Thread: I bet you thought.....

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It's been a while since I've updated this particular (re)build thread of my 27 roadster, so I figured I should bring it up to date. As I posted on other threads, I got the engine all buttoned up and started. It ran great for about 5 minutes or so and then the oil pressure went to zero (it had been at 60 lbs idling). Tore it down and found the main galley plug had blown out, so I put a new screw in plug in it's place, put the engine back together, and fired it up. Ran great, had 60 psi again, but when I capped the headers and ran through mufflers I could hear a knocking sound from deep in the engine.

I tore it completely down to a bare block and had the clearances and bearings rechecked. Everything was perfect, and with a lot of advise from some very helpful friends on here I put it all back together again. The piston maker and Scat tell me it is stroker knock when it is cold and it will go away when it warms up..........I sure hope so.

One thing that I did notice was that my front crank pulley ran a little untrue and that was because I had to use a real mix of parts on the front end of this engine. It was a 1990 roller motor and I wanted to use a V belt instead of the serpentine it came with. Plus, I wanted to use Ford Racings short water pump kit that shortens the motor up by 1.5 inches or so, and I needed radiator clearance for a better electric fan. Problem is, Ford Racing discontinued the short water pump setup so I had to get bits and pieces wherever I could find them.

I found the correct timing cover at Jegs and the water pump at Summit, but the pulleys were long discontinued by Ford and nowhere to be found. So, I bought a Zoops aluminum pulley set for a small block Ford and also one of their spacers. I got it to line up, but the crank pulley didn't register correctly on the damper so it was off center a little. I finally found out Ford Racing made a spacer that would work with their harmonic balancer so I ordered one, but it had a lip on the front that wouldn't fit on my Zoops pulley.

Long story short, I took the spacer and pulley to a local machine shop and they bored the pulley out to 2 3/8 inches, and now the two mate up. It only cost me $ 30 for them to do that, and here I thought it was going to be a major undertaking. Today I got them back and installed them. Now everything lines up perfectly and I can start reinstalling the engine this week.

I'm also happy because I found this new machine shop that I didn't even know about and the owner is a drag racer and understands this stuff. He has an 8 second S10 truck running a blown big block on alcohol. My little pulley job was like child's play for him. From now on he is getting my engine machine work, for sure.

Sorry for the lengthy post, but I had a lot to catch up on with this one. Here are a couple pictures of the pulleys and in the second one you can see the spacer between the damper and pulley.

Don