[abrush]

Hello to all, I am new to this forum but have been a member of several other forums for years. I restore classic Fords, mainly Mustangs, as a hobby and drive and show them all summer or anytime the weather is permitting. Well show season is right around the corner and I am having a heck of a time diagnosing the engine noise on my 65 fastback with a 289. Here is a breif overview:

289 overhauled this winter with:

new crank
new bearings
Comp cam xe268h
Comp cam lifters
Comp cam roller rockers
Edelbrock E Street heads

The engine was actually rebuilt two years ago and was bored .30 over with all new internals. Lesson I learned: Don't buy a Proform HEI distributor. The shaft stripped out on this thing (rounded as they should be hex shaped) which in return didn't spin my oil pump and I ended up spinning a rod bearing. That was a great day! Not.

Anyways, I tore down this engine last fall and put back together, broke in my cam with a set of cast iron heads I had lying around and then decided to buy a set of Edelbrock E street heads so I swapped them out. I never noticed the noise originally but never ran the car real long. Now when I start the car I get a knocking sound that gets a little quieter when warm but doesn't ever seem to go away. It isn't consistent as sometimes I can barely hear it but when I can it sounds awful. If I rev the car you can't hear it though, only when it is in idle. It sounds like it is on the drivers side. I shot a video the other day of the car running and am hoping someone can provide some insight??

So far I have checked:

Fuel Pump
Header gaskets
Crankshaft pulley
Tranny dust shield/plate

I am dropping the oil pan tonight to check everything out even though this doesn't sound like a bearing problem to me.

Video:

http://youtu.be/bHLWWTtLiHs

[68NovaSS]

Sounds like a 302 I put in an '70's Mustang that had been dropped from a foot off the floor, dented the pan ever so slightly and the crank was hitting. Does the knock go away when the motor is loaded or held at stay 2k with no load? Any chance the throwout bearing or release arm is hitting the pressure plate when unloaded?

[JeffB]

Always change the oil pump drive shaft when doing a build or changing distributors in any SBF both Melling and ARP offer a hardened unit in the $20 area.The problem you had could have been two things,using an old shaft or the distributor was a 351W which has a 5/16" shaft 289-302's are 1/4" I know a lot of guys running these HEI's with zero problems,I have this unit http://www.skipwhiteperformance.com/...x?Item=6502-BL

[abrush]

68NovaSS - I can't hear the knock when I rev it but that might be due to the fact that it is loud with the headers and exhaust I am running. I did wonder about the clutch as I just put a new one in but when I push the clutch pedal in the noise is still present so I didn't figure that could be it.

JeffB - The pump and shaft was new when I installed the HEI and it wasn't the shaft that stripped out. It was the actual distributor drive shaft. It also wasn't something that happened right away. I had that HEI on for two years before it completely failed with no warning. I lost oil pressure going home from our annual car club cruise, spun a bearing and tore it down to find out the distributor was the culprit. When I called the manufacturer he had me send the faulty part back and blamed it on a bad batch of material that went into producing it. He did send me a new one free of charge but that didn't cover the hundreds of dollars I had to put into that engine to rebuild. Because of that I will never buy anything that is Proform ever again.

[abrush]

Forgot to add that I ended up going back to the stock distributor with a Pertronix ignitor kit. Seems to work well so far.

[JeffB]

With so many companies jumping on the outsourcing bandwagon it's hard to know what quality you will end up with regardless of brand,find anything in the oil pan?

[abrush]

Yeah, I hear you on the quality of parts anymore. I didn't get a chance to drop the pan last night as my son had an after school activity so I didn't get home until late. However I did get the car on jack stands and ready to go so once I get off work today I can get after it. I will let you know if I find anything. I'm actually hoping I do or else it looks like I may be pulling it out again and I'm not looking forward to that!

[abrush]

Alright, I did drop the pan on the engine on Thursday night and everything looked fine. Also when I drained my oil there were no metal flakes or shavings in it either. On Friday I decided just to pull the engine. Once I got it out I took off the flywheel and found that the tranny dust shield/stone guard was severely rubbing the flywheel in one spot. After seeing this I was about 90% positive this was the source of my noise so on Saturday afternoon I reinstalled the engine without the dust shield. I started it up and it sounded great other than some rocker noise which I believe is due to the fact that I had readjusted them several times to eliminate them as the source of the noise. I will have to try to adjust them properly while the engine is running. Hopefully I will be able to take it for a spin by the weekend and see how she drives.