This is topic Thinking of buying a used engine? Do your homework! in forum Tech Talk at Northern California Ford Owners  .


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Posted by wilit (Member # 3367) on :
 
I bought this engine a year ago and it has sat on the engine stand while I've been accumulating parts for both it and my tranny swap. I was told it was a low mile '87-'92 bottom end that came with some decent GTP heads. When I took the oil pan off, it looked pretty decent. Nothing stood out and it built good compression when turning it over by hand. I finally got around to buttoning everything up and was going to put a FRPP windage tray on. Since you have to replace the main bolts so you can bolt the tray in, I figured I'd knock the main caps off to see what kind of shape they were in. Good thing I did because I don't think it would have lasted very long.

This is the worst main bearing. You can see there's a melted piece of bearing in there.
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Main #2
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Main #3
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Main #4
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Main #5
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The rod bearings weren't much better. Rod #1 was by far the worst.

Rods #1 & 2
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A close up of the bearings on #1
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Rods #3 & 4
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Rods #5 & 6
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Rods #7 & 8
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Not sure if this was part of the problem on the #1 rod and main, but you can see the balancer is missing a good piece of the rubber ring.
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The moral of the story is, if you're planning on buying a used engine, make sure you take the time to thoroughly inspect it. I'm not looking to lay any blame on the seller as there are some variables he may not of known about before selling it. I'm to blame for not doing my due diligence sooner. So, looks like I'm going to visit Al Hubbards next week. [Big Grin]

[ March 27, 2011, 04:45 PM: Message edited by: wilit ]
 
Posted by JohnB (Member # 969) on :
 
Bad balancer caused some of this, but overall it's just a well-worn 302.
 




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