Re: [Classic Mustang] Indications of a bad pressure release valve

Dan,
  Twenty nine years ago when I was in some tech school taking auto repair classes the engine teacher said as a rule of thumb it costs about $100 per cylinder to rebuild an engine. Of course that didn't mean each cylinder itself would require $100 worth of work but rather a six cylinder would cost $600 to rebuild. If you can get your engine done for about the same price almost thirty years later, you're well ahead of the game. I just rebuilt my 289 and I paid a lot more than that but I also replaced a lot of parts which you're probably going to reuse in your engine. I replaced pistons, rods, cam, lifters, pushrods, and heads.
       I'm going to suggest something which might bring the cost up to a grand but I think would be money well spent. Switch to ARP bolts on everything. I snapped a head bolt on removal and that was all the motivation I needed to change every engine bolt over to ARP. I also went with a stud kit for the crank. The rods I bought were original standard 289 (not hipo) rods but they have the ARP bolts (plus they were balanced) and there's no reason why they shouldn't be as good or better than hipo rods which have a meatier bottom and larger bolts. I was lucky. Ford bottom ends and the bolts they use are excellent and I reused my old head and rods bolts more times than I ever would have gotten away with if I was working on an old Chevy, but even the Ford bolts eventually get tired. (ever see a hot Chevy use original GM rods? Everything on the bottom is usually Eagle. In comparison, standard Ford bottom ends are a lot stronger and more forgiving) Reusing rod bolts, as well as heat and age, take their toll. My rods were just so out of round that when I found a guy selling a set of resized, balanced, and ARP equipped rods for $100 I jumped at the chance. (That comes out to $12.50 a rod!) If you switch to the ARP rod bolts you'll probably have to have the rods resized but I believe going with the better hardware and resizing is cheap insurance. Tearing down an engine isn't something we do very frequently plus it looks like prices for everything will start rising soon and very likely will be rising a lot. If I could get 44 years and 5 reusings to original Ford rod bolts, the ARP units should last forever. So please consider changing all your critical engine bolts over to ARP including the stud kit if you can fit it in your budget. If money is extremely tight then at least consider getting new Ford bolts. The best rebuild in the world won't amount to a hill of beans if a piece of hardware lets go. I got lucky in how many times I reused my old hardware without any dire consequences but even I know when it's time to stop pushing my luck. In my view ARP hardware is the cheapest and best insurance you can buy for your engine. Please give it some thought.


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