Hello Ford Folks. My son (15 years old) just bought a 1976 Ford F 250. It has a 360 for power. The right head gasket is blown. It is supposed to only have 40+ thousand miles. Not 140 thousand. I think the odometer is right. The shifter feels very tight.
It is a 4 speed.
It also has factory A/C.
It's got the big hubs on the front axle.
Disk brakes in the front.

The bed is gone and was replaced with a nice steel body.

Our first order of buisness is to get her running. We are going to replace the head gasket and install a new oil pump soon.

After that we will attack the body. The fenders are shot, the doors are rusted out, the radiator support is rusted bad, the door posts, all the usual spots for an old Ford in New England.

I rebuilt a 1973 F-250 named "Trixie" for myself when I was a young man. I spent a zillion hours with a Oxy and Acetylene welding tip, standing under poly out in a gravel drivway welding new steel into my 73 and I SWORE I would NEVER do that again. Well, so much for that :-)

I am looking forward to spending time with my son rebuilding his truck. I did not push him into this project, this is something he wanted to do.

He will be 16 1/2 next December, I hope to have it together by then. We arn't making it into a super show truck, our goal is to have good steel body panels and a coat of paint on her and also mechanically sound.

I told him, after a few teenage years have gone by, if he wants to rebuild it perfect, that would be the time. For now, he will have a nice looking, rare truck that all his high school buddys will love.

Skiboat Dave

 

Sounds fun (and expensive) Probably a great way to spend time with your son, as well as give him something to keep him out of trouble. I wanted to do one with my dad, but he wasn't into that sort of thing, so I had to wait until I was older and do it myself. Have fun and post lots of pics in your gallery

 

Good job, it's a good thing to spend time with your kids. Too soon they are up and gone.

 

i have always worked on the vehicles with my dad. some of the best quality time i've gotten to spend with him and where i learned to curse like a pro by the time i was 10. good luck to you.

 

If you gotta pull the fenders to replace anwyay, Id pull the whole front clip for REALLY easy access to the motor. Pulling the exhaust, and head out of the engine compartment causes me back pain just thinking about it! if u pull the hood the whole clip will come off with the removal of some wiring and 14 bolts. Three on each inner fender, one in each door jamb, one at the bottom of each fender, one at the bottom of each inner fender near the firewall and two core support bolts.

I did this when I had to redo my head gaskets and header gaskets.

 

AMEN!!!!!!!! it's the only way to go. if you're into the motor that far, I'd recommend pulling the other head and sliding in a set of steel shim head gaskets.. it'll lower your quench and bump the compression a bit and give the old 360 a easy HP gain.. JMO

 

skiboatdave,welcome to FTE.i am in the same situation as you and your son .my son has a 85 f250 4x4 i got for him,and we are fixin her up. its not a show truck,its a daily driver for my son.he is learning how to do the repairs,and we are spending time together.i agree,if he wants a show truck we can do it again in a couple years. i hope you an your son have fun on the project together,the folks here at FTE are very helpful,keep us posted on your progress,and take some pics of the old truck as you work on it ,for us to see.goodluck.!-billy

 

i would check out the FE forum. you need to find out why it blew the headgasket.

 

Thanks for all the nice replies. I do have a mechanical background. I went to automotive school (TCI) for a full year's training and have been to GM for training. Which will be real helpful for a Ford I am also ASE certified. But, that was 17 years ago. The last 17 years I have been a commercial building contractor.

I also agree that it would be easier to pull the nose for the motor work but I was hoping to get it running so that my son could drive it around during Dec and Jan. That way we could get an idea how all the drive train, brakes and so on works. We also live in New England and it's seems to be snowing every 15 minutes, so I don't want to have it outside with no nose on it.

We have a two bay heated garage, one bay for my truck and one for my wifes. So you KNOW who's truck gets the boot when the 76 comes in.

My son is paying for all his repairs, (with a little help from Dad&Mom) So there may be a delay in financing once the engine is running before the body work commences.

As far as the head goes, the history,,,,the exhaust manifold was leaking and some bozo tried to weld it to the head. Once they found out that wouldn't work, they had to replace the head. If the same Bozo did the head repair I am sure the install wasn't done right. I plan on having the head magnifluxed for cracks before I reinstall it.

Quote--I'd recommend pulling the other head and sliding in a set of steel shim head gaskets.. it'll lower your quench and bump the compression a bit and give the old 360 a easy HP gain.. JMO

What is quench?
Also, if you shim the head up, would that lower your compression?

Thanks.

 

Quench is the amount of distance between the top of the piston and the cylinder head. You want quench to be ~0.040". This allows the fuel and air mixture to receive the most compression and the best complete burn. It also helps prevent detonation.
However, you must be careful with the cylinder head to piston as well as piston to valve clearences.

Yes, if you shim the head, you lower the compression by increasing the quench. The opposite is also true. If you shave the head, you raise the compression and reduce the quench.

 

Ok, then I gather the "steel shim head gaskets" are thinner than the OE gaskets?

 

What I meant to say here is by shiming the head, you lower compression and increase the quench distance. Usually a "shim" is used to raise something to bring it into alignment.

 

I undersatnd what you are saying.
I was refering to fordraceboy's post. He said to use Steel shim head gaskets.

That is why I was asking. He said it would raise compression.

I read the word "shim" and think "raising" Just as you explained.
Which would lower the compression.

I guess the question should be, what are steel shim head gaskets?

 

not sure what he meant but most of use run a .020 head gasket the oe is .049

 

gashog's got it! sorry, about the confusion...