Well I pulled the front off the engine saturday afternoon.it appears that the cam sprocket was dragging on the retaining plate.I adressed this problem and put the engine back together.Fired it up about 10pm sat.That noise is gone but now I have a high pitched air leak noise! I pulled the carb,made sure the base and intake were flat,checked for leaks on the carb itself(edelbrock 600) regasketed and resealed the carb.No difference.anyone ever hear of an intake manifold with an internal leak?  Say between the intake runner and the heat riser passage?After 50 years of this I thought I had seen most of it but I reckon not.

As mentioned I had the harmonic dampener ring move back and make dry squeaking sound. It was hard to see and I had to get under the car to see where it was touching.

another posability is the fuel punp,sister had 65mustang had a bad knock,turned out to be fuel pump. if cam thrust was dry you would see iron in the filter i woul think. if you have a ruber hose between the pump and carb pinch it off while running,the knock should start as pump lever will rattle soon as presure builds

Hard to figure, but a long shot is the oil slinger installed backwards.  

possibility that there is no oil/little oil to the thrust plate for the camshaft? You wouldn't have to tear down the whole engine for that but you could check pretty easily.

Daniel Jessup

Lancaster, California

aka "The Hot Rod Reverend"
check out the 1955 Ford Fairlane build at www.hotrodreverend.com

I cut the oil filter open and didnt find anything.I tried a magnet in the oil from the filter and nothing stuck to it.The noise seems to me to be coming from the front of the engine but I have listened carefully all over the engine with a piece of broomstick and cannot isolate it.I tried lubing the distributor bushing,no difference.Yesterday I was going over the engine trying to isolate the noise when it suddenly stopped for about 10 seconds and then started again.I thought about the damper.It is the original one,looked to be in good shape except for the usual groove so I put a repair sleeve on it and put it back on.It fits the crank snout nice and tight.I suppose I can pull the front cover off and see if anything is rubbing but I dont know what it would be.At this point I am pretty sure it is not anything like a bearing trying to  spin-if it was it wouldnt have run as far as it has!

No experience with this but I seem to recall someone posting a couple of years ago about the damper rubbing on something - maybe slipping back and hitting the front of the oil pan or the steady rest.  Something like that.



Mark

1956 Mercury M100
1955 Ford Fairlane Club Sedan
Delta, British Columbia

 Sorry I just couldn`t resist. Pete

cut the filter open,use a sharp chisel,do not use a hack saw.cheap and easey way to be sure it is not internal

What does your oil look like?



Lawrenceville, GA