Pulled the 440 Tonight and......

[BlueSS454]

It's trashed.  I did a good job on this one.  General Lee is gonna be without engine for a while until I can save up to build another 440.  It's already been bored +.030, and the crank has been cut 010/010.  5 cam lobes are wiped, the bearings are destroyed, the crank has grooves in the journals.
I knew I was taking a huge risk putting this engine back in without going through it...paid the price for it too.

Here are some pics....

[The70RT]

Yep ....looks like low oil pressure. Good luck on you next build.

[mally69]

What were the symtoms that made you tear it apart to find the wiped lobes?

[BlueSS454]

It blew a head gasket initially so I tore the heads off and sent them out.  I pulled the lifters out yesterday to wipe them off so I could reassemble the top end and encountered the 5 wiped lifters...cam lobes are round.  It hasn't run right since the beginning.  Normally I don't put an engine back in a car that I have restored without going through it first, but I did this time.  I'll never do that again.  Funny thing is, last time I had a wiped cam lobe in my Oldsmobile, it popped through the carb.  The 440 never did that, it just had a complete loss of power, but still ran.  It lost 20 lbs of oil pressure (40 vs 60 normally).  It was so bad, it wouldn't even power brake in loose dirt.

[firefighter3931]

Sorry to see that.    Based on your description in the cam thread in the performance section it's about what i expected. Wait till you see the inside of your oil pump 

Hopefully the cylinder walls aren't too bad and you can get by with a simple hone and re-ring. Of course the crank will need to be turned and new bearings installed.

Were you using any Zinc additives in your oil ? The latest formulations are responsible for all these failures and you can thank the EPA. 




Ron

[BlueSS454]

The cylinder walls look ok.  I'm just going to take one step at a time with rebuilding it.  First thing I'm going to do is see what pistons are available then send the block out and have it machined.  Then move on to the rotating assembly, and so on and so on.  I'll keep updating what I'm doing with it.  I know one thing......FULL ROLLER!!!!!

[resq302]

Sheesh Tom.  Sorry to hear about your problem with this.  Sounds like you have had the same luck with your car that I have had with mine only not as bad for me thankfully.  With buying a house, I have really no extra time or money to be doing any repairs like that.  As it is, I am still fighting the backfire issue through the carb under a load and just broke the left motor mount Fri night.  Thankfully that is a fairly cheap part to replace and will be doing the mod that Ron had typed up about.  (the poor man's shumacher set up)  So hopefully I will never have this problem again.

Tom,

Let me know if I can be of any help.

Brian

[FLG]

Sorry to hear about the engine, i remember us talking at E-Town about your lack of power with the car. If you need anything just ask.