First 60k by owner - some notes (long)

[shobikes]

Greetings all, and THANKS SHOForum!!!

We did it! Jelloslug and I got together to do his rod bearings and my 60k yesterday - hopefully he'll post some pics wink - two SHO's in the shop at one time!

I don't wanna spoil his story, but his job went very well.

I did the 60k IAW the Nunnally video, and with help from notes compiled on SHOForum. I did the upper first - valve lash, thermostat, temp sender. All that went well - I had 2 intake valves out of spec (.011), but didn't have any shims on hand. I don't think I'm going to sweat it, as the engine was really starting to cool down by that point, and .001 ain't much.

:::I DID make a sketch of the top of the engine, and write down each clearance AND the shim size for each valve, so if I get shims next time I'll know what sizes to get.

The new thermostat didn't have a bleed hole, so rather than wait and have to do this again, I drilled a 5/64" hole in the appropriate place and installed that sucker.

The 3.0l rear valve cover is a BITCH to get off & on - no matter what! I had to do it twice - see below.

Once the torque limiter, PS reservoir, battery, and hood are out of the way, the front 60k is really very accessible. The only issues I had were a difficulty positioning the crank pulley so that the puller would clear the frame member. We had to screw around rotating the engine by hand back and forth 90 degrees or so, so that the timing marks were in the right spot before pulling the belt. The last person do do the service on my car damaged the woodruff key, so the pulley did NOT "slide right off." Same ******* tried to pull the crank gear by the CPS ****** squint , so it was all misshapen (I fixed it, and lightly filed the key to remove the dings).

:::The crank bolt really does come loose using the starter-bump method! And it didn't even break the cheap-ass ratchet we used.

:::The crank seal really is easy to remove with two drywall screws, and then to replace it with a big round thing.

:::15 ft-lb on intake manifold bolts isn't very much. 125 ft-lb on the crank bolt is. You can't torque that sucker solo - get an assistant. We put the car in first and held the brake HARD. I think I was slipping the clutch trying to get that bolt to torque.

::on't put on the crank pulley and torque the bolt before you put on the lower timing cover. You'll have to do it twice. headbang (But it will come apart easier the second time.)


My timing belt tensioner wasn't wound correctly. I don't know what was holding proper tension on the belt, other than I had manually tensioned it a month or two ago to address some pinging, as a stopgap. Make sure the tensioner spring tang is properly positioned against its pin, and then wound all the way clockwise before installing the belt.

:::We popped off the accessory tensioner pulley bearing covers and repacked them while they were off. They felt not so bad to begin with, but much better after.

ALL DONE! And it starts right up, idles smooth - no vacuum leaks, no coolant leaks, warms up, then...SHIT! Major oil leak down the back of the engine, from right behind the wire bundle from ****! It's about 3am. What are ya gonna do? Quickly pop the intake manifold, and those damn manifold supports off the rear, check with a mirror to see the valve cover gasket rolled out of its groove right adjacent to the wire bundle from ****, which is normally bolted to the manifold support, and is nearly immobile. Pop the valve cover back off, lift it enough to push the gasket back into its groove by feel, while shellshocked assistant holds stupid wire bundle out of the way. Button it back up, double check with a mirror BEFORE reinstalling the manifold supports and wire bundle and intake manifold (much quicker with TB coolant bypass done! ), and restart. NO LEAKS! Put hood on, clean up the shop, put away all the tools.

Got home at 5am, slept till noon. 60k DONE! thumb thumb

 

[SHO_Driver]

Sounds like a job well done. thumb

 

[jelloslug]

You only slept till noon? I went home an hour before you and I slept till 2:00 PM .
My rod bearings went almost flawlessly. Everything came apart easlly, even the oil pan did not fight me much. All 6 of the rod bearings were showing copper on the top bearing half. Everything went back together smoothly with exception of one oil pan nut that wanted to cross thread. Finally, no oil leaks! I did my tensioners Sunday. The tensioners were an adventure, it went like this: I was working on the front tensioner, having trouble getting the new chain in place. The chain would not fit between the end of the cams and the head casting. I came to the conclusion that the front exaust cam was going to have to come out to get the new chain in. In my haste to get finished I committed cardinal sin #1 when working in the SHO heads, I did not block the oil return passageways. First cam bearing cap bolt I pull out slips out of my well oiled fingers and goes clink, clink, plop! Right in to the oil pan eek! . After a large amount of cussing and storming around, I though about it for a while (after unsuccessfully fishing it out with a magnet) and remembered seeing where the oil returns were located in the block in relation the oil pan the day before. I also remembered that Ford did not design the oil returns, so they actually were made in a manor that would keep anything that fell down the returns from ever getting in harms way. I just went an got a spare cam bearing bolt that I had and went on my way. The front tensioner was weak and the back on was shot completely. Both chains were stretched around half a link. The engine is much smoother now with a bit better throttle response and no tapping from the top end .

 

[SHOguy 92]

sounds like you 2 had just tons of fun lol. with all that underhood room in these SHO's lol. well now you can feel better about having those done. my 60k will be done soon. how hard is the rod bearings to do?

 

[jelloslug]

The rod bearing have to be one of the easiest thinks I have done so far (I have done a full 60k, rod bearings, all 4 struts, H-brace, GTP arms, new bushings all around, motor mounts, SFB, full brake job all the way around, and timing chains & tensioners). Once you get the car on jack stands and get the y-pipe, starter, and oil pan off there is actually quiet a bit of room to work.

 

[Rockledge]

Holy cow! I thought I was fairly busy this weekend doing a rod bearing replacement job on my SHO, and then I read this thread and realize how easy I had it...lol!

I have a question...if there are 2 different SHOs getting worked on at the same time in the same place, does that mean that there is twice as much yelling and cussing going on?

Congrats to both of you guys on a job well done! thumb

 

[jelloslug]

Not much yell and cussing till around 2:00 AM when we found the oil leak wink .

 

[shobikes]

Ya know - there wasn't really any cussing. But then, we had a white one AND a black one. Maybe they cancelled each other out...?


Even when the oil leak became apparent, I was almost too tired to cuss - seemed like a waste of already dwindling energy. Just fix it, and get on with it.