When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
The Number One Cause Of Reman Engine Failure - Contamination!
It ain't the parts.
Pulled the valve covers off my 71 350. The rest of the engine below the valve covers was a sludgy mess. Valve covers at first glance appeared to have been cleaned, but I noticed the drain back holes in the head were almost plugged with a fresh mass of sludge and grit. To check a suspicion I had, I blasted down the cover behind the baffle with carb cleaner and then let the cleaner pool at one end. I then let it sit for a while to have the solvent evaporate. This is what was left - more of the same sludge mixed with fine steel shot - this crap sticks to a magnet. Be careful - It is VERY difficult to get all this crap out of behind the baffles in heavily sludged covers.
Last edited by costpenn; November 26th, 2015 at 06:59 PM.
Im very lucky to have access to top notch industrial cleaning services as my dad is the foreman of a very well known industrial cleaning shop . All of my engines get completly submerged and power washed in and out. we made special jets and nozzles to clean all of the oil passages. Even machine shops have been impressed with how well our blocks come out.
I've seen more than one engine ruined by steel shot, glass beads, etc.
In my opinion, abrasive cleaning or media blasting should NEVER be used on engine parts.
X2 with charlie jones. I live and die by this on my builds. Absolutely nothing with grit touches my stuff., And if it does it gets tanked and pressure washed then i put a garden hose through it to softly push out anything.
I was iinitially mpressed w how clean my block and heads were when I got it back from the shop. It was a filthy greasy mess when I sent it up there. But as clean as it was very close inspection showed little clumps of silvery residue in nooks like the offset in the oil drain back holes. I examined every inch and found several internal areas that could have been better. I don't think the amount I found would have amounted to a failure, but it surely wasn't going to promote longevity.....
Hopefully, the grit that washed out runs only thru the oil pump, then to the filter where it stays. Probably. That does seem to be a bad idea to "clean" a closed-cavity part by that means.
I have the horror story of the guy here in Lansing who had a Ferd "mechanic" build his 455. After it quit turning during break-in and changing starters and batteries [plural] did not help, he called me in to assess. I found:
Gaskets removed from spark plugs. "not needed" said the Ferd Man. Oy...
Still won't turn w/o plugs in, no compression.
Turn crank bolt CCW- it loosens the bolt. With 8" ratchet. By hand. Oy....
Engine will not turn by hand or starter.
Initially started right up, so kind of rules out trans tork converter insertion error.
"Pull the engine" I says. Find out why. Report comes back that the brand new bearings were eaten, and the crank, because the assembler did not clean the machine shop grinding crud out of the oil passages. There are people who are that incompetent.
On the '66 442 restoration I assisted with, I could tell the rocker covers were loaded with crud, because they weighed about 3x what they should. I considered cutting out the baffles and welding them back in after cleaning. Quite a few spot welds though.
We were using a stubby propane-fired space heater to heat the garage, and I put the covers atop that to bake them, which got about half the crud out. Then I decided to try the torch. Heated the baffle red hot, in the hot rocker cover. This started burning the carbon built up in there. Then I applied a bit of air flow from the compressor, which helped the burn. You could see the burn progress down the baffle by the red hot area. Embers were blown out as the process progressed, of course. When the burn was done, I heated everything one more time, then after cooling down and washing out and tapping the covers, and blowing air thru some more, the stuff finally quit coming out, and the weight was proper for just a baffled rocker cover. Anything left would be only oily deposits or the charred remains thereof, so should be pretty harmless.
Last edited by Octania; November 27th, 2015 at 10:12 AM.
November 26th, 2015, 06:43 PM
