A buffalo�s first bowtie

Hey Chris and thanks. We've been trying to bring our house into the current century so the boat has been on the back burner. Now that we've made a little progress on the house, I'm sneaking in some time for priorities!

I hope the gas was 89 though could've been anything; the attendant didn't know. I usually carry 93 down instead of using the marina, but we wanted to look at retaining walls last Sunday from the water and it was getting late. Lazy may have factored in by then as well. My timing is at 12.

For the record, it finished as a stock rebuild except 2 things(3 if you count paint), the DUI HEI unit and the cam. The cam is barely more than stock(a friend called it teeny)...the DUI has been trouble free. We've been running the heck out of it for some time now but just got the new prop last week.

Sometime this fall I want to take it all down and have the cylinders re-honed. I don't know that I ever got the rings seated right because of all the initial troubles I had. From there, I already have a set of 781 heads from CCH and have a line on a new cam. The compression needs to be raised to something like 9.5-9.8; looks like domed pistons will do that. I'm also going to try the edelbrock intake and roller rockers again, and maybe the 750.

It's gonna be fun this time...and thanks Tim for sharing some of your recent research!

OK, so here's a long overdue cap to this thread. The noise I was chasing turned out to be the cam gears tapping together at one spot in the rotation. I think it happened when I put the crank gear on. My theory is that I bent the nose of the crank messing with the gear and that, in turn, bent the cam. Anyway, problem solved and lesson learned. I still haven't found actual specs on where the cam gear should be positioned on the nose of the cam(press fit), but I did get this 'yet untried but makes sense' tip-blue the distributer gears and check how they are meshing after a few turns by hand.

A few parts later I'm turning an Acme 1598(13x14) at 4500 rpm's and 46 mph on GPS. That's with a little crud on the bottom, a few nicks in the gel, marina gas(yuk), and a half a tank of it.

I want to thank everyone who helped me along the way. This would've been a much darker tale without CCFan and all of yall!    

Now that I know where all the bolts go, I'll be taking a few back out this winter...

wakeboardin2k4 wrote: wow, Im very sorry to hear that it wasn't up and running for last summer.

Thanks, we did get a little time in on the water...even made my july 4 deadline...sort of. LOL

wakeboardin2k4 wrote: It makes me second guess my desire to do anything to my BBC.

I'd say don't if your's is running pretty well; not because of the problems I've had, but because the PCM 454's are put together in a certain way and because they are built to last. If a guy kept his oil changed and kept a tune on one, I wouldn't be surprised to see one get 4000 hrs or better. I would have let mine be if it wasn't rusted shut when I got it.

I did read where the gear drive transfers more vibration to the valve train, so I'd guess the overall drivetrain condition is even more important(if possible).

I had my engine balanced, and thanks to Eric I know how to do a proper alignment. Now if I could get my time capsule to quit rattling?!!?   

Hey Eric, there ought to be one philosophical answer to all 6 questions, but since I can't think of it...

1. There are a few pics at the end of the pumpkin patch, but mostly there's no pics of it in the boat because its in my shop.

2. The doghouse wouldn't close with the edelbrock so I made a spacer...but then I pulled that intake because I had a sealing problem with it.

3. I had scorpion RR's, but pulled them on some good advice. I was told that I might blow a tip and scatter the lot.

4. Yes, the PCM gear drive is pressed on to the cam, where most use a timing chain that bolts on. My research was on a roller cam; custom rev rot roller cam with the gear drive=$2500.

5. Don't know yet.

6. With a bit of luck, they'll be in the St. John's river thread in a few weeks!


I worked through some tough and expensive lessons and problems. This PCM has a few oddities about it.

Looking good though...just painted it last night!       

BuffaloBFN wrote: Greg, I hope you don't think me rude! We went out and back and yall were gone?!!? How did it sound pulling out?

Not at all Greg. We were just crusing & the waverunner was low on gas. I needed to get back home to get the yard work done, finish the BFN, etc before Green Lake. I am leaving around noon on Tues & last night was the last chance I had to finish things. Tonight is the Georgia Force playoff game.
Boat sounded great when you left.
Just FYI!
When I left your place, I went around the bend toward the ramp & was going around the first bend to the right. I was on the right side & the DNR was sitting there & pulled me over. Couldn't figure out why, but he said that I was headed for an area that was only 1' deep! He said they marked it Friday, but the marker was gone now. Stay to the left when you head around that area.
Again, congrats on the BFN!

Thanks guys and we're somewhere beyond happy that it's all turned out like it has! I knew I checked, and checked, and checked putting it together; but like Eric said, I had a good case of the newbie jitters and over-reacted. There are so many noises an engine can make...I bought a long block for the '79 some years back and the first one the marine engine company sent had a rod hitting(which may have compounded my situation this time). At that time a good friend was a good mechanic and he was here to hear it. He immediately said shut it down! It was a very different noise than anything I've heard with this one....but then I second guess myself?!!?   LOL

Life goes on and she sounds good. I just learned how to use a vacuum gauge to set the carb, and that made it sound even better. <---More good how-to from a friend!

The icing on the cake though was Amy's touch...gotta be it, right?       

Glad everything worked out without having to pull the motor. Now enjoy all your hard work.

Keep the PICs coming have really enjoyed this thread and may it continue.

Congrats on getting it running Greg. It was great meeting you and Amy today. Steaks & some BFN runs together sounds great to us. Hope you got it finished in time to check out the fireworks tonight. Still time to make Green Lake!

Thanks Eric. The rocker adjustment is what I did last night. Every one of the rods would just turn...guess I did them all the same wrong way?!!? LOL Anyway, I did the readjustment as you described, and I'm sure I have the newbie jitters! I did feel better about the oil being clean in the top and bottom...whistle clean.

Again, we'll see in a few, and I appreciate the phone time yesterday...I have a minute now if you do!   770-536-2328

It may just be in the valve train. I went through each one and they all would just turn, so I readjusted them. We'll see in the morning. I did turn it over and it sounded like the timing was too far advanced by the way it turned over. I'll charge the battery and back the timing off a hair and see what I have tomorrow.

JoeinNY wrote: I will also say when ever I had a rod knock I knew I had a rod knock, when I thought I might have a rod knock its something else, a true knock is pretty loud.

This is exactly what's keeping me from pulling the motor just yet, but I don't think it's in the valve train. The covers and rockers don't show anything and all of the rockers are tight against the lifters...they won't push at all.

I will also say when ever I had a rod knock I knew I had a rod knock, when I thought I might have a rod knock its something else, a true knock is pretty loud. Do look on those valve covers for any slight sign of a rocker making contact as well, near the center bolts would be common on a ford, dont know about where to look on a bbc

sometimes a hung up lifter will sound like a rod knock, check for a colapsed lifter   it doesnt make sense to have a rod knock this early in the game    wrist pins were all checked?

Thanks guys for the continued support! I have the covers off and don't see anything obvious. I'm not sure where to go from here...maybe I'll pick up some tall covers today while I might still be able to and see if they'll fit with an extra exhaust gasket to rule that out; and I suppose going back through rocker adjustment wouldn't hurt.