I have appr. 13K miles on my 460sb and in the video you can hear the piston slap. Not typical where it gets quieter when you get heat soak. This noise never gets quieter or goes away.
Past warranty so pulled it. Pistons were sloppy in the bores. Bore gauge showed them overbored at .0062". Absolutely no taper in any bores. They were straight like they'd been bored that way which to me at the time didn't make sense.. Checked Ford Performance (FP) website and they advertised .005-.0055" as their skirt to wall clearance. Now it made sense.
So I went to Mahle's page to identify my pistons (piston mnfr) and they showed my 2812 alloy piston (Grafel coated) clearance as .0023" to max .003". That's when I called basic hot line ph contact # for FP and asked WTH? FP said they finish hone to .005"-.0055". I responded with why don't youuse the piston manufacturers specifications?
Then I called Mahle and we talked for half hour. Jason could not believe what FP was doing with their clearances. Engineer even said, "...are they trying a one size fits all final bore" because there are two pistons for this block. One for nitrous/boost and high detonation resistance which like typical race pistons (these Mahle spec at .005"-.0055") and expand to fit the clearance (I used to use nothing but these 30 yrs ago) and then my 2812 alloy piston which does not expand at all (well, less than .0003"). So FP overbored my block by .003"+ so I essentially started up a new engine with the equiv of 200,000 miles or more... and with short skirt stroker pistons you don't have much if any skirt on them so you get piston slap quicker/easier.
Ford (Marty) asked to see my pistons/rods back in Nov via email- as I'd moved "up the warranty/responsibilty ladder". I shipped them and they stated they were to spec (I'd told them this at least 5 times in emails). Then Marty called me (last personal phone contact ever) and he said we need to see the block (which I had asked for in several emails) and in Decrmber, FP sent a truck and my block ended up somewhere in a FP warehouse.
NOTHING HAPPENED FOR MONTHS even tho I was emailing once/week. Late Feb now. They said they were sending the block back because I had not warmed it up properly prior to loading it. All kinds of typical "your fault" accusations. Anyway, I gave them a hardnosed background of my experience, strokers I've built that have 150,000 miles plus, etc and a week later no tracking #'s & no block. Sent another email and they said that the "Engine Engineer" wanted to "remeasure my block" (personally I don't think he ever even looked at it before).
Still nothing-
I then sent emails all over the US and Europe trying to get in touch with Mark Rushbrook head of ALL of Ford Global Performance. Got some positive feedback from authors and racetrack guys all over the world and then an email from a guy who gave me the email addy of a supervisor who was the supervisor of the guy who wasn't getting anything done for months.
Snails pace to now.
Talked to another Mahle engineer named Adam (2 separate times) and he confirmed what I was saying and both the Mahle engineers know the FP guys I was dealing with.
Late March- FP told me they were going to have custom pistons made by Mahle for the approximate bore of my block. I will have to finish hone the block to fit when I get them FP says they expect them on May 28th. Then I will build it. I had a custom cam designed by Ed so that will be fun.
I wouldn't accept pistons as a settlement until they sonic bored the block to make sure it is usable. FP racing blocks can't be bored out as far as Dart blocks. I have the sonic measuring data below. Dave sent it to me April 15th. Block, old pistons & rods were shipped with tracking #'s last week.
Dave at FP said the new pistons are expected to arrive at FP on 4/28/23. Appr 4 weeks. Mahle told me several times that their lead time for custom pistons was 12-14 weeks. FP has a higher priority than I do.
There's a ton more but...
