Gremlins are here, troubleshooting help please.

[GOOSE]

I took the truck out for its first test drive today and had a few issues arise. Number one, there is no power past about 1500rpms. It belches black smoke mixed with some blue and almost sounds like a gasser detonating. I am thinking timing here When you let off the fuel, it will stumble a bit and settle back to a smooth idle. The only other thing I can think of is the turbo being fried but it has little play and worked fine on the last engine. You can see it spinning at idle.

Number 2, it seems like there is excessive valvetrain clatter. I did swap the stock cam for a TYP4 version and followed the Ford manual for install. Clocked the dampner mark to 11:00, and tightened the rocker bolts to 20 ft/lbs. Is there protocol on a new engine that would be different? Should I pull the rockers and tighten each one untill the tap goes away?

I am thinking I should play with the timing and at least get it driveable in the upper rpm's before I worry about valve clatter.

Remember, this is a new remanufactured engine on its maiden run, not another unknown high mileage engine.

 

[icanfixall]

It sounds like your not getting enough air to the engine. Check the intake path. You may have something causing a restriction. When you installed the cam did you match up the timing marks. The crank to cam is the dots. The cam to the injection pump gear is the two "Y" marks. Turning the engine so all the pistons are down from TDC is a good idea. Now tightening up the rocker bolts will do nothing unless they are loose. They are non adjustable because we run a hydraulic roller lifter. Any chance a rat made a nest in the exhaust pipe when you have the engine out for repairs. Something is limiting you air in or air out. I'm not feeling you have an injector pump issue at this time. Maybe some info on the age and miles on the injection system...

 

[GOOSE]

The pump I am sure was a quality rebuild by the Moose pump builder, not a Moose or baby moose, just a quality stock rebuild through the same guy. The injectors were out of the box new Delphi BB's. The whole system is about 4 yrs old and probably has less than 20k miles on it. The injection system ran like a sewing machine on the old engine, instant starts, no fuss. The pump was on a non turbo truck and only made 9psi of boost so I turned the fuel screw up on the bench while it was out. Got about 2 flats and backed off a little bit as to not leave it bottomed out. I took a picture to assure myself that the bullets and Y's were aligned properly on the cam/ crank/ IP gears.

It almost feels like a lifter or two loses oil pressure and collapses during acceleration or even revving it up. There is noticable valvetrain clatter during this period. When it idles down it runs really rough for 5-10 seconds and then smooths out to a normal idle and the valvetrain clatter goes away for the most part. It really stumbles on itself after 12-1500rpms and runs very rough. Any thoughts before I pull the rocker covers and inspect things there? I have not tried changing the timing yet.

I put a fish tape up the exhaust and took apart the intake to look for anything, all looks clean. I also double checked the turbo, turns freely.

I also have an oil leak at the front main. I failed to Permatex the keyway to avoid leakage. This fron main had 5k miles on it and I thought it would be ok I think I am just going to replace the thing with the new one that should have been installed in the first place Always learning the hard way

 

[GOOSE]

Well, I took a break and cleaned the house up a bit. You know what they say, walk away when you're getting frustrated. The oil leak is history, thank goodness I retarded the timing and it has the same symptoms only with less cackle so I'm thinking timing is not an issue.

The valve train just sounds horrible. What could I have missed when swapping out the cam? Are the lifters 180 deg sensitive? I pulled the rockers off in pairs keeping it as an assembly with bolts holding them together, pulled pushrods and lifters, swapped cam, put lifters back in, copper side up on the pushrods, torque rocker bolts to 20 ft/lbs with crank timing mark at 11:00. Could the valve lever posts have gotten 180'ed and cause problems? I am going to dissamble the rocker covers and have a look. Can't stay idle just scratching my head.

 

[93cc7.3]

wish i could help i feel bad that NOONE has responded

 

[oldblue05]

X2

 

[GOOSE]

Hopefully something will come about during the course of the day.

 

[6.9poweredscout]

Just a shot in the dark here, check the lever on the side of the i/p that ramps up as you give it throttle. On mine I had a pebble get caught in it : and I was going nuts trying to figure it out. Maybe you bumped something while it was off, only my symptoms were opposite, ran great higher rpms, yet broke up and smoked at idle. Just a guess. Check your return lines they're not pinched or blocked either??

-Jon

 

[Agnem]

Based on the fact that your injection pump and injectors were of a known history before you put them on this motor, then I'm inclined to agree that there is no injection issue here. The valve train noise is a severe concern to me, because even if the timing or IP were foobared, you wouldn't be having engine noise. I'm going to say that the hind-sight here, suggests that you should have run that engine as it was (complete with mothra bearings ) before making any changes to it. Of course, that advice sucks, and I would have ignored it also. But at this point, we don't know if it was your work or theirs that is at fault. I would measure the travel of all the rockers as you bar the engine over and look for any inconsistencies. You may have to try reving it with the valve cover off to see if you can SEE the problem. At least it's doing it at 1500 and not 2500.

 

[subway]

another shot in the dark but could it be install lub clogging/restricting the feed to the lifters?

 

[icanfixall]

What is your running oil pressure and where are you taking it from. The top or bottom of the engine. The lifter noise tells me there is an oil supply problem. The lifters don't need to be installed any direction. The have an oil supply to both sides in the lifter galleys. If there is an oil blockage it will be before the lifter port on the main oil supply header in the block. Any chance the gasket slipped on the oil cooler headers when you installed the cooler. If you have a large oil pan you could take off the oil filter and crank the engine with the starter. That way you can see what amount the oil pump is pushing thru the cooler. Did you inspect and clean the oil pump pickup screen. these are just wag but some are swag too...

 

[flareside_thun]

You did prime the lifters prior to install right?

 

[icanfixall]

Priming the lifters will have no beearing on this issue. So am I to understand you reused your old lifters and now you hear a lifter noise.... Just asking. Reusing the old lifters will not cause any issues that I can think of. They don't take a set run position and then wont run with a new or differant cam profile. There is no sludge ridge to wear off so they run properly with a differant profile... I'm still thinking you have a oil supply issue somewhere.

 

[typ4]

Pull the covers, make sure there is some preload on the lifters, not just loose pushrods, they are or should be new lifters from the rebuilder and they could be the problem. They need roughly .020 preload.

I just remembered that there are some aftermarket lifters that are too short, happened to another member some time ago.

 

[BigRigTech]

I've had to disassemble some brand new lifters to get them to prime...I would go through the valve adjustment again to see what you find.