bluebird 2
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- Jul 21, 2024
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I have a 1966 olds 98. I could go through the whole shpill about acquiring the car, but if you want to know or see it,,,, it's on you tube at an auction. Not any more. I bought the car almost a year ago and have had more down time than raod time. It was updated before I got it and it had a pro mass fuel injection system on it. Car would intermittently die, but start right back up. Decided to get rid of all that except fuel rails for the port fuel injection and installed a fitech injection system. Could never get it to program and run right, so I got rid of it. NOW, I have a 750 stage 2 quadrajet from jet performance out of California, and a professionally rebuilt engine from a very reputable engine rebuild shop. After 2 months of waiting, the engine was finished and we saw it put out 450 horses at 5500 rpm, open header due to the shop not having any downpipe for an oldsmobile. So the motor sounded and acted incredibly powerful. I was extremely excited and could not wait to install it and get the rest of the to do list checked off for the upcoming olds nationals in springfeild Missouri at the end of July. So the story begins.
After the install I fired up the bueatiful work of art and soon I was struck with the realization that the rattle was not only evident, but was not going to go away. I thought maybe the lifters had list prime. I didn't hear any noise like this prior to the install, but the only time I heard the motor run was on the dyno,,,,,,,,,with the open headers. It could have been making the same God awful rattle, but we just couldn't hear it. So I took the drove the car to the guys who rebuilt it and casually asked if they worked on deisel engines and after the chuckling stop, got a reply of "no". So the diagnosis starting and we had come up with a dissimilar push rod metal and verified a rubbing on the rod by the guides. We changes the push rods to a hardened pushrod, and fired the motor back up only to hear the same rattle. Next came the removal of the rocker arms and after seeing some really weird markings the seat of the rockers, we decided to put a new set of roller rockers in it. By the way, we had a roller cam along with roller lifters from the go. Still the noise persisted and the builder said he researched some info on bad comp lifters so he ordered another "new and quietest lifters on the market". Still the rattle was there. We trailered the car back to my house and in a few hours I had jerked the engine back out and the builder was gonna go through it, change to a Howard cam and a another set of roller lifters. Frustration was building as I only have 7 days to go before we were leaving for missouri. With 5 days to go I got the engine back, install a few bolts, carb, hei distributor, full line and hit the key. Low and behold,,,the noise was STILL THERE . I've canceled my rooms for next week, we've canceled all are plans to go win a trophy at the nationals. All we have is an 8000.00 dollars rattling motor. Any body deal with the same issues,,,,,,any remedies are encouraged and highly appreciated. Our next step is to go back stock- flat tappet, no roller nothing. Bummer
After the install I fired up the bueatiful work of art and soon I was struck with the realization that the rattle was not only evident, but was not going to go away. I thought maybe the lifters had list prime. I didn't hear any noise like this prior to the install, but the only time I heard the motor run was on the dyno,,,,,,,,,with the open headers. It could have been making the same God awful rattle, but we just couldn't hear it. So I took the drove the car to the guys who rebuilt it and casually asked if they worked on deisel engines and after the chuckling stop, got a reply of "no". So the diagnosis starting and we had come up with a dissimilar push rod metal and verified a rubbing on the rod by the guides. We changes the push rods to a hardened pushrod, and fired the motor back up only to hear the same rattle. Next came the removal of the rocker arms and after seeing some really weird markings the seat of the rockers, we decided to put a new set of roller rockers in it. By the way, we had a roller cam along with roller lifters from the go. Still the noise persisted and the builder said he researched some info on bad comp lifters so he ordered another "new and quietest lifters on the market". Still the rattle was there. We trailered the car back to my house and in a few hours I had jerked the engine back out and the builder was gonna go through it, change to a Howard cam and a another set of roller lifters. Frustration was building as I only have 7 days to go before we were leaving for missouri. With 5 days to go I got the engine back, install a few bolts, carb, hei distributor, full line and hit the key. Low and behold,,,the noise was STILL THERE . I've canceled my rooms for next week, we've canceled all are plans to go win a trophy at the nationals. All we have is an 8000.00 dollars rattling motor. Any body deal with the same issues,,,,,,any remedies are encouraged and highly appreciated. Our next step is to go back stock- flat tappet, no roller nothing. Bummer