Hemikiller's 71 Mach 1 upgrade thread

[Stanglover]

Good for you Hemikiller, you're a braver man than am I. I paid an "expert" to do mine. Steering box, yes, gearbox, no. Not yet anyway.

Glad to see it's coming together.

 

[bishoppeak]

I remember doing that on my dining room table in my college apartment 50 years ago!

 

[Hemikiller]

Finished up the transmission and swung the engine into the bay yesterday with a little help from my friend Tom, popped the trans in today, along with headers and starter. Will be fitting the exhaust and fuel tank tomorrow and then drop it back down on the ground to finish up in the engine bay. Working with the car on cribbing blocks makes life so much easier for this type of work.

Oh yeah, my 31 spline axles showed up today from Strange. Pretty quick turnaround, only two weeks from ordering to arrival.

 

[Carolina_Mountain_Mustangs]

Dan Williams will talk your ear off if you call him, lol. He is about 100 miles from me. But he is the best on the top loader and use to build them for the NASCAR teams and trans am.

 

[Hemikiller]

Well, finished the installation of the engine and other parts, whacked together an exhaust from my belated 71 XR-7 and got the car running and driving.

Had a noisy rocker which I adjusted, and then noticed an ominous noise coming from the engine. Sounded to me like at least a couple bad rod bearings. Oil pressure was tip top at 40 hot idle, 80 at 2K, so shut it off and called my machinist. Sent him a couple video snips and he agreed we had a problem. Pulled the motor back out in two hours and dropped it off at his place last Friday. We're going to crack it open tomorrow to see what's gone wrong. Reviewing the video of the engine on the dyno, I *think* I can hear a noise at certain RPMs and loads. It's hard to tell since it was run open header and you get a lot of resonance in the room. Either way, he's making it right. Hopefully it's a lot faster than it took to build the thing in the first place. 

On an up note, it did run well and sounded great if you ignored the noises. 

Also received my Strange 31 spline axles, 26" Champion radiator, shift light and tach. Once we see what's needed tomorrow, that'll decide what I'm doing next. Probably going to pull the entire rear end out to do the axle and pumpkin swap so I can weld on reinforcements to the factory spring perches. 


View attachment knock_startup.mp4



View attachment knocking.mp4

 

[c9zx]

I hope it is nothing major. I lost an engine on the dyno 3 years ago, all 8 Scat I beam rods went out of round causing the clearance to be zero at the parting line. Keep us informed on the progress. Chuck

 

[Stanglover]

Hmm! sounds like this thing will kill a few Hemi's when it's finally done. 

 

[Hemikiller]

Motor came apart today. He found one bad rod bearing, said the crank measured out fine and will just get polished up. Out of an abundance of caution, he's disassembling the engine, performing a complete inspection and will clean out all the oil passages. He's a bit baffled by the bearing failure, but agrees it must have happened on the dyno. Told him that I had to adjust #3 intake, even though he had run through the valves several times, so a thorough inspection of the cam in lifters is also in order. If there is even the least bit of suspicion about them, they'll be replaced. 

 

[Kilgon]

Not the news you want to hear but it could of been worse.  Hope fully the cam is ok.

 

[timachone]

Motor came apart today. He found one bad rod bearing, said the crank measured out fine and will just get polished up. Out of an abundance of caution, he's disassembling the engine, performing a complete inspection and will clean out all the oil passages. He's a bit baffled by the bearing failure, but agrees it must have happened on the dyno. Told him that I had to adjust #3 intake, even though he had run through the valves several times, so a thorough inspection of the cam in lifters is also in order. If there is even the least bit of suspicion about them, they'll be replaced. 

Although not the best news it sounds good your mechanic will cooperate and replace the failing parts. You had blessing in disguise, though, it seems... 

 

[jpaz]

Glad to hear that your mechanic has found the problem. He sounds very thorough and reliable. Hopefully it was just the one bad bearing and nothing else. Good luck with the next rebuild!

 

[c9zx]

Rod or rod cap installed backwards? Did he check rod big ends for out of round? Hopefully he will get it sorted out quickly. Chuck

 

[Hemikiller]

Rod or rod cap installed backwards? Did he check rod big ends for out of round? Hopefully he will get it sorted out quickly. Chuck

Chuck,

The rods had ARP2000 bolts installed and were resized by him. There is an off chance he put the cap on backwards, but who knows at this point. He does a fair amount of Windsor work, so not unfamiliar with Fords at all. 

Supposedly the crank should be back from the grinder's next week, they ended up grinding all the rod journals as there were some marks in the failed one they didn't like. 

We inspected the cam and lifters, and they're toast. Two lifters and their lobes are obviously bad, and all the rest are on their way out. I had a coworker who is a hell of a machinist and ran a comp car for many years look at them and he thinks they're import lifters even though the box said "Made in USA". His guess is they were not properly heat treated. Talked to the cam company (Cam Research) and he wants me to send them back for hardness testing. Seriously considering going with a roller setup to *hopefully* avoid this problem again.

 

[c9zx]

Cam Research has been a reputable source for many years. Proper heat treat has been a problem for decades for many things coming from China or India (I have been burned bad at least twice). If the lobe taper is off or the lifter crown is off, the lifters won't rotate and as a result there is mutually assured destruction of the lifters and the lobes. It is something I check even before I install pushrods, heads, and rocker arms. If they don't rotate there will be a problem. Thank you for helping this person out. It is what car guys do. Chuck

 

[Hemikiller]

Received a call from Scott at Cam Research yesterday. They offered to replace the cam and lifters, or credit me towards another cam as an upgrade. I elected to upgrade to a hydraulic roller with low travel lifters. I went with a similar 230°/235° grind which will give me a bit more duration than with the solid. They are waiting for roller cam cores to arrive any day now, so I expect I'll see the new parts around the end of October. 

In the meantime, I've been refurbishing the dash trims, adding wiring as needed for the tach, shift light, stereo and other stuff I never got around to. Will get some pics over the weekend. 

 

[Hemikiller]

Been a while since I updated the thread. 

Still no cam. Made several once a month calls to Cam Research, each time it's "15 days for cores to arrive", which is the same story since Oct 1. There are literally no roller cores to be found anywhere for a Cleveland. My machinist won't start assembling the short block until he has the cam in hand. so, after a bunch of searching, I managed to find a Howard's hydraulic roller cam in stock. No lifters to be found, so I placed some of their Max Effort linkbar rollers on backorder - which are supposed to arrive early Feb. At least the cam is on the way and the engine can start going back together. This cam is 233°/241° with .594/.611 lift on 112° LSA. Not really what I wanted, but at this point, I'll take whatever I can get. I had to get the spring and retainer package as my current setup is for a flat tappet cam. The engine previously posted 415hp on the dyno with a failing cam and lean carb, I'm fairly certain we'll be well over 450 this time around. I'll leave the CR cam and lifter package on order, and if it shows up as promised I'll shelve it for another project or sell it to a needy soul. 

 

[Kilgon]

Been a while since I updated the thread. 

Still no cam. Made several once a month calls to Cam Research, each time it's "15 days for cores to arrive", which is the same story since Oct 1. There are literally no roller cores to be found anywhere for a Cleveland. My machinist won't start assembling the short block until he has the cam in hand. so, after a bunch of searching, I managed to find a Howard's hydraulic roller cam in stock. No lifters to be found, so I placed some of their Max Effort linkbar rollers on backorder - which are supposed to arrive early Feb. At least the cam is on the way and the engine can start going back together. This cam is 233°/241° with .594/.611 lift on 112° LSA. Not really what I wanted, but at this point, I'll take whatever I can get. I had to get the spring and retainer package as my current setup is for a flat tappet cam. The engine previously posted 415hp on the dyno with a failing cam and lean carb, I'm fairly certain we'll be well over 450 this time around. I'll leave the CR cam and lifter package on order, and if it shows up as promised I'll shelve it for another project or sell it to a needy soul. 

Sorry to hear things are still dragging on.  I think right now with the supply chain being screwed up your option are going to be limited as you have mentioned.  I don't think that's too bad of a cam. I don't know your engine specs but you should be good on torque and power through most of the rpm range.  Hopefully you will get the cam and lifters faster than they stated.   I've been waiting on several parts myself for over 2 months now.  I also have a distributor from Holley ordered also that keeps getting pushed back.   

 

[Hemikiller]

Well, hot dayum! My cam, spring/retainer package AND the lifters showed up today!!! Christmas came two days early. Off to the machine shop to give him the parts. Time for him to get back to work....

 

[Stanglover]

Lots of goodies eh! Before long, you'll have a running car.

 

[timachone]

Jippie yay yeah  :wrench: