Awesome ! Most of us figured it had to be something akin to valves being open when they shouldn't be. Tough that you had to re-visit the timing chain but it's solved and you'll be driving that bad-boy with a fresh motor.

 

Going mostly from memory, but I want to say Ford went to chains on the OHV series sixes. They also went chain on the small Y blocks as used in cars and light trucks but stayed with gears on the Lincoln and large truck engines. And AX is probably right, Ford pulled the gears off the shelf.

 

Congrats Ilya!! Glad you got your problem solved so now you can go out and enjoy your truck!!

 

Right on Ilya!

It's usually always something simple or stupid that is overlooked. Glad you found it.

 

'Happy you have persevered! You all have helped the rest of us tremendously by trouble-shooting out loud, so to say. The 1952 215 OV eng is the one I have in my F2. The 1952 shop manual supplement has the 215, 279, & 317 eng's as they were new that year. The timing marks are set to the first tooth engaging each of the gears on the drive side of the chain. That is, the gears don't touch each other, but an imaginary line drawn on the outside radius of the gears on the drive side will be where the timing marks should be placed.

By the way, I missed why 51 Panel is called, "Ilya."

 

It's his name

 

Ilya,

I didn't keep up on this post but you brought me up to speed on it. I know from personal experience the frustration isn't worth it but it sure does feel good when you finally find the correct solution to a problem and all works as it should.

Why did Ford set the gears up different than what everyone else? Why did they have the firing order opposite than the others, starting with #1 on the passenger side and not on the driver's side? Who know, AX's explanation for the gearing sure sounds like typical Ford to me.

 

Thanks everyone! I was very relieved, and happy, that the problem was in the timing marks. The rebuilder will be reimbursing me for the money spent on this issue. The next step is just to keep the engine running. Hope nothing else goes wrong.

 

WOOOOOO HOOOOOO !!!!! CONGRATS ILYA

 

Ok I just got to thinking again. Why didn't the engine builder think twice when the marks are both on teeth. Any I have been into, have a mark on the crank tooth and the cam gear mark is between the teeth.
That would have been a stopping point for me.

 

Rite on Ilya, nobody deserves to have that much stress in there life, heck at our age it can be dangerous, I hope its all smooth sailing from here on. And Im glad you did not "Throw in the towel"

 

How do you think Ilay is? I think he can still take a little stress

 

If I had to guess, it likely has something to do with it being a LinkBelt chain system. It's common on industrial chain drives (and motorcycles) to determine chain wear by measuring the distance between X number of pins on the chain. You have to do this on a straight run of the chain between the sprockets. These marks happen to be at the ends of the longest run of chain.

AFAIK, '52 was the first year for any Ford engines that used the LinkBelt style chains for the cam, so I don't know what these would be left over from.

 

Ross, Probably from something like this from a 1952 ad for Link Belt feeders (mining equipment).

Today they make a whole line of cranes (http://www.linkbelt.com/.

 

Ross, there is plausability in your explanation. I'd be curious to see where the marks fall when they line up with the chain rather than each other. if I remember I'll look in my '52 Motor's manual to see how they tell you to set the timing.