the oil leak sounds like the front and rear pan seals are leaking, did you use a 1 peice oil pan seal, or the 4 peice one that comes with most rebuild gasket kits?

 

I should of just rebuilt and made that 305 look pretty, or gone with a 350.

Anyway here is the pic of where the sensor is for my aftermarket gauge. its right in the top of the temperature housing. Think that could effect the reading of the temperature?

 

I used a 1 peice oil pan gasket.

 

Make sure that when you are looking for leaks to put into play how the leak can actually be up farther on the engine then where it is dripping from. On my Full Size Blazer it looked like my rear main seal was leaking. I got under it and sprayed everything down clean with brake cleaner. And then let it run while sitting. And could trace where it came from. It ended up being the back of the intake.

 

Also throwing it out there.. The engine only overheats at idle. it was fine on the highway. still wondering if that sensor on my thermostat is fine.

 

Your not getting enough air at idle.Electric 14's Crown Vic fan will handle that.

 

Engine temp should go up at idle. it should go up a lot. I would get that Crown vic/Taurus fan too. That fan swap is known to flow better than aftermarket fan setups. Much better than aftermarket. Capable of like 4500 cfm's and there is a high speed and low speed. I had one on my 5.0 HO car. Just make sure you use a big 40 amp relay with it.

 

What year Crown Vic fan do you guys think?

and do you also need some type of shroud? I have an aluminium fan shround on my radiator.

What you think of the Mark 8 fan?

 

Mine was off of a 95 Crown Vic, Mark 8 fan is just as good. or a Taurus 3.8. . No shroud needed , it should come as an assembly. I would look in Summit though and get a fan controller.I think the there is one made by derale or some brand for under $100, but it is worth it.

 

I have a Hayden fan controller for my 2 fans. Can I use that?

On my Oil leaks I think the back oil leak was from the distributor not being tight enough. But here is my big one. Right in the front. the 3rd picture of the top of the timing chain cover some oil appears to just be bubbling. But the first 2 pics its leaking like 1 drop over 3 seconds.

 

and oil is bubbling from the sides of my manifolds slightly. Maybe fix by tightening the manifolds a little more?

 

Looks like the front cover is dinged right where it is leaking. I never liked those chromed cover things - thin metal, usually poorly made. If you want chrome, have a factory part plated.

Did you use sealant on the threads of the intake manifold mount bolts?

 

idk my granpas friend did my manifold while I was at work. I guess I will need to redo my front timing chain cover huh.... eh I guess that cant be to hard.

Here is another video of the car starting up. The smoke coming out, possible blown head gasket? If so do you think that could cause my overheating. and then my fans would possibly be fine?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRZBrFkf2oE

 

You might be able to tap on the timing cover where it is dinged to get it to stop leaking. I'd put a factory one on, though.

Smoke looks like valve stem seals. Slim possibility that it is intake manifold gaskets.

 

idk man,mine has light white smoke coming out occasionally,it gets heavier during the winter. makes me wonder if i may have some warpage?? idk, mine has been like that 2yrs and still runs its *** off,doesnt run hot tho. your car does sound badass man.

 

what engine/exhaust mods you got?

 

Umm its a 400sbc. dont remember the exact mods. but the exhaust is a true dual setup with Hooker shorty headers and flowmaster 10series mufflers.

it does sound pertty mean lol :]

 

For a future reference. What kind of heads would you guys recommend. Preferably heads that are around $1000 for a pair. (If possibly maybe the 400 steam hole drilled) If I were to get new heads would I have to get a new manifold and do the heads have to match the camshaft? Was looking at these. http://www.summitracing.com/parts/EDL-5089

 

Those would be pretty good. They would use the "standard" type intake - just match the cam & intake (if mild cam then mild intake; if wild cam then wild intake) and you should be good.

They don't have the steam holes drilled, by the way. Not a big deal, pretty simple to do.

 

Ah ok finally I knew i posted what kind of camshaft I had. Found it.
Crane#114142 Compucam.
Would those heads I posted work with my camshaft?
and my intake manifold is a Holley strip dominator.
and would I still be able to use pump gas? (stock crank and pistons)

 

Is my stock alternator ok with that kind of CFM?

 

That is why you use the relay.

The smoking we covered way back at the first part of the thread I think.You seemed to just go pass that,so I thought you found a solution.It isn't going to fix it's self if you didn't.To ignore stuff like that could turn out very badly costing you tons more to take care of it.Blowing smoke on start up with a 400 overheating at idle who knows how many times that has happened,well I am telling you the 400's are not that tolerating of a overheat issues.

 

I just got back into working on the car a couple days ago when I got my new transmission back in.

I was thinking about doing the chemical test in the radiator? Can I just get that at a parts store?

 

The other day while I was filming the smoke. I guess it doesnt really overheat at Idle. Only when there is a load on it and at lower speeds. Tomorrow were going to try to move my temperature sensor to the manifold and out of the top of the waterneck, because that may cause me to get a false reading. Really looking at them 14" crown vic fans though, what year crown vic should I get it off of?

 

I managed to stop that leak on the front by tapping it like you said, think i might be able to stick a little bit of RTV up in it? But now I have 3 little spots appearing on the back behind the oilpan and between the bellhousing. Gonna check up top tommorrow when the car aint so hot.

 

got the crown vic fan.

 

Hey what kind of power do you think your making from your new engine?

 

and what part of ft worth you in, i might wanna come take a look

 

I dont know how much power I would make. Maybe like 350 TOPS. Just gotta wire the fan properly.

 

You by far beat me at this, i just did a 305 to a built 350 and i had an engine guy build my engine. I dropped the engine in my self and hooked everything up, then got the automatic rebuilt. Then dropped it at a shop to finish anything i missed and and get the car 100% street running. I learned a lot, but theres a lot i dont know/cant do + no one here to help/guide me. Let us know the results of the new fan and good job on the swap!

 

Just caught this thread. I have to disagree with five 7 on the cause of your oil smoke. That looks more to me like rings. Was this engine overhauled before you installed it? If so you need to perform a ring seating procedure. If it wasn't overhauled, you get what you got.

Ring seating is simple. Run the engine on a single weight such as 30 or 40 weight oil for the first 1000mi and keep the revs below 3,000. If you are running a flat tappet cam, I hope you did the break in when you first started the motor. You'll also need to add ZDDP to the oil or use a high content oil which you can find through Jegs. Find a steep hill where you can repeatedly run up and down in 2nd gear letting the engine control speed as much as possible as you descend the hill. Go up and down several times, keeping the revs below 3,000.

Repeat this several times during the first 1,000 miles. That will help your rings seat to the cylinder wallls and ring grooves and reduce your blowby.

 

Sorry I havent updated a while, I go back and forth working on my third gen and working on my 94 Z28, my second baby :]

It still has the original pistons and crankshaft ASE doc. @ camaro1122 haha ya I kind of wish I had a shop do it all so I would be done, but i have learned alot doing it this way. I could take my 88 apart and put it back together, I love this car even though its a pain.

Gotta re-do the stripes on my 94.

 

Guess we'll know in a thousand miles or so...

 

Lol. Yeah brother I guess so.

 

Best of luck to you Bro, and keep us posted on your progress.

 

So I just went over this thread and thought i'd try to chip in since I just did a 305 to 400 sbc swap in my 85 trans am... I'm still working issues out but i'm on the road with it so here goes. Most importantly, it's way too easy to overthink problems... Overheating, nevermind stock or aftermarket gauges. Get an infrared temp gun and start pointing it all over the engine after it warms up...the heads, intake, rad hose, etc. I kept reading too hot on gauges but found out they lie badly. I currently run a temp gauge switch in my intake to my stock temp gauge in the cluster but I only use it to verify my fans turning on. I used to run an aftermarket fan set to run constantly, but learned my lesson and bought a set of LS1 dual fans and now control them with a radiator probed fan switch set to turn both fans on at 160° with the same rating thermostat... "overheating" solved. Mine is a 1970 monte carlo 4 bolt and I set it up with a bigger cam, stock heads, edelbrock 2701 intake, edelbrock 1411 carb, edelbrock headers, a 1 inch carb spacer, and a cs130 alternator all in front of my stock T5. Hope this info helps ya, PM me if you need any more info.
John

 

Would never use stock guts on a 400 they are no good and not made 4 racing high revs. When u get new 1000 heads get a rotory kit from summit a good one wil run under 800 if u stay under 500hp. When ever getting a used block or trans save u some time and get it hot tanked and run threw the trans. Good luck and I ran a 160 stat in my 305 all summer and sume fall didn't have much heat but never gave me any probs with dual fans always running it stayed at 115 wen driving and 130 at idle on a hot day I live up north

 

Going to pull the the driver head tomorrow to comfirm my suspicions about the head gasket. From what I found out. The problem might have been infront of me the whole time.

 

I am very curious what you find.

 

It appears that my engine has steam holes and it has the right gaskets that have steam holes right?

 

But this looks bad, does this head not have steam holes???......... This is the bottom of one of my heads.

 

id be more concernced with the dings in all the pistons that looks like contact with the valves...

 

unless the pistons were made that way

 

We did talk about this pages ago.ALL 400's have steam holes!!.

Given how many times this have been overheated and we talked about how 400's are not forgiving for that,you should run a straight edge over the deck and the heads corner to corner.Again 400s don't like that.

As what is posted,marks on pistons mean(I can't see in the thumb nails that well)that contact was made in a valve float and both heads have to come off and checked for valve damage.So while the machine shop has the heads for the valves,has them checked to see if they got warped,then have them drilled for the steam holes.


Keep us updated please.

 

ok, ive done ALOT of research on 400's since i have two and am building one right now. your heads do NOT have steam holes, those are 76 cc 350 truck heads, the tech data is wrong. 882 are smog heads and are GARBAGE. they are 1.94/1.5 valve heads as well. get a good set of 64 CC heads and enjoy the extra power, make sure steam holes are drilled! whoever dumped the money into having screw in studs and guide plates installed on those wasted it. also, the divots in your pistons are called valve reliefs, normal.

 

the valve reliefs normally dont extend all the way to the edge of the piston....however after doing a little searching myself it seems that the 400's pistons were made that way for valve clearance.

 

a valve hitting a piston would NEVER create a divot THAT deep, further more you'd HEAR that kind of contact, and on top of that, the valves themselves would be DESTROYED. if you want to use those heads, and that's fine, take them to a machine shop and have the holes drilled. shouldnt cost much

 

Yeah I couldn't see in the pics supplied.Valve reliefs are normal.I come from a background that yrs ago we used to use bearing spacers and a 350 crank.Seems like from the stone age now.

Of course there is a reason for the aftermarket SHP blocks and most of that stems from the shortcomings of the OEM 400s.

Five7 told you he thought the smoke was a ring issue.Given the overheating,a tip is while you have the heads off,is to oil down the cylinders down and rotate it to see if you have a oil line drawn on the bores.If you see that,the likely hood you have a ring issue.The logic is the 400's have a bad habit of the cylinders moving around alot and with the overheating,one might be out of whack.I'm tell you these things from yrs of dealing with 400s and certainly not for the effect of drama.

 

Actually, I thought it was valve stem seals, based on the video.

If the engine has been overheated, it needs to be checked over thoroughly.

The one 400 SBC I had blew a lower radiator hose, no temp gauge ('70 Impala), it got pretty thoroughly overheated before I knew something was wrong. It broke some top compression rings, but we didn't know that until it had several thousand more miles on it. It was reringed, standard size, ran about 40k more miles before the car fell apart around the engine. It had about 150k miles on it when it overheated.

 

it depends on what he means by over heated too, 230 degrees is not over heating, actually thats what my old TPI used to run on a hot *** day