Why my engine "blew."

[donsrods]

Coming home from Turkey Run in Daytona my engine started making noises and it got really loud. Rather than wipe out a lot of expensive parts I shut it down immediately and rented a U Haul truck and trailer to haul it home> ( $480.00 rental !!!) I was so mad at the situation I pushed the car into the shop and haven't wanted to look at it, but I knew something bad happened inside the engine from the racket.

Yesterday I decided to tear it out and see what broke. It took me all day because the motor has to come out of my 27 to get the valve covers off because it is recessed so far under the firewall. Finally pulled the covers off with the engine sitting on the floor, roller rockers and pushrods looked fine. Removed the roller lifters, they looked perfect. Pulled the heads, everything was ok. Then I spun the water pump pulley and the pump sounded like everything inside had broken free!! D***, my brand new water pump was the problem!!

Here are some pictures of what happened. (This is a brand new with 250 miles on it Ford Racing short water pump) I will be calling Summit Monday am to have a discussion with them about standing behind it and hopefully helping with some of the extra expenses.

Don

That loose diffuser ring is supposed to be spot welded onto the vanes. The spot welds didn't penetrate deep enough, so the ring came loose.

But it came off and got reshaped by the spinning vanes.

You can see the spot welds didn't even penetrate the vanes anywhere.

 

[roddguy1]

Gee I don't know what to say Don other than I keep witnessing the deteriourationg of quality more all the time. There is just no exuse for that to happen. To bad you didn't find that first before you pulled the car all apart. This makes me think of that pitman arm you had go soure on you as well. I used to think, pay a little more and get a better product, but even that seems to be going away. Ok rant over.

 

[donsrods]

I couldn't contain myself till Monday, so I called Summit today. They are sending me a new pump and selling me a gasket set at cost to help out. I think that is sort of fair, considering. They tell me Ford Racing has NO warranty on this stuff.............great!!!!!!!

When the new pump comes I am going to pull the back cover off and try to determine how well it is welded, then goop lots of permatex on the gasket, torque the retaining bolts, and put my engine back together. I guess it could have been worse, if I would have found something really serious had happened inside the engine.

Don

 

[ANNAMEL]

Don sorry to hear about your misfortune. You didnt by chance have to small of a pulley on there. I have seen too many rpms tear one apart. Probably not but just a thought.

 

[donsrods]

That might be it, Annamel. Ford Racing discontinued the pulleys so I was on my own. I ended up buying a set of Zoops pulleys and having the crank one machined to fit my damper. The water pump pulley is smaller than the original Ford ones, so it is spinning pretty fast. Plus, I am running 4:30 gears, so at 60 mph I am spinning 3000 rpms. It is very possible that is happening.

I found a company that used to make the original Ford Racing ones, and am going to get a set of those from them. As it is, my water pump pulley is smaller than the crank pulley, so it must be going 4000 rpms when the other one is going 3000. Bet it really pumps the water though!

Good point, thanks for mentioning it.

Don

 

[Gastrick]

Well Don that sucks pretty bad and was costly but at least it was just the water pump and not an internal engine problem. It's so aggravating to have new parts, supposedly of good quality, fail and leve you stranded.

 

[donsrods]

You are right, Bill. The thing that scalds me is that for all those years when I drove it almost daily, I had been to Daytona with it numerous times, lots of long trips, and it NEVER missed a beat. Always got me home at night. But on this rebuild of the car I put more money in the motor than I had in the whole car the last time, and it isn't as dependable as the mild 302 I used to have in it.

I've also learned that 4:30 gears on nice for conversation purposes, and the car has more power that the tires will hold, but they really suck on the highway. I used to have 3:70's in it and I could cruise along at 80-90 with no sweat. With the 4:30's it's like driving along in 2nd gear all the time. I'm going to start building my rpu in the next month or so and that will become the one I actually drive to Garlits place and Turkey Run, and I'll keep the 27 for when I want to terrorize soccer moms around town.

Don

 

[King Herald]

I ran a 3.9 rear end in my Morris, and that was horrible for long runs, as the motor was spinning 4000rpm++ at 80mph. It was quick out of the hole, but a real pain afterwards, felt like I needed to shift up another couple of gears.

 

[darkk]

glad to hear it was nothing serious. You were probably lucky to get a replacement pump for free. No one stands behind labor or collateral parts when something they sell explodes. Just sucks you had to pull the motor...

 

[bob w]

I'm sure glad it was nothing more serious. You built a great engine with high quality parts. It should run well and last for years. This is just a little bump in the road.

 

[Sam_Fear]

Yep. Sucks it happened, but good that it wasn't worse.

 

[donsrods]

Thanks guys. At least this will give me a chance to drop the pan and check the bearings and all for anything unusual going on. I also want to address the noisy lifters or rockers. I know agressive cams can be noisy, but this thing ticks away like mad. Think I am going to take the rockers down 3/4 of a turn this time instead of 1/2 turn and see what that does.

Don

 

[hotrod preacher]

sad to see new parts that are not what they "oughta" be...good though that things weren't worse though....
as far as gears-if you can't get the tires to hold, does the lower gear actually help power or wouldn't there be a chance those 370's would be better all the way around...[S

and on the adjustment - my old ford rebuild book used to say 3/4 turn on the rocker/lifter adjust & using that info got me in trouble on a chevy once-but i don't know about the newer ford stuff....

hope you get it all back together soon...

 

[ronnysplymouth]

I'd drill those factory welds and plug weld it myself for piece of mind

 

[Tripper]

Really... there is NO excuse for that except poor workmanship & to not stand behind your work is even worse! Sorry to hear you had that prob Don but glad it wasn't worse!

BoB

 

[Screamin' Metal]

I'd drill those factory welds and plug weld it myself for piece of mind

Thats the way it should have been do at the factory. Robotic MIG welding is ok if you know what your doing, programming wise....looked like it needed a little bit more heat and dwell time....plug welding thru punched or drilled holes are the vway to go on a high stress item like that.....[P[

 

[donsrods]

Thanks guys for all the input and suggestions. I just got off the phone with a Tech at Ford Racing. I told him of the problems I had, and he wanted to see the pump. I told him it was on it's way back to Summit, so I sent him pictures instead. He said NOT to weld the plate on or rivet it, as it is a balanced assembly and that might upset the balance. He is going to have his Supervisor call me when he gets back from Xmas break, and they may want to send me a known good pump.

He also told me they purposefully leave the back loose so you can put permatex on it to seal it. I've been putting water pumps on cars for 50 years, and never had to do anything but take one out of the box and bolt it on. I told him some instructions in the box would be nice.

So, we'll see what they say.

Don

 

[longroofracer]

The pulley speed was mentioned and you seemed to have at least wondered about that. It might be a good time to consider an undersized crank pulley to help compensate for the smaller w/p pulley and higher rpm at freeway speeds? If it is spinning too fast, it could cause cavitation in the pump, which will affect your cooling capabilities and pump life. March has pulleys available for many apps, and some of them individually also.

LRR

 

[donsrods]

I think your suggestions are good ones. I am going to order the proper pulley set from a company called RunnerRite. They made the original ones for Ford Racing, and the wp pulley is larger than mine, so it should run slower.

The other thing that makes me think the water is being pumped way too fast is that at idle the temp comes way down, but going down the road it starts to climb. That is backwards, and leads me to believe the water is going through the radiator too fast to have the heat removed from it.

As for March.........they are the worst company to deal with that I have ever met. Very rude and they have a "don't bother me attitude." They are right down the road from me in Naples Florida, and I have tried on several occasions to get help from them and they blew me off each time. I thought I might have just gotten one bad employee there, but in every call I have made they all treated me like dirt........and I was trying to spend money with them!

When we built the 306 Ford in my Son Don's T we were converting it from serpentine to V belt drive. I wanted to ask March what set of theirs to use. They very rudely told me "we are NOT retail." I told them I would go to a dealer, but I needed expert help. I even offered to drive to their place to show them what we had. They told me I was not welcome there.

I also tried again to get their help when I found out Ford Racing discontinued their pulleys for this setup. They told me "we didn't make Ford Racing's pulleys." When I asked them if they had any that might work, I got a very quick "we have no idea." So I went to Zoops and modified their pulleys.

I will badmouth March Pulleys until the day I die.

Don

 

[Screamin' Metal]

Yea, March Bites! I've had several folks complain about them. Let me just say this....and this is all I can elaborate.....they've ****ed off the wrong folks and they're gonna be doing good to survive this new year, cause their business WILL INDEED DROP....[P[

Hope things work out with you Don....if you have anymore problems....just look at Proform, they have some good electric pumps....