Not a 5.0, but still a Ford! (460)
Hey Y'all,
My question isn't about a 5.0, it pertains to a 460, but I've learned that some damn good mechanics peruse these pages and took the liberty of posting it here anyhow.
My dad's got an 87 F-350 w/carb'd 460. About a year ago he bought a replacement motor from Autozone. With less than 20,000 on the rebuilt, (yeah right), long block, it quit running. He realized that the valves on the number 1 and number 5 cylinders were not opening. After pulling down the top end, he found that the lifters and cam were destroyed!
Some of the lifters were completely rounded off and a few even had holes punched right through the bottom. Also the distributor drive gear had taken a beating that left it missing a few teeth. The deck inside the block that the drive gear sits on when you install the dist. had grooves cut into it as well. No clue what could have caused all this destruction, (the cam obviously wasn't replaced in the longblock because it said "Ford" on it, but I'm sure they would have replaced the lifters.)
Anyway, he installed a new cam and lifter kit and a new dist. When we cranked the motor and had it running at 2K for the cam break-in, the dist. was shaking but quit after a few seconds. However, within a few minutes, a big backfire and it quit. We pulled the dist. and again
the gears were ground into and busted off. What could be causing this? Is it possible that Ford used different dists. for different years in this engine? Or that the deck inside the block I mentioned earlier being chewed up could cause the problem? The dists. he's been using have had cast iron gears, I know that steel and cast iron gears are not interchangeable, but how do you tell which one you need?
Anyway this project is starting to get expensive for him and I just thought someone in the forums may have some suggestions...thanks.
P.S. I thought all 460's had thrust washers in front of the cam. His didn't, and the guy at the machine shop in town said 460's don't use them. This true? I swear my 460 has one...
Hey Y'all,
My question isn't about a 5.0, it pertains to a 460, but I've learned that some damn good mechanics peruse these pages and took the liberty of posting it here anyhow.
My dad's got an 87 F-350 w/carb'd 460. About a year ago he bought a replacement motor from Autozone. With less than 20,000 on the rebuilt, (yeah right), long block, it quit running. He realized that the valves on the number 1 and number 5 cylinders were not opening. After pulling down the top end, he found that the lifters and cam were destroyed!
Some of the lifters were completely rounded off and a few even had holes punched right through the bottom. Also the distributor drive gear had taken a beating that left it missing a few teeth. The deck inside the block that the drive gear sits on when you install the dist. had grooves cut into it as well. No clue what could have caused all this destruction, (the cam obviously wasn't replaced in the longblock because it said "Ford" on it, but I'm sure they would have replaced the lifters.)
Anyway, he installed a new cam and lifter kit and a new dist. When we cranked the motor and had it running at 2K for the cam break-in, the dist. was shaking but quit after a few seconds. However, within a few minutes, a big backfire and it quit. We pulled the dist. and again
the gears were ground into and busted off. What could be causing this? Is it possible that Ford used different dists. for different years in this engine? Or that the deck inside the block I mentioned earlier being chewed up could cause the problem? The dists. he's been using have had cast iron gears, I know that steel and cast iron gears are not interchangeable, but how do you tell which one you need?Anyway this project is starting to get expensive for him and I just thought someone in the forums may have some suggestions...thanks.
P.S. I thought all 460's had thrust washers in front of the cam. His didn't, and the guy at the machine shop in town said 460's don't use them. This true? I swear my 460 has one...
