Gonna burn it to the ground by God...

[LEB Ben]

Alright fellas...finally got the Bronco all buttoned up and put back together. But hot damn, something on the driver's side of the engine is causing an asston of noise and given a little throttle the damn thing dies...and was difficult as all get out to idle so I could get a timing light on her. Looked to be right about 15* though before she died. I let her run 3 times for maybe 5 seconds each time, then threw my hands in the air and quit for the night. FWIW...in the last month, it received all new gaskets and seals and timing chain set and now in the last week, it got all new gaskets again, but while the oil pan was off, I took a thorough look and everything looked perfectly fine and no metal or anything in the pan. And I put 'new' reman'd Motorcraft distributor in it tonight.


My thoughts are, the old distributor was bad bad bad, after comparing it with the new one, it would catch and grab and almost felt bent...so I'm going to say that caused the timing issue. Then as a result of the timing issue, I lost a couple pushrods on the drivers side and that's what's causing the noise. Does this sound logicalimous to anybody? The pushrods were fine on the PS side, but I didn't think to remove the DS to check the pushrods.



Anyway...as always, thoughts/ideas/advice/insight is much appreciated. Oh, and the engine is a 78 400 in a 79 Bronco.

 

[Truckin4life]

Bent valves?

 

[Austin]

Ben, the only thing that will solve your problem is if you give the Bronco to me. For free. With those wheels I like. Now.

That should fix it for ya!

 

[73F100Shortbed]

FWIW are you sure the distributor is in right? If it dies off idle sounds like it might be out of time. I had that happen to me once on a chevy I was working on. It would start fine but bog down when you hit the gas. And I know you said you had issues with lining up the distributor in the past. Hopefully it turns out to be a simple fix for you.

 

[Truckin4life]

Did it run correctly before the distributor was changed?

 

[dustybumpers]

sounds like timeing chain is off, pull #1 plug, and put your thumb over the hole. have someone "bump the starter, until the air blows your finger off the hole. put a soda straw in the plug hole, and turn the damper back and forth, until the piston is at the top. pull the dist cap, and see where the rotor is pointing. look at the damper, and see where the pointer is, and pull the valve cover, and make sure that both #1 cyl valves are closed.

 

[LEB Ben]

FWIW are you sure the distributor is in right? If it dies off idle sounds like it might be out of time. I had that happen to me once on a chevy I was working on. It would start fine but bog down when you hit the gas. And I know you said you had issues with lining up the distributor in the past. Hopefully it turns out to be a simple fix for you.

I was having difficulty with the old one, but the new one slipped right in. Once settled, the rotor lined up perfect with #1, and it was at 15* for the short amount of time I had the light on it. What has me concerned is all the noise.

Did it run correctly before the distributor was changed?

No...that's why it's been sitting for the last month. Short summary, took her out for a drive on Memorial day, acted like it jumped time again. Sure enough, get a gun on it and it was off 20+*. This is a few weeks after I threw a new double roller TC set on, but I tore it back down to be sure. Gear, sprocket and chain were perfect. Oil pump was good. Distributor was old. So I finally got a new distributor in it yesterday. So my thought is the mile home, bent push rods or maybe if fubar'd a couple valves.

sounds like timeing chain is off, pull #1 plug, and put your thumb over the hole. have someone "bump the starter, until the air blows your finger off the hole. put a soda straw in the plug hole, and turn the damper back and forth, until the piston is at the top. pull the dist cap, and see where the rotor is pointing. look at the damper, and see where the pointer is, and pull the valve cover, and make sure that both #1 cyl valves are closed.

Just finished that whole process...twice, in the last month. First time to upgrade, second time out of necessity.

 

[smokey]

Run a compression test on it to see if the valves are closing.
Pull the valve cover and check for any visual damage something may have worked loose or a lifter may have collapsed.

 

[LEB Ben]

Thanks Randy, but I have to pull the intake to check if a lifter collapsed, right...or is there some way to check from the valve cover side?


Which reminds me, there is a special tool for pulling lifters, is it necessary, or is a pliers and magnet sufficient, especially if I'm replacing them?

 

[smokey]

The tool makes it easier but a magnet or a hooked dental picks works well for lifting them out.
Normally you can tell if a lifter is collapsed by pushing down on the rods if they have a little give they are normally ok.

 

[dustybumpers]

pop the push rods out, and roll them on a piece of glass to see if they're bent.

 

[Alvin in AZ]

x2 on all the suggestions so far.

Stop thinking you -know anything- about it from previous experience, tho.

Start from scratch with a compression test and take it from there as-if it's
a different engine than you've ever worked on before. No kidding.

You'll find the problems, it may not be pretty ...but you'll 'em (it?).

"don't know what's wrong? just go through it and make everything right"
-Jack Duncan, Signal Maintainer, he could fix anything on the first try!

Alvin in AZ

 

[bronco69]

Sounds like a timing issue, and don't forget about the stupid ford ignition box, they can do wierd stuff. I would also deffinately pull the other rocker cover and check for bent push rods. I had a 77 f150 4x4 with a 351m that had a noise and a miss. I pulled the rocker cover to find both pushrods on #5 cyl were bent bad. I replaced them with stock parts house stuff, and it ran killer. I'd check the stuff stated above before removing the intake. Good luck man!!

 

[LEB Ben]

Alright thanks for the suggestions guys. It was raining pretty good here this afternoon, so I didn't get to it.



BBTW...I love how you have a way of simplifying absolutely everything Alvin. And shoot besides the rotating assembly, just about everything is new.

 

[LEB Ben]

NEWBIE question alert...


When it comes to popping the push rods out, just loosen the rockers, pull the push rods out, inspect, then drop them back in? Throw some lube/oil on the ends? I also read in my Tom Monroe book that it's not a bad idea to flip ends when removing and re-installing used pushrods. True?

 

[5.0Flareside]

NEWBIE question alert...


When it comes to popping the push rods out, just loosen the rockers, pull the push rods out, inspect, then drop them back in? Throw some lube/oil on the ends? I also read in my Tom Monroe book that it's not a bad idea to flip ends when removing and re-installing used pushrods. True?

just buy new ones????

 

[Austin]

 

[LEB Ben]

just buy new ones????

Why if they're good? My question was more for install, will everything line up properly and is the rocker the only thing keeping it in place.

 

[73F100Shortbed]

NEWBIE question alert...


When it comes to popping the push rods out, just loosen the rockers, pull the push rods out, inspect, then drop them back in? Throw some lube/oil on the ends? I also read in my Tom Monroe book that it's not a bad idea to flip ends when removing and re-installing used pushrods. True?

Pretty much how you said. I don't know about flipping them. Never did it personally.

 

[LEB Ben]

Funny...I didn't see an answer from you.