Thanks bud, me too. I miss my old truck. At this point its so close to starting it has to be something simple...I haven't checked the timing with a light yet since I put the new dizzy in. Could be advanced or retarded too far...could this prevent it from starting up? I'm certain in in the right tooth but may be turned too far one way.

Tanner

 

That sounds like it's retarded too much, might try advancing it.

 

Hey guys, here's an update: took my truck to the shop and they checked it out. This is a very good shop with lots of experience, their main mechanic is a ford guy. They said they looked it over real good and everything checked out OK, (fuel, spark, timing) except the compression, it was low. I told them about how I tightened the rocker arms and they said that is likely the problem. They said a new set of rings would do it some good, considering the mileage of the truck (~200,000). He said the rings were very likely on their way out, which is very true since this thing has a TON of blow by. I considered doing the rings myself but with my lack of experience and tools needed, I thought it would be better to have them do it. What are your thoughts? It would be nice to not have oil leaks anymore and oil soaked air filters.

Tanner

 

To have new rings installed you may as well have it completely rebuilt or drop a reman engine in it

 

How much do you think it would cost?

Tanner

 

Cost for which one? Go to rockauto.com look up rings and a complete gasket set for your truck then figure the shop will charge you twice as much for the parts then if it's like my area the shops charge $90 - $120 an hour. So off the top of my head I'd say $1500 - $2500. For that you can find a reman or a very nice motor out of a junk yard for a $1000 or less.

 

I'm not trying to break your ***** here man, but seriously? I might have missed it, but I didn't see anything in your previous posts about you tightening the rocker arms.

You started this thread telling us that you replaced the intake manifold gaskets, injector end caps and o-rings and that afterwards, your truck wouldn't start. And you've been chasing after every possibility as to why except for the work that you did being the cause.

Now all of a sudden you tightened the rocker arms and the shop thinks that's the cause... There's no reason to adjust the rocker arms unless you're replacing a mechanical component that requires removing them.

And even if your piston rings are wearing out, the truck was running before you tore it apart. That means that something you did, whether intentional or not, has made the truck not run. It could be a loose electrical connection, you might have the injector plugs mixed up, maybe you didn't install the injector end caps quite right.... there's a number of possibilities given the amount of stuff you had to pull apart to get the intake off.

I'm not trying to shame you - we all have to learn, and sometimes it's the hard way (believe me I've been there more times than I can count) - but something you did is the reason the truck won't run.

 

Yeah they said they wouldn't recommend having them just install rings. They recommended taking the engine to a local machine shop for a rebuild. They told me about a local shop that they use that has done great work for them in the past. I went and talked to the owner and he quoted 2000 for a rebuild. Does this sound like a good price?

I forgot to mention that I tightened the rocker arms. I have a thread in a couple different forums on this problem so that's why lol. The shop said everything they checked over looked good and they tried a trunk load of new parts to fix it. They put all original parts back and didn't charge me for that, though. Apparently when I tightened the rocker arms I unseated the valves. That's the way I understood it.

Tanner

 

They replaced a trunk load of new parts at no charge...ok... then because you may have put to much torque on the rocker arms they say you loosened tge valve seats??? Im by no means a professional mechanic but I been working on engines for 40 years and all I can say is run away.

 

You never replied with new compression readings after adding oil to each cylinder and with the fuel pump relay removed.

No way the compression would have came up if you "tightened the rockers down unseating the valves, can't happen.

You need to regroup start over, it ran before you did the work it will run again now.

Stock valves, should be pedestal on that? they are not adjustable, can't be tightened down to far. Unless you put in different rockers different push rods nothing there has changed, if so you hadn't mentioned it and is need to know information to help you.

As DBGrif91 pointed out its something you did, it didn't just suddenly develop too much blow by completely wore out the rings between last time it ran and now, it ran before it'll run again.

Initial thought now based on comments you made is its flooding itself, an underlying problem you have yet to resolve after putting it back together and because you skipped a necessary step.

Any gas in the oil, hows the oil level is it suddenly way over full? Make sure it has nothing but clean pure engine oil in the crankcase.

Stop the fuel, add little bit of oil to each cylinder re check compression. If values come back up to normal range put all the plugs back in get it to fire on starting fluid or gasoline from a trigger sprayer (do not allow fuel pump to pump fuel). Doing so tells you a couple of things but you have to do those couple steps.

If the compression doesn't come back up find out why, if it has worn rings little oil down the plug hole the value will rise no two ways about it. If it doesn't come back up for any of the cylinders then you have a valve issue, backfired attempting to start it with the timing off timing jumped, or you changed its valve train geometry one or the other. The motor didn't blow just sitting there!


Once fires and runs on starting fluid and you know the timing is correct or at least close enough then its time to re introduce its fuel system, run the pump find check the fuel pressure make sure fuel isn't flowing out of the FPR vac line directly into engine etc.

If fuel system checks out no fuel from vac line, pressure within spec passes static testing try starting the engine.

 

Hey guys here's an update. I decided to just put a reman engine in my truck. I've been working and taking my engine down to the long block when I get free time. I finally got around to pulling my harmonic balancer and timing cover. Turns out my timing chain was one tooth off and it has a TON of slack in it. With one side tight the other side has almost an inch side to side slack. After pulling the drivers side head to take a look, I discovered that #5 piston has a small hole in it. Looks like its been there a while. Its on the edge and when you look down into it you can see the top of the ring.

Would being a tooth off on the chain prevent it from starting? If so and it didn't have the hole in the piston I would've been tempted to put all new gaskets and timing chain on it and fire it up. But since it does I'm continuing with my plans of installing a reman engine.

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