VIDEO: Nailhead Clatter (WMV) Video is 6 seconds long and around 1/2 MB This weekend I fired up my Wildcat's 401 motor. This motor had been sitting for the greater part of 10 years. My father was the one who parked it, so I knew it was in a good, running condition when parked. I cranked the motor, and made this video. The motor has a very loud tick, and it seems to be in sync with firing. So when I give the motor a little juice, the noise gets louder. Less juice, motor is quieter. I have pulled the driver's side valve cover, but not the passenger side. Also, I just put the distributor in following the FSM procedure for TDC, so I did not adjust timing or dwell. I only had the motor running two minutes tops because it was making the sound. I also did the following before firing the engine up: 1) Changed the oil. 2) Installed an oil gauge, and took the distributor out and primed the engine until I had constant pressure and fresh oil in the rocker. 3) Replaced all spark plugs, inspected wires, cap, rotor. 4) Put known good Carter Carb on car. 5) Hooked fuel line to external gas tank. 6) Took the valve cover off on the drivers side, turned motor over by hand watching for valves opening and closing. 7) Turned motor over with starter, but with no coil connected. I do plan on rebuilding this motor, as time and money permits, but I would like to make it operable now, so that I may jockey it around the yard, and to the body shop five minutes down the road. Could everyone weigh in and give me suggestions? I'm hoping for a stuck lifter or stuck valve.
The clean-out plug for the exhaust crossover in your intake manifold on the bottom side has rusted thru. Take a look and see. Peace WildBill
Will this be something I can stick my hand between the valley pan and manifold and feel? Will it be toward the front, rear, or center? Thanks!
Joe it will be in the center of the manifold just a little toward the passenger side. On the 401 I think they are around 2" round. Try a mirror if your fingers don't work.
You can't get your fingers in there but you gan get them close enough to feel(burn them) the exhaust. Old trick...dump a capfull of oil in the carb and rev it a little.....if its leaking you will see smoke come from under the manifold. Peace WildBill
Update... Well, I tried to get my fingers up under the intake and I succeeded to an extent... but nonetheless, I didn't find this exhaust plug. It really didn't matter though, because I did the oil down the carb trick. I poured a small stream of ATF down the carb, and to my amazement, no thick, white smoke out the exhaust. No smoke from under the intake either. But, I had smoke coming out of the oil breather, and out of the PCV grommet (no valve in yet). I shut the motor down, and then pulled the valve covers and turned it by hand. Everytime I turned the engine a rev, a small wisp of smoke came out of the holes the lifter rods went through. Every valve in the motor is opening and shutting, so I know it is not a sticky valve. I could see no exhuast leak. The only place the smoke came out was the crankcase. o No: So would I guess correctly that my rings are shot and my combustibles are going into my crankcase? Could a sticky lifter cause this problem?
ANOTHER VIDEO For everyone who is sitting on Extreme DSL or a cable pipe and want to test out your connection, I have another video with the noise. This one is close to 3 MB, and has 11 seconds of the engine running from about four feet away. The camera does not change angle. Have another listen so that you may pipe in on my dilemma. uzzled: Another Nailhead Making Noise
Fairy tale ending: As I posted in a similar thread, I got my tick to go away. I poured marvel mystery oil down each pushrod hole, and then ran the engine for 10 minutes. No more noise. :bglasses:
Oooo....Looks like a penzoil user somewhere in the car's past? Might make sure the oil return holes in the end of the heads are not plugged with gunk. :eek2: Mike
I would caution you about disturbing the sludge buildup. You dont want that stuff curculating around the engine. It will eventually fall into the pan and clog the screen.
Check your power steering pulley.........sometimes they come loose and make a noise. (I didn't listen to the clip, I'm on a dial up ou: ) :bglasses:
This happened to me with my 65 401 a few months ago... Half of the plug was missing after I floored the accelerator. It made a loud exhaust leak noise. I removed the intake and went to the only auto parts store that was open that sunday to get something like a freeze plug to repair it. They had nothing to help me so I ended buying a Ford hub grease cap in the Help! products section which seemed to be of a similar diameter... The intake looked like it was damaged as the hole was irrgular when I removed the remains of the plug. There seemed to be a recessed edge in the casting but more than half of it was missing. I grinded the other half to make the hole round and installed the grease cap reversed in it. I was wondering how effective my repair would be but when I started the engine, the noise was back to normal! And still was when I stored the car for winter two weeks ago. In my next visit to the junkyard, I'll try to grab a spare intake just in case my "repair" doesn't last too long! What do you use as a replacement for the clean-out plug? Thanks
Joe, there's an oil passage on both heads that runs from the front cam bearing to the front rocker arm mounting bolt threads. The oil for your lifters and rocker arms are fed through this passage. With the amount of gunk I see in there, I'd bet they may be completely or at least partially closed off. If you have compressed air, you could try cleaning the passages out with a piece of wire and blowing air through them. You need to rebuild it anyway, Nailheads are notorious for broken piston rings which will cause the smoking you are talking about.......that's called blow by. If your motor smokes out the breather cap when it's idling and warmed up, that's your problem........ time for a re-bore and oversized pistons. I think worn bores let the pistons wiggle around and that's what causes the rings to break. Mike, I know what you mean about Penzoil.........my dad swore by that stuff and I saw the gunk left behind in my crankcase after he gave me the car (long, long time ago :grin: ) :bglasses:
Penzoil was good oil - all PA crude low sulfur...then about 1980 they changed the formula to cr*pol'a from any where and sold it cheap..... - Bill
