Ventured to SC to look at a 87 f250 extended cab I found on Craigslist. Ended up taking it home. 1987 F250 with 460/c6 (aprox 60k on rebuilt engine he said) 4x4 and 3L55 (3.55 LS) rear end. $1500 and virtually rust free. Main prob is AC has no belt and top has quite a bit of bondo in it that's cracking. Got 14.1mpg pulling up Saluda out of SC through Asheville. Don't think I can expect more than that, that's a pretty hard pull at 65-70mph. Definitely need to find a hydro boost donor as it has the typical spongy long travel brake pedal. Factory exhaust gonna have to come off too. I think it will make a decent daily driver.

 

Been a long time since I've had an automatic daily driver.

 

14 mpg is excellent just 2 mpg shy of my 302 truck. Looks good too

 

Id say mpg is cause of the 3.55 and me never opening the 4bbl except when a chevy pulled up next to me

 

Decided I would cut out this section of free flowing exhaust pipe at the back over the axle.


Also the fuel gauge reads empty all the time so I unhooked the connector from the sending unit on top of the tank and the gauge went to full so that tells me the fuel sender is bad.[***************]Save[/COLOR]

 

Holy crap! How did the truck even run with the pipe like that

 

Several leaks like the hole on the right I guess.

 

So after all new brake lines in the rear, new wheel cylinders, properly adjusted shoes, and new parking brake cables, this thing stops pretty good. Picked up a new set of Forney torches while I was at the parts store too. tired of being a bum when I need them. Held the brake and opened up the 4bbl and it instantly roasted a tire. Rear end is a limited slip but only spun single. Guess it needs rebuilt after all.

 

Harmonic balancer separated and made a mess of my timing cover, I have a nice access hole to the timing chain now. Went ahead an ordered the cloyes 9-1122 timing set to make it straight up timing. Now to find a timing cover. Going to try and do this without pulling the oil pan. One of the water pump slash cover bolts broke off into the block so now I've got to get that now any suggestions would be awesome. Just the head of the bolt broke off so there's at least two inches sticking out of the block. I wonder if this may have been my mysterious vibration I experienced after carrier bearing replacement.

 

You can try heating the block around the bolt with a little torch then grab it with vise grips.

 

Ended up welding nuts to the bolts. They were corroded to the aluminum timing cover is why they were stuck.

New straight up timing chain installed. It's amazing how much slack was in the old chain.

 

Making some headway on 24hrs no sleep and 15hrs at work. My fat finger got in the way. Should have tapped the top hole for the timing indicator. I should have got a new plate to go directly behind water pump.

 

The water pump backing plate is usually a must have.

Things look good and clean!
​​​​​​​Hoping you used thread sealant on those waterpump bolts, and grease on the shanks of the long ones that go through the timing case.
​​​​​​​Was the crank spacer scored where it rides in the front main seal?

That's a really nice straight and original looking truck. Congratulations!

 

Yes sealer on the bolt that enters the water jacket. Crank spacer? The external balance goes onto the same key way as the crank gear through the crankshaft seal. It seemed ok. Yes those bolts through the timing cover seem to sieze up as mine had done.

 

Yeah, the porkchop spacer.
Mine was grooved pretty good.
I used a speedisleeve.