Piece of metal found on oil drain plug

[Jac Mac]

Looks mighty like a piece of dog bone(roller lifter link), if thats the case it would explain the noise your hearing, roller lifters are quite likely to be doing a bit of a dance & chewing bits off the cam lobes, inlet manifold first to decide on how much further you need to go...

[Mtgauvin]

And the winner is.....Vector1....

Tore engine down today...it was a dogbone that had one of the ends broken off, which of course caused the roller lifter to rotate enough to stop rolling and flat spot...arrrr...which means new cam, roller lifter and retainer "dogbone"! Got to love engine builders who modify things that shouldn't be modified...note...do NOT machine down dogbones to fit them into the space around the roller lifter on a Dart 351w block, or at least make sure you don't take it so far as to weaken the tempered metal or so thin your grandma could break it with her rocker!!! I replaced the original pic with a pic of the 'culprit'...

[DAVID GAGNARD]

Originally Posted by Mtgauvin

And the winner is.....Vector1....

Tore engine down today...it was a dogbone that had one of the ends broken off, which of course caused the roller lifter to rotate enough to stop rolling and flat spot...arrrr...which means new cam, roller lifter and retainer "dogbone"! Got to love engine builders who modify things that shouldn't be modified...note...do NOT machine down dogbones to fit them into the space around the roller lifter on a Dart 351w block, or at least make sure you don't take it so far as to weaken the tempered metal or so thin your grandma could break it with her rocker!!! I replaced the original pic with a pic of the 'culprit'...

looks like a lot of material was ground off that dogbone,don't know why,but if the others look like that, I'd replace all of them.....as a side note,while not a Dart block, I did have to do a little grinding on an older model stock 351-W block for the clearance of the dogbones,grinding a little on the side of the block was nothing,I'd never grind on a dogbone......

David

[Jac Mac]

Not sure whats been going on in this case, but with the Ford production 'dog-bone' you must check to ensure that it sits flat on the machined pad around the top of the lifter bores when the lifter is at full lift, ie the lifter should not raise the dog bone off that pad at any point in the lift cycle, if fitting them to an early non-roller block the lifter bore pads must be milled/machined flat & square to the lifter bore along with useing a reduced base circle cam to allow it to operate as intended.Easier, but more expensive to buy a set of link bar hydraulic roller followers for use in early blocks especially when you consider the extra cost of longer pushrods, & the special cam grind...

[vector1]

well it could have been worse. i was wondering if only one ear broke off you could save the rest. least you don't have to pull the heads to save the rest. the rpm air gap is too small for the 427, vic jr would be a better choice. find out what your heads flow then whoever makes or recommends the cam can use that information, and change out the intake for a vic jr and you should pick up some pleasant surprise.