I thought I would post my problems in case anyone was contemplating getting something from MMR. As some of you know I have had a continuing saga with oil leak problems on my TT setup. We have been chasing this problem for over a year now without solving anything. The front cover crank seal kept going bad and leaking. We tried everything we could think of and nothing worked. It turns out to be a simple fix. We were focused on the front crank snout being the problem because the engine is a brand new MMR shortblock so we didn’t think there could be any problems there. Ha Ha.
Finally did a leak down check, which we should have done first thing, all the cylinders were in the 5% range except #4 which was in the 10% range. Pulled the entire thing apart and when we pulled the heads off I knew we had a real problem. I could actually see the rings looking down on the pistons in the bore. I could rock the pistons back and forth in the bore just pushing on them. When I pulled #4 out all the rings on that piston had the gaps lined up which was causing the leakage.
When I had the short block built I had the pistons Teflon coated on the skirts and ceramic coated on the tops. The engine only has about 800 miles on it and the Teflon is worn off the sides and the cylinders are scarred from the pistons moving around. The block was a new Ford block and contrary to reports about MMR it had not been bored, it is still standard. There is about .010-.015 piston to bore clearance so I don’t know what the pistons are from but they can’t be standard bore Manley as they are supposed to measure 3.552 and these measure 3.525-3.54.
I have a new set of JE pistons coming and will use my original stock block with the rods and crank out of the new block to get this thing back on the road. I just want everyone to know that you can’t trust MMR for anything and do not buy anything from them. If I hadn’t been brain dead I would have done the leak down test first thing and saved a year of down time but I was lulled by the idea that the new shortblock shouldn’t have a problem.
Earl
Finally did a leak down check, which we should have done first thing, all the cylinders were in the 5% range except #4 which was in the 10% range. Pulled the entire thing apart and when we pulled the heads off I knew we had a real problem. I could actually see the rings looking down on the pistons in the bore. I could rock the pistons back and forth in the bore just pushing on them. When I pulled #4 out all the rings on that piston had the gaps lined up which was causing the leakage.
When I had the short block built I had the pistons Teflon coated on the skirts and ceramic coated on the tops. The engine only has about 800 miles on it and the Teflon is worn off the sides and the cylinders are scarred from the pistons moving around. The block was a new Ford block and contrary to reports about MMR it had not been bored, it is still standard. There is about .010-.015 piston to bore clearance so I don’t know what the pistons are from but they can’t be standard bore Manley as they are supposed to measure 3.552 and these measure 3.525-3.54.
I have a new set of JE pistons coming and will use my original stock block with the rods and crank out of the new block to get this thing back on the road. I just want everyone to know that you can’t trust MMR for anything and do not buy anything from them. If I hadn’t been brain dead I would have done the leak down test first thing and saved a year of down time but I was lulled by the idea that the new shortblock shouldn’t have a problem.
Earl
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