I've had 3 300s and the only mechanical issue was a work truck that only saw low speed and idle as a site truck. The valve guides were worn which caused oil burning and fouled plugs.
Perform a compression test(very easy on the 300) and see which cylinders are low. A leak down test will tell you where your losing compression but you will need an air compressor. Bad rings or a holed piston will cause excessive pressure in the crankcase.
If you haven't already get a Haynes manual that covers your truck.
regards
rikard

 

And besides all of the above, you can pressurize the cooling system (Tool Warehouse has a great deal on a tester right now: Stant 12270 Cooling System Pressure Tester) and then pull all of the spark plugs and then crank it over - if you get coolant out any of the holes, you know which one (if any) has a problem. A head gasket on an I6 engine is one of the easiest to do, pull the hood off, and you can use a hoist (or even block & tackle) to lift the head off to save your back too.

I've seen rings stuck into the pistons (usually due to sludge buildup from insufficient oil changes) and this can cause a lot of blowby! Start with the easy stuff first though - does the PCV valve rattle like it is supposed to?

 

Installed PCV valve (old one was junk), new Duralast battery, and air filter. Also changed the oil. after oil still came out of the pcv valve. Also smoke shot out of dipstick tube and oil fill cap. And water and bubble came out from head gasket. I got a feeling the rings are verrryyy worn down, i know for sure it needs a head gasket, and the low battery light came on in the light after installing the brand new battery, so im guessing also needs a alternator. Probably best thing to do would be to throw another motor in.

 

There's an old 94 I believe f35O drw with a 300 6 and utility body at our town yard. It's pretty cool. It's ordered like an older truck.

 

Its an interesting combo there, Ive seen an 89 F350 DRW that had the 300 in it, most people thought it was swapped in

 

At this point, you may try running a cleaner in your oil since you have nothing to lose - if rings are gunked up and not excessively worn, it may help things. Otherwise, it isn't going to hurt anything. It does sound pretty tired.

You could leave engine in frame and do a rebuild like my neighbor did on a Rambler wagon while I was a kid. Right in his driveway - had the head off, honed the cylinders with a drill, re-ringed the pistons, new gaskets/seals and it was as good as new.

Easy to check the cylinder bores for wear (if you have a T-gauge and a micrometer) when the head is off for the gasket. If you are under .005" over on the bores, I'd hone them and throw some new rings in.

 

ok, thanks for the tip. Could all the oil from the pcv valve and smoke/steam coming from the dip stick tube just be caused by a blown head gasket. I know the head gaskets blown but i couldn't really see it causing all these other problems. Any ideas? thanks, Jeremy

 

Hi, could a bad pushrod cover gasket cause any problems? thanks

 

Ok, I just started getting the truck ready today for pulling the engine. Any tips you guys have when doing this? I'm buying an engine lift this week to help the process. The donor vehicle is a friends 95 f150 2wd 4.9l l6. I'd like to finish with the engine swap before snow comes. Also I'm thinking of throwing a plow on the truck. Anyone here plow with a 2wd truck? Any tips? Thanks.

 

Chains and weight over the rear tires and youre good. I was just reading about interesting plow vehicles. One was a Hostess truck and the others were 2WD Econolines. There's plenty of video on Youtube.

 

Jeremy, hows it going? small world that your on here too. Hows the aggie this year? good luck on your project thats pretty cool thats its a f350 with the I6. Glad too see some guys from our neck of the woods on here too (Broncoderek).
-Cory

 

Hey Cory, that's funny, your on here too. Guess it is a small world. Aggie's ok this year, but its even worse then previous years. I'm looking forward to getting this truck on the road, it should be interesting, a f350 with l6.

 

Hahaha sounds like the usual aggie going downhill as the years go on. Yea i know thats gotta be the only 1995 f350 with an I6 that ill ever see it is pretty cool though, my I6 gets 17.5 mpg ands its got alot of torque great motor all together i love mine