all about timing

It's been a bit of a frustrating week on the truck front. Monday afternoon, I had some extra time on my hands, so I decided to do some follow up maintenance to the 454. This engine had 360 miles on it, when I got the truck, so it is now "broken in," and ready for some minor adjusting. The valves (in the heads of the engine), fall into this category. This is not typically a major job, but leave it to my recent luck to turn this into a major job. I first, adjusted the valves by the book, I followed the same method I have used for years, on V8s. As I was re assembling everything, literally, the last bolt I was tightening... BROKE! The bolt broke off inside the head of the engine! it broke flush with the surface. insert moment of quiet panic, and anxiousness, followed quickly by loud outbursts of select expletives--here.

So now, this is priority no. 1. Get the bolt out. I drilled successfully into the center of the bolt, with a small drill bit, and proceeded to follow the small bit with gradually larger bits, until the bolt was able to be pulled out in small pieces. so, I'm out of the woods, right? everything is moving-relatively-smooth. ok... last drill bit size, here comes the bolt, awesome... SNAP! The ... wait, what? (it is beginning to get a little dark out) what just snapped? oh! of course it is the drill bit... so.. F*C@!#@$!!! Now I have a broken drill bit, inside of a broken bolt, inside of the head!

24 hrs later, some expensive drill bits, some careful dremmel-ing, and holding my tongue right, and we have usable threads! ok-- button it up, tighten the bolts, and let's get this thing running.

CRANK, CRANK, CRANK... NOTHIN'. crank...crank...crank...BOOM! I'm pretty sure that backfire cleared out all the deer in a ten mile radius :) well... truck's not running, what happened? must have messed up something in the valve adjustment??

oh geez.. It's now Saturday, and this is easily one of the most frustrating mechanic days, I have had in a long time. That's the most of the drama really, bottom line, it took me the entire day, saturday, to get the valves adjusted correctly, and the problem ended up being a combination valve adjustment, and timing. all in all, the timing of the stroke of the engine, is a VERY finicky, low tolerance, fine tuned, process.

The truck DOES run smoother, and start, and shut down much cleaner. But, taking a running vehicle, adjusting something to make it run better, and then ending up with a non-running vehicle, is extremely frustrating. I'm glad it's done, and in the future, even though you are supposed to adjust the valves after break-in, If the engine is running great, LEAVE IT ALONE!

I have done some body work on the truck, another post coming soon about all that progress.

thanks for checkin in :)