[707Stang]

Hey guys so i finally got around to taking my car in to find out what was wrong with it and it turns out i have 3 dead cyl due to no compression due to a valve that will not close #2 intake,4 exhaust,3 exhaust. my questions are:

Where would you guys recommend i get heads from, i'm on a super tight budget so i cant go out and spend an obscene amount of money on them.


I'm using explorer heads now, could i keep using them ( a new set ) if so what pushrods would you reccomend? i'm using the 5.0ho ones now.

lastly, what would you do in this situation?

i thought i was finally done with this thing, when this happend. lol

[ReverendDexter]

I'd stick with the explorer heads if you're on a tight budget. You won't get much cheaper, and it'll take a lot more money to get anything better (unless you can scam something off craigslist, but all I see around here is E7s).

[707Stang]

I kinda figured...

thats the direction i was leaning towards anyways, i called CASCAR in sac and they gave me a ball park from 200-550 depending on the amount of work they will be needing. and that includes have the heads magnafluxed, new hardened seats, and a bunch more. looks like they are goin to the doctor next moday...

[707Stang]

well, got the heads back last wed (380 bux later) and put them in today.
new arp hardware for the intake and carb studs.
got everything back together and................................







I HAVE NOOOOO COMPRESSION!!

first chance i get this week ima recheck all my rocker arms again. tripple check they are properly installed.

if they push rods still have tension i may have to get new pushrods.

thoughts? i get suck but no squeeze, some bang and a lot of blow with some sweet flames as a bonus.

but seriously, what are y'alls thoughts on possible causes?

what the shop did was put new hardened seats on all the exhaust valves, new valve stem seals, keepers, freeze plugs, shims where needed, fluxed and washed the heads, and iirc they re-did the deck of the heads.

footnote. Ima be calling the shop tomorow and see what they can tell me

[69fastback]

Have you done a leak down?

[RebelTide]

Sounds to me like you must be quite new at this -- I'll see if I can lend a hand without being a smartass. I can't imagine what you forgot to do to have a situation installing rebuilt heads and have no compression anywhere. So, head to the nearest Books A Million or Barnes & Noble and buy a hard copy of a book on rebuilding small block Ford engines. Study the head removal and replacement section intensely. Your answer will be in there. You can jack around asking guys on message boards all you want, but what you really need is book learning. It will be easier and cheaper. After you get it done, and you have to go and adjust the valves, go to this website: Kelly hotrod - hydraulic valve adjustment procedure. Follow their instructions to the letter. This is the easiest, best valve adjustment instruction I've read in over 40 years being a gearhead. It works. Do your homework and learn how to do it right before you start. Good luck.

[707Stang]

Originally Posted by 69fastback Have you done a leak down?

I have not

Originally Posted by RebelTide Sounds to me like you must be quite new at this -- I'll see if I can lend a hand without being a smartass. I can't imagine what you forgot to do to have a situation installing rebuilt heads and have no compression anywhere. So, head to the nearest Books A Million or Barnes & Noble and buy a hard copy of a book on rebuilding small block Ford engines. Study the head removal and replacement section intensely. Your answer will be in there. You can jack around asking guys on message boards all you want, but what you really need is book learning. It will be easier and cheaper. After you get it done, and you have to go and adjust the valves, go to this website: Kelly hotrod - hydraulic valve adjustment procedure. Follow their instructions to the letter. This is the easiest, best valve adjustment instruction I've read in over 40 years being a gearhead. It works. Do your homework and learn how to do it right before you start. Good luck.

i did that and i also did it the way my engine building book said to (pretty much the same way) and when i did it the way the link said i got all of a minute of run time before all of the rockers came loose. i'm not using studs, i'm using bolts. so everytime i try to tq them to the spec, i end up opening the valves. I'm wondering if i need to shim the rockers. here is a pic of my set up

[BA Mustang]

What are you torquing them to?

[707Stang]

20 ft/lbs and before the bolt is cinched down i can see the spring begin to compress and the valve open

[707Stang]

looked it up in all data and that is on the lower end of the spec.

[ajzride]

I have the bolt on rockers as well, and I could not get mine to stay tight either. Get a can of brake cleaner, spray down the bolts really well, get them clean. Then blast the inside of the threaded hole they go down inside with the brake cleaner, you want to get all of the oil out. Then use some Loc-Tite Red, that will hold them in place.

[BA Mustang]

Originally Posted by 707Stang 20 ft/lbs and before the bolt is cinched down i can see the spring begin to compress and the valve open

Mine did that too, but I never ran into any problems. I torqued mine down to 25lbs.

[707Stang]

Originally Posted by ajzride I have the bolt on rockers as well, and I could not get mine to stay tight either. Get a can of brake cleaner, spray down the bolts really well, get them clean. Then blast the inside of the threaded hole they go down inside with the brake cleaner, you want to get all of the oil out. Then use some Loc-Tite Red, that will hold them in place.

Originally Posted by BA Mustang Mine did that too, but I never ran into any problems. I torqued mine down to 25lbs.

will the fact that .006" was taken off the head, new exhaust seats and shims on all springs cause any of the new found geometry problems i'm having?

[707Stang]

so i think i may have finally figured out where i was going wrong. i was tinkering around last night and while i was attempting again to adjust the valves, i found i was loosening the rockers way too much and when i went to tighten them again the 3/4-1/2 turn i would always come up loose. so what i did was loosen the rockers and adjust the valves in the way outlined in the above link but i didnt back them off 3 turns like before. so far it seems to be working. it's getting harder and harder to turn the engine by hand. i'll post up the results tonight when i finish the other half of the engine.

[707Stang]

soooo, i finished the valves... and still low compression.

called the shop that did the heads and they said since i had the lifters with no pressure they "swelled" up and have to bleed out. I have torque down style rocker arms. They said that its more of a waiting game with no real time on how long it should take. I sincerely doubt that my lifters went south during the head work. *sigh*

[ajzride]

I looked back through your head, and I can't really tell. Have you gotten this thing to crank at all since you put it back together? How long have you spent turning it over trying to crank it? When I put mine back together in May, I had to pull all of the plugs out (so it is easy to spin) and let the starter turn the motor for a good 5 minutes before the lifters pumped up. If the lifters don't pump up, you will never get things right.

[707Stang]

Originally Posted by ajzride I looked back through your head, and I can't really tell. Have you gotten this thing to crank at all since you put it back together? How long have you spent turning it over trying to crank it? When I put mine back together in May, I had to pull all of the plugs out (so it is easy to spin) and let the starter turn the motor for a good 5 minutes before the lifters pumped up. If the lifters don't pump up, you will never get things right.

it has cranked fine however its more of a whirring type instead of a rararararar type, i have cranked if about 2 mins tops today. i'll pull the plugs tomorrow and try it again with the charger. did you do 5 mins continuous?

i appreciate your help aj

[ajzride]

Yep.

[707Stang]

kewl, well i tried that and no dice, let it sit for the weekend, still nothing, turns out my pushrods are too long and pushing way too far into the lifters, thereby keeping my valves open no matter what i did

[ajzride]

DOH