Lifter in Pieces... Hmmm...

[Niedhogg]

Started an engine swap in my CJ7 yesterday, AMC 304 is out and I have a 360 from my J20 that will be going in, and this 360 was a running engine straight out of the truck, but as we were changing out intakes I found a lifter piece in the valley, and as we went about cleaning the engine we found a small, crescent shaped hole punched out in the side of the pan, so we drained the oil and pulled the pan, and found the rest of a lifter, in pieces, laying in the bottom and sucked up against the oil pickup screen... there doesn't seem to be any other damage aside from a small nick in the counter weight that destroyed the lifter, and oh, did I mention that all of the lifters are accounted for and in their place?? I guess that a PO had just replaced the dropped lifter and unloaded the truck on someone before my son had bought it several years ago.. he had driven it from where he bought to here at home, and then to our shop, putting on about 60-70 miles and the truck seemed to run great. It was parked because during that drive it had lost almost all of it's tranny fluid, and we discovered the front pump seal was out in the tranny... so as I slowly rebuild the J20, I figured I could put the engine into my CJ to get it going again (after my HEI dizzy ate the cam in the AMC 304 ).

So, do you guys think I should go through this motor completely, or do you think I could change the oil pan and finish installing this into my CJ? There doesn't appear to be any other damage to the cam, or anything else.. it's weird... I should really, just take it apart and go through it, but even though my son says he doesn't mind that it's in his garage, I feel I should hasten this and get it running now, it could take me 5-8 weeks to budget this engine build...

I figure I'll just freshen it up with a basic rebuild, bore it if necessary and install a mild rv cam. I plan on using the HEI, I had already swapped the gear yesterday so I didn't have that issue again. I will be using my Edelbrock performer and also my 470 cfm Holley T/A carb from the AMC 304 as well and hope that it's enough for the 360, at least for now, it's not a race car... and this will also force me to begin upgrading the driveline in the CJ, as it's a completely stock, automatic Q-trac CJ7 ... I do have a spare T-150 /Dana 20 and matching axles from a CJ5 laying around, at least then I would have a low range Transfer Case , as the Q-trac is not... Any feedback would be good

 

[Scooter402]

That's a tough call. If I were in a hurry to get it together, I'd do just as you had said -- look everything over with a fine-toothed comb, replace what was necessary, and go on with it. The only concern would be was where you said there was a nick in the counter weight. I'd look that over, make SURE that there are no cracks. I'd probably pull the main caps one at a time and mic them with at least some plasti-gauge, along with the rod caps. Pull the lifters one at a time and have a look at the cam lobes, spinning the cam over so you can see the whole profile. I'd just make sure that you don't find one damaged or wiped. If all checks out, I'd roll with it.

On the other hand (just playing devil's advocate here), gasket kits, and even re-ring kits aren't that expensive. When I did a re-ring job on a 360 I had, I think I was about $AMC 150 or so into new rings, bearings, gaskets, etc. It was actually swapping cams that became the death of my 360... I had apparently gotten a bad grind, and on my 3rd drive after the break-in, all the lobes wiped off the cam, and my lifters (all new for that matter) were all destroyed. The bottoms of them had been chewed away by the cam lobes. I have no idea what caused it either...The whole cam package came as a kit -- cam, lifters, springs, pushrods, everything. So I just pulled the 360, went SBC and never looked back.

But anyway, if you feel confident looking everything over, and find no significant damage, I'd just do that and go on about my business.

 

[Niedhogg]

Here's a pick of the crank, it's not bad at all and I'll just file it a bit. I think I'll at least pull the heads and check the cylinder bores before I decide...if they're not too bad I may just re-ring it like you say... I do have a 350/sm465 laying around that was going to go into this Jeep eventually, but I should wait until my shop gets built later this summer... that swap will be involved..

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[Scooter402]

Oh, that's not bad at all. I've seen me do worse and still run it!