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Newly rebuilt with stock parts: 440 problem

sendero

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Location
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I have an engine problem that is difficult to isolate. I hope someone may have had a similar experience and solution.

Background. Not many miles ago my stock 440 engine had to go to a shop. During a camshaft change the harmonic balancer got cocked during removal attempt. (cheap tool). The condition was so bad that the engine was pulled and taken to a local Mopar shop.

The shop realized that the situation was far worse than they imagined, and they ended up pulling the crank and sending it to a shop out of state. They were able to remove the dampener and save the crank. Thus, that Mopar shop basically rebuilt the engine. I installed the engine and broke it in properly. It has been running fine for close to 500 miles. Yes, I use Lucas zinc treatment for the oil.

Last week I was cruising along for about an hour (speed up to 70 mph in places) and on the way home, going up a steep lengthy incline, I noticed a bit of a loss of power. 1 mile further up the incline I heard what I thought sounded like an exhaust leak tick. Not loud. Just there. The next mile I saw blue smoke exit the passenger side exhaust during a slight acceleration attempt. The smoke was not obvious if not accelerating but the car began to run rough. I finally entered my driveway and the car sputtered and stalled. It did not want to start again.

The next day I started the car. It had a loud metallic ticking sound. It emanated from the passenger side. A stethoscope on the water pump etc. checked those items out as good. The stethoscope gave the impression that the passenger back of engine was louder than the front engine rockers.

My fear was a wiped cam lobe. I pulled all the plugs; they were not in great shape but passable. (They were not good considering the low milage on the rebuild.) Looked to be a rich air fuel mixture. I pulled the valve covers and check the rocker assemblies. All were good. I pulled the intake manifold and looked as the camshaft and rockers as I turned the engine. It looked good. I then drained the oil into cheese cloth to see if metal from the low end was evident. Nope. All good and clean. I then used a borescope to check inside the engine pan. It appeared good and clean form what I could see. At this point I was starting to doubt my assumption. I put in new plugs, new oil, filter etc. and started the engine up to record the sound if it was there. The sound was there. I took the sound recording to my regular car mechanic who is also a classic car guy. Upon hearing the sound, he said..”sounds like an upper valve train issue and not rod”. (sound was not “hollow” enough)

Tonight, I pulled the intake off and pulled the rocker assembly, pushrods. Upon inspection they are not showing metal damage. I hand turned the engine by hand and looked to see if the lifters had binding issues in the bore. No problem. I visually checked each lobe of the camshaft through its rotation and that appears good. I pulled each lifter our and visually inspected. All look good for metal integrity.

The only oddity I saw was that the rear lifter had a different contact pattern with the cam then the others. The others had a wide circle and the rear had a smaller contact contact area. Not sure if such a relatively minor visual would cause such a big engine problem.

Now I am at a loss.
 
blue smoke would be oil white smoke head gasket or cracked head at least in my 50 plus years with playing with cars
 
Pull the valve covers and look for damage to the rockers and pushrods. Make sure every rocker has a push rod. I agree that Blue smoke indicates oil and white is a head gasket since a blown head gasket is 99% steam it would be white and not blue. Sounds to me something in the valve train let go. Im about to replace another cam in a week or so on my friends 440. The shop that built it had the rocker shaft upside down and starved the rockers of oil and caused the rockers to wear thin and a pushrod fell out. It was ticking really bad but no blue smoke. The only way to burn oil is to get oil into the cylinder. So think about what parts could let oil enter the cylinder. Rings, Valve stem seals etc etc..
 
Give us a rundown on what the heads are and what was done to them.

Are there any intake ports that are wetter/oilier than the others?

Put the valvetrain back together and do a compression test.
 
I had a 70 charger 500 318 I had rebuilt the engine maybe had 500 miles on it when I started seeing a little smoke. And the next thing I saw, was a huge cloud of smoke trailing me. I pulled over and figured it was a blown head gasket. So one by one, I started pulling plug wires until the smoke stopped. It was #7. It blew out on the intake side, and was suckling in oil. Then drove it home running like crap.
 
I have an engine problem that is difficult to isolate. I hope someone may have had a similar experience and solution.

Background. Not many miles ago my stock 440 engine had to go to a shop. During a camshaft change the harmonic balancer got cocked during removal attempt. (cheap tool). The condition was so bad that the engine was pulled and taken to a local Mopar shop.

The shop realized that the situation was far worse than they imagined, and they ended up pulling the crank and sending it to a shop out of state. They were able to remove the dampener and save the crank. Thus, that Mopar shop basically rebuilt the engine. I installed the engine and broke it in properly. It has been running fine for close to 500 miles. Yes, I use Lucas zinc treatment for the oil.

Last week I was cruising along for about an hour (speed up to 70 mph in places) and on the way home, going up a steep lengthy incline, I noticed a bit of a loss of power. 1 mile further up the incline I heard what I thought sounded like an exhaust leak tick. Not loud. Just there. The next mile I saw blue smoke exit the passenger side exhaust during a slight acceleration attempt. The smoke was not obvious if not accelerating but the car began to run rough. I finally entered my driveway and the car sputtered and stalled. It did not want to start again.

The next day I started the car. It had a loud metallic ticking sound. It emanated from the passenger side. A stethoscope on the water pump etc. checked those items out as good. The stethoscope gave the impression that the passenger back of engine was louder than the front engine rockers.

My fear was a wiped cam lobe. I pulled all the plugs; they were not in great shape but passable. (They were not good considering the low milage on the rebuild.) Looked to be a rich air fuel mixture. I pulled the valve covers and check the rocker assemblies. All were good. I pulled the intake manifold and looked as the camshaft and rockers as I turned the engine. It looked good. I then drained the oil into cheese cloth to see if metal from the low end was evident. Nope. All good and clean. I then used a borescope to check inside the engine pan. It appeared good and clean form what I could see. At this point I was starting to doubt my assumption. I put in new plugs, new oil, filter etc. and started the engine up to record the sound if it was there. The sound was there. I took the sound recording to my regular car mechanic who is also a classic car guy. Upon hearing the sound, he said..”sounds like an upper valve train issue and not rod”. (sound was not “hollow” enough)

Tonight, I pulled the intake off and pulled the rocker assembly, pushrods. Upon inspection they are not showing metal damage. I hand turned the engine by hand and looked to see if the lifters had binding issues in the bore. No problem. I visually checked each lobe of the camshaft through its rotation and that appears good. I pulled each lifter our and visually inspected. All look good for metal integrity.

The only oddity I saw was that the rear lifter had a different contact pattern with the cam then the others. The others had a wide circle and the rear had a smaller contact contact area. Not sure if such a relatively minor visual would cause such a big engine problem.

Now I am at a loss.
 
One lifter out of the bank hardly has any plunge capacity as compared to the others. While a collapsed lifter will obviously cause a ticking sound, a lifter that has little give should not cause valve train noise . Correct?
 
Give us a rundown on what the heads are and what was done to them.

Are there any intake ports that are wetter/oilier than the others?

Put the valvetrain back together and do a compression test.
Heads are standard OEM cast for a 1970. had a valve job done to them when the car turned 100k miles. It now has 113k. As I stated in my long description, the engine was put back together recently so it has new head gaskets with less than 500 miles on it.
 
Now new guides during the 100K overhaul?

I still think a compression test is in order.
Now new guides during the 100K overhaul?

I still think a compression test is in order.
Yep new guides at 100K. I was able to get to one cylinder tonight with the compression. The number has my head scratching. 180 cold. I was expecting a ~140 number. Need to do the other in the bank and see the spread. Maybe the gauge is the issue for that type of reading.
 
The lifters have bled down, which makes the numbers go up.

Primarily what you’re looking for is one that’s way lower than the others.
 
Thanks all, I found the issue. Look like I lost a ring and it scored the cylinder. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. So much for Carlisle.
 
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