NEW PROBLEM(S):

[VileZambonie]

Neither. Crank the engine over and let the bowl fill itself.

[TexasRed]

Yeah, your cam should have oil. You usually only have to fill the bowl when you start a rebuild.

[Stewart G Griffin]

So, there's no benefit to manually filling the bowl on a broken in/run engine?

What about pre-lubing?

[eventhorizon66]

There is a risk of over filling it and flooding your engine.  A delayed startup won't hurt anything if the cam is already broken in.  The only reason you want a fast startup with a fresh cam is to get the engine running and oil flowing before the cam lube is completely wiped off.

Oil pre-lubing the engine is an excellent idea as it cuts cold (dry) startup wear.

[Stewart G Griffin]

NOTE: i would ask that everyone stop smiling because i may be somewhat screwed at this point.


NEXT roadblock:

What happened was i did start the engine and it ran for a few secs.   A little rough, but i thought the timing might have been retarded.  i didn't further continue because the battery was getting run down, plus i had to go to work.

When i got back from work, i continued to fill the radiator---i'm assuming that the engine took some water in when it turned and the level in the radiator went down.  No big deal?   By the way, how much water does the system take?  i already filled it with 4 prestone sized jugs before the engine ran.  My reason for asking may become seriously apparent in a sec:

i continued filling with 2 1/2 more jugs and then water started coming out in a stream out of the dipstick!  Apparently there is a hole(?) in the dipstick tube and that's where the water was/is coming out from.  These aren't the best pictures, but you get the idea?







Also, i noticed that the screw on the starter where the brace would go (my engine does not have this, but some do) is rusted indicating that this condition may have been happening for a while.

So, bascially, am i screwed at this point?  The engine was hard to start earlier today.

[choptop]

Wow, something is seriously wrong here. The only way I can see you getting water out of the dipstick tube, is water is getting into the crankcase. 4 gallons of coolant doesnt sound bad, but 6 1/2 doesnt sound right at all. Check all your coolant lines and make sure a vacuum port didnt get connected to the coolant side. May be a head gasket, intake leak I am definately not laughing at you, and I figure that goes for alot of the other guys here. We're here to help, not poke fun at. Hang in there.

[Stewart G Griffin]

No i didn't think anyone was laughing at me (although i wouldn't blame anyone for it considering my situation);  i just thought that everyone here was in a good mood and here i am with a derelict motor........actually nevermind.


The only other thing i can add is when i initially put together the test stand and initially filled the radiator, i think last week, it only took the 4 jugs and the level stayed at the filler neck where the cap goes on.  It was only after the motor ran and then a few hours later i noticed the level in the radiator had went down and only after i added 2 1/2 more jugs is when the leaking started.

[choptop]

Gotcha, I feel for ya. I actually wish you were closer so I could come help with this demon possessed engine,lol.
 Definately an interesting engine. I am wondering if there is a cracked head involved here. Does it have the stock intake or aluminum. One thing that comes to mind is the bent pushrod. It would have to be perfect timing on all the systems, but if that cylinder with the bent pushrod filled up with water, then it would bent the pushrod by hydraulically locking the cylinder, thus pushing back on the valve. Unlikely, but possible.

[Stewart G Griffin]

Stock iron intake.

At this point i think the hydrolock theory is plausible.


I'm not completely screwed at this point;  i do have a 305 laying dormant in the garage.  And i know that one runs ok.  At this point, in the interest of time, i might swap everything over and run this engine as i need the truck for backup transportation.  And then go thru a complete tear down, inspection and rebuild of this "possessed" 350.

[eventhorizon66]

Hate to say it Stewart, but if my engine had water pouring out of the dipstick, I'd be pulling it and tearing it down.  Could be as minor as a failed intake gasket, could be as serious as a cracked block.  Sorry to hear this, but at least you have that 305.

[choptop]

eventhorizon66 is right.You already have it out, tear it down and see whats goin on. My vote is heads or head gaskets. Hopefully not block

[123 pugsy]

Sorry Stewart but when I saw the water fountain coming out the dipstick tube I started laughing.  Never seen that one before.

Look at the bright side.
No better way to learn about engines than to tear it all apart.

First thing to do is read a book about engine rebuilding.
Second thing is to read it again.
Third thing is to buy another book and read that.

Great learning opportunity here.
Sorry about the bad luck.

[Stewart G Griffin]

So, is there actually supposed to be a hole in the dipstick just for this purpose, or if the oil pressure gets too high?

[oldwhity]

I don't think there's supposed to be a hole in the dipstick tube but I could be wrong. This happened to me a couple of decades ago. When I put the heads back on I somehow put a shorter headbolt in one of the boltholes(must've switched with another one) and antifreeze ended up in the oil pan. I think that one bolthole had a water jacket running through it(if that's possible). I hope you find your "gremlin". Good luck!

[HAULIN IT]

Stewart, You didn't have water running out there before you took the engine out? Maybe that "hook" part is rotated & that was spotwelded on as a support, now it's broken...taking a little spot of tube with it? By the looks of that bracket (the oily silt on it) I think the hole has been there a little while. Doesn't explain the water...but may explain the hole. That would take allot of water to FILL the engine to make water shoot out that high up the dipstick tube. This is one odd deal. Good Luck with that one! Lorne