What am I overlooking on 302 SBF

[1320 BOWTIE]

Dave,
We finally got a chance to look at the small block Ford. Upon teardown we found excessive end play in the cam. we found wear on the cam gear. We used the plate that came with the engine. One other thing we found was that the .250 hole that is covered by the cam thrust plate was blocked by what looked like a mini freeze plug. I'm assuming that hole was to lube the distributor. Any thoughts?

[jac mac]

There should be a drilling in #1 cam bearing tunnel that intersects with dist shaft support in block. Your cam thrust plate on some models has a groove to lube that hole with mini frost plug in which case the plug should be removed. There should also be grooves on rear face of plate that allow lube from cam brg to get to front side to lube cam gear thrust face as this is loaded side.

[DaveMcLain]

Dave,
We finally got a chance to look at the small block Ford. Upon teardown we found excessive end play in the cam. we found wear on the cam gear. We used the plate that came with the engine. One other thing we found was that the .250 hole that is covered by the cam thrust plate was blocked by what looked like a mini freeze plug. I'm assuming that hole was to lube the distributor. Any thoughts?

The old ones came like that and then some time later they went to the thrust plate that says, "back bottom" on it and that one has that little tail which covers that opening instead of the little freeze plug. The 351C, 400, 429, 460 etc came with a plate that looks just like the early plate except it is a different thickness. The one you need for the Windsor style engine is supposed to be .250 thick where the wrong one is .160 thick.

[JonKaase]

dave, my guess is the crank is the problem. was it reground? we had a friend with a boss 9 original that had those problems and it was the crank. the crank was reground and i think they moved the wheel over as it was grinding and put a slight lead in it. and the noise was the rods slapping back and forth. guys can you tell i have been typing on mostly Apple mobile devices?

[cjperformance]

dave, my guess is the crank is the problem. was it reground? we had a friend with a boss 9 original that had those problems and it was the crank. the crank was reground and i think they moved the wheel over as it was grinding and put a slight lead in it. and the noise was the rods slapping back and forth. guys can you tell i have been typing on mostly Apple mobile devices?

No caps apart from Apple !!

[1320 BOWTIE]

Dave,
We finally got a chance to look at the small block Ford. Upon teardown we found excessive end play in the cam. we found wear on the cam gear. We used the plate that came with the engine. One other thing we found was that the .250 hole that is covered by the cam thrust plate was blocked by what looked like a mini freeze plug. I'm assuming that hole was to lube the distributor. Any thoughts?

The old ones came like that and then some time later they went to the thrust plate that says, "back bottom" on it and that one has that little tail which covers that opening instead of the little freeze plug. The 351C, 400, 429, 460 etc came with a plate that looks just like the early plate except it is a different thickness. The one you need for the Windsor style engine is supposed to be .250 thick where the wrong one is .160 thick.

Thanks Dave, That would certainly cause the excessive end play. Looks like the lack of knowledge on the small block Ford bit me. I have the plate that says "back Bottom" on it. That was the one that was on the engine.