VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - GENERAL Mechanical - Engine, Trans, etc Sick engine

Thank you Sir.

Comparo shot of the old vs new tappets. They seem to have the same profile inside.






The air fitting on the bench and in action with two springs installed. I was worried for a minute when it looked like the intake spring wouldn't sit in the bottom of the cup.

Sorry to say you have the springs instslled up-side-down, The end of the spring with the tight (close together) coils goes to the bottom.

Looks like the old ones were upside down too. Thanks Gene. Could that have caused some of the noise?

Anyway, they're all in right side up. However......there is always an however. Getting down under the car to retrieve a flyaway keeper cup I noticed that antifreeze was leaking out. What does that tell me other than I may have found the cause of my overheating? Cracked head, blown head gashet? It looks that air gets in the water passages somehow.

Has your engine been rebuilt?

Yes. It has a NOS crankshaft (from Gene), new aluminum pistons (also from Gene), NOS rods. A machine shop bored it to 0.40 , line bored the rebabbitted main bearings and assembled the bottom end. I put the rest together. the valve springs, intake valves, lifters and pushrods were the better one from two engines I had. It ran relatively well then got noisier somewhat. I posted several videos here looking for ideas about the noise .It seemed like evryone thought it was valve train noise. It wouldn;'t go away with adjusting the valves though. So that is where I decided to change the lifters and the valve springs. I installed springs for a 216 at Gene's suggestion. It never used to overheat until this summer when it dumped a bunch of coolant after use. Somaybe whatever happened, happened recently.

Did you have the rocker arms rebuilt?

New bushings for sure, perhaps new shafts too. I'd have to look back.

f you need new shafts I have some.

Did you build up and re-radius the ends of the rocker arms? That is normally done on quality engine rebuilds and with the new rocker arm ends that helps to eliminate valve train noise.

No. I assume that is the end which rides on the valve stem. That would be the only end where you can do that.

Yep, that is the end that rides on the valve stem. I had those ends done on my rocker arms when my engine was rebuilt and it made a world of difference on the valve train noise. Also, with the new ends it was easier to not only adjust the valves but to keep them in adjustment as well. Wouldn't rebuild an engine without rebuilding the ends of the rocker arms.

Also installed new rocker arm socket screws and nuts too, along with a new camshaft, new push rods and all new lifters.

Junkyard, what do you think was going on in post 375174 above about the antifreeze.

That all depends.....could you see where the anti-freeze was leaking from?

It looked like it was coming from the overflow as usual. Dripping from several holes in the front crossmember. I can refill it and put the air back on to see. I looked in the oil and it doesn't look like there is any there.

From what you mentioned above it sounded like you had an actual water leak but with the anti-freeze coming out of the radiator overflow you don't have a leak.

You could be sucking air from the water pump packing or you have over-filled your radiator.

This happened with a cylinder pressurized to hold the valves up when I was changing the springs. This is what scares me.

And, by the way, this is what the rocker arm ends look like:

The rocker arms LOOK OK to me.
If you saw water leaking when cylinder was pressureized it could come from the head gasket and the leak may cause coolant to run down the (either) side of the block. This shold be easy to see.

It was dripping from the front crossmember which leads me to think it was coming out of the overflow.

From what I see in the photos the rocker arms don't look all that great to me. They appear to be worn and one rocker arm looks like it is cupped on the face. If the rocker arms were going on my freshly rebuilt engine I definitely would have the radius on each rocker arm built back up to standard.

I went back & looked and all surfaces are convex. Where would I find the standard radius? Any shop around here wouldn't have that. Are there NOS units available?

Also I have seen more thread exposed on the adjusting nuts on rebuilt rocker arm assemblies. Maybe some wear on the rocker arm end? I may be mistaken, but are there supposed to be metal washers under the exhaust valve spring also? Just a washer type thing, not a large ring like the intakes have. Also not the washer used to shim the spring after a valve seat regrind.

The large seat under the valve spring is correct for a 1934 with the original head. If the head is replaced with a new one it just uses a washer like a late 1935 and 1936.
The amount of adjusting screw exposed depends on a few things such as if the cam had been reground, rocker arms resurfaced, etc. or the valves them selves.

Pat,
The radius on the rocker ends depends on the length of the rocker arm from the pivot to end. Most grinding machines adjust for the distance/radius. Anyone experienced machinist will get it right.

Just because the rocker arm faces appear to be convex does not mean that the rocker arms are not worn. I can see from the photos you posted that your rocker arms are worn. If you want the engine rebuild done right you should get your rocker arm faces rebuilt. You have mentioned about the valve train noise so one way of correcting the problem is to get your camshaft reground, install new lifters, get your rocker arm faces rebuilt and replace the rocker arm adjusting screws with new units.