ilber's stroker

[SilverXJ]

Light or dark blue?

[ilber]

don't remember, i will try to stop by the shop, but when i bought those, it had ford racing number and i did cross check for the associated flow rate @ rated pressure

[SilverXJ]

What do they run at your fuel rail pressure, and what if your fuel rail pressure?

[ilber]

well I have not have been here for a while.
so Since last time i was here I towed the jeep to the shop, buddy of mine spent 3 weeks, finally got my jeep started and dialed fuel in ( he is my buddy, and i would not try to screw him), so wile jeep was there had him rebuilt my carrier 9" rear ( seals leaked for 5+ years), slap new parking brake shoes. al in all i rolled from that occurance with about $400+
120 miles later I start backfiring, pull the valve cover off, popped the pushrods ( 2 different cylinders off). adjusted pushrods, back running good. 130 miles later, started the jeep and no back fire and i have 3psi of oil pressure. Well I pooped the brick, towed the jeep to the machine shop and told him FIX THE BIOTCH! 2 years close to 10Gs and i don't have a jeep that's even remotely reliable.
3 weeks later i was told the jeep was fixed, come pick up the jeep, i got $500+ bill for modifying valvecover and replacing throttle cable... well FURGE but hell if that's it, i will pay. drove the jeep 100+ miles home. Parked it for 6 days, on 7th day come out started- back fires like a mo-fo. I AM BEYOND PISSED. poped the valvecover off, sure as shit push rod poped off, but my rocker edge is nicely scraped. The machine shop tried to heat and stretch the valve cover metal, blew a hole, tried to patch it with peagen-shit welding technic... well I have a through hole.
I got BFH and just went out on the valvecover "getting more clerance". Called the shop and told them refund me some money. still waiting on their decision, but if by closing of the billing cycle don't hear from them, i will despute charges with CC. so all of this is water under the bridge... I destoied the engine because my dad didn't realized that jeep threw the pushrod and lost oil pressure. well hopefully i am done...
on a bright side, last week when i went to start my jeep and it poped the push rod, i got upset, went to a dealer and on the spot bought myself a brand new WK2 overlander Hemi. so i guess everything happens for a rreason, if YJ would have run as it should i would be hard pressed to write a 50k check, but being upset and such i did it. so now i have a tow vehicles and a toy vehicle:)
LONG LIVE JEEP. IF YOU WANT IT DONE RIGHT-DO IT YOURSELF!

[ilber]

more pics

[SilverXJ]

Why did the push rod pop out in the first place? Valve jamming on cover? FWIW the adjusters are beyond maxed out on the rockers. You needed longer pushrods.

[ilber]

that's correct, rocker jamming on the valve cover. this is the second set of pushrods that this machinist speced out! I have older one which are even .05" shorter!
this adjustment might be on a border line acceptable... the dude stopped being a friend after he charged me for the second engine and withing 200 miles it throwing the push rod he came out with EVERY EXCUSE n the book. Now he is saying it is my unti-pump up lifters loose pressure over night, but i am not buying it, since i can see the chunks of AL taken from rockers and rub marks on the VC.

[SilverXJ]

That adjustment is nowhere near acceptable. Way too far out. I suggest sending that pic to Randy Becker Jr [[email protected]] and see what is opinion is.

Also, what anti pump lifters do you have? Ones I have seen need a very precise pre load. Something like .005". Or maybe you have different lifters than I am thinking of.

Are you planning on fixing it? You weren't clear in the post but is the engine toast from low oil pressure?

[ilber]

nope the second engine lost oil pressure and ran less than 2 minutes with 3 psi. the pushrods have been reset, so engine is fine, hell it is fine...as far as lifters, the machinist is just puffing smoke! i have standard compcams one that came with the cam...
i might need to contact harland guy and see. measuring the pushrod length... well the shop with 20+ years in business one would not expect that, through...
jeep starts, drives all good right now ( until next time pushrod pops, but i anticapate that NOT happening any time soon)

[SilverXJ]

I just found this email from him

The most important thing is having the correct pushrod length. If you have the pedestal mount rockers, you need to screw the adjuster in the rocker as far as it will go .Then you need to back it out 1 full turn. This is where you want to start to figure your pushrod length. Set 1 cylinder at TDC and put in an adjustable pushrod, then bolt in the rockers. Start lengthening the adjustable pushrod until everything is just touching, lifter, pushrods, and rocker. This is your zero lash point. Remove the adjustable pushrod and measure it. Since the rockers are adjustable I’d add about .020 to the length to add some preload to the lifter.

[4.whoa]

Are you using a vc spacer? that should keep it from rubbing. IMO with the rockers hanging up it will keep "losing" pushrods. have you noticed it happining after higher rpm's?

[ilber]

i am not using VC spacer. it is a "custom valvcover, the one that uses 2 VC one welded on top af another . height is NOT my issue- width is! so I hammer the piss out of it now to "mashroom the upper portion of the valve coer. I do believe i beat this horse to death now.... i just can't believe that engine builder would not notice something like a rub marks on the VC.... I am upset with myself... i paid someone that was suppose to check and recheck everything... i am more than capable of assembling the engine, but i wanted to be 100% certain. well I am 10000000% certain that it was waste of money. close to 10K, insane amount of inconvinience, total towing of this vehicle is close to 300 miles.
and now i am being pointed out that machinist possibly got the pushrod length wrong!

... i am going to beat on GC just to let some frustration out....
for shits I will drive YJ to work next week, that would put 700+ miles in a hurry. if i pop the pushrod- i will try new/longer pushrods and if after that the jeep still misbehaves i will probably part the engine out...itnever made fanacial sense, but when my blood pressure elevates every time i think that jeep is broken AGAIN i just want to push it off the cliff

[SilverXJ]

That is shitty. Its pretty hard to find a machinist that knows shit anymore.

[ilber]

hello, guys
well it has been long enough for me to cool down ( since April). so now with a cooler head I am starting with engine #3 ( all in less than 3k miles and $10k or so)
I keep loosing my pushrods, so I do believe my pushrods are too short.
So my plan is
measure pushrod length needed to have sufficient adjustment, get 3rd set of push rods.
if this fails:
get new lifters ( not anti pumps, or whatever you would call those)

should this fail, well I probably going to get a crate 4.0 or just say f-ck it and buy another car... ( by another car i mean a TJ with blown motor and stuff hemi in it)

If anyone in colorado and can suggest a shop that KNOWS WHAT IT IS DOING, please chime in!

to recap:
after resetting pushrods the car runs great, if you don't start the engine for more than 15 hours, when you start it will just pop the pushrod out ( random cylinders, random valves)
as soon as it looses the pushrod the oil pressure goes to shit... well yeah you got no restriction where the pushrod was.


after last fiasco ( when I paid to a good shop for "fine tuning" the engine after #2 was installed), everything dialed in, I threw the pushrod 2 days later. I towed my jeep 100+ miles to the machinist and told him to fix it. 2 weeks later, 500+ for them "fixing" what was not suppose to be broken. drove the jeep home. Next day the jeep trows the pushrod out AGAIN. I requested 250 back from the shop, since I was not taking back to them. he put a fight, after some litigations we parted our ways. he might be a great shop and i have the shittiest luck, but i refuse to pay for 3rd engine ( yeah his suggestion was to scrap and start from scratch THIRD TIME) to the same guy. he had my jeep 3x, had my engine(s) 3 times... sorry but 6 chances is all i am willing to give. Iat this point i am probably close to 10k in spending, it is a shitty situation but i refuse to makeit any worth. I asked for 250 back from him for what he charged but didn' do ( like fix the valvecover-nope still had clerance issue plus a nice hole that he blew through it with a mig) so I asked to refund just a fraction, he fought, so I took all the charged from last trip, and frankly it was direct proportional how much crap he was going to put up. he refused charge back from CC company, i got lawyer.if he would fought that one, I would have gone for the engine#2 and basically I had a sceme in my head all the up to "pain and suffering"
so here i am at it again... suggestions?advise? join me for a stiff drink? because I am regretting ever messing with the cars...on a bright side WK2 rocks!
if anything else this thread should make some entertaining value i don't mind, I just want working car or I going to get another vehicle...
flame suit on...just in case if some of you would try to roast me, but i am a big boy, i made a few mistakes...
i would say it is a "jeep thing" but I don't want to drug up the Jeep thing due to my lack of common sence...

[Muad'Dib]

Does the same pushrod keep popping out? That sounds to me like a bad lifter. If random pushrods, then more likely than not too short pushrods. IMO.