Lesson Learned

[Steve73QMach1]

After spending plenty of money on the restoration of my 73 Mach 1 back in 2013, I have yet to put any miles on the car.  I had the original engine rebuilt by a friend of mine that owns his own engine shop. He gave me a good discount on the job but the problem is that the engine has never run right since.  I thought it was something simple - something that I could fix myself.  I have had experience working on engines in the past - rebuilt a 302 for my 1970 Mustang (except for the machining portions) and it ran great when completed. After screwing around with this 351C 4V for the last 4 years with no results at all, I have thrown in the towel.  I came to the conclusion that there is something internally wrong with this engine that is beyond my capabilities to fix.  Last week, I removed the engine and delivered it to a professional performance shop that specializes in vintage Ford engines. 

The lesson I learned is that you get what you pay for. I paid a discount price for an engine rebuild for my car and received back a piece of junk. I wasted the last 4 years trying to fix this thing instead of enjoying driving the car around and going to shows. I know people are going to say that I should have taken it back to my friends shop and demanded that they fix it.  The reason I did not is that I don't want those guys touching my engine ever again.  I will just have to eat the discount price I paid for this "work".  I am looking forward to having my engine built the right way and look forward to the dyno results when it is done.

Here is my engine after being removed (hopefully for the last time).

 

[turtle5353]

What was wrong with the engine??

 

[Steve73QMach1]

What was wrong with the engine??

I don't have any results back from the builder yet. Symptoms were no power, low vacuum (14" at idle). As soon as I put the car in drive, it would die unless I feathered the throttle up to 2,000 RPM or so.  Even then, it could barely move the car without falling over itself.  I searched for vacuum leaks, changed distributors, changed carbs, replaced intake gaskets, etc. with no changes noted.   Compression was good and even across all cylinders. My guess is cam timing issues or the wrong timing set used.

 

[70sElvis]

When I read the first symptom, my mind went immediately to vacuum leak but I see you already checked that. I had a cracked carb baseplate that caused the same issues. Let us know if you find out what it ended up being.

 

[turtle5353]

Possibly flat cam lobes if it’s a flat tappet cam. If cam wasn’t broke in properly on first fire up, it doesn’t take long to wipe out a cam.

 

[Jeff73Mach1]

My first guess as well

Possibly flat cam lobes if it’s a flat tappet cam. If cam wasn’t broke in properly on first fire up, it doesn’t take long to wipe out a cam.

 

[mudbilly]

My first guess as well

Possibly flat cam lobes if it’s a flat tappet cam. If cam wasn’t broke in properly on first fire up, it doesn’t take long to wipe out a cam.

+2

I'll bet #1 lobe is wiped at the very least....... had that happen with my first rebuild by a local guy. Full discloser, I did the break in after the build, so I could have been at vault.

I   drove it for years with it stalling every time I tried pulling out hard, looked at everything from the outside that I was capable of doing, vacuum, timing, carb adjusting floats, anything else I could think of. Finally found a new shop, old school owner and same type head mechanic, and they couldn't really figure it out either, so we put in a new Holley double pumper. Still the same.

He offered me a nice set of Ford Racing valve covers if I would pay his guy to install, and I thought what the hell, at least it will look nice. As soon as he removed the valve covers he say the rocker hanging loose. Then it was obvious that there was no lift. Thought we could just put a new cam in, but the bearing was scarred and a chunk missing. Instead of throwing more $$ at that boat anchor, I bought a motor from Phoenix and had it broken in at the factory. Love the motor, but it did take them a year or so to deliver.

Let us know what you find.

 

[Steve73QMach1]

My feeling is that the cam is wiped out too. I should know in a couple of weeks or so. Will post results as soon as I hear.

 

[will e]

It's a good leasoned learned. It's why I don't try to rebuild my own engines or transmissions. I will do the pull and installation but having it not work correctly means a lot of extra effort and wasted money. Sometimes it's better to just pay a bit more up front. Unfortunatlly even that is not a guarentee.

 

[NG8264723]

Before you blame your friend you should look internally. If the cam is wiped it is not his fault

 

[Hemikiller]

Don't need to pull the engine to diagnose a wiped cam lobe. Popping the valve covers and observing the rockers would most likely tell the tale.

From the symptoms, it sounds to me like the cam timing is retarded. It's fairly easy to confuse the markings on the multi-angle gear timing sets if your aren't paying attention or don't read the instruction sheet.

 

[Mustangfeverrr]

Since this was built by a friend, couldn't you have discussed the problem with him? I would hope as a friend the conversation might go better than with a stranger's shop who did the work.

Best of luck getting things fixed! I'm sure by now you're more than a little eager to get some driving done!