not what i bought,, mach 1..

Kennedy jay

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ok, long story short, auction listed a 2004 mach 1 with a terminator motor upgrade.. cool. can see over 4-5000 worth of aftermarket goodies with an s.c. motor. no badge though.. ok, turned out it was a factory mach engine with a complete eaton swap.. everything needed was there and working, husr wasnt tuned.. sounds good, looked over and thumbed up by a ford tech. cool. so i bought it, beautiful screaming yellow, sounds great through bbk and magnaflow setup.. and thats where it ends...
two days later i start to hear a faint knock. so being the guy i am, i pull everything, motor and tranny out the top, together.. cake.. pull it apart, all rod barinvs look good, 1 tiny speck on one of them,, no discoloration on the crank, ( forged crank) , no flakes in oil or fiilter..none i could see anyway.i havent pulled the pistons, but everything seems tight. gonna get an inspection cam tonight to inspect the cylinders... go from there..
question 1 would be, where else might this knock sound come from? it was very faint at idle, and almost sounded like my explorers timing chain when i shut it down,, kinda rattled... maybe tentioners? the chain is kinda loose, until you turn the crank, then will tighten up and release again.. opposite of the other side.. maybe chains stretched?? dont know mileage on motor, kinda at a loss as where ro go now. any insight guys??
 

Kennedy jay

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aftermarket goodies ,
bbk long tubes with bbk high flow h pipe, magnaflow exhaust.
maximal caster plates, maximal bump steer kit.
fluidyne radiator
division x fpr with boost reference
canton deep sump pan.
full bilstien suspension..
39 lb injectors.

thats what ive found so far.. plus the eaton swap..
 

lOOKnGO

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Now is the time to at least put some rods and pistons in. What is the plug thread count on the head?


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Kennedy jay

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nothing out of wack in the clutch area,, was definetly coming from the motor... gonna replace the spec clutch disc,, if theres no internal damage ill probably just reuse the factories... just in a bind trying to figure this out.. gonna replace the rod bearings and tensioners. maybe the guides as well..
 

Kennedy jay

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not planning on a high hp build.. maybe a smaller s.c. pully, past that its just a daily with a lot of ass to it., my other is a 94 cobra drop top.. i love opening the garage..
 

nxhappy

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usually a louder knock is going to be the pistons or the rods, with the SC on there the tune was probably shit, fried the motor...who knows until you pull it apart
 

lOOKnGO

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Piston slap is more annoying then harmful, in a daily driver. It does have more knock sound then a tick sound. It usually showed up after as early as 40k miles on up. As stated above, your current rods and pistons are your weak point.


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Roots-type

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Oem cobra pistons? I'd choose differently unless this is a decision made purely on budgetary restraints. The stock 8.5:1 cobra piston is nice and safe for a pd blower car that may only ever see 91 octane fuel, but if you have access to 93 and up, I'd try to get one a bit higher. The term pistons also have an expansion rate that can be catastrophic if you get them too hot. Lots and lots of people have been successful with the stock cobra stuff, I'm not saying it's bad at all if used correctly, but if I had the engine out and money wasn't at the forefront of my mind, I'd think about another one. The rods are great though, I'd use those in a minute.
 

roy_1031

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Oem cobra pistons? I'd choose differently unless this is a decision made purely on budgetary restraints. The stock 8.5:1 cobra piston is nice and safe for a pd blower car that may only ever see 91 octane fuel, but if you have access to 93 and up, I'd try to get one a bit higher. The term pistons also have an expansion rate that can be catastrophic if you get them too hot. Lots and lots of people have been successful with the stock cobra stuff, I'm not saying it's bad at all if used correctly, but if I had the engine out and money wasn't at the forefront of my mind, I'd think about another one. The rods are great though, I'd use those in a minute.

He said he’s getting Manley pistons. Oem is Zolner. I was successful with my oem cobra bottom end but having to do it all over again, I’d upgrade them as well just for piece of mind as the pistons are the weak link.


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Roots-type

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He said he’s getting Manley pistons. Oem is Zolner.
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When he said "svt" manley pistons I wanted to be clear about the factory term stuff incase he was getting them as a package deal with the cobra rods. Sounds like we're on the same page about them though.
 

DSG2003Mach1

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the terminator/aluminator pistons arent bad but as mentioned a little compression bump can help a lot and the ringlands of those pistons are likely to break if they get rattled. When my aluminator was rebuilt we kept the terminator rods and added ARP 2000 bolts and a diamond piston.
 

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