Matter will be damaged in direct proportion to its value In nature, nothing is ever right. Therefore, if everything is going right ... something is wrong. I got bit by both today..... Nice fall afternoon, temps were nice, so I decided to try a carb switch between the Maverick and the motor home. Same carb on both, Ford Holley, so changing should be no problem, right? Took the carb off the motor home first. It's built on a E 350 van chassis,with a 460, so you can guess how much room there is to work. Surprisingly, everything went well. No lost nuts or bolts, everything came loose easily. So, went to the Mav, same thing, everything comes off easy, no lost parts. Put the Mav carb on the motor home, everything falls into place. Double check, no left behind parts, nothing left undone, time to crank it. Turn on the switch, electric pump fills carb. Pump gas, hit starter, cranks right up, goes dead. Repeat two or three times, then it starts to idle, spits a time or two, then give it a touch of gas, and all hell breaks loose. It's knocking. Hard on the right side. Sounds like a dropped valve or rod bearing, not sure which. More RPM, harder the knock. I'm suddenly sick. Look around the floorboard, make sure nothing was left off. Nothing was dropped down intake, because all four nuts are on carb, they had intregal washers, so I don't know wtf happened. There were no other nuts or bolts taken off except the one on the throttle cable, and it's in place. Everything else was vac lines, they are all hooked up proper. I'm even sicker as I realize I now need to rebuild or replace this damn engine. Don't even know how to start taking the thing out unless the core support comes off, no way it will come out from inside. Big block stuff is expensive. I'm sick. Decide to go ahead and put the carb on the Maverick that I took off of the motor home as I don't want to touch it again today. Everything fell into place. Checked everything, ok, now the moment of truth. Hit the fuel pump, pat the gas two or three times, hit the starter. Cranks, goes dead. That's normal, has always done that. Repeat two or three times, then it cranks and runs, settles down into a smooth idle about 900-1000 RPM. Let it run a few minutes to get up to temp, now a test drive. WOW! Runs great! Even idles well in gear, something the other carb sometimes had a problem with. Secondaries seem to open right, car just feels more crisper on accel. Other carb ran rich at idle, this one seems to be just right. I'm happy with it. The motor home had developed a bad backfire under load. From everything I read, it pointed to the carb secondaries or power valve. Not so, as the carb works fine on the Mav. I now think the motor home either jumped time or burnt a valve. Funny thing, it always started easy, and ran fine except under load. So now my toy money is going to fix the motor home. Maybe I can get it fixed before next show season starts. Sorry for the long post, just needed to vent a little....
just a suggestion, a few years ago i had a 460 that was knocking hard and missing as if it had a bent or burnt valve and it was on the right side. when i started pulling it down the first thing off was the valve cover and i found the problem immediately, broken intake valve spring. outer spring broke leaving the inner one to do all the work which it couldn't. just thought i'd mention it, maybe you'll be lucky. good luck
Only long block I have found is on Rock Auto.....about $2088, -minus $525 core charge for a total of $1563 including shipping . Depending on the damage to the block and heads, don't know if that's a good price or not. Kind of scared to buy a used engine because you don't really know what you're getting, and as big a job as it will be to pull and replace this one, I want to do it right the first time. I'm figuring at least $500 to do the block and heads even if has to be bored, then another $300-$500 for bearings, rings gaskets and maybe pistons. It ain't gonna be cheap....
Before going into panic mode, You should do like sugested and pull off the valve cover and take one thing at a time. It may not be as costly as feared. Just trying to offer a positive spin for you. Good luck. Tell Murphy to vacation elsewhere.
I have seen where motor homes break plugs and cause all kinds of racket. Pull the head, remove the porceline and plug and all is well again - no telling what you will find until you look.
Here's the amount of space I'm dealing with....no way to remove the heads or even the valve covers in the vehicle that I can see. Might be possible, but you will have to be double jointed or know somebody that is .
