The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Shop engine mishap & what is that rubbing sound ?

I recently was preparing to install a 1954 235 engine in my 48 P/U when I had a embarassing shop mishap. The engine was mounted on a wood pallet inside my open 5 x 8 utility trailer in the adjacent bay to my truck. I was 5 minutes from hooking it up to the hoist and taking it out of the trailer when my father in law and I lifted the old 4 speed transmission out of the front of the trailer. Well taking that weight out of the trailer was enough to cause the engine to roll backwards out of the trailer onto the concrete floor. It didn't fall out but nonetheless still rolled out onto the concrete floor Damage to the engine appeared to be confined to a bent fan pulley, cracked the dist cap, and the little after market air filter was squashed. The engine does not have any visual damage to the oil pan or and although the valve cover was off so was the rocker arms and push rods and it doesn't appear that any part of the valve springs or head made contact with the floor. Fast forward / engine turns fine with a braker bar and 3/4 inch adaptor. We went ahead and installed the engine, but have a few misc items to put in such as trans. When I turn the engine over now with the breaker bar there is a rubbing sound that occurs once every time I rotate the engine 360. It is hard to say where the noise is coming from. With no visual evidence of damage to the engine, I still realize they are not designed to take the punishment this one received. Dist looks fine, and is rotating. installed the psuh rods and the rocker arms and valve cover. Again this sound is a metal rubbing sound not loud but I would imagine it will increase I do crank it up. Where do I start to figure this problem out. I have beat myself up enough about the mishap, but go ahead if you must and tell me how stupid this accident was. Hopefully this will be recoverable without totally tearing the engine down. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

If it fell over on the dist. cap and broke it, Take out the dist. and then rotate it, Start there since it did roll on that side, was the bell housing on? check the side cover and make sure it didn't get bent by the dist. hitting it.

If the dust cover was on the bottom of the bell housing,maybe it got bent and the flywheel is rubbing on it.Also try oiling the cylinders.Perhaps they are dry.

Flex plate? How about the fan pulley you say was bent. Did you straighten it or replace it? It's almost sure to be confined to
the exterior as you have described it.

Thanks Benny,
No the bellhousing was not on at the time, nor was the flywheel. I plan on taking off the side cover and will also take off the dist. I have mounted flywheel, bellhousing, pressure plate, disc and installed engine. It is possible something could be rubbing in that location as I haven't dropped the 4 spd man trans in yet. I did turn the engine while installing these parts and don't recall a noise, but it may have been there and I missed it.

Thanks guys for all the replies,
I did replace the fan blade. it appears confined to the exterior as you mentioned. It only occurs once every full revolution which puzzles me. I took the fuel pump off as well just to see if that was what might have caused the rubbing sound. I will keep at it until I run it down. Greatly appreciate the input.

timing cover get bent?

Don
looking directly at the timing cover the top left hand side of the cover has a very small crease along the edge of perhaps 1/16 inch deep by 2 inches long on that edge. Unless the clearance between the timing gears and the side of the cover is that close I don't think this is the problem. Also the rubbing noise only occurs once per full revolution of the engine. Wouldn't you hear the rubbing all the time if the timing gear was hitting the timing cover?

Timing gears are two to one, crank has to rotate twice around for cam gear to go once.

If you hit the spot where the noise is at, can you back it up and and make it go away? Stay at the spot, don't keep going all the way around.

How was your cam lubed, and is it a new one? You need to be careful turning the engine a bunch of times with a new camshaft, you sure don't want to wipe all your break-in lube off. I suggest backing the rockers off till you find the problem, them apply more cam lube and then the rockers. A used cam will take the rotation with only extra lube applied.

Engines are really tough, you would have to drop one pretty hard to bend a crank or something serious. I would bet is sheet metal, could the oil pickup tube move with a good jolt?

Joe