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Reply to "Longchamp +100 HP"

The most common cause of a bent push rod is a stuck valve.

If the engine layed without running it for a long period of time, this could have been the cause.
Better to use bronze valve guides then the original cast in iron ones.

I have seen on the 428 engines valve guides that are too tight new. It's an easy fix when the heads are off the engine though. Run an 11/32" reamer through them to make sure they are straight. 3/8" on the FE's.

When you replace the original guides with the pressed in bronze guides you MUST do this anyway. The pressure from pressing them in can distort them enough for the valve stems to get hung up when the engine is hot.

The FE's run hotter normally than the Cleveland or the Ford SB does.

A flat cam lobe could easily be caused by using engine oil with not enough ZDDP in it.

Many owners are simply not knowledgeable enough to realize how important that is?

Better to have too much in it than not enough.

Make sure you use plenty of the cam shaft break in compound on your new cam and lifters.

The first few minutes are critical and you can kill the valve train on first fire up if you don't liberally coat everything in it.

ALL of the afermarket cam manufacturers are using cast iron cam blanks from "OFFSHORE" sources. They only spot check the cores when loading them into the cam grinding machines.

A noticeable amount are coming through with visible defects on them fresh out of the box, Check your new camshaft over carefully. Do not assume it is perfect and without defects.

There have been those that used 3/8" push rods on the Cleveland for as long as I can remember. Probably just using the hardened 5/16" that you ordinarily would on a solid lifter cam with guide plates would be enough.

I did have a brand new set of Crane hardened 5/16" push rods break on me though. If you look at the push rods, they have little dimple welds that hold the round tips to the tubes.

On the Cranes, the cracked through those welds and about 4 of the tips came off into the engine on the lifter side.

I went back to the TRW Boss 351 service push rods and have never had another issue since in 30 years. I run triple valve springs also, so there's a lot of pressure on the valve train.

Never bent a push rod in a Cleveland. Yes in a 428 AND 351w.

I have heard of the lifter bores being too tight on some engines as well. Personally I have not encountered that yet though.

Maybe consider using the Wyandorff bronze lifter inserts? The kit comes with a reamer to clearance the sleeves once you press them in.

Theoretically you can do the modification on the block on the engine in the car, but you need to catch ALL of the metal debris you create from boring out the lifters and that is much simpler with the block disassembled and on an engine stand.

Incidentally, the drag racers here use a C4 automatic trans behind the Clevelands. They are much lighter and can handle the power of the Cleveland. The C6 is considerably heavier.
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