My new 347

[Dono]

I'm absolutely certain I over torqued. the problem was the wing nut doing the work this time.

There is little info to what torque to bring the Polly lock to. I read over and over you should tighten down till you hear a click. Don't do that. lol

Symptom was what sounded like valve train noise getting louder and louder. idle was quiet, and so was high rpm. light throttle driving was getting super noisy. Makes sense that the lock washer nuts were slowly backing off causing the noise. it was one of those things where I needed to just inspect. I checked each poly lock, and if one was not tight, I knew the nut was cracked. Very easy to check.

 

[CDW6212R]

I am glad you found it quickly.

 

[Dono]

All better.
Back to the standard level of valve train noise (kinda noisy).
Found a machine shop locally that had hem.
He (Ken) of Ken's Kustoms only wanted $10.00 for them. I gave him $15. Call me a big spender.

 

[Dono]

As I keep plodding thru life trying to find my way, I continue to learn from my mistakes.

Never, NEVER, use standard electrical tape under the hood. It simply is not designed to handle the heat. It really starts to smell and smoke. I think the stuff I used was below standard. lol.

Anyway,
I found Silicone self sealing tape that is good from -65° C to 260°C (-85° - 500°F) locally. I'm going to try a roll in the area that is smoking so bad when hot after I remove the sticky/crusty mess I have on there now. I'll have to pull the upper intake to get at the problem area fixed up. A $10.00 roll of tape isn't that bad considering the time involved.

Life's a learning experience.. I wonder if I'll ever work thru these issues. My 4.0 ohv motor was such a smooth modification compared to all this.

And to top it off, someone stole the catalytic converter from another of our vehicles while it was parked in a big public parking lot today. They took the 2 02 sensors also. Can you believe it? Who does that?

 

[gmanpaint]

I carry a roll of silicone tape in the dedicated vehicle tool bag. Good stuff.

I had the convertors stolen off a pick up years ago. Damn crackheads sell em at the scrap yards. They get a pretty penny for them.

 

[Dono]

This morning I can confirm that all the smoke that was coming up from out of my hood (Even when it wasn't smoking, the smell was nauseating in the cabin) on the passenger side was 99% the cheap split loom and cheap ass electrical tape. I did my best to cut/rip/tear the loom and electrical tape off that I had added over the last year without pulling the upper intake off, and it made a huge difference this morning.

For us 5.0 guys, the passenger side of the motor is the real issue. The wiring harness runs right on the heater pipe (The smoking from under the hood was far worse with the heater on), and by the egr pipe. If your going to do any work along that side, take care to use high temp stuff.

Tonight, I'll pull the upper off and start prettying up the engine harness (again, but with high temp stuff).

 

[CDW6212R]

Is there a better split loom material than what is common in parts stores? I bought a set of the sizes log ago, each in a box for the different size. I hadn't seen any issues yet with it, but I don't use it often.

 

[Dono]

Just watch the high heat area's Don. It seemed to take over a year for the split loom and electrical tape to really break down. The smell just kept slowly getting worse every week (Once it started). It was to the point that it looked like something was on fire under my hood. Worst thing was, there was nothing visible when I would look under the hood. I even thought maybe a coolant leak in the heater hoses or heater pipe, but couldn't find any wetness or signs of a leak. I bought this stuff from delcity.net. Between this and high temp tape bought locally I am certain I won't have to deal with that rubber/plastic/whatever smell anymore. My eye's were actually to the point of watering, no joke.

 

[CDW6212R]

Thanks Don, I like that stuff. I have to rewire the engine harness for my 91 Lincoln soon, I'll use the high heat products for that for sure.

 

[4pointslow]

There is also a company called DEI that makes a silver heat wrap, that might be able to be used over the harness to keep the heat off it.
I used it on my first supercharger set up over top the egr tube and it did not burn or smoke.

 

[Dono]

I looked at some of the dei stuff, and availability and cost were factors up here.
I wrapped my egr tube with header wrap. Hopefully between that, and getting rid of all the low temp loom and electrical tape fixes the issue.I'm pretty confident it will.

I didn't bother with any added/changed electrical along the drivers side fender area as the loom and electrical tape still looked and felt really good.

Oh, I found the electrical tape I used. Marked right on it was a max temp of 80 degrees Celsius (That's 176F). They obviously meant it.

 

[CDW6212R]

Most electrical tape is the cheap/low quality 176* stuff. It's at Home Depot and Harbor Freight along with some expensive 3M stuff, which isn't rated much higher.

I miss the wide friction tape I used to get from a body shop I used to visit often. That 2" wide kind was nice for wrapping a whole harness, lots of wires. The thin kind is tedious to do much wrapping.

 

[vroomzoomboom]

saw the work don did under the hood today. was very impressed. hell, it looks better then evils now lol

 

[Dono]

I have a problem.
Ticking became really bad again after some very light wot.
I also couldn't seem to pull past 4500rpm last night in 3rd. I was/am a bit frustrated.

This morning I have a quick look under the hood and find my dpfe valve with both hoses off(I had clamped them), the back cover of it missing, and it being melted. WTF I say? Weird.
But, being the eternal optimist I am, I think...Bingo, I found the ticking. I plug the hoses and off to work.

Then off to work. I did some wot, and my truck started to get even noisier. Now what? I keep my eye on the ball and manage to find a used dpfe valve. Truck keeps getting louder.

Im home late tonight, and relax a bit. Header gasket looks good, so under the truck I go. And, I find a crack in the header. Lovely, just lovely.

 

[jd4242]

Mannn how did that happen? ? You have the turbo and exhaust all supported well i assume. .crazy

 

[Dono]

Everything is supported extremely well
All I can think is that an exhaust pipe was resonating against the frame, and my exhaust buddy heated the piss out of the pipe and bent the pipe over. I'm guessing that since the header is such light steel, it became weak. not sure, just guessing.

Tim had a great idea. I know a guy that loves to weld and is very good at any type of welding. he's not cheap, but first class. I'll get (well, we... Tim offered to help) the header off this weekend and take it to him. I can only hope he can patch it. I'm betting he will make it as strong, or stronger than new.

We are going to pull the front diff to get the motor mount off the motor. This way, we can get the motor up far enough to get that header out. its a reasonably big job.

 

[CDW6212R]

Ouch, that's a pain for sure. I hope you get it fixed up well and heat wrapped again, that's hot in that area.

 

[Dono]

Header is at the welder.
The header was clearly damaged moving the exhaust pipe away from the frame. It has (had?) a crimp in it (To go along with the obvious crack) that pissed me off .

The welder said he'd prefer to cut that restriction out while he takes care of the crack. He's going to cut the crimp and crack out, then form a patch and weld it in. He didn't even swear at me for bringing him such tedious work this time, lol.

Tim raised a point....What about the jet hot coating? What about rust? Thanks Tim, you gave me more to think about. Sometimes ignorance is bliss.

I found a place in Ontario that uses much the same process as jet-hot (possibly the same). I think as soon as the header is done I'll send it to them. They think if they get it Monday, they can ship it back to me by the end of the week. Pretty fast turn around, and the header would be fixed properly.

 

[jd4242]

Header is at the welder.
The header was clearly damaged moving the exhaust pipe away from the frame. It has (had?) a crimp in it (To go along with the obvious crack) that pissed me off .

The welder said he'd prefer to cut that restriction out while he takes care of the crack. He's going to cut the crimp and crack out, then form a patch and weld it in. He didn't even swear at me for bringing him such tedious work this time, lol.

Tim raised a point....What about the jet hot coating? What about rust? Thanks Tim, you gave me more to think about. Sometimes ignorance is bliss.

I found a place in Ontario that uses much the same process as jet-hot (possibly the same). I think as soon as the header is done I'll send it to them. They think if they get it Monday, they can ship it back to me by the end of the week. Pretty fast turn around, and the header would be fixed properly.

I have the jet hot coating on my rangers headers,they still look BRAND new 2ish years later..well worth the cost to me..the ones on the explorer that i coated and baked looked good but has rusted under the wrap now

 

[Dono]

I'm still in pain.
I was getting my od light flashing with 1-2 shift errors. That seems to have gone away, but I will still be replacing the 1-2 and 2-3 accumulators with the valve body.

My next issue is a coolant leak. The passenger header gets soaked with coolant any time I get hard on the gas. I can make the leak happen with the truck warm, in park, and the rpm's up high (3000rpm). The issue is tough to diagnose as the issue seems to be from underneath the header (Im afraid). I replaced the block heater as the leaking (Spraying) seems to come from exactly that area on the motor. I just can't see this as being a head gasket as the oil looks ok, and there is a head stud right at the hole. I checked torque on outer head studs while the header was out getting repaired and they tightened up maybe 1/8 turn tops (80 ft/lbs).
I also replaced the soft heater hoses and the heater valve at the firewall just in case that was the issue. No change.

The issue is so bad that after a harder pull (Not even wot) there is a crazy smoke show from under the hood. If I keep the throttle light and rpm's under 2 to 2500 there is never any smoke coming from under the hood.

I'm not comfortable with me (Or anyone else) climbing under the truck with the rpm's high and hot coolant dripping/spraying. Tim's friend has agree'd to get it up on a hoist for a look. I'm looking for soft calming words that there is no way in HE(double hockey sticks) that it can be a head gasket. Maybe the new block heater is still spraying coolant? Has anyone experienced anything like this?

See attached picture showing how close the head stud is to the coolant passage. I just can't see that leaking profusely to the outside of the block. There is so much surface area in between, it makes no sense. I can't see a mls gasket blowing out like that.

If it wasn't for a lack of any real cash and the fact that I actually like driving the poor old girl I'd drive it to an auto wrecker and walk away (Well, maybe Tim would pick me up from there, lol)