I have a 90 GT on which I just performed a head swap. I'm now running GT40 irons (milled .010), and the car had Cobra Roller Rockers on it (which I discovered on the E7s when I took it apart). I had the heads rebuilt with the Trick Flow kit, but used FRPP valve stem seals because I read a few posts saying the TFs can cause problems.
The valve train geometry kicked my butt for longer than it should have. I first tried to put the engine together using stock length pushrods, and when I went to start it, I could immediately hear excessive clicking (I didn't torque the rockers properly). I shut the engine off, took everything apart, remeasured the pushrods, and came up with 6.300". Ordered TF pushrods, put them in, used a marker on several of valves, and the geometry was about as close to perfect as I was gonna get without special ordering 6.315 pushrods. I called it good, had to use shims on most of the rockers with the majority torquing to 18 lbs. in between 1/4 to 3/4 turn, put everything back together once again, and started it up. The roller rockers sounded fine, but I determined I had a vacuum leak at the back of the intake manifold.
So this morning I took everything off again with the intention of using silicone instead of the cork gasket on the intake. I didn't wanna drain the radiator and have to spend another 20 bucks on antifreeze, so after I pulled the intake, of course some water got into the lifter valley. I got a roll of paper towels and began soaking up the water. While doing so, I noticed tiny pieces of what I'm almost sure, are my valve stem seals. I seriously wanna kill myself.
Any suggestions as to what I did wrong? I DID feel confident I had the valve train geometry correct, but fragments of valve stem seals seems to suggest otherwise. Are there any other reasons why this would happen? Thanks in advance.
The valve train geometry kicked my butt for longer than it should have. I first tried to put the engine together using stock length pushrods, and when I went to start it, I could immediately hear excessive clicking (I didn't torque the rockers properly). I shut the engine off, took everything apart, remeasured the pushrods, and came up with 6.300". Ordered TF pushrods, put them in, used a marker on several of valves, and the geometry was about as close to perfect as I was gonna get without special ordering 6.315 pushrods. I called it good, had to use shims on most of the rockers with the majority torquing to 18 lbs. in between 1/4 to 3/4 turn, put everything back together once again, and started it up. The roller rockers sounded fine, but I determined I had a vacuum leak at the back of the intake manifold.
So this morning I took everything off again with the intention of using silicone instead of the cork gasket on the intake. I didn't wanna drain the radiator and have to spend another 20 bucks on antifreeze, so after I pulled the intake, of course some water got into the lifter valley. I got a roll of paper towels and began soaking up the water. While doing so, I noticed tiny pieces of what I'm almost sure, are my valve stem seals. I seriously wanna kill myself.
Any suggestions as to what I did wrong? I DID feel confident I had the valve train geometry correct, but fragments of valve stem seals seems to suggest otherwise. Are there any other reasons why this would happen? Thanks in advance.
