Gaba, is this your mustang?????

Ya I just looked at your post.  Did you build this engine or was this the engine that was in the car when you bought it in Ill??? Also, the mechanic is correct, with the key there is only one way to put the balancer on.  BUT, it doesnt mean the camshaft and crankshaft are correctly alligned.  It also doesnt mean that the dizzy is properly lined up on the camshaft to make everything happy.  I will bring my compression testing stuff and run a compression test on each cylinder.  It has similar sound, but not as loud, when I lost oil pressure and scared three piston/cylinder walls.  We will take a look at everything on Sunday.  Another question, do you have an oil pressure guage that reads PSI? or just the on on the dash?

Last edited by Tmac (1/21/2014 9:57 AM)

Terry you made great points!! Im going over to his house this Sunday. Im gonna check firing order, dizzy placement, run a compression test and check timing( marking on the balancer also).  Anything else yall can suggest we cover will be great.  I texted him earlier and suggested an exhaust leak or problem.  He stated he tightened all the exhaust bolts.

Do you have headers or manifolds?  Sounds a little like an exhaust gasket leak - didn't start to make a big racket until it fired. It's hard to tell with the audio if it is a hard knock but a header gasket leak can have a pretty significant popping sound.  It sounds a little strange during start up like a dead cylinder or that compression is different between cylinders.  Make sure you don't have a loose plug or one that has blown out.  Any spirited runs prior to the noise that might have been a factor?

Even with exhaust bolts tight - a older gasket can break out in a section and not seal with tight bolts.

Last edited by GPatrick (1/21/2014 10:26 AM)

Greg I do agree with what your sayng about too smooth to be wrong firing order, i was kinda thinking out loud and posted my second thoughts.  Like you said hard to tell with that sound bite!  maybe Tmac can tell in person. things theat make you say HMMMMM!!!

Well GABA went to a local shop today.  It's a bent push rod.  He sent me a pic via text, its bent really bad.  Hopefully he will post the out come and fixes they are doing.  Ill let him tell the story in detail.

I'm no expert but when I first herd that, it sounded like it was back firing through the carb. That was the same sound I heard when I found a broken rocker arm. Glad you found it and hope there are no other issues.

Wow, never seen one bent like that.  There's more to it than a bad pushrod.  Let us know what you find.
 

that would explain ALOT!! 
 

Alright so here is what happened.. Another noob moment. But hey you stumble and you learn..

So Thanksgiving time, I tried to tighten some of my rockers and I went in thinking I have to just check if they are torqued to spec 20ft-pounds. my torque wrench moved at like 9.. checked that for all of them and DANG sure enough all were looser than 20ft-pounds.

Closed her up, and went researching. found that I dont need to go by torque spec, and just need to loosen them on a running/ideling engine, till I hear chatter and then tighten it down to "zero lash" and 1/4 to 1/2 turn more ..

So went in again in december, and got most all the valves quiet down. while I couldnt get some clicking out.. I was too suffocated by the time I got to that valve from the oil spilling on headers and burning in white smoke.. that I dont think I did a very good job ..

So i was hearing some clicking from that side still after the engine warmed up. I was like SHOOT!!! now till now all the work was being done at one of my colleague's house and he had a swivel-ish type extension for his wrench..

Well.. Now that I wanted to get this clicking out, I opened it again, and realized my non swivel-ish type extension would make the wrench a tight fit over the rocker as the shock tower brace was right there on top of it.

I went ahead to carefully try to get that done but taking it out of the rocker, the wrench got stuck between the rocker's side and the shock brace, and as the engine was running, the rocker slipped off the head of the valve stem.

I freaked .. remember I am a noobie. So I tried to get that sucker on by loosening it and tightening it where i thought it should go, but doing that it scratched the edge off the head of it. it bounced around while I was trying to tighen it.. and no, I didnt know or realize I was hurting it, i was scared out of my mind.

Well, all that said, I got it to seat, as far as I could, and I got it tight to where it wont be dancing around. I guess that was too tight. Enough to cause mushrooming on the valve head, and that caused the thing to finally slip yesterday.

There! I confessed it!! .. when I say I am new, you gotta understand, I AM GREEN! :D

just curious, do you know if that was an exhaust or intake rod???

Steve69 wrote:

MustangSteve wrote:

Per your confession, probably what happened when you overtightened the valve adjustment, the valve spring was the limiting factor in the travel of the valve, stacking the spring solid.  That would be a big-time strain on the pushrod and cause the damage you saw.  Normally a busted rocker arm would accompany the bent pushrod.

Now, here is the scary part...  If the valve was adjusted that tight, which means it would be held open alot longer and through the time it should be CLOSED, the valve may have struck the piston and bent one or the other or both.  Did you do a compression check and make sure the valve works freely through its travel?

I know you did not know about FYIFORD before all this took place, but now you have a resource where you can ask how to do stuff BEFORE you make the mistake.  ( I didn't mean that to sound like we will walk you through a mistake, rather hopefully avoid making one).
I did not learn all this stuff by doing it right the first time, so you can benefit from our previous mistakes and experience.

Also, if you take a look at my FAQ pages on the web site, I have articles on there about how to adjust the valves on a small block Ford.  Plus alot of other how-to stuff.

Ill second that.  I dont dig into any project unless I ask questions on here first...LOL    At least I know if its something I can handle or not or if I want to hire it out.  So far the only thing I've ever hired out was a paint job and a front end alignment.  Everything else I've been able to do myself.  And yes made a lot of mistakes on the way but learned from them and moved on to the next project or upgrade.  Steve69
 

Hell I'll read through and ask questions even if I think I know, cause I forget things and the time to remember is not after its all put back together.