Hello all, I am working on rebuilding a Ford 455C backhoe engine. I am sure it has a 201 engine and dealer said by the numbers I gave him, it was a 201 as well. Anyway, I took the block to the engine machine shop for the work and got the engine kit from the supplier they said they use. They sleeved the block, tanked it, totally rebuilt the head, and surfaced the head and deck of the block. They bored the block to the new pistons I sent with it from the engine kit. Get it home, assemble everything, all clearances good, rolling it over after each bearing installed. Stick the headgasket on, all 3 pistons down about the halfway point, don't think much of it, until i set the head on and give it the first torque sequence. Thats when I go to turn it over by and and notice that it stops, only makes half a turn each way. Pistons are hitting the bottom of the head. Pull head, roll over until a piston is tdc, measure height above deck, and its about .115, and when I stick the headgasket on it, it still stands taller than the headgasket. I measured the new and old headgasket and they are both around .055 - .060. I believe that the guy who sold me the engine kit gave me 192 pistons, instead of 201 pistons as he kept telling me when I ordered it that it should have a 192 and I told him I was sure it was a 201 and just order the 201 kit. I believe he just went ahead and gave me the 192 kit. I saw somewhere that the 192 had a taller piston compression height. If this was the case, would the 201 pistons take care of the height issue? .115 still seems like a ton of projection above the block to me. Should I be worried that the decked the block as well? They have been doing engine machining for decades, I would think they knew what they were doing. I also saw something about 2 different head gasket thicknesses available, is there a thicker one than the ones I have? I'm afraid I'm going to have to start disassembly, but at least its still on the stand. Should I question the engine kit supplier first, or the engine machinists, or just start pulling pistons to see what I have? BTW, this is a late 80's 455C, it has the 9/16" head bolts in it and is 4.4 bore. Hope someone here knows something about these engines, as I'm not real familiar with the differences in them. Sorry for the long post. Thanks !
Ross
Ross