Over the last two years I’ve had the Hydramatic and the back end rebuilt, now it’s been about time to get to the last major source of rattles and knocks. So these last couple of months have seen the 55 in a long spell of down-time having the engine rebuilt.
This is a real long story, but the short version is… the engine came out and went to Ian a local rebuilder (I took the advice of shopping around and going with the one who just felt the best – like he’d balance things without me asking). He put in all new bearings, pistons, oil pump, camshaft and followers (I took the advice to get the 261), plus a new crankshaft, the old one was too far gone to take down further, three new valves and one new rod. Meanwhile I sourced up a NOS carb and an electronic distributor, coil and new wires.
Get the engine back, hook up the transmission, back in the truck, bolt on all the outside bits, prime the oil pump (the old screwdriver on the electric drill method – just about took it out of my hand when it primed), and set the timing. I turned it over with a piece of wood between two bolts in the pulley, nice and smooth. Wired everything up, took the bolts out of the pulley, fan and radiator on, ignition on, push the starter. Vroom… instant start up, I jump around scaring the dog. Bit of an exhaust blow from the manifold somewhere but just as I’m trying to figure where, it stalls out. It’s run for maybe 20 seconds. Restarts first push again, 12 seconds and stalls out. I figure I’m off with the ignition so I turn it a little – that’s it! I just couldn’t get it to fire after that. Lots of starter, lots of dizzie adjusting and lots of nearly firing, but it didn’t go. Give up for the weekend. Next weekend JK comes around to give me a hand. First thing he says, you gotta get the timing reset. So radiator and fan off, put the bolts in, get the piece of wood and turn. Man is this thing tight! And what about all the noise!! Sounds like everything is scraping against everything else!!! Not at all nice!!!! Anyway, we get the timing reset. Radiator etc back on, push the button. Vroom – 10 seconds stalls out. We have a bit of a think, JK isn’t happy about the tightness and the noise. Well one more go. Vroom again, but just 5 seconds this time. Shut it down says JK in that shut it down forever kinda way.
I’m real miserable about this but we decide it has to go back to Ian the builder. Ok, the whole engine out bit again. When I got it to him he’s as puzzled as I am and almost as unhappy “I never get jobs back”. He agrees to strip it down and see what the problem is. JK has money on a cam bearing’s not been set up right I just think everything’s tearing itself apart in there.
Two days later I get the ‘phone call. Ian says it’s as dry as a bone, the noise was the pistons running in dry bores. The bearings are OK, he’d put Graphite on them so they’d have been good for some time. I’m thinking well... that pump sure primed, I saw oil through the rockers so I don’t know what. But Ian’s sure, there’s no oil circulating when it’s been run. Then he asks, did you say you put a new distributor on it? Wow! Big light bulb moment!!. The new dizzie was straight out of the box and in, I didn’t check the size. So I check the old and new side by side, they are exactly the same BUT the clamp that holds it to the block on the new one was maybe 3/8 inch further up the shaft. When I’d pushed the distributor home it’d engaged the cam ok, but the clamp was too high to let the tang engage with the oil pump. We tried it in the block as it was and it didn’t turn the oil pump, adjusted the clamp, works fine!!!!
So, big lesson here for me that I thought I’d share with you all, when you put a new distributor in, even if it engages with the cam it ain’t necessarily driving the oil pump. And that’s a real bummer. ‘course you all knew that anyway didn’t you?
This is a real long story, but the short version is… the engine came out and went to Ian a local rebuilder (I took the advice of shopping around and going with the one who just felt the best – like he’d balance things without me asking). He put in all new bearings, pistons, oil pump, camshaft and followers (I took the advice to get the 261), plus a new crankshaft, the old one was too far gone to take down further, three new valves and one new rod. Meanwhile I sourced up a NOS carb and an electronic distributor, coil and new wires.
Get the engine back, hook up the transmission, back in the truck, bolt on all the outside bits, prime the oil pump (the old screwdriver on the electric drill method – just about took it out of my hand when it primed), and set the timing. I turned it over with a piece of wood between two bolts in the pulley, nice and smooth. Wired everything up, took the bolts out of the pulley, fan and radiator on, ignition on, push the starter. Vroom… instant start up, I jump around scaring the dog. Bit of an exhaust blow from the manifold somewhere but just as I’m trying to figure where, it stalls out. It’s run for maybe 20 seconds. Restarts first push again, 12 seconds and stalls out. I figure I’m off with the ignition so I turn it a little – that’s it! I just couldn’t get it to fire after that. Lots of starter, lots of dizzie adjusting and lots of nearly firing, but it didn’t go. Give up for the weekend. Next weekend JK comes around to give me a hand. First thing he says, you gotta get the timing reset. So radiator and fan off, put the bolts in, get the piece of wood and turn. Man is this thing tight! And what about all the noise!! Sounds like everything is scraping against everything else!!! Not at all nice!!!! Anyway, we get the timing reset. Radiator etc back on, push the button. Vroom – 10 seconds stalls out. We have a bit of a think, JK isn’t happy about the tightness and the noise. Well one more go. Vroom again, but just 5 seconds this time. Shut it down says JK in that shut it down forever kinda way.
I’m real miserable about this but we decide it has to go back to Ian the builder. Ok, the whole engine out bit again. When I got it to him he’s as puzzled as I am and almost as unhappy “I never get jobs back”. He agrees to strip it down and see what the problem is. JK has money on a cam bearing’s not been set up right I just think everything’s tearing itself apart in there.
Two days later I get the ‘phone call. Ian says it’s as dry as a bone, the noise was the pistons running in dry bores. The bearings are OK, he’d put Graphite on them so they’d have been good for some time. I’m thinking well... that pump sure primed, I saw oil through the rockers so I don’t know what. But Ian’s sure, there’s no oil circulating when it’s been run. Then he asks, did you say you put a new distributor on it? Wow! Big light bulb moment!!. The new dizzie was straight out of the box and in, I didn’t check the size. So I check the old and new side by side, they are exactly the same BUT the clamp that holds it to the block on the new one was maybe 3/8 inch further up the shaft. When I’d pushed the distributor home it’d engaged the cam ok, but the clamp was too high to let the tang engage with the oil pump. We tried it in the block as it was and it didn’t turn the oil pump, adjusted the clamp, works fine!!!!
So, big lesson here for me that I thought I’d share with you all, when you put a new distributor in, even if it engages with the cam it ain’t necessarily driving the oil pump. And that’s a real bummer. ‘course you all knew that anyway didn’t you?
. Little things are so easy to miss but they are always the ones who get you. It will probably never happen again but you'll shure as hell check for it every time!
Probably not as bad as ruining an alcohol dragster engine but it sure made me feel stupid. 
Hang in there.
.
WTH ?? so we gave it back , next morning it stalled out in exactly the same place , this went on for one whole week untill I decided to ride to work with him and guess what it was ? the doggone boring bar has slipped out of spec. ever so slightly and so the mains were just barely tight enough to drag a little bit once it reach full tilt boogie and got fully heated up ~ by the time the tow truck got there , it was cool and had no crank drag ~ that was a real nut buster believe me 
) so built up a nicely tuned lump and threw it in, banged it off first turn no problems, ran it for app 2-300 miles no prob, and crusing on freeway one night temp guage rose up slowly and gradually over a couple of miles it lost power, stopped in a gas station and it stalled, struggled to re-start, but it did, opened the hood and the header was glowing yellow!!!! not cherry but yellow, aint seen that before or since on a street motor. Timing had shifted out of kilter, re-timed and off I went puzzled. 200 miles or so later happened again! re-timed and hey ho off we went, now this kept happening every 200 miles or so and had to slip out the dizzy sometimes because I couldnt get enough twist on the thing to get the timing back!!!! 
