Post by mario428 on May 21, 2012 20:12:29 GMT -4
Assembling this years power-plant for my T-bird. Last years "tractor engine" with the 8 sleeves is now a souvenir, sleeves were moving around and pressurizing the cooling system. Did put 160+ passes on it so no shame on it, no regrets about the whole effort.
I had a 70's truck block that I was going to do the same thing to, put in 8 sleeves but a different method that had been discussed on the FE forum. But just after I posted that I was going to do that I got an email from Steve Malmsten in Oregon offering me a 63 427 block that he had checked out but was unable to use. Block had some issues, some more major than others. Steve gave me the block and gave me a heck of a deal on the main caps.
I am assuming at some point in the distant past rods 7 & 8 had decided to let go. Beat up the bottom of the water jackets quite a bit so the block has been sleeved and welded. Not a great pic but the damage can be seen
Garrett Machine had told Steve the block leaked in this area under pressure but since I was going to fill the block I was not concerned. I put a layer of epoxy under the cement and pressurized it to force it into the cracks. Very confident I will have no problems with that.
Bigger concern was one of the broken rods had reached up and knocked out part of the rear cam bearing bore. Since it is a center oiler block the oil for the rear main goes around the outside of the cam bearing and a large gap was out of there.
Really really rotten spot to fix on the inside of the block. So I decided to go around the cam bearing with an external oil line. Talked to Allyn and determined a needle roller bearing did not need pressure and an FE cam has the same journal as a 460 so needle roller bearings are easy to get. Had them bore the bore out for the needle roller bearing.
Unfortunately the bore size required meant no bore for the cam plug so had to make up a plate to seal the cam bore.
Can see in the pic there is 2 plugs below the plate, one is for the oil galley, it is a 3/8 plug but there is a 1/4 plug 2 inches deeper in the bore that actually keeps oil from the rear of the block. The other plug seals off the extra 427 oil pressure regulator Ford put at the rear of the block right under the main oil galley. The 2 plugs just keep splash oil from coming out. The oil feed hole to the main bearing under the cam bearing bore was drilled and tapped 5/8 fine. I put a pc of threaded rod in that was threaded 7/16 fine to allow a banjo bolt.
Welded a pc of 3/8 line to the banjo after drilling the banjo out to 1/4 inch. Bent line so it went to a bulkhead fitting attached to the block on the oil filter adapter side.
Added some fittings to the filter adapter and ran a braided stainless hose to the bulkhead fitting.
It is -6 size all the way thru but it just feeds one main and one rod. If it was a center main feeding 2 rods I would be more concerned about the line size being big enough.
Rest of the engine is going together, few more cubes because of the 4.28 bore and a couple of other minor changes.
I had a 70's truck block that I was going to do the same thing to, put in 8 sleeves but a different method that had been discussed on the FE forum. But just after I posted that I was going to do that I got an email from Steve Malmsten in Oregon offering me a 63 427 block that he had checked out but was unable to use. Block had some issues, some more major than others. Steve gave me the block and gave me a heck of a deal on the main caps.
I am assuming at some point in the distant past rods 7 & 8 had decided to let go. Beat up the bottom of the water jackets quite a bit so the block has been sleeved and welded. Not a great pic but the damage can be seen
Garrett Machine had told Steve the block leaked in this area under pressure but since I was going to fill the block I was not concerned. I put a layer of epoxy under the cement and pressurized it to force it into the cracks. Very confident I will have no problems with that.
Bigger concern was one of the broken rods had reached up and knocked out part of the rear cam bearing bore. Since it is a center oiler block the oil for the rear main goes around the outside of the cam bearing and a large gap was out of there.
Really really rotten spot to fix on the inside of the block. So I decided to go around the cam bearing with an external oil line. Talked to Allyn and determined a needle roller bearing did not need pressure and an FE cam has the same journal as a 460 so needle roller bearings are easy to get. Had them bore the bore out for the needle roller bearing.
Unfortunately the bore size required meant no bore for the cam plug so had to make up a plate to seal the cam bore.
Can see in the pic there is 2 plugs below the plate, one is for the oil galley, it is a 3/8 plug but there is a 1/4 plug 2 inches deeper in the bore that actually keeps oil from the rear of the block. The other plug seals off the extra 427 oil pressure regulator Ford put at the rear of the block right under the main oil galley. The 2 plugs just keep splash oil from coming out. The oil feed hole to the main bearing under the cam bearing bore was drilled and tapped 5/8 fine. I put a pc of threaded rod in that was threaded 7/16 fine to allow a banjo bolt.
Welded a pc of 3/8 line to the banjo after drilling the banjo out to 1/4 inch. Bent line so it went to a bulkhead fitting attached to the block on the oil filter adapter side.
Added some fittings to the filter adapter and ran a braided stainless hose to the bulkhead fitting.
It is -6 size all the way thru but it just feeds one main and one rod. If it was a center main feeding 2 rods I would be more concerned about the line size being big enough.
Rest of the engine is going together, few more cubes because of the 4.28 bore and a couple of other minor changes.
I got snagged last night so I laid my crank in tonight, all in spec so far. ;D
