New to all this forum stuff but a I am starting to work on my truck that has been in the family since it was new. Been a farm truck all its life and I was the last to drive it in 2001. Put MMO in the cylinders and tried turning it over the next week and she turned over just fine. Tried to crank it but didnt fire right up so I am just gonna do the smart thing I believe and pull the motor and start a rebuild. I am sure I am going to have a bunch of

 

Was going to show a few pics of what I found under the valve covers. This is kinda what made me to decide and go ahead and pull it out to start the rebuild.

 

I figured I would post a few pics I took today. The body isn't in that bad of a shape but the floor boards, roof, and hood are pretty bad. It sat out in the weather for its whole life almost probably. The roof on the edges is eat all the way through so I am not sure what I am going to have to do with that. If I should just cut the whole top and put a new roof or just get it sanded down and fill it in. Also with wheel pictures I was wondering if these are the wheels that people talk about that are dangerous or are they ok.

 

Last question and pics for today. I was wondering what these hoses are for that connect to the valve covers. It comes from the intake manifold then y's out to the valve covers. Not sure what they are here for. I thought it could have been for the oil problem but that makes no sense coming from the intake I wouldn't think.

 

One last post i remember i took a pic of the door facing too with the numbers figured someone could decode for me if anyone wanted to or be able to tell me something about it perhaps. I can make out most of the stuff. You never know though sometimes people have something that is rare of something. Thanks for all the help.
F350CG370461
132
color A
model F350
body 81A
trans F
axle 23
lbs 9800
hp 135
rpm 3800
dso 36

 

Nothing I see under those valve covers scares me. Don't be in such a hurry to rip it out. Get it running!

Hoses are a PCV system some one added, it prob had a road draft tube originally. If blow-by is that bad it prob does need a rebuild, still, try to get running and warmed up, use fresh gas from a container other than the fuel tank.

 

Welcome to FTE

Yep I agree with IICAP don't get in a hurry to pull a motor. If it turns over OK it will probably run. MMO in the gas and oil per directions is a good plan. Let it run in a while and see how it shakes out.

Since you have the valve covers off now is a great time to make sure the valve train is in good stead, and adjust the valve lash. There are a few different ways to do this, I'm a simple guy tryin' to do a simple job, so the Walt Nuckels method works great. Mark off the damper in 3 more places 90 degrees apart from the 0 degree TDC line. When any given cylinder is at TDC on compression stroke you can adjust both valves on that cylinder because the lifters are on the heel of the cam lobe. The book spec is .019" for both valves. The firing order is 1-5-4-8-6-3-7-2 the #1 cylinder is in front, passenger side. Each 1/4 turn of the crank or 90 degrees brings the next cylinder in the firing order to TDC on compression stroke. Instead of using a feeler gauge with the engine running and the rest of it, Walt did the math and discovered the valve lash adjustment threads act just like a micrometer. It is more accurate to set lash this way, because what happens in practice is the rocker arm face over the years wears a groove that prevents a flat feeler gauge from obtaining accurate clearance.

1/4 turn is easily measured by the average mechanic and equals almost exactly .019", to do this tighten the rocker arm so the pushrod just spins with finger pressure i.e. take out all the slop, then loosen exactly one quarter turn. Do both valves this way, and continue on in firing order till done.

 

Appreciate yall's help. Anything I comments I get is great. This is truly a learning experience. I have gotten 2 books on rebuild the old one by Eickman and the new one by Morris. I have tinkered with smaller motors and stuff before but never this. I have some good friends that are going to help me along the way though. I have taken fuel tank off and radiator and flushed both and rebuilt carb. When I have gone to crank it it just cranks sooo slow. Not sure why that. Dad said it use to crank alot better. Was told the batter in my F150 would do just fine but that could be the problem. Also I was wanting to clean it up another reason for wanting to pull the motor. Also after putting new plugs in when I pulled a couple out to look at them there was sludge pieces on them so that kinda scared me too.

 

One big problem with cars and trucks more than even just a few years old are electrical grounding points and connections. Steel frame and fenders and such are used as the return path, corrosion inside the cables and ground points does the rest. The auto companies use the smallest wire they think they can get away with. It sort of works when they are new, but after a decade or two out in the elements they will fail.

New cables make a tremendous difference. There are three main connection or ground points, at the block, firewall to block, and frame to block. Grind down to bright shiny metal, coat with grease and tighten securely. This same 50+ years of rust and corrosion will also cause lots of trouble in the charging circuit.

You can observe how bad the voltage loss really is through the cables and connections in real time during engine cranking. Example: Place one probe of the voltmeter on the negative battery post, the other on a clean unpainted portion of the starter case. Turn the engine over, the limit for the negative side is 0.1 or 0.2 tenths of a volt. Note too, the amount of voltage lost in the circuit will actually be measured as a positive voltage. You can perform this kind of voltage drop test on any circuit under load, headlights, charging system, etc. It's a real eye opener.

 

To add, after getting it to crank over pretty strong, and not sure if new fuel is all the way into the carb, give it a small amount of gas down the carb and try it. If it makes no attempt to start you need to check the ignition system for spark. 1st and easiest, pull coil wire out of the distributor cap, hold about 1/4 inch from some metal near on the engine and have some one crank the engine over. Keep your fingers away from the end of the wire so you don't get a jolt. If OK, you will have the coil fire a spark across that gap as long as you crank it. A nice blue spark would be Ideal, but yellowish spark should still allow it to run

 

Alright so I put fuel in the carb bowl vent and also pulled a plug to see if I had spark and there was. The thing I am wondering though if the plugs are fouled because they are all wet now. I was wondering if since the motor wasnt turning over very strong if it wouldnt blow all the MMO out of the cylingers causing this. Prolly just need to work on it and get it to crank over good to start. I had pulled the dist cap off this weekend and sanded the point off.

 

Nice snappy blue spark? Contact points are known to get a layer of skunge on them if they sit for a long time. Don't forget to polarize generator, if they sit for a long time they can lose that.

 

Pull all the plugs, crank it over and blow out from the cyls, all that will come out. Spin it over real good just to do it. Make sure your battery has plenty of charge in it. Just as a base and for knowledge, with volt meter, 12.60 or above is fully charged, 12.50 is 3/4, 12.40 is 1/2, 12.30 is 1/4 and below that is a dead battery. The battery from your F-150, is it in the 350 hooked to the cables or with booster cables?

Also remove the fuel line and very carefully, maybe slip a hose on it to a container, crank a couple seconds and see if the fuel system is primed and pumping gas to the carb.

When I said put some gas down the carb, I meant down the throat, not try to fill the carb bowl thru the vent pipe.

 

The spark wasnt nice and blue no, it was red/orange. I had cranked it for a while with no plugs but like I said I just think it iis not cranking hard and fast enough to clear them out. I do have a line from the fuel pump going to a container of gas to bypass the lines. And also had the battery from f-150 connected directly to the cables in the 350. The oil is real black and I am sure needs changing but I just dont have the best area to work on it and jack it up. Another reason I could take to my neighbors and get him to help me pull the motor in his garage, then take it on to my place and start cleaning it up. I am surprised at the response for everyone saying not to pull the motor yet. If I get it running I feel after all the miles and years that it would benefit greatly to rebuild it.

 

Well it may be necessary to remove the motor based on your knowledge. Although if it has good compression and doesn't burn oil, runs good, maybe it wouldn't be worth the trouble.

Red/orange spark is no good in open air, may indicate a no-spark condition under compression. I would spin the motor over as described above without any plugs, clean up the points and electrical connections as described. Fouled, gas soaked plugs can turn into permanent duds, replace them.