After getting my car running again(bad fuel pump) It seems rougher at idle than I recall it being before, but more worrying is the noise I can hear coming from it, it was pretty cold out today so I think this exasperated it, because of the way cold temp affects engine tolerances, but I think my piston rings are fried, while idling it kind of sounds like something is slapping around a bit in the rotating assembly, I am suspecting whatever the problem is might be worsened by cold, and might have been caused from it going lean a couple times(really low on gas...sputtering a bit...) thinking I will have to put the video on youtube for someone to hear it, it sounds great at speeds above idle and you can't hear the clanging either because it stops or gets drowned out...At any rate I am afraid I might have to pull the engine and redo the bottom end, also the engine has 160k on the bottom end, and new lifters cam, which makes me def think bottom end. But would like to hear what people think it is...Will have to post the video when I get home to my comp. Also it is making a decent bit of white smoke, and I know its cold out, but it makes a lot when revved...on the other side it seems highly unlikely that my gaskets are bad or heads cracked(gaskets have 2 weeks of driving on them and aren't even half a year old, heads were magnafluxed about a year ago, or w/e process is used to check for cracks) Just isn't a good sound, but there is no blue smoke and idk what it would be other than rings....

 

Rod bearing possibly.

 

Someone suggested to me that it could actually be top end, maybe a rocker came loose? thoughts? It does have a pretty recent rebuild on it, with somewhat mixed valvetrain, ie. not already all worn in with each other for the components.

 

Reviving this thread kinda, pulled the manifolds, every rocker but like 2 are loose.....and I followed the valve lash adjustment procedure from my haynes to the T, any particular reason they would all be loose? I suspect it might be because the valvetrain isn't worn in together, cam is virtually brand new, and it and the lifters were in my prior 2.8 briefly before I found the crack in the block, the pushrods, guideplates, rocker arms, studs and pivot bowls are all from the 3.4 since the 2.8 ones were in rough shape from rust caused by coolant in the 2.8s oil(PO told me it just needed HGs....) so I am guessing that perhaps they just need broken in together a bit more, but if anyone has any advice on how often I should check them or how long it might take to break them in with each other that would be helpful.

 

Ok, my haynes says 3/4 turn past 0 lash, and 60degreev6 says 1.5 turns past 0 lash, seeing as how I followed my haynes last time and my rockers are pretty gd loose I think I will try going off 60degreev6 site, but would like to hear if anyone goes by the 1.5 turns, I would rather not wipe my cam lobes if that's too tight.....

 

1.5 is correct.

 

Yeah, thats what I'm figuring, I also bet it idles just fine after I tighten them back down, the ses light came on when I tried to drive it, but whole time I had it on the road the ses light would randomly come on with no apparent issues, I suspect the EGR not being hooked up is what was setting it off, I do still need new rings sooner than later though, but eh, should be fine for now, hell this is probably why I had to blip the throttle to get it to start too, I mean, they were loose to the point of being past 0 lash even......stupid friggin haynes, best use I ever got out of that thing was putting out a fire when my headers lit the ground up on a test fire.....dove under there and flailed away with the haynes like a mad man, lmao.

Also just curious, have you adjusted your own valve lash to 1.5 turns, and if so worked fine I assume? Like I said, don't want to fry my shiny delta 260 cam...

 

I've seen alot of misinformation come from haynes books. I adjusted my 2.8 to 1.5 turns when I had it and that's how I adjust 3100's with stamped rockers (slightly different design but still correct).

 

Alright, 1.5 it is, wish me luck this solves the issues, do you think it will make it run good again? It ran great before the fuel pump went out, then these issues cropped up after I got a new one in it, it was def the pump that put it out of commission though.

 

Setting my lash today and on the first pass every valve set just fine except #5 intake valve, its tightened a good bit more than all the others which are more or less identical, but I had to have #5 intake tight enough it made the engine encounter major resistance, took me a minute to figure out wtf it didn't want to turn over and winded it back, then up to the point of resistance again, and wouldn't you know encountered resistance just after #5 intake started to lift.

I'm fearing my cam might have a wiped lobe or something? but if thats the case then I wouldn't be encountering this much resistance, so why does that rocker want to be so much more tightened than the others??????