my 2.9maybe half toast. imput from you guys needed

[Crashtest84]

my 2.9maybe half toast. imput from you guys needed "updated info"

ok so I had posted over in another post about low power issues. To shorten the story up here I am not getting oil to the rockers and that has caused the rockers to gull a lil on the shaft. I priced shafts at about $35each new and rockers are about $17 each. So question is do I swap for a v-8 or try putting a new set of cam bearings, oil pump and lifters. Then try and find a good rocker assembly at a used lot. Money is kinda tight and a v-8 swap really isn't cheap but neither is a 2.9 rebuild, now I do still have good compression at 170psi give or take a few on all 6. Im kinda thinking to pull the motor and spend a lil on a cam bearing set pull the lifters clean and check them out and try to find a good rocker assembly total cost maybe 250 or so if im lucky. That will hopefully make it for a few months wile I find all my 302 swap parts I found a explorer for $200 still has all the harness the heads are gone and it needs a crank...

 

[IMenriched]

ok so I had posted over in another post about low power issues. To shorten the story up here I am not getting oil to the rockers and that has caused the rockers to gull a lil on the shaft. I priced shafts at about $35each new and rockers are about $17 each. So question is do I swap for a v-8 or try putting a new set of cam bearings, oil pump and lifters. Then try and find a good rocker assembly at a used lot. Money is kinda tight and a v-8 swap really isn't cheap but neither is a 2.9 rebuild, now I do still have good compression at 170psi give or take a few on all 6. Im kinda thinking to pull the motor and spend a lil on a cam bearing set pull the lifters clean and check them out and try to find a good rocker assembly total cost maybe 250 or so if im lucky. That will hopefully make it for a few months wile I find all my 302 swap parts I found a explorer for $200 still has all the harness the heads are gone and it needs a crank...

Tough call...in the end ...you are going to have to be happy with it

Ideally, test 1st what kind of oil pressure you are getting...but that is hard to do without a rocker assembly. Maybe take the plugs out and stick a temporary mechanical gauge on it....and turn it over & see what kinda oil pressure you can get. OR you can get fancy and get a extra distributor, strip it of the cap rotor and gear etc...and pop out your original distributor drop in the stripped one and drive it with a cord less drill & see at kind of oil pressure you get that way too .

it might be cheapest to get a rocker assembly out of the salvage yard,( one that is better that the current one, one with oil flow) ...if you discover that your still getting oil flow to the rocker assembly of the ole 2.9.....run it untill you get the 5.0 ready for the swap, this might allow you to funnel more dollars to your end goal of a v8.

 

[piotrsko]

with the rockers off, I'd take a teensie bottle brush to the oil gallery holes then fill them up with a cleaner like seafoam.

back in the day: we used to take the left rocker shaft and put it on the right side upside down to get by until payday. not sure this works anymore.

 

[Crashtest84]

well I got a 97 v-8 exploder today for $200 has everthing but the heads so its got my auto trans 8.8 disk rear and v-8 with all the wiring. im going to start a build thread if you wanna keep up Oh and I gotta guy that has a front 44 for me but no price yet

 

[Crashtest84]

So the V-8 swap is going to be a lil longer then I thought so I thought I would try and figure out the problems with mine just for giggles. So first off I figured out my idle problem" had an bad intake gasket on the front drivers side intake port from the inside of the motor also was leaking a lil coolant into the same port" after the replacement of the intake gasket what do ya know it idles right.

Why I had the intake off I took the time to use a drill on the oil pump to check and see if I had an oil loss problem and good news there I have oil to the rockers now but I still had to pull the rockers and clean the inside of the rocker shaft after all that still have the lifter tick.

Ok now to another problem the truck seems to run ok around town but will not run over 50to55mph on the hwy so first thought was exhaust so I cut it at the Y and found out the front cat was gone but part was still there stuck blocking the 2nd cat so took it to the exhaust buddy new cats and 2 inch all the way to the back went for a drive no change so back into the garage.....

Tested the MAP, coolant temp, intake temp, TPS, fuel pressure and a vac test everything tested good so I have a coil and the mod on the distributor to check so im also thinkin of changing the lifters since there are a few that dont pump up to good and tick like no other So there is a lil update for some of you guys also I made a pretty neat tested for the map sensor I will post up some pics and info on it