Hey guys, just got done freshening up a 440 that flattened a cam. Put new head gaskets on it, new cam, lifters, and cam bearings. While it was apart I put main and rod bearings in. Got it fired up for the first time last night to break the new cam in. Started great, and ran good for around 3 minutes. It developed a tick which in a fairly short period of time progressed to a full on knock. My feelings tell me it's a rod. I will be pulling the pan off tomorrow. Wondering if you guys any thoughts on what could be wrong and why? Little frustrated at the moment and my mind isn't thinking like it should.

Sorry for the bad outcome. Visually eyeball the rod big ends for anything not kosher, "shake each rod" to check for side clearance. Check the torque that each of the rod bolts is tightened to

After you wiped the first cam, did you pull the motor apart to clean all the metal shavings out? Something easily could have gotten back into the oiling system.

I'll be sure to check all that out!

The cam it wiped was the original one. This was the first time the motors ever been apart, and I cleaned it out thoroughly, its defiantly a thought though!

Thanks for the help and thoughts guys!

One year ago I wiped a cam in a fresh rebuild. I swapped it out and even replaced the oil pump, as the inner and outer rotors had metal embedded in them. I was sure that I would be okay. 200 miles later I spun 2 rod bearings. I figure that the bearings were already going bad at the time I replaced the cam but took a little while to get bad enough to notice. Oddly it only wiped ONE lobe, but that was enough to send a stream of debris through the motor.

Hot tank the block. Run bore brushes through all oil passages. Y ou cant get it too clean.

Yeah, I'm be wondering if you used brushes and cleaned all the passages. Just hosing what you can see isnt enough. Or the possibility of a rod not being torqued properly?

what were the bearing clearences when you put it together and how were they measured?

Got the pan off and found a cap very loose. I thought I double checked everything, guess next time I'll double-double check it! Everything is fine except for a few nicks in the bearing which I will be replacing! Glad it only ran seconds with the knock!