working on my valve train

[76ford466]

So I have tore apart my perfectly good running 88 7.3. To make it a little better to go in my f350. I pulled the heads, front cover and cam. Cam is getting sent to Delta Cams in Washington state today to be reground. Heads had some wear on the stems and face. Possible replaceing those not sure yet. I did get one set of intake and exhaust ports cleaned up and ported to my liking. Will post pics soon. The shelf for the guid is hugh in thses things. Had to modify it. Heres the question shoud i reuse the valve rotators? or elemanite them? Will be upgrading springs and possible hardend one piece pushrods. The head studs are on order also. They are MUCH cheaper indivdually from Compition Products if anyone is instertested than say ARP's retail, or even summit. Plans include a good valvetrain custom headers for a turbo he351 is what im going to use at first. Also a moose pump is what im thinking after i get it all installed. Will be intercooled also. Not going for a world record hp but want it to run good.

 

[TahoeTom]

http://www.oilburners.net/forums/showthread.php?56221-Looking-for-Input-on-boring-6-9-to-7-3
Check out this build with roller rockers. It is still a work in progress.

 

[icanfixall]

The roller rockers mentioned above is what I would do being your that deep into this already. It will eliminate some friction and increase power. The valve spring rotators must be kept or the valves will ruin the seats. Plus you will have to add some kind of shim to build up the missing rotators. Where did you get the idea to not use the rotators.. Just kind of wonder where thoughts come from. A note about head gaskets and oil pan gaskets. DO NOT USE A PAN GASKET. No matter what. The factory never used one and the gasket kits do come with them but.. The factory RTV worked much better. I use permatex ultra copper plus because its high heat resistant and its oil resistant to. As for the 7.3 head gaskets. I feel we should be using the 6.9 head gaskets on the 73 engines. Reasons for this is the 7.3 gaskets do not allow coolant thru the lower areas of the block but they do on the 6.9 engines. The 7.3 even has expansion plugs in the block and the heads in these areas. Now there is no need to remove the plugs completely. Just look at the 6.9 gasket coolant passage and then cut that size hole in the plugs on the 7.3 block and heads. Also make sure you find the right side of the gasket no matter what gasket you use. They do have a top and bottom. We just had a member that had a shop rebuild his engine. When he installed it they had a horrible coolant leak into the cylinders and oil pan. Turns out the shop had a bad employee that messed up and installed the gaskets upside down on the block. So coolant passages did not line up. They were a stand up shop and covered the problem with no charge...

 

[76ford466]

thanks for the tips. On removing the rotators I remember some guys building pulling engines out of truck 454 chevys removing them and installing a solid shim in place. But thats a high rpm gas with much higher spring pressure. The roller rockers looks great im sure it cuts out on the side loading alot. I tested my springs the other day just to see what i have and they was 80# on the seat and 190 i think open. I know it was 80 on the seat though. AT 1.835 height. I got a felpro complete gasket set for the gaskets. And internation sealant for the oil pan it has a gasket on it now so its been into at some point. Stock bore though and had felpro head gaskets on it. 138,000 on the truck it cam e from. Ran pretty good got 16mpg with it.

 

[88beast]

hey whats the part number for those studs? i could use a set and i dont think an arp will be needed for my application.

 

[riotwarrior]

MUST...keep rotators, or those valves will eat the seats and you'll end up $$$ down the drain! Bottom line they keep the valve cooler and errosion of seat in check.

JM2CW

 

[Black dawg]

MUST...keep rotators, or those valves will eat the seats and you'll end up $$$ down the drain! Bottom line they keep the valve cooler and errosion of seat in check.

JM2CW

I wonder how long that would take though? I have seen gassers go 200k with no rotators and no problems.

 

[turbo elk]

Do they have high combustion chamber temperatures like these engines do?