Doesn't Ford use studs in the torque converter? Going to be impossible to just unbolt it like a Chevy, you would have to slide the trans back far enough the studs cleared the flexplate.
Pull the valve covers and listen with a piece of hose to every rocker arm. If you have a nosy one you can collapse the lifter and measure the distance between the rocker and valve and see if there is excessive clearance. There was different lengths of pushrods to use to adjust valve clearance. You could have a bad flexplate flywheel. Or a bad bearing. take off the oil filter and tear it apart. If you find metal the engine will need to come apart.
back in the 70s I was working in independent garage, and I rebuilt a 352 and it done the exact same thing. The owner had ab older friend who had been for mech since the days of flatheads.he listened to it and the first thing he listened to was the timing gear, seems like an fe motor comes with a spacer behind the gear and replacement gears did not use it if your 390 as not been apart this could be the culprit. Try to find a exploded view of the engine and look at it Tom
I had a professional come out and look at it. His verdict was either my distributor or fuel pump, going to remove fuel pump tomorrow to isolate it and see
I have had 2 small block chevy fuel pump springs go bad over the years. Both Holley pumps. The first time I thought it was bottom end. I parked the project until I had time to dig into it. The stethiscope found it in about 5 minutes. I had never herd that noise from a fuel pump before. The second time it happened a friend told me his car was knocking and he feared the worts. When he came by I was able to find the noise in a jiffy. When you think you have seen it all something comes along to educate you further.
Awsome it’s potentially something silly Remember it can always be worse Great news keep us posted on the out come!
I had a bad fuel pump on a 390 that made noise and I also forgot to remove the spacer between the cam and gear on another 390 that made the fuel pump thingy hit some ribs on the inside of the timing chain cover.
Bought a pickup with a 390 cheap because of knock. turned out that the owner had but a car pump and the truck needed a different pump.
If it is the fuel pump, pull the timing cover and make sure the eccentric has not come loose on the cam. Had that happen to me once on a 351W. This is the car gods getting back at you for putting that Edelbrock on top of an FE. You would have never had this problem with the right and proper Holley.....
I don't have the time to read all the responses in the thread right now, but there is one possibility that I found out after pulling down, stripping, and plastigaging all the journals to find nothing wrong. The pan on some FE engines is very tight to the crank journals, and a slight dent in the pan can cause the journal to hit the pan which, depending on the way the journal is hitting the pan, can sound like anything from a disastrous failure or a bad journal. You don't even have to pull the pan to find out if this is a problem, all you have to do, is put a clamp across the pan in such a way as to push the center of the pan down. This wasn't the first 390 FE that I had rebuilt, but that pan sure caused a lot of extra, unnecessary work for me. Bob
Checked when I pulled the pump to make sure it was truly the pump and not noise routing through it. Used to have an Autolite 4100, the Holley knockoff from Ford, on it, but that carb gave me lots of issues. Probably the bad float, but I am going to be selling it and the rebuild kit I bought for it
That is not a bearing knock.The noise is to inconsistent.Unbolting the TC won't help,Fords used studs.I think you may have done some damage when the TC poped out.
I would bet if this engine has recently been rebuilt they left the spacer between the timing gear and the cam and it is showing up in the f/p
Change your timing set, seriously who rebuilds a motor without putting a new timing set in? That old chain could very well be slapping around in there making the noise.
We reused it because the chain was relatively fresh. The bottom end and timing chain had been redone 6,000 miles before we got the car, we put another 5,000 on before we blew a head gasket and found all the broken rings. Had very little play
I did a 64 390 and it did have the spacer from the factory as well. The machine shop told me to leave it out, I forgot and wrecked the cam and a couple lifters. That is the same noise I heard as well. It has to do with the new cam as well as the timing gears.
All I know is, the guy who helped me rebuild it has been building those engines since ford introduced them. He said to leave the setup as it was when we took it apart the first time
No noise without the fuel pump. New one hopefully will be coming in today so I can put it on this weeked
Aaaaand... it’s back. Much higher pitch though, much more consistent. Almost like someone using a jackhammer a few blocks away
So the new fuel pump makes more noise, but with no fuel pump the noise is gone? If that is correct, peel the front timing cover off and see what is going on with the fuel pump eccentric. -Abone.
Hi. If you use the broom handle or big screwdriver against your ear thing make sure the other end does not touch the fan or belts. Jimmie
Did they put the rear cam bore frost plug in backwards? On FE's this plug is reversed from the normal orientation. Having it in wrong would cause the cam to walk all over the place since it would not be positioned and restrained correctly. This could manifest itself as a noise that only starts when the load from the fuel pump arm is on. This is correct.
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