1973 F-250 - Turbo BBF - It's off to a new home!

[milner351]

Thanks for rubbing in the job thing Jim! I keep reminding myself when I compare your progress time lines to mine that you have at least an extra 40 hours a week - it helps me feel better anyway!

James I never realized how dynamic the weather is in Amarillo - wow crazy.

It's over freezing here today so we'll probably open the windows and air the house out to enjoy the heat wave... LOL.

Great progress - this is going to be one sweet truck! Hopefully you can find a factory tinted slider in good shape in a yard and swap it into your truck with a new gasket. Love this truck!

[NewEnglandRaceFan]

I have a few old metal milk crates. It just takes a few years to learn how to stand on them without killing yourself.

two milk crates wire tied don't roll over like singles do...

[BBR]

The weather was absolutely beautiful today! I finished cleaning up the square bore intake and then turned my attention to the truck. It cleaned up nicely but took much longer than I anticipated.


Then I cut out some pieces of thin sheet metal to block the heat riser passages. I stuck them to the heads with some copper rtv and then put the intake gaskets on. After I put some big ole fat beads of rtv on the china walls I tried to heave the intake over onto the engine..... Holy crap that thing is hard to handle. It would probably be easier to deal with if there was some way to hold on to it. As it is, there is no good way to grab it and set it down. Well I flopped it on there and the intake gaskets slid out of position... Fail. Off it came with tremendous effort. I took the old studs and screwed them into the heads so they would hold the gaskets in place and touched up the rtv. Round 2. This time, I repositioned myself where I was sitting on the core support with 1 foot in the engine bay and 1 on the step stool. I flopped the intake in and it dropped into position perfectly. Great success. Earlier I scrounged up a set of stainless bolts for the intake and I proceeded to tighten them all down.


That went as planned and I began to install all the other stuff. As I got ready to install the carb, I remembered that one of the bowl screws felt weird the last time I changed the jets. I unbolted the bowl to find that the bowl screws had heli-coils and that the bottom 2 had backed out and were jacked up. I removed them and replaced them with 2 new ones I had left over from when I worked on the 950. When it came time to drop the distributor in, I had to dig around for a new o-ring because the stock one broke and fell off. Also, I peeked in through a hole in the plate on the distributor and it has a 13 and an 18 slot. It is set up using the 13, so it has 26 degrees of mechanical advance. Stabbing the distributor is something that I really dislike doing. It always seems like the oil pump drive is just a hair out of alignment and the distributor refuses to drop all the way down. After a very extended period of jacking around with it, it finally plopped in like it needed to. Ran to the store and got a new tstat gasket and lower radiator hose. Filled it up with coolant and the moment of truth was finally at hand.

I cranked it for a bit to fill the bowls and then fired it up. Yea! It runs! Boo! It still misses on one cylinder!!!! I let it run for a bit and then took the infrared thermometer to check exhaust manifold temps.... All were around 375 except for #4 which was a lowly 215. Phooey. I was really hoping the gaskets would fix it, and they did somewhat, just not to the extent I had hoped for. The engine was also smoking out of that bank of cylinders, so there is definitely something going on in there.

Now the plan is to go ahead and pull the motor. I think it would be much easier to pull the whole thing, than to just try to pull a head and see what #4's problem is. It was hard enough getting the intake out, I can't imagine trying to moose a cylinder head out of there. I will throw it on a stand, open it up and see what's going on. Best case would be that 4 just needs a set of rings and hit it with a hone and go. Worst case would be that 4 is scored up and needs to be bored. If that is the case, I'll get a kit and take it 30 over, add a cam and hopefully an aluminum intake to the mix. I suppose it could be a cylinder head problem too, I guess time will tell. I have a couple of spares just in case. The temptation to upgrade the Mustang to a better cyl head and use the Trick Flows on the truck is very great right now...... Must. Maintain. Focus.

Feeling a little defeated, but hey, that is bound to happen occasionally.

Oh yeah, the wood chisel tip was the BEST!!!!!!! It worked awesomely!!!!!

[milner351]

James - if this stuff was easy and without hiccups - anyone could do it - as is mere mortals need not attempt our hobby!

[cantvalve16]

Sorry to hear that, James. Are you sure it's not an ignition issue? Maybe a dead plug wire or something?

[gearhed1971]

Caked up valve?

[BBR]

All 8 plug wires light up the timing light when I clip the inductive lead on, so they are all firing.

I will do some more diagnosing and research. It misses and smokes, but does not seem to have any blowby, which is evidenced by how clean the inside of the engine is. That would seem to suggest that the cylinder/piston/rings may be ok. So it might just be cylinder head related after all.

[andy30thz]

Well that stinks...
I thought you had a good compression test on #4?

[BBR]

I never checked 4 because it is way back under the heater box. I may try to get back there to it today. I wonder if I could get to it thru the fender well.....

[squirrel]

I'm glad the bad engine was immediately obvious in my 80 3/4 ton....one quick look at the block and there was the crack, plain as day.

Have you driven the truck yet since you got it running on all seven?

[Russell]

What about a leak down test? I love MMO I would give it a few squirts spin it. A few more squirts let it sit, spin put spark plugs in fire. I can not remember did you pull the right value cover?

[gearhed1971]

http://roswell.craigslist.org/pts/4272112460.html

http://amarillo.craigslist.org/pts/4220304803.html

[gearhed1971]

I just couldn't help it, wish I didn't live in the rust belt http://amarillo.craigslist.org/cto/4244956046.html

[TheSilverBuick]

All 8 plug wires light up the timing light when I clip the inductive lead on, so they are all firing.

I will do some more diagnosing and research. It misses and smokes, but does not seem to have any blowby, which is evidenced by how clean the inside of the engine is. That would seem to suggest that the cylinder/piston/rings may be ok. So it might just be cylinder head related after all.

I'm thinking junked up valve causing poor sealing. Can you get E-85 there? Maybe jet up the carb a bunch and run a tank or two of E-85 through the system (new fuel filters all around! and maybe hoses?) and run it hard a few times to break some crap loose on the valve? I'm agreeing with you here, inside looks clean, I'm betting it's a head/valve issue.

[Russell]

What about a leak down test? I love MMO I would give it a few squirts spin it. A few more squirts let it sit, spin, put spark plugs in fire. I can not remember did you pull the right value cover?