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I busted the most classic bolt to break on a SBF. If you've ever owned one, you probably know which bolt I am talking about..... it's always a pucker moment when removing it. The water pump has never been off of the 351, so it's been holding for 22 years. Hope the overnight soak of Kroil and some heat will get her out.
How long since it was changed last? I've seen worse.... unless it's making noise, I wouldn't worry about it.
Its been about 3 years/100k miles or so and the fluid has a brownish tint. I'm getting a preload thud when I first start accelerating too so I'm a little worried.
Was it valvoline gear oil that everyone was saying to avoid?
It's my first Saturday off in a while so I thought I would do a little maintenance.
I really hope that bolt comes out for you White. I know those can be a lot more interesting than we want them to be sometimes.
Well it looks like the rear end that was swapped in that was supposed to be an LS is actually an open carrier. I love surprises. I see no clip.
Is that a 9.75 jp ? I thought you had 5.4L. (?) Yea, I've never seen an open 9.75 rear gear... without LS/traction lock.
No, that was just me about the Valvoline. Well, there was one other person that said the stuff was corked as well. My experience was using the stuff in the 98 last spring. The rear end in the 98 was getting bad (loud, like the bearings were out of round and chewing into the axles) before trying the valvoline. I swapped the fluid using the valvoline since it was a very good price and haven't heard of issues in the past with their formulation. Well, the valvoline made it twice as bad...X2. Now it's loud as hell lol. I'll only use Mobile 1, DP or Amsoil from here on out. Granted, the rear was getting bad, but new gear oil shouldn't have made that much worse.
I busted the most classic bolt to break on a SBF. If you've ever owned one, you probably know which bolt I am talking about..... it's always a pucker moment when removing it. The water pump has never been off of the 351, so it's been holding for 22 years. Hope the overnight soak of Kroil and some heat will get her out.
There are those occasions where there's just nothing you can do. I ran into that recently replacing the dipstick tube this spring. It was a steel bolt into aluminum boss. It's been in there for maybe 10 years. I couldn't give it much heat because it was just below the cam/valve cover gasket..but I gave it some. Couldn't use Kroil or Blaster due to the angle, plus there was no way to get to the corrosion with it. But yea, I could of got it with more heat, - would of cooked the cover gasket for sure in the process. Snapped it, drilled it out using 3 left H drill bits. Stepping them up in hopes it would recoil out eventually, saving the threads. Denied, - had to tap it.
Good luck, - if you can use heat, crap man USE IT!
Got it! Took me a few hours of Kroil, heat, and patience. Actually.... the bolt is still stuck in the chain cover, so it's soaking in Kroil right now. I'm sure it will come out after a few splashes of Kroil. You know... I love Kroil, but it stinks.... and even stinks worse when it is burning, lol.
How I got to it was taking everything else off the timing chain cover, and working a razor knife between the block and TC cover. In other words, I dug out the gasket, and was able to get some Kroil into it that way. The heat pulled it into the threads going into the block. I did not want to use a flame, nor did I want to weld it where it is sitting right now. So, I tried my heat gun, and it amazingly worked really well for this. I watched a video on SMA where he has an inductive heater for bolts that worked really well.... so I got the idea there, even though I wasn't really using induction.
The threads look pretty damn good, considering what it went through, lol.
Don't know if I mentioned this, but a Buddy of mine in the Mustang group that I am in is giving me a fuel rail for a 302 so I can modify it to fit the 351. I need to extend the fuel lines because the 302 lines are too short.
ALSO - the 351 Fox oil pan showed up today. Heads shipped yesterday, and the cam shipped today.
Last edited by white89gt; Sep 29, 2018 at 04:44 PM.
Forgot to mention..... the timing chain was shot. It's a double roller from the factory too (all roller blocks are double chain, btw). I was surprised to see it was that loose. When I checked the Stang at 170,000 miles, it was still prefect.
