As you may know I purchased a 1995 F4TE 351w roller short block, I just got it on an engine stand yesterday, the block seems to be in pretty good condition but as you know you can't see everything, I have not pulled the oil pan as of yet, it does have a little problem and I am just curious as to who can diagnose the problem it has before I tear it down and start the build, I do not know what the problem is as of this writing, as stated it is on a stand, has no heads on it, has timing cover and water pump on it, has no flywheel/flexplate, has cam and lifters in it and of course crank rods and pistons are there and oil pan still on, bores are clean and look great, no obvious signs of stress on anything, Ok after getting it on the stand yesterday I wanted to turn the engine over to see approx. what length pushrods I need (ordered a length checker) I put a breaker bar and socket on the crank bolt and turned it, it turned pretty easy but only a little over half way around, I turned it back the other direction with the same results, it stops, like maybe it's hittting something but there is no noise when it stops, just a dead stop, as I said it turns freely in both directions until this one point then no more, let's see who can guess what is causing it, I am tearing into it tomorrow if I have time, and was just curious as to who has and idea what it is. LET THE FUN BEGIN! p.s. if ya guess the problem correctly, and you are the FIRST one to guess it, and you want one, I would be wiling to mail out a sticker.....let's say Grabber or Maverick Life sticker. (sorry my color choice)
I had the same thing with a complete F4TE engine, but with the heads on. It was carbon that was shaken loose and collected under the flat part of the combustion chamber. Was the donor truck hit in the front? Timing cover pushed in? Water pump interfering with the timing chain/sprockets?
Loose chain...Foregin object in crank case... Is the distributor in place...Could be a damaged oil pump (Or something stuck in it) Do all the pistons move when you turn the crank??? Also rust in one or a few of the cyl bores will hang the rings and stop the engine from turning...
No damage to the truck on the front, All the pistons do move, rust should not be an issue, all the pistons move all the way down in the bore but I believe it's number 1 and 5 that do not make it to the top before it stops turning and the is no rust in the bores, no distributor in it.
I guess I could have ran this on for a bit but it's over with a correct answer... Well I just came in from pulling the oil pan, yes I found the problem and it looks like.......drumroll please Rata Tat Tat Tat, Mavmam72 hit it with it being foreign objects inside......now I guess I could have dropped the one part in when I pulled the intake as it looks like a alignment dowel, pretty small, too small to be one for the heads, the nut on the other hand looks like it's been there for a while and it's a very thin one maybe 3/16ths thick, no clue what it might have went to, it is pretty beat up looking....motor spins over good now and timing chain looks tight when I was spinning it back and forth.
That's a timing cover alignment dowel. Apparently someone took it upon themselves to change the timing cover gasket and dropped the dowel into the pan. The nut probably got there at the same time. Or it came off the oil pump pickup tube stiffener. That part (the stiffener) could have also been the problem. I ran into the same thing with the roller 351 I have. We dropped the engine, but the oilpan took the shock, bending the pickup tube just enough to rub a counterweight on the crank. You need that dowel to align the timing cover, there are two of these, both on the bottom two timing cover bolt holes (on the front of the cover)
been a long while since I had my little Fords timing cover off.. but that looks more like a cylinder head locating dowel to me.
The dowels were used from about 1980-up til the end of production on all the 5.0's. They look exactly like the head bolt dowels, only smaller in diameter. Both the block and the timing covers are relieved for them.
It's quite a bit too small for the head dowel, it will barely fit over an ink pen, that nut has me wondering though, can't imagine where it came from.
I wondered about the size and was trying to imagine if that was one of those jumbo lighter or regular size. lol baddad has set me straight already and I "get it" now.
Yeah I hear ya, all new to me also as I have only owned older engines, at least I now know to watch out for them on reassembly.
