new stroker build, some issues

[6TIME]

Looks like with the 232-4 cam you'll be a bit under 300lbs open. That's quite a bit. Keep in mind that the more spring load you run the more friction on the lobes.. I've run that cam at 80lbs seat 240lbs open with no problems. Are you cutting the spring seats to make 1.8" or can you muster it with the keeper/retainer combo?

[danimal]

cutting the seats was the plan.

[danimal]

well i thought i had figured out the problem. Distributor had TONS of shaft play. Bushings were shot. Replaced that and drove it around, it seemed better. But after it warmed up, it was back to running poor. The next day, the oil pressure stopped rising when i drove it around, instead of 20psi at idle and 45psi driving, it was 20psi all around. If i got on the gas, it almost seemed to drop a few psi and go up a few when i let it coast at highway speed (3krpm in 5th gear). It sounds rough when i first fire it up, like all the lifters are flat and it takes 10 seconds or so for the noise to go away.
So i carefully drove it back home and drained the oil. It was fairly pearly and had some ferrous muddy looking paste at the bottom of the pan. So definitely some metal in there from something.
I took a bright light and checked out the cam, it looked fine visually. Not sure if that means much though. I pulled one rod cap and the crank and bearing didnt look too bad. nothing suspicious but i will plastigauge it and check the rest. I pulled the oil pump apart and the bores looked pretty scored up, as did the bottom plate and gears. I checked the clearance and .005" shim stock fit easily. I'd say it was .006" or .007". There was a tiny bit of slop in the oil pump shaft/bore, maybe .002". This was a new meling stock replacement pump. I suspect some of the damage could have been caused by the loose distributor shaft, but who knows. I do not think this was enough to produce all the metal in the pan.
I am about to pull the head off to check the lifters and cam, along with put the ls1 springs in.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?
Thanks!

[danimal]

So i pulled the head. Lots of carbon on the pistons and head for only 500 miles. but nothing else looked bad. all the lifters were still domed, pistons looked ok, push rods looked ok, all rod bearings looked ok, no excessive junk in the oil filter, etc.
I have all the rods and pistons out right now so i could check for a cracked ring and look for huge weight variences. no cracked rigs.

[SilverXJ]

Do you have any pics of the crank case? Have you verified your oil pressure with a real gauge? What about the distributor gear and oil pump drive shaft?

[danimal]

the distributor is brand new, i just put it in a few days ago because the old one was wasted. I didnt really need to verify the oil pressure, it sounded like it was really low on pressure. I do trust the gauge to an extent.

I pulled all the pistons and weight matched them and the rods. They were about 17g off at the most on the piston end and 5g off on the crank end. Now each piston/rod/bearing assembly is within 1g of eachother.

No pics, but i can take some if you want something specific.

[the grey ghost]

What does the distridutor drive gear on the camshaft side look like?

[danimal]

What does the distridutor drive gear on the camshaft side look like?

didnt look terribly bad. i mean i didnt run a pattern or anything on it. lol

[danimal]

So it runs fine when cold, as soon as it gets up to temp, it gets valvetrain clatter and really low oil pressure.
Here's what i did this last go-round:
new oil pump
new rod bearings (however, they werent that bad)
pulled the pistons/rods and weight matched them to 1g
milled head for ls1 springs and retainers (118lbs closed, 306lbs open, tested. 1.8" installed height)
pulled all lifters and inspected with straight edge, all were good.
visually inspected cam bearings from underneath with the oil pan off, no bearing material squeezed out that i could see on any bearings
fresh 30 weight and wix filter


I did not change the main bearings for 2 reasons.... they were about a week out and i didnt want the jeep down that long, and the rod bearings didnt look that bad so i didnt suspect the mains to be bad. However, i think changing them is the next step since i should have them sometime this week. Then i'm really not too sure where to go from there. I did run it with the valve cover off and there is oil coming out of all push rods, so i do not think i spun a cam bearing, but i guess i could be wrong, what do you guys think?

[danimal]

Ok so i'm starting to think my distributor is not right. I just exchanged it because the shaft was wobbly, and now it falls completely flat as soon as you touch the throttle. I took it off, checked the clocking, and it seemed to be right. but i can't tell, it doesn't seem to fal in line perfect to where the images ive seen online say it should be. Also, the cam position sensor in the distributor was assembled incorrectly it appears. It was clocked to the wrong side of the threaded hole where the screw that holds it in place goes. I fixed that, but it still seems to fall somewhat flat. Any ideas? does the comp 232 need to have the ears cut off the distributor or something?

[6TIME]

You do not need to cut the ears off the dizzy. How does the drive gear look? Expect some valvetrain clatter with that cam.... 15w-40 helped quiet mine down a bit. How low is your oil pressure?

[danimal]

oil pressure issue seems to be fixed. new main bearings.
the issue now is it has zero power. I can drive it around without giving it any real throttle and it's fine, but the second you put any throttle or load on it, it bogs and all you hear is the air filter sucking.

I've checked:
camshaft timing..... timing gears/chain were on correctly
fuel pressure.... i have a gauge on at all times. it's 30-40psi
catalytic converter..... it is clear, as is the rest of the exhaust
codes..... it had a code 54. i checked and replaced the distributor several times. i measured the distance from the rotor to the bushing for the wire, and it was sort of in between two teeth. There was no way for me to get it perfect without rotating the distributor 5 degrees or so.
distributor gear looked ok, cam gear didnt look bad either

[6TIME]

You might want to inspect the distributor module plug and trace the wire back a ways to confirm it isn't damaged somewhere. You can confirm the dizzy being indexed and functioning properly with a timing light. It should be around 15* before at idle and about 34-36* at 3000+rpm.

[danimal]

it's about 11 or 12 at idle, cant tell how far it travels when revved with my light, but it goes out of my visual range. probably in the 30's.

[danimal]

well i'm absolutely stumped, and pretty over it at this point. about ready to tear it out and throw in a used 4.0. i tried swapping the tps, o2 sensor, map sensor, etc.
Fuel pressure seems to be in the 27-39lb range now... do you guys think that is low enough to cause issues?