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Original Message
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| My FelPro problem seems to be unique. |
| By Dave Shoe - 07/29/2002 11:57:40 PM; IP 67.4.132.9 |
With your string of luck, and the oil pressure oddity (metal shaving?), I'd do a full teardown and reinspection. You won't regret it. It's possible the intake gasket will fix things, but you need to trust the engine, and this is tough because the coolant leak has not been the only anomaly. The total disassembly will tell you a story which explains the behavior.
The FelPro blue gaskets I used with the CJ headed 427 block and BT intake warped like shriveled bacon as the months passed. Don't know what caused the non-symmetrical creeping of gasket, but the bolt holes stretched as each thermal cycle (warm up/cool down) caused the gasket to shift a bit more. Soon I had severe smoke at idle, then a rough idle. Removing the valve covers revealed the warped and stretched gasket. I switched to cheapo "Detroit" brand gaskets hand have not had problems since (a dozen years maybe).
Your first two block cracks sound suspiciously like frozen coolant expanding in block while stiitn in the salvageyard. Both the core holes and the valley walls crack when the ice expands. The mainsaddle crack is just plain disappointing.
As for 428 cranks with unknown history, you definitely need to magnaflux them, as both the heavily raced car 428s and the heavily worked industrial 428 cranks had the ability to develop tiny cracks, particularly at the inside radius of the rod journal where it's sorta close to the main journal. 428 cranks used in street performance apps tended to faire far better. 40-40 is not a problem for an FE nodular crank (except the # of future rebuilds shrinks horribly) if the inside fillet radius is properly cut, but be watchful of the oil passage breaking thru if it's not drilled quite true, and also aware the rod journal can get particularly thin if the lightening hole is not reasonably centered (they are typically not "centered", but are sometimes less centered than normal), as these can be problems. The 40-40 cut should last a really long time, and cast iron is very nice to the bearings. Hard Chroming will accelerate bearing wear, so I think you did the right thing in not chroming it.
Your string of sucky luck will change sooner or later. Let's hope it's sooner.
JMO,
Shoe. |
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