I just finished breaking in my cam on the 406 , a solid f.t. I thought everything went good. After removing the valve covers, the rocker on #3 intake was very very loose. The lock was still tight onto the stud though.The push rod actually smacked the rocker out of the cup. I pulled the intake and looked at the lifter and it looks good, just like the others. Using a mirror we looked down the lifter bore to see the cam. I rotated the engine over and the cam appears to be fine. No marks and looks like the other lobes. Now I know I had the lash too loose when I started because the lifters were a little noisey. Maybe too loose? If the cam was gone would there be indentifiable marks on the cam and lifter? I set up the dial indicator and it appears that lobe is no different than another intake lobe I compared it to. The magnetic tip oil plan plug had no metal at all on it when I drained the oil. I will cut the filter open tonight. Any thoughts.

Jerry

Jerry - If you lost a lobe you would see it not only on the base of the lifter but on the lobe itself. So it sounds like your OK and something just might have gotten missed on pre startup. Lash does grow as the motor heats up remember so it's good to set cold lash on the tight side.

Thanks Rick. I am hoping I screwed up big time on the lash setting the first time. The lifter and lobe look normal. I am going to relash and run like a breakin again for about 10 minutes, 30wt. oil, cam lube on lifters and eos.I am hoping its not the cam but I can't believe I messed up the lash that bad. I hope i did

Sounds like you just misadjusted that one rocker, with the cam already in it's lift cycle.
We set those heads up with only the outer springs of a set of Comp doubles, correct?
You would have to do something really wrong to lose a cam with that spring pressure. (under 100 seated, 200ish open)

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Oh, and once you reinstall that rocker use your dial indicator to check for similar lift numbers to another intake valve as a triple check, sounds like you're OK.

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Custom Auto, your source for quality machine work, cores and new parts at competetive pricing right here in British Columbia 1-888-563-4050
A Canadian, EH? (with a 10 second street car)

Thanks for the reply Doug. Yep, outer springs only and I also used the isky edm lifters. Doug, I used a set of USED crane gold roller rockers that I got for a good price. They looked good with no wear on the rollers. Is is possible there could be something with these rockers that might cause a problem? Something that an untrained eye might not pick up?

You might want to do some more break in time on the cam when you correct the problem. If it did not have correct spring pressure it will not have broken that lobe or lifter in properly.

Anything's possible Jerry but the only damaged Crane rockers I have seen were either badly rusted and seized rollers, or the trunion bearings a little loose but still useable. If you can't feel any play in the trunion bearings or roller tips then you are good to go. Maybe check that one pushrod for bend. If you're a little rusty with setting solids after you're done setting check all 16 rockers (that aren't under lift) that you can with your setting feelers, turn the engine 1/4 turn, do the same, and soforth until you have made 2 full revolutions. This is a great double check that all are set correctly. Another possibility was that your pushrod on that one hole wasn't properly positioned in the lifter and rocker pushrod cup. As long as that pushrod isn't damaged I don't think you have anything to worry about. http://www.nastyz28.com/ubb/smile.gif

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Custom Auto, your source for quality machine work, cores and new parts at competetive pricing right here in British Columbia 1-888-563-4050
A Canadian, EH? (with a 10 second street car)