FE Tear down, mostly bad news :( Best place for a rotating assembly?

[67FEfastback]

Okay for sure my painting budget is shot now. I got a call from my engine guy to come down and take a look.

Crank is rough, real real rough, and has not yet been magnaflxed. Damper is not snug fitting either.

Block = Cylinders 2-7 are 030 and good, #1 is 035, and #8 has broken rings.

Block is good on the sonic test, that's about all. Could probably go 060, but won't do that

So I need pistons, rods and a crank. We spoke tonight about me sourcing a stroker kit, which may be similar price to a separate buy on pistons, rods and crank.

Biggest problem is I'll need to go +040. Most common kits are 030.

This kind of sucks, not what I was expecting.

So suggestions on best place to get a rotating assy, or stroker kit, much appreciated.

I am probably going to have to sell some real nice vintage mustang stuff, that I was going to keep, to make up some of the budget

[Three Peaks]

I've used adperformance.com for parts and my stroker crank and they were great to deal with, shipped quickly, and were able to answer my questions clearly and quickly without making my feel like the dummy I am sometimes.

They have an FE stroker kit here http://www.adperformance.com/index.p...x&cPath=71_234 . Take a look. This is their Scat crank kit which is rated, I believe, to 800 horsepower or so.

Bob

[Prof]

Try Coast High Performance. They have more assemblies than is mentioned on the website. Call (310)784-1010 and talk to "Gayland" He can fix you up with a balanced assembly. I have never heard of one of their assemblies failing.
Regards,
Paul

[xlr8or]

Place a call to Gessford Machine or Keith Craft. Both advertisers here and FE experts. They also have package deals on rotating assemblys.

[67FEfastback]

Thanks guys, I'm going to check all these out tomorrow.

[RICK LAKE]

67FEfastback I got a kit of crank, rods and pistons with rings and bearings from Survivalmotor sports. It's a Scat rotating assembly with a stroker 4.25 crank. It was balanced from Barry. Everything was on the money. Great price no problems. The balncing was an extra couple hundred dollars. You will need to tell him what size pistons and go with the 4.25 crank. This will give you about 468 cubes and a ton of torque,your new best friend. Rick L.

[Clois Harlan]

Man put a sleeve in numbers 1 and 8. Talk to a good FE guy. Things are never as good as they seem or as bad as you think. This is not a big problem. Most of our engines that are originals have a sleeve or a window that has been patched. You can spend as much money as you like but you can accomplish the same thing with a lot less invested and have the same results. Take your crank and have it magnafluxed and then decide how much you want to turn it down .030 , .040, etc.. If you are not running a steel crank you can replace your old crank with a 390 crank for a couple hundred bucks or like others have said you can go with a stroker kit. All this depends on how you are going to use your engine (track or street).

My question would be why did this occur and what can I do to prevent it from happening again.


Let us know what you decide.

Clois Harlan

[67FEfastback]

Once again, thanks tons, for the information, guys.

Talked to my rebuilder. He's an older guy (hell come to think of it I am getting old ) who raced fords (clevelands) and knows his way around the FE's.
So anyway we talked about cam selection 1st. This car is going to be used for a lot of long cruises down winding secondary highways, in the hot (37C-44C) summers we sometimes get in wine country.
So I am looking for something well mannered and reliable on the highway. aka not breaking down in the middle of nowhere.
-This is a little different than I would have done in my younger days -aka ripping between pubs etc.

So we picked the cam then talked about plan of attack for the engine.
We are going to try and save the badly pitted #8 bore. He's going to try and offset the bore slightly on that cylinder, and see if we can clean it up.
Worst case scenario, if we cannot save it, he'll recenter it and sleeve it.

Taking the crank out late today, to get it magged, checked for straightness. If that's okay, he'll try an main and see if it will clean up and what it will clean up at.
-hoping for good news on both accounts

[My427stang]

If you go stroker

Barry R or Doug Garifo

I have been using Doug forever (precision oil pumps), he was doing these strokers before everyone else. However, I got to know Barry on the FE forum and like him as well.

To me, pick whoever is closer for shipping.

[RICK LAKE]

67FEfastback Skip the offset boring. We did this years ago and it hard on the piston, pin and rotationg assembly. This was in race motors, there life terms where not long. Parts coming out the sides where quick. Sleeve the motor and get back to safer ways. I am not a pro builder or machinist but have been there and tryed that. It will be cheaper in the long run. Rick L. Ps a 428 is not a thick wall motor to start. IMO .030" is safe, anything past this on a 35 year old block is a question mark. Easy drive will help save the motor but a stop light special will always come along. IMO sleeve #1 & #8 and stay with .030" motor. This is not the cheapest way to go but is the smart thing out side of replacing the block. If you are going with a stroker kit than this is a sure thing.

[Clois Harlan]

I have had two 428 CJ engines and the first was punched to .060 and it ran hot any time you stopped at a signal. The other was an incrediable engine with two sleeves and only bored to .030. I put over 4000 race miles on the engine and it would be here today had I headed my warning when my oil pressure dipped from 50 psi to 10 or less. That was my indication I had spun a bearing. Instead I continued to race at breakneck speed and the engine let go at the start finish line at Texas Motor Speedway. I should have put my car on the trailer.

To sleeve an engine is about $100 per cylinder and I would argue that it will make the engine even stronger if the sleeves are done correctly. Given what you have told us I think you should be able to rebuild your engine and even add a few new things to it for around $3500. which is the cost of a good used 427 block that will need some machining and all the guts to make it go. Your rebuilt engine would be dependable and quick.

Good luck with your decision.

Clois

[67FEfastback]

Went by to pick up my old intake today (sold it I think.) The engine is already sleeved. He said the decks were perfectly flat, which is good. Mains were all good.

Eagle rods are there, pushrods, cam, CJ oil pump (even though he says the old one is okay, it's not worth f'in around with the heart of the engine)

Crank went out today to get magged and checked. No phone call, so we assume that the mag went okay. (hoping anyway)

Waiting on pistons, intake. maybe heads, I didn't see them there.

He ordered new aluminum rockers (I thought we were using the old ones) Anyway it did not take much convincing. He said we are building a good motor, no point in messing around with the old rockers. He's right, but another $500. It's probably the right thing to do.

I am kind of hoping now that the parts we need all come in and I see it together again in a couple weeks.

[67FEfastback]

About all that is left of the old 428 is the crank and block.

Waiting for the crank and flywheel to come back from balancing and aluminum rockers. I think we will see the crank tomorrow afternoon.

RPM intake;

[Keithc8]

Before everyone else, I do no think so. We were doing FE strokers with a 428 crankshaft and a 400M rod stroking them out to 4.125 years ago, like 1980s.
We have a special right now on a Eagle cast steel, Eagle 4340 H-beam rods, our Diamond pistons, Mahle rings, Federal Mogul and Clevite bearings and the balancing for 1695.00 or 1495.00 not balanced. No body buys FE parts for less than we do. I can get the pistons in any bore that you want. Keep your block as small as possible, say 4.265 or 4.270 or 4.272. We do not care because we can get what you need at the same price. Thanks, Keith Craft

[Keithc8]

Can also do the Scat stuff for the same price on the unbalanced kit at 1495.00 but the balancing runs 300.00 because their crank takes a little more heavy metal to zero balance. We can do the Eagle crank and Scat rods if that is what someone wants. Remember we can get any bore size needed. The pistons are available in a dish or flat top design depending on the compression wanted. Thanks, Keith Craft