oil pump No matter what option I was planning on changing out the oil pump for sure. Your the second person to say thats the worst lifter they have ever saw, lol. It must be a real hum dinger.
Oh heck with it I'm going to go ahead and tear it down, if I don't I'll always be cringing when I'm watching the tach heading towards 6+ and wondering "did I get lucky" OR "should I have tore it down" instead of trying to save a few dollars.....ok I'll be setting up an account at a local bank for donations, I'll give ya'll the address when I get it set up
...I found this stuck to my oil plug when doing an oil change. this was back in June of last year. been ......and so far hasn't missed a beat...
lol after seeing what you found and it's still running I may rethink just replacing the cam and lifters, you had a screw loose
Now that I see pic's.. which are pretty blurry for that closeup shot.. that doesn't look all that bad at all. Maybe a better idea is to post how much shorter is that lifter is now? Or better picture of the damaged lifter and its respective lobe? In the end, regardless of what anyone might say.. there have been many corners cut through the years of flat tappets and many have gotten away with cam/lifter replacement alone. Myself included on at least 3 occasions and sometimes we just do things because we either have to.. or we take the leap of faith. If that cam and lobe have lost less then about .030 - .040 material combined?.. that's not as big a leap as some might think it is. I've come back from far worse than that without teardown.
drain the oil out of it and run it the filter will catch all the metal I wouldn't put any oil back in it either after all metal on metal won't hurt a thing
Before pulling the engine I would check main and rod bearings, crank journals, and oil pump. I know you said you were gonna replace the pump, but even a new one should be disassembled, checked out, and the cover bolts properly torqued before use. There might not be anything wrong with the one you have. If everything looks ok, clean the pan, add a magnet, new oil and filter and run it. Change the oil again after about 50 miles. Now would be a good time for a roller cam...
allright already lol Someone make up my mind will ya, first it's "oh man that's awful, gotta be torn down" and now it's "hey that don't look so bad after all" I'm just having fun of course so please no one take offense, I am having a hard time deciding what to do, HOWEVER IT WILL be a roller as I called and got pricing today, do you know how much those dang roller lifters with the tie bar cost? are you kidding me, jeebus crikys what are they made of gold or what, I can buy 3 cams for what they want for one set of tie bars, but it's that or drill and tap holes for the spider set up and it's not much cheaper. Here is what my current thoughts are if everythings checks out on the bottom end, this is the cam I'm going to run, it's a 351 cam but tech support said the 302 can take it, I have to change the valve springs to a stiffer set link:http://www.edelbrock.com/automotive_new/mc/camshafts/locator.php?part_number=2281&submit=search also going with a min. 650 cfm carb, tech support said I should make 400h.p. or a hair over with this set up and still using a stock bore 302 block, now if I have to rebuild then it's a 331 and more h.p., one thing I like about this little Ford motor is with the above mentioned set up is that they tell me it should handle 6500 rpm without even breaking a sweat .....dang those tie bar lifters
Does this put it in perspective? Does this add any perspective to the amount of wear, by the way the one on the left is the worn one
Had a lifter go on a 429 that looked just like yours. It had around 800 mi. on it. I tore the engine down just to be sure, and after seeing where all the metal went was very glad I did. The ring lands were full of shavings and some larger chunks were embedded in a couple piston skirts. Ended up hot tanking the block, replacing bearings, and honing cylinders w/new rings. Was about $400 into it including new cam & lifters.
And you'd have to run a small base circle cam. I ran the "Rolling Thunder" cam in a 347 and then in my 5.0 for awhile. You can do better than Edelbrock cams. They have very slow ramps and no one seems to make the power with them that Edelbrock claims. I have the Edelbrock 60259 heads and the springs that come on them are actually a few pounds stiffer than the what Comp recommends for my XE roller cam.
my bolt and your metal is why they sell...magnetic oil pan drain plugs... they even have a... magnetic oil filter wrap...
Wow! Earlier "blurry picture remarks".. now fully rescinded. I'd clean up that motor good if you're really concerned about protecting your long term investment here. Sometimes leaps of faith can easily cause broken legs.
