thanks dude.

Ill look for some slick 50 tomorrow as well as do the check for piston slap.

I guess I need to find a syringe to get the oil in there? Or is there some other trick?

 

See the oil can on the front tire in this pic of our sprint car? Use one like that. Works perfect! Most auto parts stores have them for $3, usually on the shelf below the oil drain pans.

 

Cool, like the can the tin man from Wizard of Oz had

 

Exactly!

 

I've used slick 50 quite a few times in friends cars and it always works great, The old saying usually rings true "add a quart of slick 50 and sell it."

-Jon

 

Well, it didnt work here

Oh well.

i didnt get a chance today to check for piston slap. maybe sometime this week. But next sunday I head out, for a lovely trip back to CA. I just hope the truck doesnt blow up

 

I just inherited my dad's 1991 F150 with a 302 automatic with 46,000 miles on it. It has a light knock at start up that goes away within about 1 mile of driving. My 2002 Lightning has 15,000 miles on it and it has had piston slap from about 5000 miles on the odometer. Like the 302, it goes away within 1 mile of driving. The dealer says it's normal (I know it's not) I have decided it must be a Ford family trait.

 

I have a 91 with a 5.0 and an automatic. From what you describe my truck has the same noise and its a lifter that is collapsing. overall, it isnt bad enough for me to bother messing with it yet. hope this helps

 

For those of you that have piston slap only when cold it actually is normal on new vehicles. To reduce friction and reciprocating weight most manufacturers are using short skirt pistons which will slap around until they get up to operating temp. Because of the noise complaints they are now coating pistons with teflon and coating the cylinder walls with moly. The pistons slap around just like they always did but those coating help to greatly reduce the noise.

-Jon

 

well, it is piston slap

Finally had the chance to dump a bit of oil in the suspected cylinder.
Cranked it over a few time with the coil disconnected.

Then reconnected the coil and fires it up.

Sound was gone, then returned after 2-3 minutes of idling (and lots of smoking )

Thanks for the help.

Im headed out tonight for CA, I hope the thing doesnt blow up on me

 

Well, I'm glad someone was able to finally use one of those tips I like to share, but I'm sorry that the results were what they were. If you're going to be anywhere near Simi Valley, contact Hawaii Racing. As recently as a year ago, they had complete EFI 5.0's from Ford for less than $2500. Brand new, from clutch to serp. belt, throttle body to oil pan (& oil). Even came with all the sensors, injectors and harnesses. I haven't been out there in a good year or more, so they may not have them any more, but they bought every last one that Ford was selling when they cleaned out their stock.

 

You should be alright for your trip, i recently tore down the 351M in my truck which has had piston slap since i bought it about 6000 very hard miles ago. I actually found essentially the entire skirt of the #2 piston in the oil pan, but i never had any problems other than the noise. Instead of replacing or rebuilding the engine i used it as an excuse to pick up a crank, rods, and pistons to make it into a 400m motor.

-Jon

 

It held together! And the noise hasnt progressed. Sounds like poo when cold, and just a slight tick when warm.

And it is SOO wierd, even loaded down so damn heavy (11,243 lbs GROSS with trailer) it ran stong and smooth once up to temp. It did better than I ever expected. I keot it slow though, actualy doing the speed limit, and chugging up the grades in 2nd gear. I really had bad visions of calling AAA, in the middle of no-wheres.


Thanks for all the help.


Right now Im looking into either a performance long block if we decide to keep the truck, or simply throwing a fresh set of pistons into it to sell it

That does sound like a screaming deal on a turn-key. Although, I have no problem using all of the accesories off of my existing motor. Especially since the maintenance is completely up to par. Many new parts to reuse