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The Gremlins have won

A

Anonymous

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After all the rain cancellations, U joint failure, roll pin in the dizzy failure, the engine finally said F it at the track yesterday.

One of the poly locks broke, the bottom 1/4 is gone including the set screw. I'm guessing that the parts are in the oil pan. When the lock broke, the roller rocker came off which let the push rod come up and let the lifter come out of the bore. The PR fell back down and I'm guessing that is what tore up the end of the chrome moly PR. The rocker stud is now buggered up and I'm betting the cam lobe is buggered up too. :roulette

I'll tear it apart sometime this winter, but for now it's in the trailer...in the barn....in solitary confinement. F'n car


The good thing was that just before it broke (during the 1st session of an ALL DAY track event) I turned the quickest lap to date!!


PolylockLarge.jpg
 
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It has me confrused. It's not a moving part, so why would it break? How did a threaded set screw disappear out of it?

I hate to steal this sig, but....My car hates me.
 
That sucks! I sort of know how you feel... had a cast iron crankshaft break in the 347 before putting in a forged unit.

Do you have the video?!
 
"silverblueBP" said:
I'll tear it apart sometime this winter, but for now it's in the trailer...in the barn....in solitary confinement. F'n car
Click to expand...

Out of the rain..... Sorry man, that sucks!
 
When I read the post title, I had visions of you being beaten by an old AMC Gremlin at the track!!!

What size rocker studs are you running, 3/8" or 7/16"? I can't imagine just a polylock breaking. Could have it backed off and broke afterwards? It looks like the PR tip got broken off. What does the rocker look like where the PR goes, is it buggered up?
 
3/8" studs, the lock could have backed off..anythings possible. It was tight when I checked them all last week.

The rocker arm looks fine at the PR tip. The bottom of the PR is tore up. I'm thinking that the cam lobe might have done that. The PR was just barely above the opening in the head and I was able to pull it out with my magnet. Can't see straight into the hole till I remove the hood and export brace.
 
Those problems suck for sure. Guess the rain in the past was just trying to help stretch the life of your engine.
 
Yeah, but if all these things would of happened back in May, I'd have fixed it all and continued on. Now, it's the end of the season and I'm not going to try and get it fixed so I can go out in Oct and break something else! I've wasted way too much money on registration fees, diesel fuel and race fuel this year.

5 months of track days and I have less than 15 laps in. The only thing I will do is drain the water out of the block before the temps drop close to freezing.
 
Better get a heater for the shed so you will be comfortable working on it.

How many track miles on that engine?
 
Since the last rebuild....maybe 100. Went through the entire engine, spring of 09. New connecting rods, rings, cam, lifters, beehive springs, valve seals and a valve job. It was completely disassembled and the bearings, push rods, rockers and rocker studs were all OK. Re-balanced the rotating assembly too. Tuned it on a chassis dyno before it ever went on track.
 
Unfortunately I was there as a witness.

Mark was just pulling in from his session when I was headed out for mine. He pretty much maintained his cool and hung out with us for most of the day.

The nephew of his friend Dean was there with his new 5.0 Mustang and was turning laps 4 seconds faster than me (1:47 vs 1:51) but he was putting the hurt on his new tires. The right front felt like the top of a gator's tail if you ran your hand across it (it was cupping really bad). He probably had a fun ride home back to Oklahoma last night.

I was captain slow in my group (350z, C6 Corvette, 2010 Camaro and three BMW M3s). Interesting thing was that I would start catching back up with everyone near the end of my sessions because they were either smoking brakes or smoking tires. They would start out strong but finish slow. At least I was Mr. Consistent. Mark said that I was 1:51 lap after lap when he was timing me. I made it through all four sessions.

The Corvette and the fastest M3 both had to drop out early in a session.

Still had fun but was worn out after four sessions.

Sorry for the thread steal.
 
Deb tried to convince me to sell the 66 and buy a new 5.0 last night, crazy woman!
 
"silverblueBP" said:
can't afford a snow mobile, maybe some used snow shoes.
Click to expand...

You beat me to it...I was gonna suggest some snow shoes, cause the snowmobile would probably be parked next to the mustang for repairs...

EDIT: Just put a 5.0 into your mustang.
 
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