PERA'S Core Corner
Breaking With Routine Means
Teacher Becomes Student
by Roy Berndt
When you've been doing things the same way for a long time, you begin to develop a routine. But it's amazing how quickly you can unlearn something.
Some years back I got up one morning and proceeded to the kitchen to make a pot of coffee. Because I have lived in the same house for going on 17 years now, a very regular pattern had developed. The same sleepy routine happened each morning: get up; get out of bed; turn on the news channel; head to the kitchen to get the coffee going; go to the cabinet next to the stove to get a filter to start the brew; stand on tiptoe with hand on stovetop to brace myself in order to reach filters at the back of the second shelf… This particular morning, however, someone in the family had left one burner on. As I laid my hand down…well, you guessed it. I got burned (no jokes about the last name). My routine had suddenly and permanently changed.
Well, that is what I am presenting to you this month: a burn job. The only problem is that I don't have any of the answers; all I have are the questions. I hope we can change our normal routine this month by having YOU give ME the answers.
We have come back to the 4.6L SOHC Ford application using the PI (Power Improved) cylinder heads. I know understanding the proliferation of this engine makes space travel seem easy, but in this case we are experiencing an encounter of a radically different timing key slot location for aligning the timing gears. Since the timing gears have an integral locator or key in them you might think there should be no problems: simply get another or different gear and away you go. Unfortunately, this won't work because there is no different gear(s) available. In fact, the application using the PI heads are all using the same gear(s), depending on left or right side of course.
Add to the mix some keys that have shown up that apparently are being used with modified gears to accommodate the differential in timing index location. However we have not actually found any of these gears - we're just making an assumption (of course, we all know about doing that...something to do with you and me, as I remember).
In Photos 1 and 2 you will see one different left side camshaft which carries the same casting number as the correct one of 1L2E6A274 CA. For the right side camshaft we have identified two of the "orphans" which also carry the same casting number of the correct camshaft 1L2E6250 DA. Photo 3 shows keys that have shown up for this engine (that does not use any), yet as you can see they would or could make the change of location of the camshaft timing gear if it used them.
I am getting a major headache from running up against a wall and falling backward like a cartoon character. That's why I'm breaking the regular pattern and hoping someone - anyone - can help me out this month. If you have an answer to these "anomalies" I would be extremely grateful to hear from you via email at info@enginedatasource.com. In fact, for anyone able to provide an answer to this quandary I will provide access to EngineDataSource.com through the remainder of the beta process until October 1, 2004.
Perhaps then I can stop feeling like "Tutor" the turtle and no longer want to abandon being a researcher. Not being able to find the answers has certainly become a humbling experience!
I am hoping that someone in the land of readers may have the answers, which I so desperately desire - and I hope that this provides all of us with another means by which to avoid "Do Overs."
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