MTKirk
Full Access Member
I had bubbles in my coolant tank, so decided it was time to pull the engine for new head gaskets and assess the engine, http://www.oilburners.net/forums/sh...d-gasket-Cavitation-Something-else&highlight=
Assessing the cylinders and crank bearings revealed it was time for a complete rebuild, so onward!
I had originally ordered felpro head gaskets, but I noticed that the old gaskets had failed and that they were felpro. The coolant port inserts had deformed and rivets holding a coolant port o-ring had corroded away. I ordered a set of Victor-Reinz and sent the Fel-pro’s back.
My crank had some slight grooving in one of the mains, and another main was near the bottom end of spec. So I ordered a reman crank kit from Crankshaft supply that came with ACL bearings.
The big end of the rods were well within spec, But the wrist pin bushings were a little sloppy, so new bushings were installed and bored to fit the new wrist pins. For whatever reason the rod weights varied a great deal, on some rods the balance pad had to be completely removed
I used .020 over sealed power pistons with matched pins. They were very nice, weighing within a few grams of each other, and slightly lighter than stock (meaning we didn’t need to add weight to the crank). I used sealed power .020” rings and they were OK. They were pre gapped to mid range .019-.020, I would prefer to file my own to absolute minimum gaps but Oh well...
After quite a bit of drilling on the crank, the rotating assembly balanced within a gram. Had I left it alone it would have been several ounces out. So $350 well spent I guess. For good measure we balanced the flywheel (good thing; though new, it was several grams out). The 28 year old harmonic balancer was spot on!
I thoroughly cleaned all the oil gallery passages, then replaced all the plugs with new, I would have preferred to tap for threaded plugs by the cam but I was unsure how the depth would turn out. So I used new press in plugs and staked the ‘ell out of them. I then installed new cam bearings. I mic’ed the cam bearing surfaces and they were fine, I didn’t check lobe height as there was very little wear and the truck ran perfect before. I had great oil pressure before the rebuild, and lash on the gear was almost non-existent so I reused the oil pump.
I decided to have my heads rebuilt, they had never been refaced, and I knew they had no cracks.
I was able to find all new pre-cups. I also replaced all valves, valve springs, exhaust seats, stem seals, and installed all new valve guide inserts. We skimmed off .004” which brought them down to the minimum 4.795”, and completely cleaned up the fire ring sealing area. There was some minor, inconsequential pitting in the coolant port block off area, but I did not want to go below spec, to fix these areas. The pre-cups I bought from Dieselcast were slightly larger in diameter than stock, and were of a different material, as such they machined perfectly installed in the head.
My truck had gone through at least two head gaskets so I decided ARP studs were a must. I installed them as per ARP specs, used 3 little packets of lube, I did up the torque to 85 ft. lbs. ARP recommends 80.
My lifters looked fine, but, I found a great deal on e-bay for some new Ford replacements and thought “what the heck”. I rebuilt the oil cooler with Ford o-rings, and fel-pro gaskets. One side of the gasket had factory silicone on it (toward the block). I added a tiny line of ultra-black rtv on the other side around all ports. Used all rtv on the oil pan.
I used aviation Form-a-gasket and gaskets on the front cover, water pump, rear cover, thermostat housing, and radiator outlet. I got a new AC/Delco water pump (liked the look of it in riotwarriors photos). Thermostat was 6 months old so tested it & re-installed. I used only fel-pro gaskets (no goop of any kind) on valve covers. Check out the old cork gasket & RTV that was on my oil pan, amazingly it did not leak!
My injection pump and injectors were rebuilt 8 months ago so they went right back on. I did find a good buy’ on new injector lines and clamps, so those are new as well, The new lines were slightly different than the old lines, most went right on, but #1 was a challenge.
When I got the engine together I decided to check flywheel runout, I was pretty upset to find it at .020” (.008” is max allowed). Thus began a little side odyssey of discovery.
Our cranks have nine bolts for attaching the flywheel. They are spaced around the crank flange as if there were to be ten. Instead of a tenth bolt there is a blank area on the crank flange, and a small hole in the flywheel.
If you measure the flywheel run-out on a high mileage IDI it will almost always exceed the .008" allowed by Ford even if the flywheel is true. If you measure the run-out of the crank flange you will find they are out by several thousandth's. If you measure the thickness of the crank flange (on a used crank) you will almost always find that the blank area (where the 10th hole would go) will be several thousandth's thicker than the opposite side of the crank. If you have a "grabby" clutch even after a new clutch assembly & flywheel this is likely your culprit.
Unfortunately most crank shops don't even measure this flange, let alone reface it. They simply assume it has to be OK if the crank is straight. I have found this not to be the case. Both my old crank and the reman I ordered displayed this very same run-out. Even though both cranks are perfectly straight. I even had the reman balanced a within a gram. The guy who balanced it told me there is no way he could balance the crank if it were not straight.
I believe that the unequal pressure applied by the flywheel bolts, combined with the temperature variation, vibration, and possibly corrosion; causes a dimensional change in the thickness of the crank flange. This creates a thick spot exactly where the "10th" bolt would be.
My fix to this issue was to grind a flywheel shim with a taper to compensate for the crank flange run-out. With some patience and a few rounds of bolting and unbolting the flywheel, I was able to get run-out down to .002”. The clutch function is incredibly smooth now, without the slightest hint of chatter.
I pressure tested the coolant system with the new radiator I discovered I needed (huge solder blooms around both tanks on the old rad.). Ran it up to 20 psi, held over night dropping to 19psi (probably from dry water pump seal).
Installation was fairly simple, and I primed the oil pump by turning the engine over without glow plugs. This took about 40 seconds in 10 second bursts. I had the injector lines cracked , so the fuel system was bled of air as well. So I installed glow plugs, tightened injector lines to 22ft lbs (seemed incredibly tight to me). Turned it over, after about 4 seconds of cranking it sputtered and caught! Sputtered a bit more in the next five minutes of running (while it worked the air bubbles out). Truck runs better than ever, couldn’t be happier!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UH4NliksIew
Special thanks to all Oil Burners posters, your insights have been invaluable to me. This forum made a very challenging undertaking fairly straightforward!!
Kirk
Assessing the cylinders and crank bearings revealed it was time for a complete rebuild, so onward!
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I had originally ordered felpro head gaskets, but I noticed that the old gaskets had failed and that they were felpro. The coolant port inserts had deformed and rivets holding a coolant port o-ring had corroded away. I ordered a set of Victor-Reinz and sent the Fel-pro’s back.
You must be registered for see images attach
You must be registered for see images attach
My crank had some slight grooving in one of the mains, and another main was near the bottom end of spec. So I ordered a reman crank kit from Crankshaft supply that came with ACL bearings.
You must be registered for see images attach
The big end of the rods were well within spec, But the wrist pin bushings were a little sloppy, so new bushings were installed and bored to fit the new wrist pins. For whatever reason the rod weights varied a great deal, on some rods the balance pad had to be completely removed
I used .020 over sealed power pistons with matched pins. They were very nice, weighing within a few grams of each other, and slightly lighter than stock (meaning we didn’t need to add weight to the crank). I used sealed power .020” rings and they were OK. They were pre gapped to mid range .019-.020, I would prefer to file my own to absolute minimum gaps but Oh well...
After quite a bit of drilling on the crank, the rotating assembly balanced within a gram. Had I left it alone it would have been several ounces out. So $350 well spent I guess. For good measure we balanced the flywheel (good thing; though new, it was several grams out). The 28 year old harmonic balancer was spot on!
I thoroughly cleaned all the oil gallery passages, then replaced all the plugs with new, I would have preferred to tap for threaded plugs by the cam but I was unsure how the depth would turn out. So I used new press in plugs and staked the ‘ell out of them. I then installed new cam bearings. I mic’ed the cam bearing surfaces and they were fine, I didn’t check lobe height as there was very little wear and the truck ran perfect before. I had great oil pressure before the rebuild, and lash on the gear was almost non-existent so I reused the oil pump.
I decided to have my heads rebuilt, they had never been refaced, and I knew they had no cracks.
I was able to find all new pre-cups. I also replaced all valves, valve springs, exhaust seats, stem seals, and installed all new valve guide inserts. We skimmed off .004” which brought them down to the minimum 4.795”, and completely cleaned up the fire ring sealing area. There was some minor, inconsequential pitting in the coolant port block off area, but I did not want to go below spec, to fix these areas. The pre-cups I bought from Dieselcast were slightly larger in diameter than stock, and were of a different material, as such they machined perfectly installed in the head.
You must be registered for see images attach
My truck had gone through at least two head gaskets so I decided ARP studs were a must. I installed them as per ARP specs, used 3 little packets of lube, I did up the torque to 85 ft. lbs. ARP recommends 80.
My lifters looked fine, but, I found a great deal on e-bay for some new Ford replacements and thought “what the heck”. I rebuilt the oil cooler with Ford o-rings, and fel-pro gaskets. One side of the gasket had factory silicone on it (toward the block). I added a tiny line of ultra-black rtv on the other side around all ports. Used all rtv on the oil pan.
You must be registered for see images attach
I used aviation Form-a-gasket and gaskets on the front cover, water pump, rear cover, thermostat housing, and radiator outlet. I got a new AC/Delco water pump (liked the look of it in riotwarriors photos). Thermostat was 6 months old so tested it & re-installed. I used only fel-pro gaskets (no goop of any kind) on valve covers. Check out the old cork gasket & RTV that was on my oil pan, amazingly it did not leak!
You must be registered for see images attach
My injection pump and injectors were rebuilt 8 months ago so they went right back on. I did find a good buy’ on new injector lines and clamps, so those are new as well, The new lines were slightly different than the old lines, most went right on, but #1 was a challenge.
When I got the engine together I decided to check flywheel runout, I was pretty upset to find it at .020” (.008” is max allowed). Thus began a little side odyssey of discovery.
Our cranks have nine bolts for attaching the flywheel. They are spaced around the crank flange as if there were to be ten. Instead of a tenth bolt there is a blank area on the crank flange, and a small hole in the flywheel.
If you measure the flywheel run-out on a high mileage IDI it will almost always exceed the .008" allowed by Ford even if the flywheel is true. If you measure the run-out of the crank flange you will find they are out by several thousandth's. If you measure the thickness of the crank flange (on a used crank) you will almost always find that the blank area (where the 10th hole would go) will be several thousandth's thicker than the opposite side of the crank. If you have a "grabby" clutch even after a new clutch assembly & flywheel this is likely your culprit.
You must be registered for see images attach
Unfortunately most crank shops don't even measure this flange, let alone reface it. They simply assume it has to be OK if the crank is straight. I have found this not to be the case. Both my old crank and the reman I ordered displayed this very same run-out. Even though both cranks are perfectly straight. I even had the reman balanced a within a gram. The guy who balanced it told me there is no way he could balance the crank if it were not straight.
I believe that the unequal pressure applied by the flywheel bolts, combined with the temperature variation, vibration, and possibly corrosion; causes a dimensional change in the thickness of the crank flange. This creates a thick spot exactly where the "10th" bolt would be.
My fix to this issue was to grind a flywheel shim with a taper to compensate for the crank flange run-out. With some patience and a few rounds of bolting and unbolting the flywheel, I was able to get run-out down to .002”. The clutch function is incredibly smooth now, without the slightest hint of chatter.
I pressure tested the coolant system with the new radiator I discovered I needed (huge solder blooms around both tanks on the old rad.). Ran it up to 20 psi, held over night dropping to 19psi (probably from dry water pump seal).
You must be registered for see images attach
Installation was fairly simple, and I primed the oil pump by turning the engine over without glow plugs. This took about 40 seconds in 10 second bursts. I had the injector lines cracked , so the fuel system was bled of air as well. So I installed glow plugs, tightened injector lines to 22ft lbs (seemed incredibly tight to me). Turned it over, after about 4 seconds of cranking it sputtered and caught! Sputtered a bit more in the next five minutes of running (while it worked the air bubbles out). Truck runs better than ever, couldn’t be happier!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UH4NliksIew
Special thanks to all Oil Burners posters, your insights have been invaluable to me. This forum made a very challenging undertaking fairly straightforward!!
Kirk
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