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possibly wiped out new cam

3K views 48 replies 13 participants last post by  Baaad65 
#1 ·
Well the worst has possibly happened. After a very long time, I attempted to start the engine I built last night. I primed the oil pump with turning the engine over to 4 different spots, filled the carb bowls and fuel lines with gas, lined up the distributer, and it would not fire. I checked power to the distributer and it's good. Starter engages and spins the engine but no go. I spent quite a bit of time on the phone with Darrin from Nitemare last night and he gave a bunch of good tips. After thinking on it overnight, the one thing I didn't recheck was that I was on the compression stroke still after priming the pump (I'll check on this over the weekend). I'm thinking I may have the wires off by 180 degrees. I actually hope this is the case since at least I'll know why it wouldn't start.

My concern now is that I cranked the engine over way more than I would have liked without it firing up. The total crank time by starter was probably around 1 minute or so, way less than 2 but I'm afraid I could have damaged the cam and lifters. I'm thinking that I should pull the intake and valley cover to see what I have in there. If there is damage, will it be obvious like clear score marks on the lobes? I was really trying to beat the New England weather and get this on the road, but now, I'd rather slow down and make sure I don't make a bad situation worse by running it damaged.

As you can imagine, this was extremely disappointing. I have been working on this almost every night after work for the past few weeks and the planning for this build happened well over a year ago. I am going to take a couple days off of it but will check the timing position on Sunday. It's supposed to rain then anyway.
 
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#39 ·
Thanks PJ. That was how the old engine was built. I replaced the gaskets that were on the car for cam break in with ones from Felpro that came with reinforced plates with gasket material for the center. Basically, the same idea. I decided to keep the exhaust crossover so I used the plates with the small holes. I'm running a Torquer II intake which has the smaller exhaust holes so this seemed to work fine.


I spent most of the day installing the inner valve springs and putting the engine back together. I pulled the intake and the valley pan for this to make adjusting them easier. It's a good thing I did, it looked like I had a pretty good oil leak coming out of the rear of the valley pan. I have about 1 hour of work for tomorrow, including an oil change, and it should be road ready. Today was my wedding anniversary and I had plans with the wife in the late afternoon. She gave me most of the day for the car and I just ran out of time. She told me to finish and we could switch the plans to tomorrow but I just couldn't do that to her. She's a keeper for sure.
 
#40 ·
Alrighty. I figure I owe you guys an update on how it went. I finished buttoning up the car this morning by about noon. Had a tough time getting it to fire up and stay running. I remembered that the carb that I put on there for break in was set with a fairly low idle so I gave it a little more using the adjustment screw. Fired right up and idled. The timing may need to be tweaked but it is really close to right. At startup it has around 70 pounds oil pressure dropped to just shy of 60 once heated up. The temperature sticks right at 175 so no issues there. I brought it for a quick ride, and filled it with gas. Engine seems to run great. I have a lot of wiring to fix on the car but that looks to be a winter project. One score is my mystery shifter rattle is gone. Funny that the engine wasn't actually making any noise but the indicator that the crank was eating itself was an annoying rattle in the shifter.

I'm sure I'll come back to you guys with more questions, but for now I consider this project to be done. I thank everyone for their help and support through this. I think I aged 10 years in the past week and a half.
 
#41 ·
When you went for a ride, did you break in the rings? A few accelerations and decelerations are needed so the rings get both compression pressures and vacuum suction on deceleration.

Don't drive the car like a little old lady for the first 500 miles and never get over 50MPH. You don't want to glaze the cylinder walls and not have the rings seat or you will be using oil thinking the engine has an issue when it may have been the break-in period.

Just pointing this out. Sounds like fun. (y)
 
#46 ·
In no way did I abuse it right out of the gate but I gave it some pretty good pulls in second and let the engine wind down in that gear. I tried it in first and it broke the tires loose as soon as the RPMs came up and again when I let off the gas. I'll say the car is way faster with the 461 than it was with the tired 400 that came out of it. Traction may be an issue going forward. Funny that my dad's recommendation for break in was exactly what Jim said not to do. He was telling me to keep in under 1500 RPM. His jaw dropped when I told him what the cam break in procedure was.

I'm now working through some of the wiring gremlins I told you guys about. The PO had the HEI wired in using the original resister wire that went to the points distributer. I wired it direct to the fuse block for the break in and first run. Downside is the source that is live by ignition doesn't put out power when the starter is hit so I had to wire it live and unplug to shut off the car. I know, this was really hack and I hated doing it but desperate times yadayadayada. I ordered a new under hood harness that will have the correct distributer wire installed but it won't ship for a couple months. I guess its made to order so you wait your turn. In the mean time, I used the original distributer feed wire to power a relay and wired the HEI direct using a fused wire. Still not great but at least it will operate by key until I get the new harness in and installed.
 
#47 ·
That's why I had to switch to drag radials on my 461, isn't it fun 👍 make sure your harness is for HEI, I ordered mine through NPD and it's made by American Autowire and no where in either description does it say resistor wire or not for HEI, talk about pulling your hair out on a new motor start up the car was shaking so bad the hood fell off the roof ! That's what happens when you're only getting 9 volts to the coil, I put in a nice feedback on both their sites and gave the Autowire guy an earful, he said they have the right one if I wanted a order it...ya now that everything was installed how am I supposed to do that so I just ran a wire from the battery to the coil.
 
#48 ·
I'm thinking of running summer tires on mine at least for the time being. I still have the factory 10 bolt rear and a Muncie. I may be pushing the limit of those parts. I figure summer tires will provide more grip without being too sticky.

I ordered the harness through Ames. They have a separate part number for the harness that comes with the HEI lead. Only downside is they are built to order so they take a long time to arrive. The long lead time was one of the reasons I improvised for the time being. The other being that my LeMans is registered as a regular car so it requires a state safety sticker. The one on it was expired when the car blew up 18 months ago. I didn't think it would go over too well if I told the inspector he had to unplug a wire from the fuse block to shut the engine off.
 
#49 ·
Ah yes now you need a good supporting cast for that beast, I spent a lot on a custom 4 speed an M23Z they call it 2.99 first gear, 500.00 Strange driveshaft, 12 bolt rear w/Strange axles plus suspension like SSM lift bars, triangulation bars and it still gets loose. The wait will be worth the right harness 👍
 
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