Well, the Butcher no longer has an exclusive lock on one type of failure. Sigh.
I drove my 521 stroker to the Fling. At 812 miles, the engine said POP! and quit. A post mortem revealed the distributor gear was worn away.
BACKGROUND:
The engine started out as a new crate motor from Ford. It came with a bad rod (chronicled elsewhere in an older post) which resulted in installing a new set of Eagle rods (gratis from Ford) before the engine was final assembled.
Then I had the engine builder remove the Ford solid roller cam and install a Crane hydraulic roller cam and lifters. He assumed the distributor gear that came with the crate motor was hardened steel. Apparently it was not.
QUESTIONS:
Is Ford responsible? Do their 514 crate motors come with cast dist. gears?
What about the
oil pump? Is it one of the dreaded high volume units that overloads the cam/distributor gears? How do I tell by looking at it?
RATS!
Of course, I had to rent a car, drive Columbus to DC and back four times (425 miles per leg) including twice with a trailer and endure the thought of not being able to drive the car for ?? weeks while it is being repaired. Not to mention the costs of all this.
Hey Andy, it happens to all of us! Suck it up and get the thing back on the road (and track)! That's what I'm gonna do. I only got to drive it for five days - I need much more time in the saddle. Besides I just ordered a set of wheels for my Victoracers...
AND FINALLY:
Infinite thanks to DV for his hospitality, the loan of his shop and his duallie and the incredibly good time Kay and I had at the Fling, along with all the other Cobra folks, especially the Capital Area Cobra Club members. We'll be back!
And that's one of my stories (sob),
Tom