Nothing much new to update. Still waiting on heads.
Looking for little projects to do while I wait. I recall in the hot summer sometimes I have a slow cranking on hot restarts. Figured I’d upgrade the battery cables to 1/0 gauge. Positive from battery to starter, and ground from battery to starter or bellhousing bolt. I already have several grounds from body to engine. Cables are enroute.

Hi Brad,
I had a very similar issue with my car as well. I upgraded the cables to larger gauge and I installed a new relay setup. Same issue...it would be very hard to turn over when hot. I was using a ford racing starter (

Ford Performance Parts M-11000-B51 - Ford Performance Parts Starters)

I bought the ford racing starter new...it was OK...but sometimes it would just make the car sound like the battery was almost flat when hot. It would chug, chug chug and then start....very very slow cranking speed.

So I got fed up with it one day and I purchased a proper starter..

Powermaster 9503 - Powermaster XS Torque Starter

Now with the Powermaster XS it spins the engine so quickly I had to drastically adjust my timing for letting go of the key sooner! :) It is a fantastic starter...worlds apart from the old ford racing unit. Also it never heat soaks...in Australia it hits 100 deg F on some days and every time my car started first shot.

I highly recommend that you change it over. You will thank me later :)

Also add a nice 40 A relay with new heavy gauge wiring for the starter solenoid upon install.

Do the above with your 1/0 gauge wiring and the car will never have a starting issue again :)

Keep us posted :)

cheers

Cool. Will give that a try if cables themselves don’t fix the issue.

Hi Brad,

Any update on the engine front ? I am keen to see how you have been progressing :)

Hi John, Thanks for asking.
I’m going freaking insane waiting for these damn heads. It’s the only thing holding me up right now. Ed emailed a week ago saying he finally received the castings from AFR. I guess he just needs to load them up and get them sent to me. Hopefully next week sometime. Spring is starting to tease us here.

Actually got a notice from Fedex today. Heads have shipped and should be here Friday. Gotta say that communication between Ed and me has been piss poor. We were supposed to get a few more details squared away before he shipped, and updates in general have been scarce. Hopefully his parts make up for it.
I should be back on the road this month sometime. ,’ )

Heads arrived last night. After work today I slapped an old head gasket on bolted on a head and rocker, dialed up my adjustable pushrod and solid lifter.
I ended up with this. My crappy digital caliper is going beserk, but I’d eyeball this to be about .035 to .040. Not too effin’ bad, and perfectly centered to boot. Man, it is beautiful to play with high quality precision parts. I struggled to get it somewhat centered and below .100 with my former cheap heads and rockers.
Added bonus, I checked and I can actually remove and install the lifters with heads on. AFR165, Magnum Pro rockers and custom cam combo from Ed.
I ended up with approximately 6.65“ pushrod length.

edited to add: my solid lifter wasn’t set up right and needed another washer. New PR measurement is 6.400” but will double check after I bolt the heads down for good.

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Minor holdup. I decided I want to switch out my lifters. The original shop that did the crappy machine work installed Sealed Power HT2205 lifters, which I mistakenly thought were a rebranded decent quality Elgin lifter. I ordered a single lifter of the same model to make into a solid lifter. Just noticed the box says made in China. Some of my best friends were made in China, but I’m not taking any chances on these parts so I ordered some fresh FMS lifters. Hopefully arrive today so I can remeasure for pushrods and get this finished up.

Hi Brad,

Great stuff!! The valve tip wear line is perfect. I knew it would be right with the AFR setup! Looking sweet now!

Yes 100%, chinese parts are definitely junk on a good day. Glad you ditched the lifters.

Also FMS have 2 Hydraulic roller lifter models..the FMS M-6500-R302H is the one you want as it will stay pumped at 6500-7000 rpm. The OEM version was only good to 6000 rpms.

Buddy, you are looking great. Keep us all posted on progress!

Hi,
Yeah I ordered and received the H model of lifter. Unfortunately one was out of spec and would’t go into the hole with the heads already bolted down, so I ordered another set and pushrods. They arrive tomorrow and I have the next day off, so will hopefully get the rest of this buttoned up. Hoping to start reassembly of the car over the weekend. Will keep you updated.

Parts arrived finally. Got my lifters in. A few were still stubborn going into the holes with the heads already installed. I had to give a few of them a gentle sideways tap to get them in their bores. Valvetrain adjusted to 1/2 turn past zero lash.
Hit a minor holdup when I bolted on the valve covers. I knew I had to ditch the oil baffle and grind some casting down on the pass side cover. Missed that the drivers side has a similar casting that needed cut down. Got the lower intake installed and then finally got the engine, trans and driveshaft back in the car. Exhaust, wiring and plumbing left to do. Could be running this weekend.
Cheers.

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Hi Brad,

Looking great!! :)

One word of advise, if you have removed the oil baffles from underneath the oil filler neck, then OI would recommend that you use some thick stainless steel wool down the neck of the filler to stop the oil from splashing up the neck AND going into the pipe that feeds into the throttle body. If you leave it open the throttle body will fill up with oil pretty quick as it will suck very oily air :)

Apart form that my friend you are looking like you are back in business!

Cheers

We have a running car again. First start was today. No real drama I have a tps code to track down, but I’ll hook up the laptop and see what’s up. A couple more starts to check for fluid leaks and top up coolant and it’ll be ready for it’s first shakedown drive....probably Sunday.
About that oil baffle.... I had used a clear inline filter on that hose in the past. I’ll try that again and see if it gets too clogged up. If it plugs up with oil I’ll try plan B.
Also I jumpered the clutch safety switch on the pedal so I don’t need the clutch pedal on start up to save wear on the thrust bearing.

Fixed the TPS.....wasn’t plugged in all the way. duh.
But after that it wouldn’t start or would barely catch but immediately die. Happened to check the fuel gauge which was parked on E. Gas cap has been off for the past 6 months sitting in the garage, so it probably evaporated. Will dump some fuel in it on Sunday. lol

Threw some gas in it tonight after work. Starts right up. Will get it off the stands and put on a few break in miles tomorrow. Then an oil and filter change. Starting to feel a little more confident about this build.

great stuff mate 😀 I am so glad its all back together again and ready to rumble. Keen to get your first impressions on the maiden drive.

Hello Brad, Very cool, I am with Engineer with getting that first impression. You have come a long ways from a stock 5.0, I bet you have a great set of asphalt crayons now !!

Dean0

Well today was pretty spectacular. I got her off the jackstands, let her warm up to temp and took her down the road a couple blocks and back. No smoke, no leaks, runs good. Let it cool down for a bit and took her out again twice as far (fire extinguisher and cell phone on board). Backed her into driveway to give her a bath and buttoned up the interior. Wife and I took it for a little cruise, filled it up drove around some paved backroads to get some good break in miles at various rpm. Not a single issue so far. Will let it cool down and top off coolant and call ot a day. Tomorrow I’ll change out the oil and make sure there’s nothing glittery in the filter. A little anxious about that, but so far so good.
Oh, and it’s really really quick. On first or second drive I was easing into about half throttle in second and the rear broke loose a bit. lol

Went for a quick spin to warm her up to change the oil. Oil looked ok, I had a very tiny bit of silt on my magnetic drain plug. Opened the filter and saw no copper, but there was a small amount of silverish metal in the bottom of the filter. Hoping it’s just a little break in wear. I’ll do another change in a couple hundred miles and see if the metal persists. If it does I’ll pull the rad to do a crank endplay measurement. I checked my TOB preload again. It’s still intentionally set for zero preload so I know there is no issue inside the bellhousing causing thrust bearing issues. I can freely move the fork. Fingers crossed till next oil change, but cautiously optimistic.

Rechecked the timing after a quick drive. I originally set it at 10* on first start Friday before it got warmed up.
When I checked it warm today it was close to 0*. Set it to 10* and the idle smoothed right out. I was actually able to drive around in 3rd at 40kph (30ish mph) without any bucking. Tach at about 1500rpm. That’s great because I’ve always been fighting with a low speed bucking from first build.
AND, I’m kinda takin’ it easy to break it in, but that timing change made a noticeable difference going through the gears. So far so good.

Hi Brad,

That's great news!! I am so happy for you. Dont be worried about the slight metallic soot, its normal to see a tiny amount of metallic slime and its not the same as your metal deposits previously. The timing at 10 degrees is perfect and from what you are saying its all seeming very healthy and normal. Also make sure you just drive it nomally, dont baby it and dont thrash it. The car needs to do a variety of loads and speeds in the first few hundred miles. So go up hills, alter gearing as you drive, vary revs, do compression braking it and open it up gently on occasions to seat the rings properly. Go through as many differing load situations as you can. Dont just cruise it at 70 mph. You want the engine getting a healthy spread of load.

Also make sure the oil you use is NON friction modified and classed as "break in" oil. Some synthetics can "glaze" cylinder walls and the rings never wear on properly. I have had it happen to me :)

No need to pull the radiator to measure the end play, it will be fine as I am confident you (and the machine shop) did everything correctly. Just drive and enjoy.

Change the oils and filter at:
50-100 miles
500 miles
1500 miles

Then after every 3000 miles or so. You switch to full synthetic oil 10W40 (Neo oil is my favourite) after you have done 1500-2000 miles.

Follow the above and the engine will be golden even after 100K miles :)

Post some pics buddy!

Also make sure you get it custom tuned for the best results...after its broken in.

Cheers,

Quick update. Put another couple hundred miles on her and changed the oil and filter today. Drain plug had nothing on it, oil looked ok, and no signs of copper in the filter. I used a fine mesh gravy strainer when draining and it picked up just a few tiny grains of what looks like aluminum. Seems to be non magnetic. So, I think I can safely declare victory on the bottom end. Thrust bearing nightmare seems to be over. Hurray!

I do have a couple other, hopefully minor issues:
The valvetrain is noisier than I was hoping. I was real careful about measuring for proper pushrod length. And I set lifter preload at exactly 1/2 turn past zero lash. It was noisy enough that I pulled the upper and valve covers off the other day and reset them all to 5/8 of a turn. When doing so, I noticed that #6 and #7 exhaust valve lifters were not pumped up. All the others are. I can push those 2 lifters in by hand easily.
I’d pulled the plugs to turn the engine over easily and noticed that #7 plug was very dark compared to the rest. I swapped plugs with another hole so I could see if the condition moved with the plug or stayed at the hole. Drove it a hundred miles or so. No real difference in valvetrain noise .....possibly a tiny bit quieter. Checked the plugs, and #7 is dark. (different plug, same hole). So, I’m not sure if the 2 issues are related. The dark plugs seems like it would be a faulty injector. I did have this set (stock 19lb) tested last fall. Since the car is still back up on stands for the oil change, I think I may try to adjust lifters to 3/4 turn, and swap out the injector to another cylinder to see the result.
Any thoughts or suggestions?
I really don’t want to pull the lower manifold unless absolutely necessary.

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Hi Brad,

That oil looks perfect. I think you are 100% good :). The metal is likely a bit of scuff from the roller rockers, there is always a little bit of wear in that area. if all parts (pushrods and roller rockers) are new, so a bit of tiny metal sludge or tiny metal is ok

1) Valvetrain noise: The ed curtis cams and other cams (i.e CompCa,s XE cams) have very fast ramp rates and they do make a clattering sound. You could be fooled into thinking this is an issue if you are used to listening to the valvetrain noise of a stock HO style cam. . Your valve train geometry looked good from the pics. The 1/2 turn past zero lash is correct, but you can go to 3/4 turn and try that. I personally use about 2/3 turn.
2) Black plug = Excessive Oil in cylinder, Overfuelling or intermittent/No spark. I will assume that the rings were all put in the right way to seal properly (please do a cylinder compression test to see if its OK). I will assume that it is. So the next thing is overfuelling, The injectors can get sticky. To test it simply remove and send it away to a shop..OR use a 9 volt battery to trigger it and supply about 40psi of fuel pressure (use a bucket of fuel and on old electric fuel pump) to the fuel intake port of the injector. This will show you if its spraying nicely or just dropping fuel in an uncontrolled manner. If the spray pattern is ugly it may need a clean, OR just replace it with a new one. Assuming the fuel injector is OK, the only thing I can think of is that the plug is not being fired. Check for spark at Number 7 cylinder with engine running, just pull the ignition lead and see if the RPM changes. If no change in engine RPM its got no spark (check ignition wire) , if the RPM drops, then spark is likely OK. Its probably the injector. If you do need to change the injector it may be prudent to put a full set of new ones in. I would upgrade to the 24lb injector at least as you will possibly getting close to maxing out the 19lb injectors at full throttle. For 19 lb/hr injector this will be around 275hp at the flywheel (233 rwhp) at 90% injector duty. A 24 lb/hr injector will give you around 346hp (294 rwhp) at 90% duty cycle. My preference for you is to go to 26 lb/hr or 32 lb/hr assuming you are close to 350 fwhp, but 24 lb/hr is probably OK. But 19 lb/hr is not..
3) You do NOT need to pull the lower intake manifold..so all good. I hate removing them too..:)
4) For piece of mind, connect an oil pressure gauge to the oil sender port and measure the oil pressure just in case its a bit low and not pumping the lifters up...I assume its fine. But just to be sure :)


Keep us posted bro :)

Brad,

Glad to hear you're up and running again. I'm sure you'll get these issues ironed out Your build provided me with inspiration as I was doing mine and although mine is a basically stock build, I thought I would share this with you.

When I first got mine running, I had some low speed bucking issues along with a pop out the exhaust upon acceleration. While checking the spark with one of those adjustable air gap inline testers I discovered that every cylinder would occasionally misfire. Replacing the coil with a new Motorcraft (was using an MSD Blaster) fixed the misfire and bucking but it still had the pop. The spark plugs all looked fine. I then checked each cylinder's exhaust temperature with an infra red thermometer and discovered that #2 cylinder was a little lower than the rest. This led me to believe that #2 was running slightly rich so I figured is was an injector issue. Since they were the original ones that came with my junkyard engine, I replaced them all. That cured my problem.

Thanks. All my belly aching and last years engine issues, these posts make it seem like I must hate this car, but it really was fun doing the build and the car is a riot. I’m after perfection... not just “good enough”. I need to lower my standards a bit. lol.
Continued good luck with your car. Thanks for the troubleshooting tips. A spare distributor and coil are already in my Rockauto shopping cart.

A couple of days ago I did a quick compression test. Cold and dry, all holes were within 5 psi of 160.
Today I redid the lifter preload to 3/4 turn. No change in sound, so I guess I’ll try and ignore it. Maybe it’ll get a bit better as the engine breaks in.
I also swapped #7 injector with #2 so I can see if I need new injectors. Plan is to go to 80lb Deka’s as recommended by my remote tuner Decipha.
It’s way overkill, but they can be tuned for my combo, aren’t more expensive than buying smaller ones, and I don’t have to worry about the quality of used injectors or if new ones are counterfeit. But injectors will have to wait till I build the budget back up.