What To Do Now 331 Ford Stroker

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Blakeslee
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What To Do Now 331 Ford Stroker

Post by Blakeslee »

331 stroker Ford with Edelbrock Performer RPM heads, cam and lifters. This engine was built 10 years ago and has been flawless until it spun a rod bearing.
The machine shop freshened up and reinstalled the crank, rods and pistons and rings. Their advice was to use the existing cam & lifters which we did.
The problem now is after starting the engine it has a pronounced knock it didn't have before. I pulled the oil filter,cut it open and there is quite a bit of metal powder showing after letting it settle overnight. I'm not sure what normal is but I have nothing to gauge it on....
What is the best course of action to determine what the problem is or how to proceed? We have checked to flexplate to crank and converter bolts along with the fan blades hitting something.
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needforspeed66gt
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Re: What To Do Now 331 Ford Stroker

Post by needforspeed66gt »

Have someone who actually knows what they're doing do a diagnostic tear down and fix it properly, sounds like the last place didn't....
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Re: What To Do Now 331 Ford Stroker

Post by bobalattie »

Pull plug wires one at a time with the engine running and see if the knocking reduces, that should pin point what cylinder it’s coming from.
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Re: What To Do Now 331 Ford Stroker

Post by BillK »

Blakeslee wrote: Fri Oct 18, 2019 3:47 pm I pulled the oil filter,cut it open and there is quite a bit of metal powder showing after letting it settle overnight. I'm not sure what normal is but I have nothing to gauge it on....
What is normal is a clean filter and no metal in the oil. I think you know what has to happen next. I certainly would not run it any more.
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Blakeslee
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Re: What To Do Now 331 Ford Stroker

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Thanks to all that replied. My fear is the machine shop didn't properly clean the block and we ended up circulating the old bearing material through the new build.
Is it normal practice to reuse cam & lifters when this happens? It seems counter intuitive to me because the lifters would have some leftover debris?
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Re: What To Do Now 331 Ford Stroker

Post by GARY C »

You only have 2 options... tear it down or keep driving it.
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Re: What To Do Now 331 Ford Stroker

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Blakeslee wrote: Sat Oct 19, 2019 11:03 am Thanks to all that replied. My fear is the machine shop didn't properly clean the block and we ended up circulating the old bearing material through the new build.
Is it normal practice to reuse cam & lifters when this happens? It seems counter intuitive to me because the lifters would have some leftover debris?
If it was a FT solid or Hyd. then the lifters need to come apart and be cleaned out. Yes its a PITA but good lifters are easy to work with. Cheapo stuff will give you issues. If it was a roller then cleaning them is more of a chore as the tiebar needs to come off to get them apart. If they are using a drop in style lifter with factory locating hardware then same rule applies to the FT lifters.

But the shop should have done that part for you. Most sets take about an hour to do all 16 lifters.

Depending on what rods are used they may have a rod in backwards and the clearancing is bad. [-X
Could also be a loose bore if they honed it too far to clean up a bad bore and its got too much PTW clearance now. [-X
Wrong head gasket thickness and piston/s are hitting a head/s [-X
Or a loose rod bolt. Or shit left in the intake got into a bore and is hitting the head/s. [-X

Bottom line is as others have said tear it down before you ruin what you have left [-X
Real Race Cars Don't Have Doors
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Re: What To Do Now 331 Ford Stroker

Post by BillK »

One thing that would bother me is you said that it "spun" a rod bearing yet you also said that they reinstalled the rods. My experience has been that a spun rod bearing pretty much means the rod is junk. I also have to wonder what it did to the crankshaft ??? Did it get reground ? Once again a spun rod bearing typically means quite a bit of damage to the crankshaft.
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Re: What To Do Now 331 Ford Stroker

Post by Blakeslee »

Well this is very disappointing to say the least. This is my friends project and I know for a fact the lifters were not taken apart or cleaned!
The question was asked and the shop said "don't worry about that".....I knew that didn't sound right and should've insisted he buy new or at least tried to clean them! They are a FT hyd lifter and cheap insurance in this instance to have just replaced them along with the cam of course.
The crank was cleaned up but I don't know what that means in light of the other bad advice the machinist gave.
We'll get the engine pulled back out and see what everything looks like and start over. Oh well, live and learn!
Thanks again for the feedback I will let you know how this turns out.
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Re: What To Do Now 331 Ford Stroker

Post by travis »

A quick and easy thing to check would be to yank the valve covers and rotate the engine to see if the cam still has all its fingers and toes. The cam could have gotten wiped especially if the lifters didn’t go back into the same holes. In any case it sounds like it needs to come apart
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Re: What To Do Now 331 Ford Stroker

Post by Blakeslee »

We are going to pull the engine and drop the pan first and check it for metal......I'm sure it's swimming with it.
The engine only ran in my buds garage for 15 minutes and with what is showing already it isn't good.
No matter what we need to pull it and check. I'll let you know how this progresses.
Thanks again to all for the great advice!
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Re: What To Do Now 331 Ford Stroker

Post by superpursuit »

Who assembled this engine after it was repaired?
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Re: What To Do Now 331 Ford Stroker

Post by BigBlockMopar »

Any particles floating in the engine-oil still won't cause 'a knock in the engine'. The particles are a cause of something, not the source.
IMO, there's still a rod bearing-issue at hand.
My guess is the rod/crank-journal repair has been shoddy at best.
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Re: What To Do Now 331 Ford Stroker

Post by russxr67 »

When you pull the crank check it for straightness.
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Re: What To Do Now 331 Ford Stroker

Post by Blakeslee »

Engine is out and all looks good in regards to appearance of all the bearing surfaces. We have not checked the rod to crank clearances yet but will after visiting the shop in the morning. I want the shops opinion of the debris we see in the oil pan and what came out of the oil filter.....yes, I saved it just to be sure of what I think I know!
I'm not sure how (if poss) to post a short vid I took of the engine running so you can hear it for yourselves?
The crank, camshaft and connecting rod bearings look great with minimal signs of crap running in the oil. The connecting rod that was resized has no signs of overheating or discolorization.
We did open up one lifter but didn't see anything unusual.....the tolerances are so tight on those I don't know how apparent any contaminants would be.
At this point going to purchase new cam & lifters and re-clean the parts, verify clearances and put it back together.
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