it, I work to many hours to deal with this bs.

 

[Dino Dino Bambino]

It's an ARP shaft. I can't remember if it is a HV pump or not. The engine was built by Ford Strokers. There wasn't anything mechanically wrong with it until I stuck this POS dizzy into it.

Hopefully you've dodged a bullet and there's no damage to the engine itself. The only things I can suggest are that you buy a new OEM dizzy, and ask Woody at Fordstrokers for advice about how you can clean out those aluminum shavings without risking any problems.
I know you're pretty pissed off right now but my gut feeling is that your engine's OK.

 

[VibrantRedGT]

Maybe the engine dying was a good thing, hopefully flushing it out with fresh oil will do the trick. Like some have mentioned, I've seen worse too and still survive. Ask Woody his recommendation on what to do next. I'm guessing it was MSD and I've seen this before since many of their items are not made in the USA any longer. Sucks either way.

 

[Noobz347]

Maybe the engine dying was a good thing, hopefully flushing it out with fresh oil will do the trick. Like some have mentioned, I've seen worse too and still survive. Ask Woody his recommendation on what to do next. I'm guessing it was MSD and I've seen this before since many of their items are not made in the USA any longer. Sucks either way.

^this^ I might pull the motor, take off the oil pan and inspect the pickup and get the shavings out. Maybe eve replace the oil pump. Stab a new OEM dizzy in there and press on with pride.

 

[5.0Droptop]

run it till it blows!

 

[5.0Droptop]

Really my first step would be to drain the oil and see just how much crap is actually in the oil.....It looks like the damage was kept in the upper part of the dizzy and most of the debris you see may have stayed in that location. I dont see much down inside on the pump shaft and lower areas. The cam splines look clean....

 

[LarsD]

Hopefully you've dodged a bullet and there's no damage to the engine itself. The only things I can suggest are that you buy a new OEM dizzy, and ask Woody at Fordstrokers for advice about how you can clean out those aluminum shavings without risking any problems.
I know you're pretty pissed off right now but my gut feeling is that your engine's OK.

Where can I find an OEM one? I can't find one. That's what I wanted in the first place.

Maybe the engine dying was a good thing, hopefully flushing it out with fresh oil will do the trick. Like some have mentioned, I've seen worse too and still survive. Ask Woody his recommendation on what to do next. I'm guessing it was MSD and I've seen this before since many of their items are not made in the USA any longer. Sucks either way.

Yeah I think it is all pretty concentrated in that area alone. I'm going to roll the dice. The distributor was made by a company called Richporter. It is new and they had decent reviews on their products from what I could find. However it is just typical Taiwanese garbage.

Really my first step would be to drain the oil and see just how much crap is actually in the oil.....It looks like the damage was kept in the upper part of the dizzy and most of the debris you see may have stayed in that location. I dont see much down inside on the pump shaft and lower areas. The cam splines look clean....

I was planning on doing this. I talked to a local Ford guy and he said to just drain the oil and hose it out with brake cleaner. Before I do that though I'm going to wipe out as much as I can with shop towels.

 

[N8Dogg98]

damn dude I'd be so pissed! Sorry about the bad news, best of luck fixing it

 

[LarsD]

damn dude I'd be so pissed! Sorry about the bad news, best of luck fixing it

Thanks man.

I took the distributor back and got my money back. While I was there one of the parts store guys was checking it out and I noticed the shaft had a ton of side to side play in it. I had checked that out before I installed it and it was tight. It is almost like they didn't even install the bronze bushing in the housing that the shaft is supposed to ride on.

 

[LarsD]

Took a couple more pics before I returned it.