Doubts, procrastination, and victory!

[johnsonic]

Just posting because I had a big victory last night. Rebuilt my engine myself (have never done this). Have been fighting noises ever since.

1st up was the valvetrain - I set it up wrong by using the 90-degree method & had wrong sized pushrods. Also used the cheapest comp pushrods that could handle guideplates, wound up mushrooming the ends. Fixed that.

I also have had a noise when accelerating. Couldn't be an exhaust leak - have new gaskets and all of the bolts are tight. Must be something I messed up in assembling the engine. Spend the next 3 months freaking out and checking everything. Compression / leak down - totally fine.

The noise is getting louder. I'm still freaking out. Burnt out around Thanksgiving and don't want to drive it in case I break something. Don't have the balls to even look at it until last night.

Because it has the symptoms of an exhaust leak and they don't have manifold gaskets from the factory, decide to pull those out and tighten it back up. SUCCESS!

Runs awesome.

Moral of the story - DON'T GIVE UP! Learned a ton about diagnosing so nothing lost there, and now have a HUGE weight off my chest. That is all.

[Full Size Jeeper]

Yeah, sometimes you just have to take a step back from the problem and take a moment to re-access the situation. Good to hear.

[Kaiserjeeps]

Good ending to that story.

My first ring and pinion I did on my CJ back in the late 80's made so much noise it was nuts. Howled like a coon dog. I did not know to check the pattern on the coast side and the backlash....What backlash?? Whoa did those gears look funny the next time I looked. Now I almost know what I am doing and the gears are doing well. The new gears that is.

Good job getting into it and making it work!!

[ShagWagon]

Yeah I had a time with my exhaust manifolds too. Thought heads were bad.

Got new bolts, used some oil on them and a torque wrench and fixed it proper lol.

[levelhead]

You want to use antisieze compound (like Permatex) on those exhaust bolts and on timing cover bolts/studs as well....next guy to take it apart will thank you.

[rang-a-stang]

What a great post! So glad for your success!! Woo hoo!!

[johnsonic]

Now that it's a runner - cannot stop looking for excuses to drive! "Need anything from the store?" "Oh, I forgot to pick up this one thing." "Never been to that town, what's it look like?" "Where does this road go?"

Feel like I'm 16 with a freshly minted license.