454 shake and noise troubleshooting

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xm20k

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Too sharp and metallic sounding for an exhaust leak that's a junk lifter.
 

texdave

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Fat 454

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OMG - is competence working on a push rod, carb motor becoming a lost art now, or were these conversations always happening and it is just that we are so interconnected now that the message is amplified??
 

xm20k

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OMG - is competence working on a push rod, carb motor becoming a lost art now,
Youd be surprised how many shops either have one guy that works on older vehicles or won't work on them outside of maintenance items. There are also shops that only work on older vehicles and make a killing due to it.
 

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I am in dealers all the time. Older cars are like a mystery to them.

Finding someone that knows anything about these older vehicle is tough. Most are retired or dead. Young kids don't understand the basics.

Independent repair shops have to find their specialty. If you only do old vehicles you need to specialize in these and your customers need to pay for hunting down parts, making parts, etc. You also need technicians that know these older vehicles. Modern cars don't have carbs, distributors, or pushrods.
 

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OMG - is competence working on a push rod, carb motor becoming a lost art now, or were these conversations always happening and it is just that we are so interconnected now that the message is amplified??
Most techs these days were born 25 years after the last carbureated vehicles rolled off the assembly line I'm sure most of them have never even adjusted a mixture screw. Pushrod engines and cam driven distributors that's pretty old tech also probably a bunch of them have never seen them. They are use to looking at a scanner seeing fuel trim and IAC count to find an intake leak. Looking at a misfire screen to find a bad plug or coil. The $hit might as well be space ships to most of them,and most of them will be looking at Google etc and getting a crash course in how to work on your carbureated,pushrod,HEI vehicle. Mechanical fuel pump?What's a fuel pump pushrod or fuel pump lobe?
 
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edgephoto

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@Ricko1966 I see this daily in my job. Young techs are lost if the scan tool does not tell them what to do. These guy can't diagnose anything on their own. Yes, I am generalizing but it is a rare younger tech that understands what he is doing.

I think a lot of this stems from kids no longer really work on their cars. They just buy some plug and play box or add on body mods. Nobody pulls out the 6 cylinder and drops a big block in it any more.

The other factor is trade schools pass everyone. They are a business and just churn out "graduates" whether they are ready or not. Dealerships do not have a mentoring/apprentice program. Yes there are a few stores who do it and are successful in creating new techs but they are the exception.
 

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I'm going to take this conversation into another thread ( as there is more to say ), so it doesn't hi-jack the OP posting ...
 

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@texdave , where are you at on this? Curious to what you actually found out sir.
Thx
 

texdave

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@texdave , where are you at on this? Curious to what you actually found out sir.
Thx
Got a call from the shop yesterday. They're replacing the camshaft and lifters, covered under warranty so at no cost to me. I'll get the details from the main tech when I pick it up later this week on what they found.
 

xm20k

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I'm going to say completely collapsed lifter with the face and lobe hammered.
 

Ricko1966

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If it has much cam at all,I'd want run breakin springs or rockers. Most cam failures are due to improper breakin.Many cam failures also happen due to lifters not spinning in their bores,because no one checked how the lifters fit in the first place. I'd also question what valvesprings are currently installed.
 

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