Whelp.. Squeal turned into engine torn apart

[Jdgephar]

Is there anything with the end of the cam that you need to watch out for with the explorer cover? Something with the mechanical fuel pump or a bolt I remember reading about?

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[guidoverduci]

There was a fuel pump eccentric that I removed. I don’t think I over torqued the cam bolt, but I suppose it could be a possibility.

Sounds like the first step is to pull off the timing cover and see if I can get a full turn. Then if it still is a problem, might have to pull the block apart... ugh

 

[DirtDonk]

If I understand the diagrams, the yellow wire from the supplied Alt plug ties into the pos from the battery after the fuse.

The Yellow (or is it Yellow w/white?) wire needs to be connected to full battery power. Most diagrams show, and most people do, the simplest way of achieving this which is to connect it right there to the main charge post on the alternator just a few inches away.
The best practice, and what Ford does, would be to get the wire as close to the battery as possible.
Sounds like your existing Painless Yellow wire is routed back into the harness and would still be a good source of power for this wire. Make sure it's a good tight connection so it gets an accurate reading of the battery/system voltage.

Which leaves the green and red wire from the supplied plug. Would that just tie into the green and red from the harness and I’m good?

Yep, simple as that.
It only needs to see 12v power when the key is ON and turn off with the key.

If your alternator charges as expected even without the White w/black wire, you're good to go. If it does not, you'll need to get a new plug where all three wires are still intact.
The other end of the White wire connects to a small blade connector on the side of the alternator.
Maybe the Explorer is the one that does not need it? I should know since I've wired several of them. Just don't remember at the moment.
(edit: I see that's one of Ryan's old diagrams specifically for the 4G and does not show a stator wire as needed. So you're likely good to go with just the Green and Yellow wires)

Paul

 

[DirtDonk]

How quickly could things go south if moisture got inside?

Normally, since the engine had been run right up to the point of opening up the plug holes, a little oil in the cylinders would have kept you safe. And leaving the holes open does let the moisture evaporate as well.
So there's good and bad to leaving the holes open.

But when it comes right down to it, under the right circumstances those cylinder walls can flash-rust really quickly! Like almost immediately in fact.
But even then, it's usually not enough to block the engine from rotating. At least not in my experience.
But you never know. If there was any kind of cylinder leak inside, the extra moisture on the outside would have been nothing compared to what that could do to a cylinder.

You may still be able to shine a light down each hole to see if anything stands out. It doesn't seem as likely as something hitting, but it's still well worth checking out.

Paul

 

[guidoverduci]

Sounds like your existing Painless Yellow wire is routed back into the harness and would still be a good source of power for this wire. Make sure it's a good tight connection so it gets an accurate reading of the battery/system voltage.

All I see from the painless is the green/red wire which I’ll connect to the green/red from the plug as mentioned earlier. There is also a thicker gauge wire from the harness that is attached to the starter solenoid. Hard to determine the color..

 

[pcf_mark]

I thought the timing set was removed and re-installed. If not you can ignore what I said about contact causing the engine to lock. If the cam was out of time the exhaust valve will meet the pistons.

Can you explain exactly what you did with the cover off? Taking off the fuel pump cam should not be a problem but perhaps the bolts are a bit too long now and they touched the block. Or it could be something we have not uncovered - did you turn the engine over before you put the cover on?

 

[Powerbyford]

Pull the valve covers when you rotate it and look for a valve that isn’t working, i.e rocker arm gets real loose and valve stays down. Sounds like possibly a valve may have rusted stuck open. Would show up when engine stops turning.

 

[guidoverduci]

Can you explain exactly what you did with the cover off? Taking off the fuel pump cam should not be a problem but perhaps the bolts are a bit too long now and they touched the block. Or it could be something we have not uncovered - did you turn the engine over before you put the cover on?

All I did was remove the eccentric and put the bolt back in. I did not rotate the engine prior to putting the cover on, except slight to get the circles to line up... which now I understand, wasn’t necessary, since I never removed the timing gear and it was running fine.

 

[tirewater]

How did you brace the rotating assembly while torquing the crank shaft nut? Perhaps you left a screw driver or socket jammed in the starter ring gear.

All I did was remove the eccentric and put the bolt back in. I did not rotate the engine prior to putting the cover on, except slight to get the circles to line up... which now I understand, wasn’t necessary, since I never removed the timing gear and it was running fine.

 

[guidoverduci]

How did you brace the rotating assembly while torquing the crank shaft nut? Perhaps you left a screw driver or socket jammed in the starter ring gear.

Haven’t gotten to that point. It’s not fully torqued. I just wanted to see if I could rotate it to find TDC, and see how the timing marks line up.

 

[DirtDonk]

Well you're not making it any easier to diagnose then!;D
You've covered most of the basics before we get a chance to show how much we know and can figure out from reading tea leaves and following broken branches and hoof prints.

None of the usual suspects are panning out. I would still maybe peek inside the cylinders through the plug holes, and maybe you can find a shop that rents/loans one of those bore scopes if it comes to that.
No kids running around the garage that might have been poking around in open spaces with "tools" from their 64-color Crayola box by any chance?%)

But if the damper isn't fully seated yet, it's not as much of a deal to pull the front cover again anyway I suppose.
But I'm guessing you've got the perfect amount of sealant and a perfect installation of the cover? That would make sense since you now have to take it off and it'll never be as perfect again!

Well, we can hope for repeatability and quick success at finding what's going on.

Paul

 

[pcf_mark]

When you took the fuel pump cam off what did you put in it's place? A regular cam bolt and washer? Not sure if it matters just wondering in case it sheds any light on the case. Which cover did you install? Not all covers are interchangeable.

https://www.hotrod.com/articles/pit-stop-ford-small-block-v8-front-cover-water-pump-interchange/

 

[jagbucket]

find which cylinder is at or near tdc on compression when rotation stops, back the valves off a counted number of turns . test. if no joy need to look inside or if no piston is near tdc, that looks like it will be something hitting crank/flywheel

 

[Powerbyford]

Probably not the timing sprocket and chain out of position if you get almost a complete revolution. It would stop 4 times per revolution on a V-8, or every 1/4 turn on a new valve.

 

[75MIKE]

A bolt head sticking out that the weight on the back of the harmonic balancer is catching?

 

[guidoverduci]

As now, I’ve got the timing cover off, everything looks ok to me, but I still get about 340ish degree turn on the crank and then stop

 

[DirtDonk]

While the cover is off then, what about removing the timing chain/gear to see if the crank alone will run through it's full rotation?
I realize that if the engine is truly an interference engine, you may still run into something if it's in the valvetrain. But with the cam no longer turning, that something should be in a different part of the rotation.

Might be worth a few minutes of pulling the gear off.

Paul

 

[guidoverduci]

It was my understanding this a non interference engine, but I’ll give it a shot. What I need to learn is how much movement is in one *almost* full turn of the crank. Because during the course of my almost full turn, there are some rockers that don’t move.

 

[tirewater]

It was my understanding this a non interference engine, but I’ll give it a shot. What I need to learn is how much movement is in one *almost* full turn of the crank. Because during the course of my almost full turn, there are some rockers that don’t move.

[STRIKE]It's not going to take too much effort to remove the valve covers if you haven't already. That way you can make sure all the valves are going up and down as they should.[/STRIKE]

Edit: NVM, seems you can see the rockers so the valve covers are off.

Did you look in the timing chain to make sure there wasn't a bolt or other foreign object in it that would prevent the engine from turning?

 

[guidoverduci]

Valve covers are off. That’s what I need to learn. In a rotation of 360 degrees, should they all move at least a little during the course of rotation. There were at least 1 or 2 rockers on both sides of the engine that never moved