Can bad lifter(s) cause low oil pressure?

I think you would need to measure the bearings installed in their respective bores to determing actual clearance. Mic the journal itself, then the rod hole with the bearings in place and torqued, subtract journal from bearing opening will give you total clearance. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

 

That's correct, the bearings have to crushed in their bores to measure.

 

The bimetal bearings will last longer as they're slightly harder. Clevite 77's are a softer bearing aimed at perfomance applications, but they will last a long time, just not as long as the bimetal's. I have Clevite 77's in my 331 which I built about 7 years ago. Don't know the mileage, this motor's been in two different vehicles one of which the odometer didn't work.

 

Alright, I got 2.309 on the two rod journals I measured and right at 3.000 on the two mains, one of which was the thrust bearing.

So should I go with stock sizes or .001 over?

Or, how about .001 over on the rods and stock on the mains?


I'm thinking this ought to put me back into good bearing clearances!

 

Still got a mystery though... Why is that center thrust bearing stamped .020 when everything I measured came out within .002 of stock? There doesn't seem to be that much wear on the thrust bearing surfaces, certainly not .020" worth.

 

Better mic everything (twice) before assuming you're ordering the right undersizes for the bearings. Otherwise you're taking a piecemeal approach here, same as it seems the previous owner did.

 

They seem to only come in stock, .001", .010", .020" and .030" over as far as stuff I can just buy off the shelf. I do intend to check all the other journals out, but assuming I don't find anything different than what I've already found, it's just going to be a question between stock and .001" I think. None of the others are even close.

What I'm confused about is why the only bearing that's marked .020" doesn't mic out to be any different than stock.

 

Is it the journal that is .020 over or the thrust face? If the engine came out of a stick shift car/truck with a heavy clutch, it might have required machining of the thrust face.

 

It did come out of a truck with a heavy clutch. The transmission looked like something out of a dump truck. The truck also had a mega suspension and body lift, giant leaf spring packs, TRACTOR TIRES, as in, John Deere Farmall Massey-F'ing-Ferguson six foot high... Tractor. Tires. Looked like military axles of some kind. Caged interior, alarm clock tach, detachable steering wheel, three pedals, a seat and not much else inside the cab other than rust, mud and abuse. It had a rattle can flame and camo paint job on it like something you'd see at a demo derby.

One day I saw a man with three teeth wearing nothing but overalls and a rebel flag bandanna on his head catch a catfish with his bare hands then cook it over a fire he started with gasoline and put out with tobacco juice and I thought that was the most redneck thing I've ever seen in my life, until I saw this truck.

 

...anyway yeah, that's what I thought too. Could be the thrust surfaces, not the journal. But assuming the stock size is 1.133" (the only number I've found so far) then the width of that bearing is only .003 off and it's not showing much sign of wear. Certainly not .017" worth of wear.

 

try the stock bearings first. use 30w oil for assembly on the mains. torque to spec and spin test. should have a little resistance. check end play. if it spins with little effort(loose), check with plastigage on all main bearings to determine which is out of range/spec.if it's binding/or hard to turn go to the next under size and plastigauge again and see whats there. as stated before, temporary fix situation on the cheap. I have a 200.00 USD 150,000 mile 91 5.0 roller motor in my 73 maverick and the stock oem mains and rod bearings are still looking good. maybe a used roller shortblock would be a good choice if cheap enough. nothing to it but to do it. go ahead and assemble that bad boy as clean as possible,check,doble check,torque to speck and get back with the results....you'll have that ford hitting on all eight cylinders in no time....good luck....

 

That is the next step if this doesn't work out. Either way I'm probably not sticking with this engine forever. Either the bearings buy me some time and I can build the next one as I get the time and money, or if not I'll be building the next one sooner...

 

And you wonder why this motor is F--ked up ? Between the guy you bought it from and the truck it was in, plus what it was used for................................Welcome: At the very least, go buy a crank kit from one of the parts houses and replace the crank and bearings, that way you'll know what you've got. I did a 5.0 like this for my V8 Ranger with a kit from Advance Auto Parts. This motor too had a badly worn thrust bearing due to a problem in the AOD behind it. So bad it had worn completely thru the thrust bearing and had just started to have the crank counterweights rubbing the main saddles.

 

Agreed. At least with even a budget crank kit, you know the crank and bearings they send with it have been clearanced properly(you'll need to verify with plasti-gage upon assembly).

But, if you really want the low buck approach, measure the bearings the best you can and verify your clearances on assembly, and check crank endplay, then go from there. If all of your clearances measure out properly, it more than likely will run fine until you get your dream motor built.

 

Well the dude I bought it from wasn't the one who built it. He was just parting it out. He was a bit red around the collar, but in the normal "Bubba" sort of way. Seemed like a good dude. Whoever built this was more on a "Cletus" type of level.

This was more of an illustration than an actual story. I needed to try to paint a picture in your minds to convey just how far beyond redneck this truck was. There's no way this thing was road legal. Imagine something from a Mad Max movie that takes place in a mud hole instead of a desert, and instead of Mel Gibson... Well, yeah, we'll go with Mel Gibson, but present-day, batsh!t insane Mel Gibson, not young and seemingly normal Mel Gibson. And farm equipment. And PCP. Lots and lots of PCP.