PI Paperweights or can I save them?

Wild Horses · Feb 28, 2014

Pulled the cams about ten mins ago to start with a refresh for my pi heads and... BOOM!
I see something that made me feel lightheaded and scared. Someone tell me I can save these heads.

This is on a couple guides on each head. The cams seem fine. The aluminum was no match for them.

96blak54 · Feb 28, 2014

First indication of oil starvation for the entire engine shows up first in the cam bores. Yea those look bad but what does the cap surface look like. Ill be honest, the pre-03 pi heads are only 4spark plug threads and notorious for blowing out stripping the threads.

Wild Horses · Feb 28, 2014

96blak54 said:
First indication of oil starvation for the entire engine shows up first in the cam bores. Yea those look bad but what does the cap surface look like. Ill be honest, the pre-03 pi heads are only 4spark plug threads and notorious for blowing out stripping the threads.

I thought PI heads were supposed to be tits... I know about the plugs being blown through the hood in some cases. Any 2v owner takes that risk every drive. But what I'm asking is are these able to be machined out for another set of cams? The caps don't look as bad as the guides on the heads but they are chewed a little.

The previous owner of the motor that I got (and that these were on), said the motor DID lose pressure for a couple seconds but he shut it down. The guy is a ford technician and knows his shit so I kinda took his word for it on that one. Had no idea these would be ate up like this. Luckily I didn't pay much at all for the entire motor and still have good pi cams and intake.

nightfire · Mar 1, 2014

Wild Horses said:
I know about the plugs being blown through the hood in some cases

No. That has NEVER happened. EVER.

Yes, you can have the cam journals polished for next to nothing.

PonyGlued · Mar 1, 2014

I would get my money back and a apology

Wild Horses · Mar 1, 2014

nightfire said:
No. That has NEVER happened. EVER.

Yes, you can have the cam journals polished for next to nothing.

i can't say I've seen it on a mustang but I have first hand experience on a pickup at a shop I worked at with a dent in the hood from a plug blow out. The others I've seen didn't have dents but were always #8 cyl. The blowing through the hood was an exaggeration just because I've seen it happen more than I should. But I bet they could go through the fiberglass on an SN.

Anyway... Once I get the journals polished won't I need a bigger spec. cam to accommodate the honed out journals? Or would the originals still work with new caps?

Wild Horses · Mar 1, 2014

PonyGlued said:
I would get my money back and a apology

Not if you paid what I did for the motor. 150 bucks and I got the H/C/I and loaded block. I'm cool with 150 for pi cams and intake. Hopefully heads too and it will be the deal of my stangs life.

Wichers123 · Mar 1, 2014

If the heads look like that most likely the cams are screwed too.

Wild Horses · Mar 1, 2014

I've been researching and I read in one post somewhere that a company makes bearing inserts for journals that need to be honed out. If anyone has the info on this please link me to a website. I'll be getting in touch with my local machine shops this week. For a set of basically free heads it'll be worth the money to get them straightened out.

nightfire · Mar 2, 2014

Wild Horses said:
i can't say I've seen it on a mustang but I have first hand experience on a pickup at a shop I worked at with a dent in the hood from a plug blow out. The others I've seen didn't have dents but were always #8 cyl. The blowing through the hood was an exaggeration just because I've seen it happen more than I should. But I bet they could go through the fiberglass on an SN.

Anyway... Once I get the journals polished won't I need a bigger spec. cam to accommodate the honed out journals? Or would the originals still work with new caps?

Well if you've honestly seen it then it is possible I suppose. I've had a plug blow out on me and not only was the plug and COP still intact, the plug needed some wiggling to get out of the head.

You need to understand the difference between polishing and honing. With polishing, the amount of material removed is hardly worth measuring. It is so minute that it is impossible for it to make a difference in any tolerances.