Well, I broke it. :)

Grog6

Grog6

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Harriman, TN
Vehicle Details
2x 1996 Cougars, 1997 Tbird 4.6's all.
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I broke a rod in Lazarus today, headed to the store for cat food. I felt the rod bearing sieze, increased noise, and as I pulled back into the driveway, it made a loud snapping noise, that I have heard before, lol. Rods make a unique sound when they snap. :D
 
It made some impressive noises on it's way out. The final screech, snap. was unmistakable. :)
I snapped a rod in the chevy 3.8l in the firebird.
 
I had a 76 Maverick with a 302 blow a piston completely apart and I drove it a good 4 or 5 miles home literally blowing smoke rings out the exhaust and the engine sound like really angry midgets beating on metal trash can lids with ball pin hammers.... Looking back at that now it's hilarious but man I was pissed back then.
 
Beat me, I've spun two rod bearings without breaking things and nursing them for months.... You hooligan lol
 
Poor Lazarus got one hell of a run in 2020. It ran all the oil out the intake thruu the pcv and oil seperator, which is still full of oil, lol.Sustained high rpms on a 4.6 does this. I didn't realize how fast. So what is 6000r's in 4th, with a 3.27, cant do math since the stroke worth a damn.
 
I never realized my family driving style was hooning, lol. I can remember going up the mountain in my moms 68 catalina, tires squealing the whole way, My dad showed me how to put a car on railroad tracks, lol.
 
Grog6 said:
I broke a rod in Lazarus today, headed to the store for cat food. I felt the rod bearing sieze, increased noise, and as I pulled back into the driveway, it made a loud snapping noise, that I have heard before, lol. Rods make a unique sound when they snap. :D
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That is sad to hear buddy.... sorry you ride will be out of commission for a while.
 
I just need to finish draining the tank of the red car, and it will run.
 
dDUBb said:
I wouldn't be sorry for Grog .. this is a precursor to the DOHC swap. 😉
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I remember yrs ago when I bought my 1st T-Bird that I always wondered if I blew the motor how hard it would be to drop a 60's 390 in it... less electronics and such. Since my 4 T-Birds, (a '94,'95,'96,'97') that I've owned over the yrs are pretty much the only newer cars I've owned. Everything else was Fords from the 50's-70's, with the exception of a '57 Bel Air I bought when I was in the Army and restored as a daily driver. I tended to lean more toward the old school power. I just always thought our T-Birds would run great with a old school 390 in it. And look cool as hell to boot when you pop the hood. Lol Maybe one of these days.
 
My friend offered his 351C to drop into my Tbird years ago .. I passed up on the offer although it was tempting for a minute. The only problem is that carbed engines tend to wear piston rings faster without leaded fuel. 🤔
 
I always was under the impression it was the valve seats leaded fuel was needed for on old engines, later engines switched to hardened seats after it was outlawed, while the cylinder wear was due to the frequent fuel wash from carburetor.

A 351C would be really cool, IMO it's the best OHV V8 Ford engineered (slightly copying the big block Chevy)
 
Grog6 said:
I snapped a rod in the chevy 3.8l in the firebird.
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How did you manage that? They are one of the toughest engines, iirc they are originally a Buick engine.

For that matter the 4.6 isn't really known for throwing rods either.... lol
 
IDK. It holed a piston, blew a hg, and snapped a rod. I bought it used, and it died within weeks. I was only doing about 70 when it blew.
 
Lazarus was hooned to death. That ones on me.

Somebody check my math, I'm not doing this right: 6000rpm redline was set in the tune, I was bouncing off it. No speed limiter.
6000*.07 /3.27= rpms/min of the rear wheels, /210 rev's per mile= miles minute. /60= miles/hour. That doesn't work; wtf is backwards there.?
(disclaimer, I had a massive stroke 4 years ago this next week.
edit, *60, not /... That's not right either, no way I was going 366 mph, lol. Last time I checked with the gps, it topped out at 165, going downhill, lol. As good as our aerodynamics are,it runs out of power to go faster.
 
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I have all the stuff to build a dohc c-head motor. I have to assemble it from scratch, and find a cam. I have the valves and springs ready to go in; I had 3 sets of heads, old b, new b, and c. the c-heads and late b were beehive springs, valves tuliped, so I measured al the springs, and selected the best ones.

Thanks, B! I looked up the 225 60/ 16 tires, and tirerack says 808. That's a major deal, lol. the spreadsheet now says 96 mph, totally believable by me. I was running bigger tires the other time.
 
I'm going to grab a head, and the stuff from the garage, and start assembling the dohc heads. They've been ported to Nicks instructions, nothing much. The lip below the valve seat is smooth,the inner curve is more rounded, and widened a bit. I sharpened up the edge between the exhaust ports, and removed all the mold flash out of the intake. I had to cut the plenum open to get the bottom. I'll have to find someone to weld it up; all the good welders I know are dead.
 
I tested all the valves for straightness, by rolling them on a sheet of glass, and ditched the wavy ones. And the weak springs. Two from the 97 engine had 2 lbs of force, at installed height. ! All the rest were over 100.
 
6000rpms in 4th would be 207mph, which is not happening with a 2v NA 4.6! 3rd would be 145mph, so maybe it was locking out 4th due to being WOT?
 
Grog6 said:
IDK. It holed a piston, blew a hg, and snapped a rod. I bought it used, and it died within weeks. I was only doing about 70 when it blew.
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The question here is did you just get to 70 from a stand still full throttle or was this you are doing doing 70 after you backed of throttle when you hit 120...haha I'm kidding
 
That old firebird wouldn't do over 90, lol. Her dad had worked on it, lol.
 
I'm headed out to work on cars, i'm going to move the battery from Laz to the red Cougar, and start da-ing the hood.
 
Grog6 said:
That old firebird wouldn't do over 90, lol. Her dad had worked on it, lol.
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So if full speed was 90 and it blew at 70...i mean that's almost at its peak there would be the same as sustained 120 in a v8 or SC bird.....
 
97teebs said:
So if full speed was 90 and it blew at 70...i mean that's almost at its peak there would be the same as sustained 120 in a v8 or SC bird.....
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I did cross country in my 94 V8 Tbird a few times .. sustained 100-110 mph was no problem and relatively smooth (chipped and mark driveshafted) .. Sustained 100 mph in my 94 SC is another story; WOT above 100 mph I can smell my cats cooking, but it pulls hard all the way to 145+ ( 5 speed, I've never done those speeds with the auto SC )
 
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