DeTomaso Mailing List: July 97, Message #8
     



From: "Steve Liebenow" <steve.liebenow@eur.ericsson.com>

Subject: Engines that go Ping.

Date: 1 Jul 1997 11:47:22 -0800



To the gang....



  At this months PCNC meeting, resident tech guru Jack DeRyke spoke on a =

topic that should be near and dear to us all. Some will have been bit by =

this and it will be all the more dear... $$$!

  Clevelands are notorious for having their harmonic balancers' outer =

ring slip over time! This doesn't affect a thing, in most cases, until =

you check your timing, find that it is off, "correct" it, only to find =

now that your Cat runs like dog doo!  Off you travel down Mary's rosie =

path,  trying to fix something that hadn't been broken..... until you =

touched it......

   Jack showed a couple of examples of this, where the timing marks had =

migrated 100 degrees or so around the balancer!  

   I seem to recall that this was more of a problem in earlier 70 Clevelan=

ds that was supposedly fixed.... but I guess not!  

   The only thing I can think of to watch for is a balancer that was used =

in an application where the timing pointer was on the other side of the =

engine.... but I cannot think of where this may have been done on these =

motors!???

   If you have a balancer off of your motor, clean it carefully with =

solvent. An original balancer could be black or blue.... but, you should =

or could be able to see a small paint stripe that goes from the inner =

ring to the outer ring. Now, this may have been painted over previously =

too, so you may not be able to see this. Typically you can see this on =

balancers with their natural finish intact.  If this paint stripe is =

still together, and doesn't look like the San Andreas fault line, then =

you are still OK. If you see separation, well, call Ford.  There are =

rebuilding services available for HB's that I have seen in Hemmings, but =

I know not of their abilities.

   If you repaint your good balancer, it would be a good idea to add a =

reference stripe to be able to monitor this phenomenon in the future! 

   I bought a 70 351C Cougar a few years ago, mainly because the owner =

could not get the car smogged, 'cause nobody could verify that the timing =

was set correctly!  The owner had kept ALL of his receipts, so we did =

some detective work to try and determine what had been done!  Needless to =

say, there were multiples of "checked timing, could not set" receipts, =

one for a new timing chain set..., all the way back to the engine being =

rebuilt! From the time of the rebuild, to our purchase, I think that the =

guy only put on 3000 miles or so. 

   After we figured out that this was most likely our problem, I dropped =

#1 plug, placed a long screw driver down the hole, and manually turned =

over the engine until the screwdriver stopped moving out of the hole =

(yes, on a compression stroke). Marked this spot on the balancer. =

Reinstalled the plug, fired the car up, set the timing to about 6-8 =

degrees before my new mark, and the car ran great! With that 11.0:1 =

compression this thing was a screamer above 2500rpm!  Ya sure, it pinged =

a little when it got hot, but we had done nothing to the cooling system, =

like a clean radiator or shroud! 

   Most Pantera's have less compression, so if the timing is indeed set =

correctly, and the cooling system is OK, pinging should not be a big =

problem. So, the previous person that was having problems should check =

this too as his engine was just rebuilt!  An esperienced engine man would =

have done this already.... !

  Good luck!

Steve





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