I've had my SPF for over a year now, and it looks as if bits and pieces of the car have been donated from older providers. After continually maintaining the car, I keep having melt downs or finding questionable assemblies. mostly the 460 motor.
Here is a list in the order as I remember:
After one mechanic burns up my clutch disk on a dyno machine dune up (I'm NEVER going back to that one), while fixing, another finds that a 428 fly wheel has been installed in lieu of the 460. Replaced with a aluminum with steel, new disk and pressure plate from McLeod.
Habitual clutch slave cylinder problems leaking and mis-aligned. Pulled and installed a hydraulic throw-out.
One issue not caused by the engine, but my speedo cable wore a pin hole in the valve cover, spewing
oil onto the fire wall. THAT was a tough one to find. The mechanic used a smoke machine to chase that one down. Replaced with new valve covers. Ouch...pricey!
3 times since I got the car, at start up, steam would pour out one side pipe. The bolts holding the intake manifold back off. So I work through the car once a month to tighten. (More of that one to come)
The engine coolant was very rusty red. I've flushed multiple times, but always returns to rusty. We think the block maybe have come from a boat. Any suggestions? Two other coolant items: the thermostat housing corroded so much at the gasket surface, just replaced that. Also when running hard, I'm getting spillage from the radiator cap, spewing rusty coolant. Oh yeah, had to install a puke tank at the very beginning.
Due to
oil leaks at the pan and rear main seal, we've changed
oil multiple times. Every time the oil is very black. We're thinking the engine was running so rich (remember the dyno tune), lot's of deposits maybe the cause. VERY concerned about this.
Now, after playing at the drag races, a lifter starts making some noise. After running through and adjusting everything under the valve covers, we decided to replace all lifters. When pulling the manifold, found the intake gasket had cracked. (Remember the steam?) But even after replacing the lifters, which had very little wear, still have a ticking sound.
After this long dissertation, has anyone else had this much trouble? And what about the lifter? Can a oil journal become clogged, causing the lifter to become starved for oil? What about the black oil?