Projects Who else has this much bad luck?

bought a 347 ford crate motor for my car,it came right before my honeymoon.put it in the garage with plans to put it in soon as we got back.Wife got upper respiratory failure and double pneumonia on plane trip back..was in hospital for 3 months. motor got pushed back..hospital bills were nuts.. so it ended up sitting for a year and a half. when i finally put the motor in it ran liked a beast. 450 horse 400lbs of torque..until a week later when it started filling up number 7 with oil and blowing smoke out the drives side pipe. Bad Ring bad piston, bad filter?? dont know..i got so pissed i parked it and still havent opened it up. Less then 100 miles and out of warranty..that was 10 years ago..hmm maybe tomorrow ill see if it changed its tune..

 

Sounds like a story there...

 

Just one of a series of relentlessly bad days I seem to be the master of having. All of this occurred before 9:00 one morning. The only good thing was, being the owner of my business I could simply call the gal I had assistant managing and tell her I wasn't coming in that day for fear of my life...

 

The last 350 I had blew smoke out one tail pipe, but not when the engine was cold. That issue was caused by a warped head, that would warp to the point that two cylinders were trading gases once it warmed up all the way. It was a very light blue smoke, turns out it was a bit of oil, and mostly unburnt fuel. When I pulled the heads off, the head under that one cylinder was coated with 1cm thick of soot that I scraped off onto the floor with a ruler. Maybe ill put that motor back together with some new bearings and see how long it will last XD Paying extra for insurance now, get free towing!

 

If you were closer, I'd be over to help. A second set of eyes is often very helpful. I employ that strategy as well. My former assistant, still assists me in catching the stuff I miss.

 

Well I just had a can of great stuff fall off the bench and hit a sharp edge knock a hole in it and spray all over the floor and file card holder.
Now this is my latest it has been lot worse.

 

I've been to the dentist four times this month.

 

Everybody gets a wakeup call sometime in their life. One day I was working on my 26 T roadster that we have raced for years. The 351 heads that I had on a 302 that we ported out as big as possible without going into threads. After so many years the head cracked and I was getting water in #4 cylinder. Tbere was going to be an all roadster run and my grandson and I were going to put a set of 351 stock heads on. Through out the whole rush we picked up a set of world heads, did not look to see which heads I had and we slammed them on, not realizing heads that we put 302 heads on an engine with popup pistons. The 351 heads would have been ok. They are still on the bench . We started the engine and heard pistons hitting the head and valves hitting the pistons. We didn't go on the rod run and we are now putting a stock 351 engine in the T---- hmmmm

 

I start six weeks of daily radiation treatment for cancer next week but my car is running REALLY good right now! Got that goin' for me. Stupid car is probally mocking me right now.

 

Dang tommyd sorry to hear that. Got you in our prayers.

Red Weaver What the heck man hyd cam?

 

tommyd.

Best wishes for you with your ordeal. I did 9 weeks of protons at Loma Linda last year for PC. I have never been a believer in luck as some sort of supernatural force, like some people have good luck and some people have bad luck. Sometimes we get opportunities and some times we are faced with misfortune. How we take advantage of one and how we defend against the other often determines the eventual outcome. During my radiation treatment my 86 year old Mother fell and fractured her hip and died a month later. I was able to spend a week with her during that process but because of treatment was not there when she passed away. I was feeling kinda bad about it all. One day while waiting for treatment I was talking with a fellow PC'r and he was telling me he was his mother in-law's primary care giver (Alzheimer's). He was her primary caregiver because his wife had early onset Alzheimer's and was not able to help much. His son has Downs syndrome and he has prostate cancer. The guy always had a smile and a kind word for everyone. Needless to say I felt like an idiot. One again hoping for a good outcome with your treatment.

Mike.

 

Thanks for the kind words guys. I'm not much on the whole luck thing either. I was just making light of how stuff can go wrong with our cars and the fact that it can always be worse. I too have seen many positive things come out of this so far. Not fishing for sympathy as I have a real peace about the whole deal. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers, I will do the same for you. Now back to the O.P's bad luck.

 

You will be in my prayers also.

btw, I have known a few people who made it through cancer, they kept a good mood about it no matter how bad it got, they took care of themselves by tossing out all refined sugars, completely changing their diet, habits, and went outside.

Keep up the good spirits, that is what will push you through.

I GOT SOME GOOD NEWS!!! It appears that it was just beginning to chew a lobe, there are two lifters in questionable condition, I am not sure if I should continue the break-in process, or get a new cam before it really does blow. I will probably start a new thread with images of the two lifters in question.

 

If it started it is done. Get a new one and try try agin.
Dame we never had these problems in the old days.

 

Luck can be a fickle thing, BUT usually bad luck comes from poor judgement and hard learning experiences. You're young and you will recover from this minor set back, be thankful you have your health. NEVER buy used engines, parts or machine work from someone without references and some sort of warranty. There are alot of good honest people, but Sadly threre are nonreputable people in our hobby and life in general. I am a very lucky person , 98% my bad luck was self generated, now old , still waiting on smart. John

 

Don't go any further with this cam etc.
The zero deck thing has me worried, did you 'clay' the motor for valve to pistin clearance? I'd worry that the valves are kissing the piston and that is what caused the lifter failure.
If you checked the clearances they are are ok - .060ish - then you goofed up the preload on the lifters, we've all done it taht is the price of learning. Shove a new cam and lifters in it and repeat with better results.
btw, if you do the 'clay' thing use the 1.5 rockers.

 

Thought I'd never post this again but here goes. Went to the neighbors business on the morning on July 13, 1988 to check on a truck he wanted me to do some maintenance on. They had just installed two new industrial insulated 12X18 garage doors behind which was parked the truck. I walked in front of the truck and released the latch and raised the door. I turned to raise the hood as the door was almost open and all hell broke loose. The door and all of the supporting structure came crashing down on me. I'll save you the drama that followed. As a result I spent the next 3 1/2 years in the hospital having 7 brain,neck, and spine surgerys, 1 1/2 years in a rehab facility learning how to walk, get dressed, feed myself and write my name. So, when I hear someone say they have had a bad day (or days) I just remind myself that I've been there/done that.

Frank

 

I decided to start a build thread, It will make asking and answering questions much easier for all of us, I don't know why I never did it sooner XD

I have the images of the two questionable lifters on that same thread, take a look.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=820308

Let me know if the link is not working.

 

Blew my rear bearing in my generator about 50 miles from home going to event and had my flathead pan spit out a blade on the way home.Got another generator at the event and most likely drove home on battery alone and then spit out one of the fan blades on the flatty on the way home.Took off the belt and let the fan just hang down ,three blades left.Didnt over heat. and not much damage.
I say its just hot rodding.Sometimes things go good and some not so much.It sucks to waste money but coming out of things in one piece physically is always a good thing.I learned a bit today and the poster of the thread will too.Some times we learn things harder than others but we will all make it out ok.I do feel lucky though to be part of such a great car community and wouldnt change that for nothing.It does make for great stories we all will tell each other and have a good laugh!!

 

It sounds like MANY of us have been through it. Gotta appreciate the good days. Trilobyte, Looking forward to your build thread.

 

Damn hope there was some ins. to help man.

 

Well said.

 

Build thread is created, I edited my post on the first page, it should show a link, if the link does not work, you should be able to search for it. Check it out

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/s...d.php?t=820308