Hey all... very annoyed updated. Read On.
Went down to the Bay Area to do the engine rebuild this weekend. Spent 2 days working this weeked. Total time put in was about 8-10 hours. A lot of this was spent checking and rechecking torques, and fighting with 2 stupid bolts (about 3 1/2 hours of time wasted).
Day 1:
Day 1 went ok. I ran into some issues getting the engine to TDC because I was totally by myself which meant turn the crank, jump up and check... turn the crank, jump up and check... blah blah blah. Anywho I got the CMP in all by myself, but what should have taken like 10 - 15 minutes took almost an hour.
Next I went to install the Cylinder Heads. I took extra care here to make ABSOLUTELY sure that there was no oil or anything left over and to ensure proper sealing. I then installed the Cylinder Head Gaskets. My friend suggested only one thing different then some others, he said to put a very very thin coat of RTV on the small arms of the cylinder head gasket that stick up near where the upper intake seals. Next was the Cylinder Heads. *SHEESH* these guys are heavy. I mean, they were pretty easy to get out, but getting them back in with touching the bottom face , setting them on the gaskets and without scratching them was a lot of work. I then went ahead and torqued all the Cylinder Head bolts down to 65 ft-lbs. (Basd on ARP's spec). I did this in 3 stages, the first to 45 ft-lbs, the second to 60 ft-lbs and the third to 65 ft-lbs.
Once that was done, I went to lunch, haha.
After lunch, I checked all the Head Bolts one more time to ensure proper torque. They were all good so I went on to installing the Roller Rockers. This went fairly well, the only issue I ran into was that I needed to install the thick shims (.060"). I could have gone with the thin shims (.030") except that I hit torque on them dead even at 1 turn. Because it was so tight, I opted to go with the thick shim just in case. I got them all torque down nice and tight and things seemed good. At this point it was getting dark (I had to take a 4 hour break to cool off from the 95 degree heat). I tried check the valve cover clearance but couldn't tell well enough. Decided to call it a night.
Day 2:
Day 2 went ok, except for one major issue (you'll tell me you told me so, haha). I started off first thing with installing all the accessory brackets onto the cylinder heads. This went pretty good overall.
I then went onto installing the lower intake. I started by spraying engine clean on the lower intake to get any remaining grime off. I had already scraped and removed all the gaskets, but there was still some gunk in the runners, so I cleaned them out. I had already pulled the injectors out, so this was a very quick process. I then installed the Intake to Cylinder Head gaskets. I added a thin smathering of RTV around the water jackets both for extra leak protection as well as to hold the gaskets in place during installation. I lowered the intake into place and used 4 bolts at the corners to help me find center. Once it was all down I just went around and torqued the intake down. I did this in 2 stages according to Ford's spec (one step at about 7 ft-lbs. and the second at 24 ft-lbs.). At each step, I followed the order laid out by Ford and kept going around over and over again until they all stayed at the set torque. For stage 1 it took 3 rounds to get them all to stay, for the second round it took either 4 or 5.
I then went ahead and installed the Fuel Injectors using a small amount of oil on the seals to seat them again. At this point someone had finally woken up in the house. I took this time to install the fuel lines.
At this point, I installed the battery and turned the X to the "On" position for the first time in about 5 or 6 weeks. X turned on fine and the engine cranked over very nicely. The engine cranks really easily when there are no spark plugs install and no fuel going (I didn't connect up the Fuel Injector Connectors yet to keep fuel out of the engine).
I loosely installed the valve covers again and had my fiance crank the engine. Much to my dismay, the Drivers Side Covers were moving a whole lot. The passenger side were moving as well, but just barely. I pulled the covers again to check and noticed that 2 of the Rockers had been installed slightly ****eyed, so I re-adjusted those 2 which gave me a little more clearance, but still not enough. It appears that the 2 spots that the rockers are hitting are on Cylinder 5, the valve closest to the front of the engine appears to be hitting both on the side against the valve cover as well as on the Rocker Valve Side Tip. There does appear to be on other rocker in the middle hitting, but no where near as bad. I tried "adjusting" my valve covers, but realized I didn't have the proper hammer and it appeared that this would make them very ugly so I decided to cut my losses and plan to come back with proper Valve covers.
The rest of the day was spent cleaning up what I had done alread, installing whatever other connectors, plugs and miscelaneous items I could.
What's Left:
- Find Proper Valve Covers and Install them
- Re-Install Upper Intake (with or without intake spacer)
- Re-Install Exhaust Manifolds
- Re-Install all Electrical Connectors and properly set Camshaft Position Sensor.
The only item on this list I am still not 100% sure on is the Valve Covers. I have heard that the stock '93 5.0 Cobra Valve Covers will fit properly (thanks 410) but I wanted to confirm. If not these, what aftermarket valve covers will fit? I have no problem buying the Valve Covers and an intake spacer if necesssary.
I just need to know which valve covers have the most top and side clearance. Also, if installing the tall valve covers, what other things do I need to be careful of. I am giving myself next Saturday to get these working and if they don't work, I will be replacing whichever Rockers are hitting with the stock stamped rockers until I can get the others to properly fit.
Any help would be greatly appreciated in this matter.
Also, if you have any questions that I may be able to answer, shoot them my way. I left the details out as they have been listed in other threads as well as detailed in Haynes Manuals and what not.
