And now lifter problems!

[LuvDaBlues]

I've had my SPF for over a year now, and it looks as if bits and pieces of the car have been donated from older providers. After continually maintaining the car, I keep having melt downs or finding questionable assemblies. mostly the 460 motor.

Here is a list in the order as I remember:

After one mechanic burns up my clutch disk on a dyno machine dune up (I'm NEVER going back to that one), while fixing, another finds that a 428 fly wheel has been installed in lieu of the 460. Replaced with a aluminum with steel, new disk and pressure plate from McLeod.

Habitual clutch slave cylinder problems leaking and mis-aligned. Pulled and installed a hydraulic throw-out.

One issue not caused by the engine, but my speedo cable wore a pin hole in the valve cover, spewing oil onto the fire wall. THAT was a tough one to find. The mechanic used a smoke machine to chase that one down. Replaced with new valve covers. Ouch...pricey!

3 times since I got the car, at start up, steam would pour out one side pipe. The bolts holding the intake manifold back off. So I work through the car once a month to tighten. (More of that one to come)

The engine coolant was very rusty red. I've flushed multiple times, but always returns to rusty. We think the block maybe have come from a boat. Any suggestions? Two other coolant items: the thermostat housing corroded so much at the gasket surface, just replaced that. Also when running hard, I'm getting spillage from the radiator cap, spewing rusty coolant. Oh yeah, had to install a puke tank at the very beginning.

Due to oil leaks at the pan and rear main seal, we've changed oil multiple times. Every time the oil is very black. We're thinking the engine was running so rich (remember the dyno tune), lot's of deposits maybe the cause. VERY concerned about this.

Now, after playing at the drag races, a lifter starts making some noise. After running through and adjusting everything under the valve covers, we decided to replace all lifters. When pulling the manifold, found the intake gasket had cracked. (Remember the steam?) But even after replacing the lifters, which had very little wear, still have a ticking sound.

After this long dissertation, has anyone else had this much trouble? And what about the lifter? Can a oil journal become clogged, causing the lifter to become starved for oil? What about the black oil?

[LMH]

I had a ticking sound on a 240Z years ago and couldn't find out what the problem was. It's an OHC engine of course and uses followers in stead of lifters but even still, I had this ticking I couldn't get rid of. A mechanic at a Z garage found a broken inner valve spring that was the cause. You couldn't see it until it was taken apart but that fixed it. So maybe something to look for on yours.
Larry

[Tom Wells]

LuvDaBlues,

Sounds normal to me

Black oil is often a sign of a sludged-up engine. When you changed the valve covers, did you inspect for this condition? It should have been pretty obvious. A stuck hydraulic lifter could also result from sludge....

Tom

[vettestr]

Hello Steve, I'm long winded but you had a few ?'s sorry.
A few comments from the peanut gallery that I hope helps you a little or at least offer possible or solutions. The clutch.... $hit happens but you have fixed that and the flywheel and also converted to a Hyd. throw out Brg. This package should now be good to go. I choose external slave cylinders rather than internal Hyd TO brgs. My reasoning on this is mostly trouble free operation and if a rare slave failure an external is so easy to get to and it does not take other components with it. External slave cyl. problems are often a result of improper pedal stop or missing pedal stop or the wrong ball stud for fork to not allow alignment. Hyd. internal TO brgs do work well so a matter of choice I guess.

On the engine side the continuous black oil can be from LOTS of Moly grease used during assembly, it coats bottom of pan for ever it seems but is not a bad thing all in all, hope that is it. Having an oil analysis done is about 30 bucks and gives great info. Check the net or most truck shops (big rigs) do this on all big rigs so check with them. The constant rusty coolant .... HMMMM ? The absolute way to know if you have a ton of debris on bottom of the block is to find a easy to remove and replace freeze/soft plug near pan rail. Remove the plug to see what is there??? While you have plug out plumb one of those garden hose adapters into a heater hose (install a hose for cleaning if needed) and flush the heck out of the coolant system so open plug dumps stuff out the hole. Then ground wire the block and the radiator so electrolysis does not generate new problems and make sure you run anti rust and coolant with additives to stop any issues.

The engine noise? I would have to hear it but if oil to lifter was clogged it would show as extreme wear and yours looked good. Get the engine oil sent off for an analysis as they will tell you exactly what metal elements and other particles are in the oil. It comes with a print out on everything and for 30 bucks or so you can't go wrong!!! Hope this helps a little ,if nothing else you might think about all from a new direction turning on a light from something you were thinking already.Let us know what ya find. Jeff C

[Tim Brewer]

I had a very similar problem with my engine several years ago, really black oil, and some light tapping comming from somewhere within the engine. Turns out that I had wiped two lobes off the cam. With a 460, upon breaking it in, I found out the hard way that you are supposed to remove the inner or outer valve spring to greatly reduce pressure on the cam ONLY while breaking in the engine for the first time.

[LuvDaBlues]

Jeff,

Great suggestion. I have a two events over the next two weeks. I'll drain the oil afterward and find someone who can test the oil, and go from there.

I purchased a used car so most of the problems work be shaken out. Looks as if I was just dreaming.

[Excaliber]

Generally speaking your still better off with a used car with the bugs worked out. There are a LOT of new cars reported here with blown motors, major issues and a never ending list of 'little things' gone bad.