[66coupe289]

The long weekend allowed me to get the mustang back together. When all was said and done, I had two whipped lifters and associated cam lobes. I can see where a couple other lifters were about out go. The reason was clear, the lifters were lashed too tight. I had always adjusted lifters hot and running, but since I had pitched my slotted valve cover, I thought I would do it cold, per the book. Given the failure, I went to the bone yard, got another valve cover to slot and am back to lashing the way I know.

The car is up an running. The upgrade to the RPM intake, more agressive cam and a little porting work on the exhaust guide boss has raised the power band. Sure there is a little drop off on low end, but not much. This cam does sound a little meaner while idling. It is hard to tell from the seat of the pants if there is a performance difference. I will have to wait till I get my G-Tech back to give you a comparision.

 

[roadracer]

Is it possible that you put the springs in a slight bind and overloaded the cam?

(Don't ask me how I know!!)

 

[66coupe289]

I guess it is possible. How would I know? I did intall new springs that have the thin damper spring on the inside. I thought everything seated okay when I put it together, but I did not check the installed heights.

It was clear on the cam that some of the lifters, particularly on the failed lobes, had riden forcefully in contact with the entire lobe of the cam as the back side of the lobe was worn. The normal lobes had that "factory" finish look to them still.

 

[kketell]

It seems rather unlikely that your problem was lash. Had you over-tightened the valve adjustment the car would simply not have run correctly. You would have had to REALLY over-tighten things in order to get wear on the back side of the lobes.

I would look towards an oiling problem before I tried to run the new cam for any length of time.

 

[roadracer]

First, you MUST check the installed height,..then,..diassemble one spring and individually check them buy turning the motor thru and stopping at the top and visually checking for coil bind. Do it once for the inner spring and once for the outer. If you have obvious clearance I feel it's safe to assume you are good to go on all the rest.

PS. How are you cleanning up you motor?...your bearings and oil pump are probably full of (if not already damaged) by the filing that came off the cam...

I replaced the oil pump and all the bearings after flushing the entire motor using an external (drill motor driven) external pump made up to a remote oil filter adapter attached to the oil filter pad. I removed all rod bearings and also main bearings. Did it with the motor still in the car...(what a mess). But it saved the motor...

 

[Guest]

I trashed a new cam because of to much valve spring pressure,shavings all thru the motor[289/271]
now days all break in a new cam w/stock springs,then after the cams run in all switch over to the good ones,a little xtra work but ive not messed up a cam since.
Dave