Good points. God forbid I ever need it for a human. Mostly just a security item. The javelina pigs and Cougars can get brave sometimes. I think a 9 would just further **** off a bear...

 

I have my dad's old 68 f250. When the engine went bad, I rebuilt the 360 to stock. The truck has been used in my construction business for the last 30 years. The only mods were power steering and power brakes. This year is the trucks retirement year with restoration to basic, but retaining the PS and PB. My old bones are to tired to muscle around that old truck. the only other change my be higher gears in the third member since I won,t be hauling around a lot of extra weight anymore.

 

Got the heads disassembled. Man there was a lot of carbon build up everywhere. Probably the result of a bunch of short runs through it's life. Valves feel nice and tight in their bores if a little sticky on a few. I will wire wheel them off tomorrow and check for any damage/burning though at this point it just looks like they were so carboned up that they weren't seating tightly. That could be the rest of the compression loss I was experiencing because only the oil rings were sticky. Compression rings were about as loose as they could get.

 

So I spent some time in front of the wire wheel cleaning off the valves. Every last exhaust valve was burnt. That definitely explains the lack of compression in every cylinder. The seats in the heads are fine. Another $56 to Summit. I had to order the head shims anyway. So that and a few little gaskets I forgot about put me over the $99 for free shipping threshold.
Just goes to show it's not the mileage that kills an engine (74k), it's the service.

 

Thanks for the update. I'm pretty sure I have the same problem.

 

Did you note your valve stem height? I had good sealed valves and seats but the seats where pounded into the head, exhaust stems are about 1/16 inch higher than the intake valves and not having adjustable lash may get you into trouble. I found a guy in FL on eBay who built a beautiful set of heads for a awesome price 700 shipped to the door. Oversized valves, SS swirl polished valves, new seats, new springs, cut for positive guide seals, surfaced and painted. There way too pretty I just want to leave them on my bench as eye candy. Cheaper than anybody around me locally AND he knew what he was doing. Food for thought.

 

Might not be a bad idea to post that guys info somewhere here on this forum. If you are happy with a smokin' deal like that then some others may want to become customers.

 

Good idea. His eBay handle is cherylber2010 phone 239.368.8836 I cant remember his name but he is very knowledgeable with the FE and seems to have most flavors of heads.
Check out his current listings, he likes to do the same to all his heads, at least the ones listed. Good valve for what's work he has done. 100% feedback. The heads I got are better than what I need for my rebuild but if your going to do it may as well go all out.

 

Found it, his name is Jack

 

Just spent an hour + digging Stop Leak out of the skirt of the block. It had to be several bottles worth. And this was what was left over *after* I had the block cleaned. It was halfway up the freeze plugs in a couple of spots before the block was cleaned.
Hopefully by the end of today things will be painted and ready for reassembly.

 

Did you get an exhaust manifold??

 

Not yet. still on the fence about what to do, but I'm starting to lean towards the cheap headers from Summit.

 

I found these guys selling re manufactured heads online. Anybody have any experience with them?

Ford Cylinder Heads | Cylinder Heads

 

There pricing dosent seem bad. I wonder how and what they use for a rebuild. I'm going to assume at 175 a head it's likely a bare minimum rebuild, ie reuse valves, spring etc With generic part which is fine in most aplications. I paid 300 a head which was cheaper than my local shops as posted earlier.

 

I found new (china) manifolds for 59 bucks shipped On eBay. What ever you use I recommend remflex gaskets for a permanent seal as ive found them to be the best for sealing with warped sealing surfaces and there granted against burn out, they will seal up to a 16th and can be reused a few times. and Im going to use studs instead of original bolts so if I do have to service gaskets or manifolds I won't have to deal with bolt breakage, lot easier to heat up a nut instead of the head if needed.