Outlaw525
Well-Known Member
I recently purchased a stalled racecar project that hadn't been touched in about 8 years. Price was right and included lots of good parts. The 440 was supposed have been broken in but that was it for run time.
I changed all the fluids, squirted oil in the cylinders and turned it over by hand, cleaned the carb and flushed the fuel system. Hooked up a battery and cranked it over until oil pressure came up. So far so good, primed the carb and it fired right up and sounded really good with open headers. I checked and adjusted the timing, 60 lbs oil pressure, 165 degrees, still all good. It ran for about 5 minutes and than stalled out. It had lost compression so I dug into it and found the cam wasn't turning, here's what all I found inside:
The cam bolt wasn't tight and the cam gear had spun.
Which in turn caused the valves to hit the pistons, bending a bunch valves and pushrods:
The cam is pretty mild and this probably wouldn't have happened if the pistons weren't installed upside down!
I also found a lot of loose bolts during disassembly. The whole engine is coming apart and I am going to measure and check everything before reassembling it.
Like my Dad always told me: Never assume................
I changed all the fluids, squirted oil in the cylinders and turned it over by hand, cleaned the carb and flushed the fuel system. Hooked up a battery and cranked it over until oil pressure came up. So far so good, primed the carb and it fired right up and sounded really good with open headers. I checked and adjusted the timing, 60 lbs oil pressure, 165 degrees, still all good. It ran for about 5 minutes and than stalled out. It had lost compression so I dug into it and found the cam wasn't turning, here's what all I found inside:
The cam bolt wasn't tight and the cam gear had spun.
Which in turn caused the valves to hit the pistons, bending a bunch valves and pushrods:
The cam is pretty mild and this probably wouldn't have happened if the pistons weren't installed upside down!
I also found a lot of loose bolts during disassembly. The whole engine is coming apart and I am going to measure and check everything before reassembling it.
Like my Dad always told me: Never assume................