DeTomaso Mailing List: May 2001, Message #45

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Dan, thanks for your response,

     I used the method described in Tom Monroe's  Ford V8 Engines book, where you get the number one
cylinder to top dead center, then turn the rocker arm bolt for the appropriate rockers 3/4 to 1+3/4 turns  
from the time the slack is taken out until the bolt just bottoms.  I was surprised to see that the range from
one rocker to the other varied as much as it did, perhaps as much as one full turn, I don't remember exactly.
I may have turned this bolt 1+7/8 to make it bottom, and if I did, shame on me!  What I don't understand is
why didn't I hear it until the revs were down around 3000.  Now I can hear it when I get up to about 2100
rpms,  I shouldn't have any valve float at that speed should I?  But now maybe I'm hearing something else.
I thought the bent push rod may have been slapping the head but there are no marks on the push  
rod indicating that, maybe I bent a valve?   

Art
----- Original Message -----
From: Miller, Dan M (San Diego)
Sent: Wednesday, May 02, 2001 5:17 PM
To: 'ART STEPHENS'
Subject: RE: How did my push rod get bent?


Art

Are you sure you adjusted the rockers correctly when you set it up?  Unless
that could have just been a parts failure of some kind.  Even new, it
happens.  Good luck.  DM

-----Original Message-----
From: ART STEPHENS [mailto:ART_STEPHENS@msn.com]
Sent: Wednesday, May 02, 2001 4:43 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: How did my push rod get bent?


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     I began the inspection of  my blown?, engine today.  The problem
occurred as I was coming down the
hill from Mount Charleston on my way back to Vegas.  I had backed out of the
throttle in 5th gear and I
was probably turning somewhere in the neighborhood of 3000 rpm.  The engine
was not under much of a
load when the noise started, like I say, I was decelerating.  I pulled the
valve covers today and everything
looked fine, no obvious problems.  My buddy Roger talked me into checking
the push rods to see if they were
all straight.  They were all straight except for one.  The push rod for the
exhaust valve at the #4 cylinder is
bent.  My question is Why?  I could understand if I had been pushing the
engine hard that I might have
floated a valve, but I wasn't pushing hard or turning many revs.  I recently
did a valve job and milled .020
off the heads, I also replaced the valves.  I probably haven't put more than
500 miles on the engine since I
did the work.  In that 500 miles, I've driven the car harder than I did when
the noise started, I would think
if my problem had been valve float leading to piston/valve interference, the
noise would have started after
one of my hard runs.  I'm kind of thinking that it may be a spun rod bearing
as others have suggested.  I
am also thinking about installing a shorter push rod, (mine are stock
length), and seeing what happens.  The
push rods are new Manleys, installed at the time of the valve job.
     Any advice or thoughts would be more than welcome.
Art Stephens<br clear=all>
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