Freshly Rebuilt Roller 302, pics!

[jonward786]

I know how much i enjoy looking at other people's pics of their engines, so i thought id share a couple pics of mine.  Got it back from the machine shop yesterday after a complete rebuild converting to all rollerized components.  After taping it all off and hitting it with some 1200 degree Krylon aluminum colored paint, the only thing left to do is a little exhaust port grinding to get rid of the thermactor bumps.  i asked the machinist if he would do it and he said it would be a waste of time because you wouldn't gain anything noticeable, so i grabbed a die grinder and am going to just do it myself. 

dont be fooled by the oil pan, thats not a Milodon pan, just the stock pan with a couple coats of gold paint haha.  the block and head paint isnt quite what i was going for, i was trying to closely match the color of the intake cause i love the color of bare aluminum, but i can live with it i guess.  i read somewhere about the little vaseline trick to put over the freeze plugs during painting so it could be wiped off after and the paint wouldnt stick to the plugs so i did that as well, i like the look of new shiny freeze plugs.  Tell me what you think!






And here are a couple pics i snapped as i was stopping in the shop to remind the machinist that this is my daily driver so hurry up...

[Kats66Pny]

Nice!  :10

[janschutz]

Nice, I do not think I have seen an engine painted that color.  I look forward to seeing it complete.

[fordrule]

muy bonita....its like seeing a child being born...awesome..

[1497]

Looks great.

[Horseplay]

Not real keen on the idea of grinding the ports with the heads bolted on the engine. How do you plan on keeping 100% of all that metal flying around from finding it's way into the engine?

[jonward786]

An oily rag.  Gonna stuff one in the port im working on , grind, vacuum up the loose shavings, and pull the rag out when im done.  seems like a perfectly fine way to do it imo

[RyanG85]

Looking good. I would put some rags between the chain and the valve covers. No need to mar up those nice covers.

[daveSanborn]

The silver looks nice, but unfortunately it's only going to look this pretty for a very short time.  Once you get a few miles on the car it'll look.... well.... not so pretty.

IMO, the absolute BEST color for an engine.... if possible the whole damn thing... is black.  Even when the engine is dirty it's difficult to notice!

[Starfury]

Lookin good!  What kind of heads are those?

[jonward786]

Tad, they're just the stock heads.

I have a question.  Today as i was putting the engine back in the car and buttoning everything back up, i noticed one of the hardlines coming from the tranny was loose, its the one that comes up the top of the tranny and connects to the back of the intake pictured here. 



I followed the line down to the tranny and found that on the other end the rubber hose was not connected to anything...what does it connect to?  Here you can see the end of the hose and a gold canister shaped part...is that what its supposed to connect to?

[AzPete]

Yep. Connects to the back of that gold cannister with a vacuum hose....the vacuum modulator which controls the shifting of the automatic based on engine vacuum.

[jonward786]

Hey guys im having a hell of a time getting this thing to start today.  I am beginning to think im using a totally wrong firing order, ive gotten a couple flames through the carb.  I am using the standard 302 ford firing order 1-5-4-2-6-3-7-8 with the rotor rotating CCW.  Is this the proper firing order for this cam?

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/CCA-35-421-8/

It says its a 351W cam, so do i need a 351 firing order or what?

[AzPete]

If it says 351 cam....I would guess to try the 351 firing order. Fire thru the carb means a problem for sure. Verify TDC also since you have to rewire...


289                   1-5-4-2-6-3-7-8
302 (Pre-82)    1-5-4-2-6-3-7-8
5.0                   1-5-4-2-6-3-7-8
5.0 HO            1-3-7-2-6-5-4-8
5.0 Truck           1-5-4-2-6-3-7-8
351                    1-3-7-2-6-5-4-8

[jonward786]

Well frack, i went out, rewired to the 351 firing order, and using a breaker bar to find TDC as usual...BUT i left the breaker bar on the bolt by accident and when i went to crank it over i heard a big pop and the large bolt for the crank came out.  DAMNIT

I screwed it back in but i have a feeling i did irreversible damage as now it labors much more to turn over, and still wont fire..

[AzPete]

That bolt spinning out should not cause a problem in the cranking speed or anything else except maybe some dinged threads. The wrong firing order can. If the bolt screwed in ok, it should be fine.

Number 1 is on the front passenger side of the engine, and the dist. does rotate CCW. Keep it simple. Start from the basics and set things up. Sometimes to many things get changed trying top chase one problem.

[jonward786]

ok thats a relief.  the bolt did thread back in fine, i just was unsure if it coming out would cause the crank to slip out of alignment or something like that.  im not sure how, but i can only assume the battery needs a charge if the cranking speed has slowed down so much.  ill give it a charge tonight and come back an attempt this more tomorrow. 

i followed the standard procedure for finding TDC of compression stroke of #1, turned the engine clockwise with the breaker bar on the bolt, TDC was about at the 0 mark on the balancer, so after noting the position of the rotor, i rotated the housing to position number 1 cylinder directly under the rotor, put the cap down and wired properly.  I really hope my battery just needs a charge and its not laboring for some other reason

[AzPete]

A weak battery can also cause starting problems. All the power is taken by the starter not leaving any for spark...or a weak spark at best.

[jonward786]

In addition to all this fun, ive also got a pretty neat coolant leak coming from one of the smaller bolts of the water pump, which is great cause i put sealer on all of them...sigh

[daveSanborn]

Are you 100% certain that you're on the #1 cylinders compression stroke... and not the "cleaning" stroke?  You wouldn't be the first (nor the last) to be 180 degrees out.

[jonward786]

Dave- that reminds me.  As im rotating the engine and i begin to feel the pressure pushing my thumb out i noticed that pressure continues to push my thumb out for about another 40 degress of rotation with the breaker bar.  Should i set the housing/cap #1 to the rotor at the very first instant i feel pressure or at the very last instant i feel pressure.  i feel if im still feeling pressure the piston is still on its way up therefore i should set the #1 to where the rotor is when i stop feeling pressure.  sorry if that doesnt make sense haha

[daveSanborn]

Try this....

Take a 6-8" long screwdriver and carefully slide it into the spark plug hole.  Using your breaker bar on the harmonic balancer bolt rotate the engine.... SLOWLY..... and watch the screwdriver slowly rise out of the cylinder.  When the screwdriver STOPS moving upward out of the cylinder... you are at TDC.

Now, the only thing you have to determine is are you at TDC of the compression stroke or the evacuation stroke?  To check this, look at your harmonic balancer and your timing marks should be close to zero TDC +/- 10 degrees.  If the timing marks aren't aligned, you're likely on the evacuation stroke and will need to rotate the piston around one more cycle.

[jonward786]

OK i started from scratch, pulled the dist. out and began slowly rotating engine.  The first time the piston came up the timing marks were nowhere in sight, so i kept rotating, and the next time the piston came up to the top the timing marks were pretty much dead on.  i stopped at about 9 degrees and got the dist to go down in the proper place.  i rotated the engine around again to make sure the rotor was going to be in the place i wanted my #1 wire to be, and it was, so i tightened the housing down, put the cap on and wired the 351W firing order in the CCW direction on the dist.  

Something is bothering me though, as i rotate the engine by hand, it feels very smooth until this one spot you can hear and feel a noise as if some part is catching and grinding on something, metal on metal.  i have no idea what it is but it just doesnt sound right.  i remember being able to hear it as i was cranking the engine over yesterday too.  you only feel it for about 20 degrees of rotation in the same spot every time, any ideas of what that could be?

[Horseplay]

Being that you chose to use the word "grinding" in your description doesn't sound good. There is nothing normal that I can imagine that would be described this way. This was present all along? Is it possible this could be coming from the bell housing area? I can think of a couple possible issues back there that might offer an explanation.

[daveSanborn]

could be coming from the bell housing area?

9 times out of 10 the bellhousing area is the culprit.... anything from the Starters snout to the Flywheel, etc., etc.


Jon,

What's the entire history on this evolution?  Was this just a cam swap?  A head swap?  A newly installed rebuilt engine?  Knowing everything will help us troubleshoot with you.