Edelbrock heads

Nope. That's about the way to do them. Fun isn't it? Oh I forgot. I'm not an expert on hydraulics. I run solids.

Sorry. Forget I said anything.

This forum is great, I should have did a search on past threads first. I found tons of info. sorry to waste anyones time ...

Oh Doug,

Yeh it's fun. Sitting on the ZF reaching in to #1 and trying to spin the pushrod. Then get out of the engine bay and turn the crank from the passenger seat. Then repeat. But when I get out and look at the Pantera I realize why I love this car, dispite the sore back and legs...

To avoid that hassle, you need a FRIEND. That's why it's good to have friends, to help you with the 2 man jobs on your Pantera

Just get a remote starter button.

Well I got the valves finally adjusted. It appears that the Crane roller hydraulic lifters don't bleed down very fast therefore make it very difficult to adjust. According to Crane it takes a day to slow bleed them down. After tighting each one down 1/10 turn every few minutes I was able to bleed them down then adjust em. Now that it's running as well as it was before the retorque with no leaks yet (it never leaked at idle) I'll take it out and get on it some and see if it leaks.

Your in-and-out experience is another reason I always adjust valves with the engine running. Sure, its sloppy, makes a mess and you can only do about half per session, but it for-sure gets them correctly adjusted. Seems that even with 5 decades of practice (hydraulics and solids), I still can't get all 16 correctly set cold so that when the engine's hot they're also correct. After running the engine until the gauge says its hot, pull a valve cover and tug on the rocker arms- you'll likely find one thats tight and one thats loose (at least!)

I gave up on hydraulic lifters years ago exactly for this reason. The ONLY way, in my opinion, to use them is with a bolt down, non-adjustable valve train. In my opinion that is what hydraulic lifters are are for.

Not only are these things likely to act as BossWrench says but they are going to do this again after you think they are finally adjusted. Particularly after you run hard and you kill the viscosity of the engine oil a little.

I don't know why anyone wants the agravation of anti-pumpup hydraulic lifters in an adjustable valve train. Solids are 1000% easier to do.

I don't even know how to do the lifters with the engine running in a Pantera BW? You must have some kind of a harness that suspends you above the hot drive train?

How do you keep from burning your hands and finger tips?

The only lifter to use with an adjustable valve train is a solid.

Like I said, having fun yet?

I totally agree with you BW. In the day, I actually collected valve covers from various engines and I would hacksaw them down the middle in order to get the socket in. This stopped some of the mess. I never tried the small little clips that you could attach to the rockers push rod side to deflect the oil down. I asked Crane about adjusting them while running and they said don't, but gave me no reason why. Doug, I agree with you on the solids. I really wanted a solid roller cam from Crane but with the Edelbrock heads the max lift I could go was .600 and Crane has no solid roller with a smaller that .600 lift. I did ask Crane if I could give up with the hydraulic and go to a roller solid, since it's a roller I thought no problem. They said I could but the ramp on the lobe is slightly different with the solid, not quite as steep I think. But Doug I do really like solids, even the little clatter sound of valves adjusted perfectly. I still have to put my stud girdle ono now that they sound OK, BW, I'm sure you are right, I'll find some tight and some loose. It will be very tough to resist adjusting them again, no , no no ......

Well went for a ride today, dang it's noisy with the bulkhead off. Did not really jump on it too much, pavement a bit wet and with the bulkhead off it really wakes you up when you pounce on it. After this run no leak. When the pavement gets dryer I really give it a test.

bulkhead out...

With tub and cover

Well, we finally had a break in the snow and I got a chance to run the Pantera bit. Not so good news. While the engine ran great, it still let out a very small bit of coolant again. This only happens when high reving for a while. It looks like the heads are coming off. I don't want any problems in Reno. After I check the heads and BLOCK for straigntness and a possible "skimming" of the heads I'll reasemble. I was just wondering what head gaskets you all with aluminum heads are using? I'm a bit leary fo the Felpro now. I saw some new stuff in Engine Masters mag that you can put on head gaskets, I don't recal the name but I'm thinking of putting something on them, well at least around the water jackets, what do you experts think?

Thanks All.

Bummer. I'm really sorry to hear about this. I am running the Felpro head gaskets. This is my second C with them. Also ran an aluminum head 427mr with them which is a notorious problem setup. No problem with any of them.

I'm afraid that you likely have a cracked or porous head. I know how to mag the iron heads for cracks but I don't know how to do the alloy heads.

Thanks Doug,

Yeh, I'm not too happy about R&Ring the heads. Edelbrock told me today that there would be no problem checking the heads. It's just the time and effort to get them off and ship them. On the bright side I feel that the bottom end I did is working just fine and a bit of "skimming" of the heads will decrease the cc and maybe add a bit more HP. Hopefully w/o any pinging. I sure hope it's not a crack, I really feel it's just not flat, it runs to good and does not over heat. I can idle for days at 180deg with 1 fan on, of course it's only 20 degrees outside.

Doug,

I just noticed that you are in NY. I bought 6958 from a dealer in NY over the internet sight unseen about 5 years ago. You might know my Pantera. I felt that I got a good deal.

Why do I think that I have heard of cracked blocks on the head mating surface? Why don't you try to use the block sealer before you pull it apart? Particularly since it is a trickle.

What dealer did you buy it from?

I don't recall the dealer but here's a picture of the car at the dealer.

I thought about sealer but I just replaced all the cooling tubes, the Fluidyne rediator is a couple years old, new tanks and the block is clean. I'm just a bit reluctant to plug stuff up.

I use cometic head gaskets. They are rubber coated mls gaskets. They are supposed to be bulletproof and able to be reused multiple times. I have never had the heads off to test the reusable part but had the heads surfaced prior to assembly and have not had any coolant leaks from the gaskets. I am running them on an aluminum block with aluminum heads though so not sure how they would work with an alum/iron setup. Now if I could just get those damn header bolt holes sealed up well I would be happy.

Blaine

Head seems to be fine now, no leak. I've been running great now for months and every thing seemed great untill last weekend. Jumped on it a bit and reved it up and there it was again. It sounded like a couple of rockers loose or something else. I'm hoping it not the ZF. At idle rockers are completely quiet and a perfect lope and rock smooth. I jacked the cat up and put it in gear to see if it was something other than a rocker arm. I heard nothing when reving it up. If there was a ZF or clutch problem I would hear the noise at any RPM right? When I adjusted the rockers I only went about 1/8 th turn after 0 lash and I'm thinking that at the higher RPM the lifter(s) are really leaking down, does that sound possible. Remember I have a Crane (colector now) roller cam with Crane roller rockers and a Jomar stud girdle to keep every thing rigid. I'll be checking things tonight