Fighting a VERY stuck bolt in a bad spot. Out of ideas.

No phasers here. It is getting new timing components. I wonder if it was short tripped or something? The timing set is original and much better than the timing set that came out of the grand marquis engine. Guessing based on the condition of the timing set, this engine might only have 140,000 on it. But if it was short tripped, and with how quiet it is, I'm probably going to clean it out and run it. I am not, however, taking the time to pull the non-leaking left head to clean it off.
Ok, that's good. One less issue.

Speaking of sludge, not sure if you caught Kevin's 351. NSFW. It's only 1 minute inside of this hour long video, but it should make you feel better.
 
Ok, that's good. One less issue.

Speaking of sludge, not sure if you caught Kevin's 351. NSFW. It's only 1 minute inside of this hour long video, but it should make you feel better.


Oh yeah! Always watch his videos! As I was watching it I was thinking how I can relate to the massive oil leak thing. At least I have oil pressure and not as much sludge as that!
 
Those 2 valves are tough i owned a 97 since new until 2009. If I were you I would remove at least one camshaft and check for wear. Looks bad on the surface but it might be worth saving.
 
Those 2 valves are tough i owned a 97 since new until 2009. If I were you I would remove at least one camshaft and check for wear. Looks bad on the surface but it might be worth saving.

I'll be bringing the passenger side head to a machine shop to have the head checked and decked anyway. I'm not having a valve job or anything done, but I will need to pull the cam off .. or at least a few lash adjusters. So all of the valves are closed. Will be a good time to inspect the cam.
 
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Got the head back from the machine shop. They only had to take .004" off. Really suprised that it wasn't warped more and it hadn't been done before (not sure how they can tell that?). One of the head bolts didn't feel right coming off. I'm guessing that someone had this engine cooking, blew the head gasket and just changed it out without buying new head bolts.

The head had to be disassembled for the planing. They said everything looked good. I got the gasket and bolts in today. Still waiting on cam chains but I should be able to get the head on this weekend
 
Going to chase the head bolts first?

Are the head bolts one time use? you think they were reused? can you mic then?

The fact that one came out funny would bug me.
 
if she was running fine , re-gasket and send it with some synthetic of your favorite flavor.

Got it running again! Had a heck of a time getting the timing set up. I missed the line in the factory service manual where it said that the tensioner arms are different per side. Thought I rotated it backwards too far and hit a valve ... the process of setting timing is a bit weird. Have to get the crank and cams at one spot, then turn the crank back and lock the tool in. When turning it back I had a hard stop. Not ideal but thankfully I wasn't moving it back too far.

Due to sludge, I did put in new tensioners. I downgraded to the 97-mid year 01 metal body ratcheting tensioners. These are the most desirable for any of the 2 and 3v triton engines, with the non-ratcheting metal tensioners like my engine originally had being 2nd. I doubt I'll ever put enough miles on this engine to wear out timing components but ...

The head is pretty well corroded where the #1 exhaust manifold port is. I lathered it up with red goo like before, but I bet it'll blow through eventually.

Also it looks like the head was corroded by the oil passage. There's still some corrosion from the oil passage to the outside but as long as it's not losing a quart of oil every 75 miles...

Sounded real bad when I was cranking it to pump up the tensioners. Not a gallop but something was off. Guessing it was a combination of tensioners being lose and the lash adjusters on the head being not pumped up. But once I cranked until the oil pressure light went out, it fired right up. Coughed for a second but figured itself right out.
 
Got it running again! Had a heck of a time getting the timing set up. I missed the line in the factory service manual where it said that the tensioner arms are different per side. Thought I rotated it backwards too far and hit a valve ... the process of setting timing is a bit weird. Have to get the crank and cams at one spot, then turn the crank back and lock the tool in. When turning it back I had a hard stop. Not ideal but thankfully I wasn't moving it back too far.

Due to sludge, I did put in new tensioners. I downgraded to the 97-mid year 01 metal body ratcheting tensioners. These are the most desirable for any of the 2 and 3v triton engines, with the non-ratcheting metal tensioners like my engine originally had being 2nd. I doubt I'll ever put enough miles on this engine to wear out timing components but ...

The head is pretty well corroded where the #1 exhaust manifold port is. I lathered it up with red goo like before, but I bet it'll blow through eventually.

Also it looks like the head was corroded by the oil passage. There's still some corrosion from the oil passage to the outside but as long as it's not losing a quart of oil every 75 miles...

Sounded real bad when I was cranking it to pump up the tensioners. Not a gallop but something was off. Guessing it was a combination of tensioners being lose and the lash adjusters on the head being not pumped up. But once I cranked until the oil pressure light went out, it fired right up. Coughed for a second but figured itself right out.
nice work !
 
Well definitely need an alternator. Buttoned everything back up and the alternator seized up. Apparently leaving it on the concrete floor for a month was a bad idea.

Took it for a spin and got it up to temperature. Hit the Rev limiter in the driveway. Backed out on the bald crown victoria tires and buried it in 1 inch of snow.

Still need to get some miles on it before I sink money into an alternator and some good oil.
 
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