Captain Obvious

For the big casting flash seams on the outside of the head, I just used a carbide bit on a dremel. I didn't take any after shots, but this is what I started with. I buzzed off the worst of it with the dremel and then finished with a hand file:

Woof. Well here's to hoping it's not serious.

I hate burrs. I deburr everything. Even the stuff that doesn't matter. Couple days ago I spent an hour grinding the casting flash seams off the outside of my P79. No functional reason. Maybe I could convince someone it's easier to clean. The real reason I cut the back of a knuckle on one of them when I was working on my broken cam motor. I liked the results so I did the same thing to the P79.

LOL!! We'll make sure that doesn't happen!! Let's phone tomorrow and see if this could work. I think we're cutting it too close time-wise. I don't think we're going to have all the parts by the time you're up here.

Well part of the reason I brought it up was to illustrate that the stock damper is NOT really a tight fit on the crank. I'm confident that the damper has never ever been off my F54 since it left the factory and with clean mounting surfaces it's sized to be a slip fit onto the crank shout.

Rut roh. What do you think is going on? Spin a bearing?

Well I'd be happy to do the motor work for you, but I feel like it's something you want to do yourself. Isn't that the case?

Thanks!! I'll let you know when that stuff gets here. My motor and my stand are going to GGR's tomorrow. If I remember, I'll try to get pics of the two motors side-by-side.

I don't know... With a name like that, the crab in the window is a little disconcerting. * I know it's a lobster, but close enough for a joke.

Hahahahaha!!!!! That movie should be required viewing for anyone who has ever worked in or near a cubicle.

Don't worry about the cam gear stuff going over your head. I'll draw you some pics next time we get together. We got you covered. About the oil galley plugs... It's just one more thing that if I didn't have to mess with, I was hoping to leave it be. I am a little worried about the hot tank not being able to thoroughly get to that area if I don't pull them though. Maybe I should just pull them. I think I'll wait until my motor is on a stand over at GGR's shop. We're gonna have two of them sitting next to eachother as they're being built. Would be extra cool to have three of them in a row you know......

madkaw, Yes, All the discussion about the drilling and offset bushing stuff is premature. Don't know yet if it'll be necessary, but I was just confirming that I can do it if I have to. Stock stretch holes may be good enough, but I have the means to achieve finer degrees of accuracy if necessary.

Oh yeah, and I saw your for sale post about the E88 head from that motor... Is that the large chamber or small chamber version of the E88? From what I've read "on the internet" the E88's from the 240's are the small chamber and the ones from the 260's are the larger chamber.

Woof. I've seen at least four of those busted pulleys now. On my F54/P79 I just pulled the oil pump drive gear and lower timing gear off. I cleaned up the crank snout real good first and then slid the gears off. As I did that, I noticed a tight spot passing over the keys and determined that there was a small metal bump on the side of the outermost key. Not much, but just enough to cause some friction when the gears were right at the position where they were passing over two keys at once. The "upset" metal looked like it was caused by a mallet blow to set the key, probably done at the factory. I dressed that bump off the side of that one key and now the gears slide on and off with ease. Also, while I was messing around in that area of the motor, I refit the harmonic balancer into place just to make sure everything fit easy, and it did. With a clean crank snout and a clean bore inside the stock balancer, it slid right on all the way home easily. No mallet required. On and off smooth and easy with one hand. Clunks all the way home when it bottoms out against the oil slinger. Of course, you'll have a little more friction with a front main oil seal in play, but not much. You should still be able to feel that clunk. Point is...... I've heard reports about aftermarket balancers being very tight on the crank snout, but my stock one was not tight at all. If you find yourself having to fight with the balancer to get it on, you might want to stop and look things over real good for issues before you crack something.

Still early in the investigative process, but a hiss sound just off throttle sounds like the ported vacuum that drives the distributor and CARB can. Did you remember to hook that little vacuum line back up after you were done messing with the AFM duct to the throttle body?

You are the man! I'll keep my eyes peeled!

Awesome!! There are three of us working on these motors at the same time and I know none of us have that stuff. @GGRIII @Av8ferg I should post my parts list and tool needs...

I'm just looking for a little more than stock while still being pretty much stock. Sounds like exactly what you did with your street motor. I don't know if you had seen my whole broken camshaft debacle with the motor that's currently in my 77, but as part of that whole fix, I found and repaired a whole bunch of previous owner caused problems inside that motor and it's now running way better than it ever did as long as I owned it. For me, that upgrade step was just getting that motor "back to what it should be producing" and I found that increase noticeable. It's amazing what happens when you have all six cylinders actually contributing to the power output. So my threshold for success on this F54/P79 build is "noticeably better than a properly working (but worn) stock N42/N47 combo". Should be pretty easy to achieve. While I have you here... You pulled out the plugs in the oil galleys and talked about flash in there that you cleaned out. Any additional info about that? Any pics? I've not pulled the plugs and I wasn't planning to do so unless I had a compelling reason. Did you pull the plugs on the head as well?

Thanks for the additional insights Jeff. About the eccentric bushing... My plan is to put the stock cam back to the stock valve timing using the original timing marks. For the bushings, I'll come up with a simple fixture to press the bushing into place (off the car) and locate the holes for me. So the difficulty of turning the bushings once installed won't be an issue. In the end, even though I'll have the ability to change the bushings to mess with the timing, I wasn't planning to do so. The only reason I was going to use the bushings was to account for the timing change incurred as a result of cutting the head. But once I get it set back to the stock timing, I wasn't planning to mess with it (ever?) again. The plan is to pick a bushing while I have the front timing cover off and hopefully be done with it. Pulling the gear off to change bushings shouldn't be a big deal. And at this point I'm planning to put the stock cam back in and run the stock EFI, so it sounds like your street Z. When you say that this 9:5 motor is better than your 10:1 street Z motor.. . Why is that? Just raw power?

Awesome! Glad it's running well. I'm a long way behind you, but I hope mine turns out as well!

Yeah, I could just use the drill press, but the lathe would be more accurate. On the lathe I can index the part to be spot on and it also doesn't mind the interrupted cut so much if you cut through the wall into the center hole. I can also size the hole so the bushing is a slight press fit into the hole. I'm not quantized to drill bit sizes. And that's a great piece of warning about the bushings being thinner than the gear. What I can do on the lathe is mount the gear back side out and bore from that side. I can control the depth of the bore so it doesn't go all the way through the gear. That way I can leave a shoulder in there to keep the bushing from possibly walking out. Easy peasy, but I didn't know that until you brought it up! For fuel delivery, at this current point the plan is to redress it back up with the stock fuel injection. I suspect I'll have to tune the system a little, but I'm hoping that will work. I've heard that the stock system doesn't adapt well to modifications, and I guess I'll be able to confirm or deny that accusation. That's the current plan. If that fails, I'll throw on a pair of flat top carbs or maybe an aftermarket EFI system. Your 9.5 compression ratio sounds pretty much in line with my calculations. I came up with about 9.3 at .040 off. Thanks so much for the info, I appreciate the details!

Thanks much. There's lots of other stuff I need, but it's not the kind of things I can lean on vou for. Bigger stuff like gasket set, rings, head bolts... You have a pair of piston ring pliers or a ring gap grinder? I don't have that stuff and I'll probably only ever use them this once. And I'd love to fight over another lunch bill. My house is your house!

Thanks Jeff, my confidence in the plan grows. What you did to your head is pretty much what I was planning to do with mine. I was thinking I would go .040 off rather than .050, and that should make my timing chain tensioning mods just that little bit easier than yours. And I don't know if you read this part of the previous pages, but I've already verified that I can chuck the cam gear up in my lathe and I have enough swing to index it to the side and bore out the original dowel pin holes for the eccentric bushings. So I'm confident that I've got the valve timing issue under control. In case you missed that part... Cam gear on the lathe. Indicated to a fraction of a thousandth on the original hole. I didn't cut anything yet, but I'm confident I can when I need to:

Thanks bud! That would be fantastic. I've been making up a list of parts that I'll need for this endeavor and anything I can cross off will help. Let me know what the shipping is and I can at least cover that!

Great trip. And you made me look up that reference. Not sure I ever saw that one!