scraping sound and timing issues after cam swap

[NewChargerOwner]

Hey everyone, this is my first time posting, so wanted to say hello and ask for everyone's advice. I've got a '68 with a 383 in it and just swapped in a performer rpm cam for a purple shaft that had a lobe wiped. Not totally sure why the purple shaft self-destructed, but it did chew through the bottom of the #8 exhaust lifter on it's way out. (Maybe a bad lifter? The oil pressure was never high in the car, but the others appeared fine). Anyway, I cranked the motor today in order to break in the cam and there was a scraping/wheezing sound when it turned. This was after having to turn the distributor about 90 degrees advanced from the number one cylinder just to get it to run. If the distributor wasn't advanced like that, it simply made incredibly loud backfires every 10 to 15 seconds through the intake manifold during cranking. I was very cautious to make sure that the rotor was turned towards #1 at TDC initially and that I was on the right stroke. I tried flipping the rotor 180 degrees, but that gave steady backfiring, so I concluded that I was on the correct stroke. Anyway, I shut it off after 15 seconds because it sounded so awful and am looking for what is wrong before I try it again.

So, as to the timing issues, has anyone ever experienced anything like that? I can't understand why it seems to make insanely loud backfires when I set the rotor at #1 when that cylinder is at TDC.

On the scraping/wheezing noise, it sounded like the engine was having an incredibly hard time getting air and like something was scraping internally? It is virtually impossible to get the timing off on the cam with those timing chain sets, so I will assume I did the cam correctly. Has anyone heard of those sets hitting the timing cover and scraping on it? I will note that the purple shaft was a three bolt cam while the performer rpm was a one-bolt, so is the one-bolt more likely to rub the timing cover? I didn't use a thrust button, but didn't feel I needed one, as the cam is flat tappet.

I also changed the intermediate shaft bushing and shaft during the cam swap. The new shaft rotated freely in the new bushing and seemed to mesh with the cam well. It is the MP one with the bronze gear. Has anyone heard on those grinding when they first break in? Can anyone give advice here? I really feel that I did the cam swap correctly, so I'm wondering what this could be before I tear the motor down again. Thanks a lot!!!

[Kern Dog]

I had a scraping noise after doing a cam and timing set install. I pulled the timing cover to find that the bolt for the cam sprocket had backed out allowing the chain to rub the timing cover. I replaced the timing set and used LOCTITE on the bolt. It held from then on.

[69wannabe]

Check and make sure your crank pulley bolts are not going through the balancer and grinding into the timing cover. Did that on my 440 one time, very noisy!! You may have to check your rotor button position with number 1 piston all the way up with both the number one cylinder valves closed. It should be pointing to the number 1 plug wire on your distributor cap. Then make sure your firing order is correct. Sounds like you may have a couple of plug wires swapped.

[firefighter3931]

Did you degree the cam in properly ? Are you using a roller cam ? The bronze gear is for billet Roller cams...not cast iron flat tappet cams.

There are different length oil pump drives depending on what oil pump you are using...if you installed the wrong drive it will bind up the oilpump.



Ron

[john108]

Please excuse my jumping in here but Ron's statement raised a concern about the drive shaft length:
Question for Ron.
Based on previous posts I purchased the following parts.
Is the Oil Pump drive compatible with the Oil Pump shown below??

MELM63HV   High Vol Oil Pump-Melling
109-1502   High Vol Oil Pump-Hi-Strength Bolts
DCC-1737725   Bronze Oil Pump shaft bushing
DCC-3571071   Hardened tip Oil pump drive

Thank You - John

[Kern Dog]

There are different length oil pump drives depending on what oil pump you are using...if you installed the wrong drive it will bind up the oilpump.



Ron

Really???
I have always ran a high volume oil pump in the 4 440s I've built. I always used the MP RB drive. I never knew there was a difference.
What exactly is different? Is the HV drive supposed to be shorter? My distributors always seat to the block nicely.  maybe I've just been lucky?

[firefighter3931]

Please excuse my jumping in here but Ron's statement raised a concern about the drive shaft length:
Question for Ron.
Based on previous posts I purchased the following parts.
Is the Oil Pump drive compatible with the Oil Pump shown below??

MELM63HV   High Vol Oil Pump-Melling
109-1502   High Vol Oil Pump-Hi-Strength Bolts
DCC-1737725   Bronze Oil Pump shaft bushing
DCC-3571071   Hardened tip Oil pump drive

Thank You - John

You're good to go John....no worries 



Ron

[firefighter3931]

There are different length oil pump drives depending on what oil pump you are using...if you installed the wrong drive it will bind up the oilpump.



Ron

Really???
I have always ran a high volume oil pump in the 4 440s I've built. I always used the MP RB drive. I never knew there was a difference.
What exactly is different? Is the HV drive supposed to be shorter? My distributors always seat to the block nicely.  maybe I've just been lucky?

The length of the shaft is different depending on what oilpump you are using. Milidon has different drives for different applications....some of the shafts are longer to allow for thicker rotors. Now if you used a shaft that was too long it would bind up the oilpump and score the rotors.

see below for all the different oil pump drives available :

http://www.summitracing.com/search/department/engines-components/section/oiling-systems/part-type/oil-pump-driveshafts/make/dodge/engine-size/7-2l-440/brand/milodon



The MP steel gear works fine with the HV63 pump.....I've run a few of those as well. 





Ron