[DeTomaso] My engine post-mortem

[Asa Jay Laughton]

Mike,

Thank you for the post-mortem.  This certainly helps a lot of us  
reconcile the actual failure against all the different theories we had.

Asa Jay

Quoting MikeLDrew at aol.com:

> Hi guys,
>
> You may recall that my wonderful super-duper Dan Jones Special 408 stroker
> Cleveland died a gruesome death on the track back in June, when it was
> barely a month old.   The distributor gear and cam gear were both wrecked.
>
> People had theorized that the distributor gear was at fault, but I
> discounted that theory.   You see, Crane's gear is supposed to work   
> perfectly with
> roller cams.   Crane had gone bust a few months earlier and the supply of
> gears had dried up from conventional sources, but I learned that a Pantera
> vendor (who shall remain nameless) said he had bought up a supply of  
>  Crane gears
> before they had gone broke, and he was willing to sell one to me at the
> standard price.
>
> I was in Germany at the time the transaction took place, but he packed it
> up and next-day shipped it directly to Dan's engine builder, who then
> installed it in the motor.   Fast-forward to June and there it was,   
> shredded and in
> bits all over the inside of my engine.
>
> Last week Julian Kift was good enough to burn some of his vacation time to
> drive three hours from Reno (actually 2+10, that boy speeds!) and help me
> pull the engine out of my car, and Friday Lori and I took it to   
> Garry Choate's
> house where we took it apart, cleaned out all the debris, and Saturday,
> rebuilt it with a new Crane gear and a new cam, and a new oil pump.   Many,
> many people attributed my failure to my beloved Pete Jackson gear drive, so I
> wistfully set it aside in favor of a top-end Rollmaster timing chain set.
>
> Well, when putting things back together, I compared my new Crane gear
> (manufactured in Feb 2011 and purchased from Summit back in July)   
> with the old
> gear that the Pantera vendor sold me.
>
> They were different!
>
> There was a number stamped on the old gear, so I Googled it, and guess
> what?   It was a MALLORY gear, not a Crane gear.   And furthermore, Mallory
> states on their website that this gear, although made of steel, is NOT
> compatible with roller cams!!!!!!!!!
>
> So, success was NEVER an option with this gear--no matter what I did or how
> I drove the car, it was going to fail.   Both Mallory and the cam
> manufacturer said so.
>
> Now, I don't believe for an instant that the Pantera vendor deliberately
> tried to screw me over--it certainly would not have been in his interests to
> do so.   Who knows, he may have believed that he was sending me a Crane gear,
> because whoever he bought it from told him so? So while I don't hold him
> completely blameless, I'm not ready to point the finger and accuse him of
> screwing me over.   It's probably a simple, honest mistake.
>
> But it's a mistake that cost me six months of driving (because I was too
> lazy to fix it any sooner) and about $600 in parts.
>
> The moral of the story is, don't believe everything you hear, and just
> because a Pantera vendor tells you something about somebody else's part he's
> selling, don't automatically believe it without taking the time to verify it
> yourself.   Had I been home and not stuck in Germany for a month   
> with a broken
> airplane, the gear might have passed through my hands, and if it wasn't in
> the original package (as this wasn't), then I probably would have Googled
> the number just to satisfy my curiosity before sending it on to the engine
> builder.
>
> Anyway, my motor is back together now, with a new cam (same as the old
> one), a new CRANE distributor gear, the aforementioned timing chain,  
>  and a new
> oil pump (just in case metal debris damaged the old one).   We checked for
> any signs of wear or damage to the bearings, lifters, etc. and   
> everything else
> checked out clean.   So I think I'm good to go.   My water pump was a bit
> tired so I took this opportunity to replace it, so that should get here
> tomorrow, the motor will then be fully assembled, and ready to go   
> back into the
> car.....
>
> Mike
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-- 
Asa Jay Laughton - sent from somewhere other than home
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