454 woes, off the road for the time being

[Dave M]

Well, did a round trip yesterday north of home, about 6 hours of country driving, on the way back the old girl failed. Tried limping home, but it had developed a noise that slowly got worse, oil levels & pressure ok, but had to have her flatbed towed home. Worst part was the tow truck driver was a Ford F series man. He couldn't stop ribbing me all the way home. (in good jest, and a good person) Then my mate sees it going down the main street, also a Ford F100 owner. He then text's me, more ribbing! I felt like Charlie Brown "Good grief" Well, did all the checks today and we have chewed out a lifter and cam lobe in approx' 4,500 miles.
Anyway I'll source a new cam & lfters, any recomendations for a basically standard to mild cam. I am looking at the Comp cams 218/218 High Energy, basic stock 454 with edelbrock perf' & standard exh' manifolds. Current one is an Engine Pro MC1737, not going back there.

 

[QBuff02]

I ran a Comp Cams XE262 in a similar 454 with good results. It made gobs of torque and moved a K30 with 33" tires and 4.10 gears quite well.

 

[Big Chip]

Well, did a round trip yesterday north of home, about 6 hours of country driving, on the way back the old girl failed. Tried limping home, but it had developed a noise that slowly got worse, oil levels & pressure ok, but had to have her flatbed towed home. Worst part was the tow truck driver was a Ford F series man. He couldn't stop ribbing me all the way home. (in good jest, and a good person) Then my mate sees it going down the main street, also a Ford F100 owner. He then text's me, more ribbing! I felt like Charlie Brown "Good grief" Well, did all the checks today and we have chewed out a lifter and cam lobe in approx' 4,500 miles.
Anyway I'll source a new cam & lfters, any recomendations for a basically standard to mild cam. I am looking at the Comp cams 218/218 High Energy, basic stock 454 with edelbrock perf' & standard exh' manifolds. Current one is an Engine Pro MC1737, not going back there.

What kind of noise was it making?

 

[fast 99]

Don't over cam it. The heavier the truck the milder the cam should be. Made that mistake [once] all it did was eat fuel with no power. A good thing to do is call a cam manufacturer with the application and what you want to achieve. That takes much less time than having to swap out a cam.

 

[Dave M]

What kind of noise was it making?

Starts as a ticking rocker noise, gets worse and the motor starts missing.

 

[Big Chip]

Starts as a ticking rocker noise, gets worse and the motor starts missing.

Pull the rocker cover off and check if you have a rocker arm off the pushrod. I had that happen with the 305 in my 86 GMC. I thought I blew it up but didn't discover the rocker arm until I had already bought a new engine.

 

[Craig Nedrow]

What I got, came with the truck, no problems, smokes 12.5 tires at will ,16 lbs of vacuum, BUT have not ran any other cam. Intake E-brock air gap, Flowmaster 1 7/8 headers to complete the pkg. Just now installing a MSD 6al as the HEI pucked, (again), oh yeah, Holly 3310-3 4160 converted to a 4150, Love!!