Finally pick up my long block today. Need to sort out some more bench space in my garage and then I will start on it. Will update as I go.

 

Cant see the second 1 where is it..

 

I hope you at least lay a drop cloth over it as it goes along.

(dumb thing to say)

It looks clean enough to eat off of...


Topped off to the knockers - did you have to set up anything?
I'd re-check it all...

It's a lot of thought and prep sunk into just one pile of metal.

 

that is a slightly used engine. Will do a complete tear down and start fresh. Hopefully the bore will be fine. Gunna keep the OEM pistons just get the forged rods cyroed and polished. Got most of the good bits already on the bench. Working out a list for Clay.

 

I thought this was a crate motor? You knew who had it and what it did?

So you can figure a lot off of that, right?

 

Wasn't that the motor that some poor fellow stateside had replaced, at stealer insistence, with pretty low mileage?
Then after the replacement motor also lost power under load the guy did some research himself and correctly figured out that the problem was a blocked in-tank strainer.

Thank you stealer, cost of new motor refunded, and for sale, one perfectly good 7.3 !

 

yeh I know its history. reman from ford, very low mileage. had a problem and now I have it

 

K. got the heads off



# 2 has a fair bit of pitting in it



all the rest look pretty clean.

heres a shot of the cylinders left to right 7,5,3,1



and left to right 2,4,6,8



common burn patttern. most will blame the tuner for the burn outside the bowl but I have seen a heap of stock motors with this. So go figure.

heres a shot of the lifter that belonged to the bent rod



and the other side



a bit of scoring but the lifter next to it looked the same. So so far there aint nothing that stands out ot me why it bent the rod (twice)

# 1 bore did have a distinct mark on it that the others didnt. Dont know if you can pick it up.



I can see what looks like a valve mark on the piston. But its the exhaust side. The intake is the one that keeps bending push rods

 

finally got to attack the head in question and found the problem. Sticking valves. All the other valves slid out once the keepers were off. The two on #1 were real tight. Now I just have to work out if its the valve stems themselves or the valve guides.

 

holy hell mate! Looks like you are stretching the limits of your engine stand there!

Do you know the history of the engine? Looks like it has lead a tough life.
Should be good when its done though!

 

the stands rated to 2000lbs and its struggling. You should of seen it with the heads on it.It was 'n. I have come to expect these things nowadays with everything been made in bloody China. What has this world come to.
The motor is a Ford reman which was still under warranty. I think their quality control has slipped somewhat in recent times.

 

You aren't kidding. I had one rated @ 1200lbs, "fatigued" in the middle of the night under the weight of my 4V 5.4 from my Falcon... which probably weighed a little under 800lbs as it was dressed at the time - was the stands first use. Fortunately only made a hell of a noise and just a crack on the sump - which I was able to beat/weld back together.
Took it back in the next day to shove it up the backside of the guy that sold it to me.
Was it a reman in the US, or in Aus?

I assume you plan on building this up and swapping out the motor you have currently?

 

US reman
and yes that is the plan.

 

Ok. I was going to say, the Aus Ford remans are done by HMGen, and the ones I have seen have been very good (possibly better than a new crate motor).

I am not sure who does the US ones though.

 

who ever it was they need to see an optometrist