Hey guys. I just rebuilt my first Ford engine, and it of course had to be a 300 inline six cylinder. Mine is the original in my 1989 F-150 4x4. It had about 82,465 miles on it. It started slipping really bad and was using water and oil. So I tore it down and discovered that it had a blown throttle body gasket, worn rings, and a plugged oil pump pickup. I cleaned everything and took the block to local machine shop where it got decked, new freeze plugs, new cam bearings, magged, baked, and boiled. I then brought the head in and had it rebuilt and machined... took 12 thoudandths just to straighten it and clean it up. I bought new lifters cause the old ones were chattering a little bit. I polished the crank myself and cleaned all the internal pieces. I then installed a new pickup tube and a new Ford oil pump. Finally I blueprinted the engine to 0.0015" clearance on the mains and rods and 0.001" on the cylinder clearances.

 

Wow. Congratulations or condolences? What would wear ANY motor out in 82,000 miles let alone a 4.9 that will easily last 3 to 4 times that many miles of hard use? I mean, it sounds like fun and all, but too few miles for my taste.

 

Congrats man... Let me know if you see a mpg increase... Sounds like you had a blast, and you'll probably never have to mess with it again... Good job.

 

Already got an increase in mpg. I was getting about 8 or nine with the T-18 4 speed and 3.08 gears before, now I get about 10 intown and 12-13 hwy and I have not even gotten it all broken in and tuned yet. The guy that owned the truck sold it to a friend of mine after he crashed it. My friend then drove it all over his field with no radiator in it. He never told me that part until the engine went south. I feel very fortunate that the head only warped a little and did not crack. I had a lot of fun doing the job and it seems to be running fine. Really MPG is a secondary bonus as I am just happy to have the truck back again.