I have my moments. Not many of them but........ For warranty purposes I'd stick with Comp lifters on a Comp cam.
So, have you cc'd the heads yet to find out what you really have. As bmcdaniel suggested the parts to do it are really not very much $$. Factory tollerance can be anywhere from 1to2cc up to maybe 4cc. Knowing what kind of compression you have will help, and in cleaning up the heads you can bring every chamber equal to the largest you find........plus it will help you select what kind of head gasket you want to use.............., .040 or .060. If you haven't done this before I would suggest giving it a try.... just another part of "Blue Printing" a motor...........and when you put all those little things together...............they can become something BIG, plus it will help the motor live longer and perform better........just to keep things in perspective...........1cc is equal to 1/4 teaspoon of liquid.....and 4cc's is one complete teaspoon of liquid...................IMHO
Well I'm going to buy the cam and lifters today... Comp is about a 15 minute drive from me. I was all set to get the 279TH7 but the tech I talked to on their help line has just about convinced me to go with an XE268H or XE274H. Not much difference between the two on the simulation software. One attractive thing about the XE268H (specs here) is I can use the Comp valve springs I already have. Software shows 376@5000, and 422@4000 assuming 9.5:1 compression. Not completely sure way I'm going yet...
Naturally. All engine simulations seem to be optimistic. I've got three different programs and I'm using Comp's because it seems to be the most conservative of them. I'm not actually taking the numbers it's producing as real expectations, just using it to do relative comparisons with various parts. Like I said before, I'll be really happy if I get 350 HP. I'm not going to have any specific output expectations until I get a time slip or dyno results.
Mike, I had to try real hard not to spit beer all over my monitor as I sat down to read this for the first time. Some good stuff to think over in this thread.
Progress! Crank and four pistons installed tonight. I'd do the rest but I'm getting tired, and tired people make mistakes...
Shortblock is built! It was kinda cool being able to just drive down to Comp Cams on my lunch break... Got the XE268H cam and lifter kit, (specs) saved on shipping and paid $10 less than Comp's website price. Got some stickers too, a T-shirt for my boy and some break-in additive... Then I pushed the Maverick into the garage and commenced teardown. Pandora decided I should be listening to the blues during this operation, and I did not disagree... ...And I have begun to see signs of the carnage that awaits me as I dig deeper. Between cylinders 4 and 8 I had two slightly bent pushrods, one utterly mangled pushrod, and one missing altogether. Two lifters gone, and two more half gone. Stuck a finger down in a lifter bore and discovered, sure enough the camshaft has broken clean off at the bearing. So if any of you guys are building a 3.8 V6 I'll sell you a slightly used camshaft real cheap! I just can't wait to get the oil pan off...
Well I'm not that far along yet, that's the old one unfortunately... It did look pretty good though I thought: The new one will look exactly the same. I kinda like the stockish look.
Much progress! I got the heads all nice and clean, painted up, valves cleaned and ready to be installed with Comp springs. Got the old engine out today... Behold the destruction: The rod that did that is completely MIA. That's a cam lobe in there. Pretty, right? Four lifters destroyed, three pushrods bent, one very mangled pushrod, camshaft broken, block broken on both sides, two rods broken, one missing, crank ruined, oil pan ripped up, two pistons broken, oil pump seized up... And unfortunately my Hughes 2500 stall torque converter's had its studs chewed up and broken off by the camshaft sticking out the back. I hope I can get that fixed but I imagine I'll be buying another converter... If I do, does 2500 still sound like a good number for an off-the-shelf converter on this engine? I still have stock 3.0 gears, but I intend to change that to either 3.5 or 3.73, and I have 25" tires. I think 2500 is fine, but if I have to replace it anyway I don't want to pass up a chance to give it more punch. (edit: I don't know if you can see the pics. They're linked from Facebook because Photobucket is acting up... Whenever it decides to cooperate I'll edit this post again.)
Starved for oil. Same thing (only not as bad) happened to the 95 F150's 351W I'm working on now. The oil pump seizing is what started the mess. Check the roll pin on the distributor shaft, it should be sheared off. The #4 & 8 rod bearings welded themselves to the crank, #4 rod let go, but got jammed against the 8 rod, locking the motor up tight. When I pulled the engine out, all of a quart of oil came out of the pan. The PO was clueless as to why it quit running. Also had a gallon of rusty water in the block. Fortunately the block was OK, I replaced the two rods and the crank and put in two new pistons. I'm in the process of getting it all back together in the truck (paid $500 for the supercab 95 F150, body's in great shape) might get her running this weekend.
