[sly_knight]

I have a 351W out of a 94 f-150. I had a fan give out on me and I didn't notice that it was overheating until the gauge was at 250. So I pulled the heads and checked for warping then replaced the gaskets and buttoned the engine all up. When I went to start it The starter wouldn't turn it. I had been having problems with the starters for the 69 mustangs. I went through 2 starters and a handful of solenoids. Just after it had overheated I was having issues getting it started again and so I jumped the solenoid and it started up. The starter was a little sluggish, but it did it. For a while now as I roll the starter it would turn the engine over almost once and then would stop like it hit a wall. Then you release the key and turn it again and it would fire fine. So anyway I went out and bought a high torque starter for it that can be clocked away from the exhaust. This starter isn't starting it either. It would turn by about two cylinders really slowly and then stop. I checked all my electrical connections ultimately putting new cables on and taking voltage readings at the battery and at the starter terminals looking for a voltage drop, and the drop was negligable(.2v) So I am confident that the starter is ok. I ran a post about this a while ago, but thought that I had figured it out when I found that one of the rocker studs was broken and that only one cylinders worth of valves had been lashed. So I ordered a pair of studs and a set of polylocks and replaced the broken stud and set all of my valve lash. Now the engine rolls, but very slowly. Maybe turn one full firing set (2revs) every 4 to 5 seconds. So I pulled the plugs and gave the starter a hit and it spun pretty good, actually sounded about like it should when trying to start a fully assembled engine. I disconnected the battery and put a wrench on the front of the crank and turned it by hand. Seems to be turning pretty tuff, so I got out the torque wrench to put a figure on it and it takes about 65-70 ft-lb's to get it to turn. I also pulled the belt off of the front to take the accessories out of the equation. This seems a little high to me. I drained the oil and ran a pretty strong magnet through the oil, and didn't get any metal particles. It almost looks like the oil has some non metalic flakes in it. I was using a new oil pan to catch the oil in and don't know if it is maybe from that. I usually work on big diesels and have never seen anything like that before so I can't imagine it coming from the engine, but maybe it was. I would really like to hash this out this weekend while I have time. I am starting to get a little depressed, I haven't been able to drive my car for about three months now. I went out of town for about two months since this has happened, so it has been sitting for a while. Oh, and I put a little oil into the spark plug holes and gave it another set of turns by hand hoping it would help, but didn't make a bit of difference. Any and all advice/help would be greatly appreciated.

Sorry for the long post, but I didn't want to leave anything out that I could think of. If you helped my in my last post, sorry if I came off as a little snappy. I was pretty stressed out and had a nasty sinus infection, and was still trying to fix the car. I was really hoping the valve job would magically solve it, but not gas. Thanks for any and all help.

 

[sly_knight]

Babbot Perhaps

I didn't think that they used babbot in bearings anymore, but I could be wrong. Is that maybe what the non metalic flakes are? I haven't touched anything in the lower end of the engine, and have pretty much eliminated the upper end. Bearings is the only thing that I can really think of. Is there anything else that anybody could think of?

 

[silver69]

I wish I had a majic bullet for you but I have a question, does your gauge read higher than 250 or does it stop at 250, What I'm getting at is if it went wayy hotter and you did not know it then the fkakes are possibly babbitt, Babbitt is not magnetic so your magnet will not tell you anything. Babbitt is like lead. If the flakes are/were floating in the oil, your mains and journals are gone. I saw all your exact symptoms on a 99 Accord my niece ran hot.
When I pulled the dipstick the oil looked "metallc" from the babbitt flakes.
Good luck man but if it were my guess I would say pull it down. I hope I'm wrong, but its what I think.

 

[The Greek]

That's what I was thinking, too. You also may have spun a bearing. What is the capacity of the battery? If it doesn't have enough cranking amperage, this may be part of the problem. Especially if the engine has a high compression ratio.

If the battery is trunk mounted, the wires, both positive and negative may be too small to carry enough amperage. At the very least, they should be AWG 4 gauge. Finding those flakes in the oil worrys me, though.

 

[sly_knight]

I did have the battery in the trunk, but I went down that road earlier on when I was fighting the starter. I measured the voltage at the battery and then again at the starter and was experiencing about a 3 Vdc drop. So I moved it up to the origonal location under the hood with all new cables. I now only have about a 0.2Vdc drop. The battery is a 1000cca battery that is brand new. I went ahead and bought new bearings. This should be fun, I don't really have the capacity to pull the engine for a repair compliments of my HOA here. I have to do the work in the garage with the door down and then I just drop the hood when done for the day. I have it cleverly put up on jack stands and stuff so at a glance it all looks normal. I'm not worried about changing out the rod bearings, but the mains have me a little nervous. Has anybody tried to change out main bearings without pulling the engine? Any pointers or things to make things easier would be great.

 

[silver69]

Well its a little more complicated than that, what of your Cam bearings? If the rods and mains are gone so are the cam brgs.
As far as not pulling the engine it can be done but it will be tight. You can only drop the crank so far because the timing chain will not let you get but a fraction of an inch before it snugs up and holds the pulley side up and then you got the trans on the back end. You can pry this stuff in just make sure the engine side 1/2's are 100% squarely seated in the saddles. I am like you on the rods, they should not pose a challenge for you.

Good luck - I still hope I'm wrong
Joe

 

[The Greek]

I have one of those damned Home Owner's Associations to deal with also. A single stall garage to go with the adversity, too.

You really need to pull the engine, or you're going to be looking at an almost impossible project if you don't. I had to plan ahead and get everything that I needed in place before starting. Pull the engine and trans at the same time, it's quicker and really easier. I had to be sneaky and chose a time in the middle of the night when prying eyes were closed.(The back of my car stuck out past the garage door) I snached the engine and trans out, replaced the hood and pushed the car out and parked it as usual in the driveway. It's a lot easier to push without the engine. Just don't leave anything hanging down under the car to make things look suspicious.

When I got everything done, I did another middle of the night switcheroo. I had to use hand tools to keep the noise down, but it isn't too bad, you shouldn't really need to do any hammering.

I lifted the engine and trans with a cherry picker with one of those lifting eyes mounted to the intake. Once out, I separated the trans and mounted the engine on a stand.

This may or may not work for you, but I thought I'd fill you in with how I duped the association and their nosey "Dudley do rights".