Help! Engine assembly issue!

[HorneDogg]

Just got my heads back from the machine shop, took them out of the plastic and found one of them with a cracked cam cradle. I am not sure how much of an issue this would be. is there anyone that could give me some info that would advice as to if it would be okay or get it fixed.

My first thought is that i want to choke some one but **** happens. I kind of just want to get it together if it is not going to hurt anything.

[RacerX]

A good Tig welder can fix it. Bring the head to the welder, not just the cam cap. You don't want it to warp when it heats up. Don't go with just any aluminum welder. Should be a cheap, easy job, for a pro.

[Pat]

I think I'm lookling at one break (1st picture) and one growing crack (2nd picture). Right?

Structural integrity is lost IMO. What caused it I wonder, overtorqued? Head dropped?

Is the cam cradle too expenseive that it can't be replaced without busting the bank?

[martyo]

Is the cam cradle too expenseive that it can't be replaced without busting the bank?


Just buy a new cradle. If you can't find one local I will see if I have on at the shop.

[Curless]

Just buy a new cradle. If you can't find one local I will see if I have on at the shop.

I agree with Marty, get a new one. Very thin in that area and to get it straight and true may be an issue...I would bet that they are not that expensive,

[martyo]

I was with Brandon who does all of our mod motor assembly and is quite skilled.

He said I was wring and you can not just replace the cradle without sending the head out and line boring it. That's the bad news.

The good news is he said this problem is not uncommon. He said the best way to handle it is to reassemble the head and then have the cracks TIG welded. He said this should not be a big problem for a decent welder.

Let me know if you have any questions.

[HorneDogg]

Well i just had it come back from the machine shop where it was line bored on that cam. I do have some extra cradles and i am going to have the machine shop send it back out for line boirng again with the new cradle,

Another plan is to remove that cam and then retorque the crandle, mic the inside of the bearing, mic the cam, remove the cams from my spare head and do the smae to see if i have a cradle that i could possibly use without have to line bore it all over again which would mean it would have to be dis-assembled and re-assembled.

i thought i was going to be cruising by the weekend but looks as though it will be along time again.

[HorneDogg]

Went to the machine shop tonight, Worked with the machinist there. we removed two caps from a set of heads that i had has cores. it is going to be sent back out to be line bored again. i expressed to him that i wasnt in a hurry to get the car out on the road due to it being winter already and they use de-icer around here and didnt wanted that crap on my car. I just want it right and i am willing to wait for it to be 100% correct and not just thrown together hoping it will work. Plus this will give me sometime to get some of the other paint work done i was wanting to do.

[na svt]

You can run the cracked caps; they won't hurt anything. Hopefully they line boring won't lower the cam far enough to affect lash adjuster preload.

To check preload:
-deplete an adjuster of all oil
-install it and a follower
-compress the lash adjuster fully by pushing down on the follower
-check the gap between the follower and the cams base circle with a feeler gauge
-the gap should measure between .018" and .032"

[HorneDogg]

i am not a machinist by trade, i know a little about it. the line bore that thay are doing is only for that cam cradle cap. It should be an issue due to the fact that it is the cap being line bored and not the head part. I will let my machinist know the information and i really appreciate all the help.

[GetMeMyStogie]

i am not a machinist by trade, i know a little about it. the line bore that thay are doing is only for that cam cradle cap. It should be an issue due to the fact that it is the cap being line bored and not the head part. I will let my machinist know the information and i really appreciate all the help.


Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the cap bolted to the head during the line boring/honing process? That's the whole point of doing it, so that one half-bore is perfectly matched to its other half, right? Thus, it's not really possible to only affect the cap-half of the cam bores and not the head half.
If you were to 'line bore' just the cap itself, you'd have no guarantee that
A) the bore center of the cap (relative to the mounting bolts) is in the exact same place as the center of the bore circle of the head;
B) that the bore sizes (of the cap vs. the head) are exactly the same;
C) that the bore centers, front to back, are along the same line on both the head and the cap.

[RacerX]

You could take all the webbing that attaches all the caps togetether and they would still work perfect. Standalone caps aren't new and are used in today's cars too.

http://image.mustang50magazine.com/f/34657883/m5lp-1202-23-3v-modular-engine-heads-cam-intake-install.jpg (http://image.mustang50magazine.com/f/34657883/m5lp-1202-23-3v-modular-engine-heads-cam-intake-install.jpg)
http://image.mustang50magazine.com/f/36571684+w750+st0/m5lp-1204-02+2011-ford-mustang-gt+rgr-jpc-racing-stage-1-heads.jpg (http://image.mustang50magazine.com/f/36571684/m5lp-1204-02+2011-ford-mustang-gt+rgr-jpc-racing-stage-1-heads.jpg)

[na svt]

You could take all the webbing that attaches all the caps togetether and they would still work perfect. Standalone caps aren't new and are used in today's cars too.

This isn't exactly correct. The individual caps like those on the GT and TFS heads have locating dowels on at every bolt hole, the 4v caps do not and therefore need the webbing. However, once the cap is tq's the webbing does nothing therefore it doesn't matter if they are cracked.