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Pulled the passenger side cylinder head. All those lifters looked OK. Took a better look at the cam lobes and there are a couple on #5 and #7 that have a pretty pronounced wear stripe down the middle of the lobe. I thought that could be the smoking gun I was hoping to find, so I decided I needed to pull the cam for a better look.
In preparation for pulling the cam I removed the water pump. I then unbolted my oil cooler to make space to get my cordless impact on the crank pulley bolt. Got that out just fine, then had to go to Autozone for a crank pulley puller. I was going to call it a day at that point, as it was about 7:30 by the time I got back, but I looked at the weather and it's supposed to rain off and on from tonight through the weekend, which would mean no working in the driveway.
So, I continued on. Pulled the ATI damper...
... pulled the front cover...
... removed the cam sprocket and let the chain just hang on the timing chain damper. Removed the cam thrust plate and pulled the cam.
As it came out, there it was, the smoking gun!!!
I've never been so happy to find a significant problem with one of my cars! I was afraid I wasn't going to find that smoking gun, and instead would just replace the lifters, put it all back together, cross my fingers, and start it up to see if the ticking sound was gone or not.
So, now I need to get a new cam on order, plus all the other parts (lifters, gaskets, etc etc). And I still need to tackle dropping the oil pan a bit to get to the oil pump pick-up bolt so I can pull the oil pump so I can get the timing set properly when it comes time to reassemble everything. Not looking forward to that part of the job.
Had the car tuned after working some fueling issues out. Now I have more issues lol but the car made some decent power. I’m not really sure what to make of his torque number though as it seems a bit optimistic. I will say the car pulls like a train though. Very happy with way the car runs right now. For those that don’t know it’s a forged 347 with TEA stage 2 heads, Kooks and 3” exhaust, Tick stage 2 LS2 blower cam, and an MP122H at 15psi. I was hoping the HP would carry out a little better up top but I can’t really complain.
Now im fighting some valvetrain clatter when the oil is hot and also a clutch hydraulic issue. I just recently changed to Castrol edge full synthetic so I might go back to the conventional I was on before the noise and see what that does. My clutch pedal is doing weird things with engine rpm and sinking on its own with my new RXT so I’m not sure what the issue is. Contemplating going with one of Jason’s Wilwood masters and seeing if that helps but the tune was a little pricey so I’ll have to save some pennies again.
Byron - I thought I recognized those heads! I was checking your V pictures out the other day as I see you on GRM sometimes.
My build is on the dyno this week as well having pulled out the LS6 that needed headwork. Looking forward to the numbers despite it being a heart breaker Mustang with the atmospheric package.
TMS 235CC P&P valve job dual springs
LS7 lifters
Trunion upgraded rockers
LS3 42Lb injectors
TMS 224 cam (should have gone bigger but was worried on piston to valve clearance
Compression bumped with cometic 0.040 gasket to 11.5:1
Cerakoated long tube stainless headers to 2.5" dual Corsa exhaust
Ported Doorman LS2 intake manifold
Ported and polished silverblade Tbody
Improved Performance crank scraper and windage tray setup
LY76 6.0 converted back to LS2 removing all the cylinder drop garbage
Gen1V rear diff brace cradle setup
Byron - I thought I recognized those heads! I was checking your V pictures out the other day as I see you on GRM sometimes.
My build is on the dyno this week as well having pulled out the LS6 that needed headwork. Looking forward to the numbers despite it being a heart breaker Mustang with the atmospheric package.
TMS 235CC P&P valve job dual springs
LS7 lifters
Trunion upgraded rockers
LS3 42Lb injectors
TMS 224 cam (should have gone bigger but was worried on piston to valve clearance
Compression bumped with cometic 0.040 gasket to 11.5:1
Cerakoated long tube stainless headers to 2.5" dual Corsa exhaust
Ported Doorman LS2 intake manifold
Ported and polished silverblade Tbody
Improved Performance crank scraper and windage tray setup
LY76 6.0 converted back to LS2 removing all the cylinder drop garbage
Gen1V rear diff brace cradle setup
Nice! Our cams are similar specs. Big donkey cams are not always needed for good numbers.
These TMS heads should flow awesome and the rest is very similar to mine. I wish I had time to get a crank scraper and install it.
I hope the ls2 injectors will feed the beast with enough fuel. If not I'll upgrade the pump and injectors. I have a dw300 just sitting on my shelf ready to go.
Nice! Our cams are similar specs. Big donkey cams are not always needed for good numbers.
These TMS heads should flow awesome and the rest is very similar to mine. I wish I had time to get a crank scraper and install it.
I hope the ls2 injectors will feed the beast with enough fuel. If not I'll upgrade the pump and injectors. I have a dw300 just sitting on my shelf ready to go.
-Byron
I was targeting 3-6k driveable power rather than max dyno numbers. I am hoping to see something like 475whp out of it but we'll see.
Watch for the OEM take offs as I think you';ll be way outside the 28lb injectors. I picked up LS3 injectors with like 3k mile on them for 75 shipped. My LS6 at 378whp was 97% duty cycle with the 28lb injectors so I knew I needed to step up. I'm curious about fuel pump as I should be close to it's limit. The crank scraper setup was really tweaky and easy to install, not sure I'd say the same thing if I was installing it with the motor in the car though...
Watch for the OEM take offs as I think you';ll be way outside the 28lb injectors. I picked up LS3 injectors with like 3k mile on them for 75 shipped. My LS6 at 378whp was 97% duty cycle with the 28lb injectors so I knew I needed to step up.
Wow! I did 423whp with long tubes, 400whp with shorties, on my stock LS6 fuel system. Neither shop that did the tunes said anything about my duty cycle being in the red zone. Now I wonder...
Nice! Our cams are similar specs. Big donkey cams are not always needed for good numbers.
These TMS heads should flow awesome and the rest is very similar to mine. I wish I had time to get a crank scraper and install it.
I hope the ls2 injectors will feed the beast with enough fuel. If not I'll upgrade the pump and injectors. I have a dw300 just sitting on my shelf ready to go.
-Byron
So good news, Bob at On3 in Columbus get V all tuned up tonight. The Mustang Dyno with Atmospheric read out 424tq and 434hp. Using the low end of the 12-14% correction to a Dynojet number brings us to 475tq and 486hp which is exactly what I expected to see. As expected it stalled out around 6K where the ported LS2 Dorman ran out of breath. I’m a bit confused about needing to pull back from 26deg thing to 23deg timing after 5k rpms.
Wondering if the Corsa 2.5” setup is choking her off?
So good news, Bob at On3 in Columbus get V all tuned up tonight. The Mustang Dyno with Atmospheric read out 424tq and 434hp. Using the low end of the 12-14% correction to a Dynojet number brings us to 475tq and 486hp which is exactly what I expected to see. As expected it stalled out around 6K where the ported LS2 Dorman ran out of breath. I’m a bit confused about needing to pull back from 26deg thing to 23deg timing after 5k rpms.
Wondering if the Corsa 2.5” setup is choking her off?
I doubt the exhaust is choking it. Which cam did you use? From what I can find online, your not exceeding the limits of a 2.5" dual exhaust that's balanced.
I doubt the exhaust is choking it. Which cam did you use? From what I can find online, your not exceeding the limits of a 2.5" dual exhaust that's balanced.
Any thoughts on adding something like a fast 92 or 102? Or a drop in k&n and 3.5" intake tube?
-Byron
It will get more intake at some point for sure. If it was intake flow reduction/stall I would have been able to carry the timing. Not sure what the restriction is there as it certainly isn’t the monster heads
Happy to report I found the origen of the FOD in the pick up tube.
Needle bearings at the bottom of #6&8 lifters failed and looks like 2 are missing from each intake lifter. I figured it out with a bright light and rolling them around. Noticed a gap in those two. Always inspect before panic.
Everything is consistent with what was found, and it's magnetic so it's not a main bearing. Inspection of the main bearings is under way after I left, but I don't suspect anything is out of sorts with any other components.
Dodged a bullet. The bad lifter bearings are consistent with the data logs for cylinders that were knocking.
Looks like it's full send ahead after some puckerd butthole.
05-08-2019, 11:49 PM
I was afraid I wasn't going to find that smoking gun, and instead would just replace the lifters, put it all back together, cross my fingers, and start it up to see if the ticking sound was gone or not.
