Barn raising

[Mike Bradbury]

Originally Posted by RATYAS 69

Mate ya chev is the ducks guts! love the sign writing, love that old garage truck look. if that make any sense?? Any updates?

Thanks for the compliment. I think "Fair Dinkum" I think is the right response. I had fun building it.

Chad;
The pipes are Patriot, I ordered them from Jegs. The collectors would be a lot cooler if they had four working pipes.

[chadimus06]

"four working pipes"??? as in they're not true 4-1's??

[Mike Bradbury]

No, not a true 4 into 1 only one functional and the other three are just dummies, Hookers are the same way. I Never really wanted the collector but they only sell them as a kit.

[vexvader]

Mike,

It looks good! I have not done much to mine other then drive it. I put on an new carb last night. I need to post some pics. Keep it up bro!!

Matthew
Posted via Mobile Device

[Mike Bradbury]

Hey Matthew,
I would love to see update photos of the truck. What was wrong with the old carb?

[THIRSTY]

Very nice!!! Like it alot. Sweet tires.

[Mike Bradbury]

Just a little video of how it sounds. I need to get a better video camera, the truck is actually louder than it came out on the video but the tone is right.

[hgs_notes]

Sounds good, but there was no tire smoke. What's up with that?

[Mike Bradbury]

I have heard that every revolution during a burn out uses fifty miles off the life of the tire. With as much effort as I put into these tires, I don't plan on burning out too much. LOL
Posted via Mobile Device

[Junkpyl]

I hear that! Seems to me a good way to keep from getting an exibition of speed ticket The price of gas lately is the other one

[iehotrod]

50 miles of thread life? I wont be burning out because my old denman tires are not available anymore. They do spin with minimal effort thou.

BTW Mike Im glad you found your problem. Now on the bright side oppportunity to clean up the engine and give some new fresh paint. Based on what you did to the suspension it's going look awsome. Did you pull the motor?

[Mike Bradbury]

Well I found out what happened, I did not get a chance to see what that rod did to the rest of the engine yet. I am probably going to get a different cam and lifters just because what I have been reading about the zinc content in the mortor oil now days and how the reduced amount is shortening the life of major components in the valve train. I have priced out Crower roller lifters, and camshaft as well as higher strength push rods and it seems to be in my budget to get them now while the engine is appart.

I have not pulled the engine yet, I have been busy with work so it might have to wait for a week or so.

[crakarjax]

Originally Posted by Mike Bradbury

Well I found out what happened, I did not get a chance to see what that rod did to the rest of the engine yet. I am probably going to get a different cam and lifters just because what I have been reading about the zinc content in the mortor oil now days and how the reduced amount is shortening the life of major components in the valve train. I have priced out Crower roller lifters, and camshaft as well as higher strength push rods and it seems to be in my budget to get them now while the engine is appart.

I have not pulled the engine yet, I have been busy with work so it might have to wait for a week or so.

It is not the zinc content of the oils that was at fault, that was just a red herring. The real problem was that manufacturers changed the way that they heat treated the cam lobes to a laser method to save money. That method was flawed in the past but the kinks seem to have been ironed out. You shouldn't have any problems with standard hyd. cam or lifters IMO. Jasper is a major reseller of remanufactured engines, and they offer awesome warranties. They ship their engines with standard hyd. camshafts, and I believe that they wouldn't do so due to liability if the oil was really a problem. You can also see via Jasper's break-in procedure that the hardening process has probably improved; the procedure used to be pretty intensive and was required to be warrantied, and now the procedure is pretty lax.

BTW, what happened to your engine? I must have missed something.

[Mike Bradbury]

When we drove up to L.A. for the Brothers Show and Shine my engine bent a push rod as we were getting off the freeway about 4 miles from the event. Was a great show but a little bitter sweet as I spent the day contemplating the cost of towing 100 miles back home and rebuilding my GM crate motor with only 14,000 on it. I believe it was a seized valve guide that put too much pressure on the push rod, we will see.

[iehotrod]

Mike sometimes we just need a lil push to go the to next level. I 'm sure by the time you fix it'll sound sic and match the appearence of the truck. I remember the lil boy asking you at the show if the truck was a race truck. Now it will look, sound, feel and run like one... Can't wait see and hear video of the with those side pipes.

[eagleuh1]

Make sure you don't have any intake bolts that are too long. I believe a few bolts can actually lock up a pushrod if they're just a scant bit longer than whats called for. Good luck, and ouch. Jim

[crakarjax]

Well it could be worse, you can replace the pushrod by just pulling the valve cover and loosening the rocker arm. Another cause of bent pushrods could be pre-detonation, for instance if you run a too-low octane fuel. The pre-det could slam the valve closed, and the weakest link in the valvetrain at that point is the pushrod.

[sneaky]

ok, my favorite truck on the forum! man, thats badass. love the wheels and tires.

[Mike Bradbury]

Originally Posted by crakarjax

Well it could be worse, you can replace the pushrod by just pulling the valve cover and loosening the rocker arm. Another cause of bent pushrods could be pre-detonation, for instance if you run a too-low octane fuel. The pre-det could slam the valve closed, and the weakest link in the valvetrain at that point is the pushrod.

That might be the cause. When I put the HEI in I never re-gapped the plugs to .45 which might have messed up the timing just enough.
Posted via Mobile Device

[54Caddy]

mike anymore word on engine. To handle the zinc problem every oil change i add comp cams break in oil addative which is very high in zinc. There are many oil to look at that have zinc in them. I will post some links later

[mcbassin]

This is a great project. Not too sure how I missed it but I'm in now. Sorry to hear about the pushrod. I have been there. Never bent one that bad though. Hope you find the solution to be cheap.

[Mike Bradbury]

Originally Posted by 54Caddy

mike anymore word on engine. To handle the zinc problem every oil change i add comp cams break in oil addative which is very high in zinc. There are many oil to look at that have zinc in them. I will post some links later

I wish I could say that I had it all back together and it runs better than before. But business travel and life's responsibilities have gotten in the way and it still sits in the garage in a bunch of pieces while I decide what to do with it. To be honest I am still trying to decide. I was really hoping to find a smoking gun, but there was none other than the bent rod. Since it is all apart I would like to install a new cam but I still don't know if I should rebuild the heads or not. I am going to take the heads down to Crower to see what they think of the evidence. One of the reasons that I want to upgrade the cam and heads is so that i dont have to worry about the zinc content.

[Mike Bradbury]

I think I might be zeroing in on the cause of the damaged push rod. I was talking to an engine guy today and he said that the rocker nut was either installed with too much slop or it loosened up and allowed the rocker to slip sideways and kick the rod out of its pocket. He said look at the stud and there will probably be some scuffing. Well sure enough there was a couple of large ding in the stud.
So here is the next phase. Have any of you ever removed a rocker stud? He said I just need a nut and a bunch of flat washers to pull the stud out. which is all good but how do I get the new one back it with out dinging it again? Is there any sealer I need to put in there first or how does it lock in place?

[mcbassin]

Originally Posted by Mike Bradbury

Have any of you ever removed a rocker stud? He said I just need a nut and a bunch of flat washers to pull the stud out. which is all good but how do I get the new one back it with out dinging it again? Is there any sealer I need to put in there first or how does it lock in place?

You should be able to pull it out with the washer stack up and your impact gun. You might want to consider putting a threaded replacement stud in there to replace the press style. Just ream it out and hand tap the heads.
Good luck!

[JRBECK64]

Have you thought about running a set of rod guides with hardend pushrods after you change out the Rocker Studs? You might also want to change out all the Rocker Studs if you have the heads off the engine and in a good place to work on them. Maybe step up to a set of Roller Rockers? You have a great looking truck and I know it sucks putting all that work into it and then it sets in the garage because of a bent pushrod. Hope you get it back up and running soon.

JRBECK64