Hi all! Name is Ken and I recently acquired a dream truck that I've wanted since I first started working on these Fords. I've been at it since 15, my dad picked up a 1979 Bronco for us to work on and drive, then shortly afterwords I worked my butt off for a 1979 F150 with factory 460. Alas we sold both and moved on, and I've had numerous trucks since then! Will be 24 in April so I've been working on them for awhile now lol. Some might know me across these vast interwebz as BigBlue79 or big_blue79, used to help run a forum that grew stale and moved on. Anyway, enough about me and onto my truck.

I haven't decided a name yet, but it's a 1983 F100 XLT Styleside Short Bed, has a 302, AOD, 8.8 with 3.08s(axle was replaced by the kid I got the truck from, whom re-used the original u-bolts and nuts on the replacement axle, originally had 3.55s too), it's got the Sport Instrumentation option so it has the Tachometer and optional Speedometer with Trip, it has the Clock above the radio. Power Steering, Power Brakes, American Racing wheels with 265/70R15 tires. Color code is 3J which took awhile to find out, actually used the paint code thread in this forum to find it, apparently 3J in 1983 is a one year only "Harbor Blue Metallic" IIRC, after 1985 it becomes "Medium Blue Regatta".

Currently she is sitting, I parked it cause of a few issues, it needs a sector shaft seal in the gear box, I believe the intake was leaking, had a little coolant in the oil, no smoke or running rough or missing so I don't attribute it to a head gasket. Truck had caught fire under the hood before, scorched the intake and burnt some stuff, intake gaskets looked a little worse for the wear. The AOD is on it's last leg, the truck is running a 2150 from a 1977-1980 302/351/400 and it of course doesn't have the proper linkage for the AOD, truck slams hard in drive and neutrals out while driving. While it's down I'm getting a C6 for the Windsor bolt pattern(Ford used Engine Families and not "Small Block or Big Block" which are GM/AMC/Mopar terms) and am gonna rebuild it and install the "R" code Servo into it before it goes back in.

When I pulled the intake off the engine(it's an old 2bbl cast iron heavy freaking intake) I discovered the 302 had been replaced with a roller block 302 that is currently running a flat tappet cam and lifter set. As soon as I get a new timing set, timing cover gasket set, and distributor with proper steel gear(old one is shot anyway) I'm gonna swap in my roller cam setup, advance the cam as well and run it with the roller setup. Also picked up a new set of Speed Daddy Stainless T-304 shorty headers from a buddy of mine along with a Stainless X-Pipe. Those will all be installed once tax time comes and I get a new Spintech Sportsman 3000 muffler for the truck.

A little bit for now. I'll add some better pics tomorrow, as most of my pics are crappy pics of when I brought it home and I need to get some better one's anyway..

 

Ken, Welcome to the forum.
Truck looks like a good start for a project. The inside looks like a little cleaning and it would be almost good as new. That is good because finding inside parts can be hard then add the XLT and...........


Do you have any other plans for the truck? Anything to the outside? Clean or repaint anything?


Why not rebuild the AOD trany or is the C6 ready to go sitting in the corner?


FYI AMC did not ever make a "small block" or "big block". The V8's all used the same block/heads just changed the bore & stroke to get the different CID. 304 & 360 used the same cranks, different dia pistons. 343 & 360 used the same dia pistons, different stroke.


Again welcome to the forum.
Dave ----


btw you could have used your old screen name we would not hold that against you

 

Check out your intake gaskets when you install them. Lay them on the intake side and make sure they cover everything and will seal, and then lay them on the engine/heads and make sure they are going to seal.

I built a 302 with a 86 efi block and heads, and used a 68 4bbl intake. I got a engine rebuild gasket kit and the kit came with two different sets of intake gaskets. One set fit properly, one set did not. I want to say the later model intake gasket is the one that fit, but it was so long ago I can't remember. I just remember that one set would not seal properly on my setup.

 

Currently plans are hoping for a Flareside bed swap, I don't want 92-96 Flareside bed, I want the 80's bed if I can find it, if not it's gonna get another Styleside. The bed on it is so beat to hell that I don't plan on even trying to fix it.

I do want to repaint it, thinking of going with the Dark Shadow Blue and White scheme, had a Bronco for awhile that was those two colors, may add a little more flake to the Blue to give it a little extra pop!

As for the whole AOD/C6 thing, I absolutely couldn't care less for a 4th gear in this truck, IMO the AOD is a finicky as hell transmission. The C6 hasn't been bought yet, but I do have plans to buy one and rebuild one, just need a $50 band tool and the rest can be built with hand tools.

Transmission will come first of course, right after I get everything done to the Engine and the leaking gear box fixed. Then I can focus on exterior. Also eventually wanna find a 94-97 351w Roller Block and build on that for this truck.

My bad on the AMC, don't know my AMC's quite like I do my Fords/GMs.

Thanks for that tip, I will make sure. I did order them for the 1983 model year as I didn't know it was a roller block at the time. Heck I haven't even checked the cylinder heads for the revision number to see what they are.

 

Ken - Welcome to FTE!!! Where are you located? I'm in Skiatook and host a get-together annually, usually in September. And the local FTE'ers, and some not so local, drop by frequently to chat or to work on a project. So, come on by.

As for the paint, my web page on exterior paint (http://www.garysgaragemahal.com/exte...int-codes.html) says the '83 color was Light Harbor Blue Metallic and the 86 and later color was Medium Regatta Blue Metallic. But, I can't say that your source is wrong. Those charts on my page come from Ford's master parts catalog and other Ford publications sometimes call a give code a different name. As shown on 2E and 51, I like to update my copy of the catalog with corrections. So, if your source is another Ford publication then send me a link, or a pic as Fonzie did, and I'll update my catalog and site.

Speaking of my site, another page that might interest you is here: Certification Label - ???Gary's Garagemahal where you can decode that label. Or here for electrical and vacuum info: 1986 EVTM - ???Gary's Garagemahal.

Anyway, nice truck and a good project. Hope to meet you soon.

 

I'm in Sapulpa Gary, have family up around Turley/Sperry area as well so I'm somewhat familiar with the area.

I most likely got the paint names and years wrong.. lol I retain so much info in my head at times that I forget the trivial names and such but remember the more important info.

Thanks for the invite! I might have to take you up on the offer sometime in the future after I get it roadworthy again.

I actually am somewhat familiar with the certification labels enough to just peak at them and tell what engine, trans, and axle the truck came with. May not know the color codes, suspension codes, and DSO codes, but have retained enough to know that

 

Ken - We have two other members in Sapulpa: Rogue_Wulff and jwtimme. And I'm somewhat familiar with Sapulpa as my mother was from there so I've spent quite a bit of time there myself.

As for the cert label, I can't decode them off the top of my head, but I am able to figure out a lot of details via the catalog. But my abilities with the catalog pale in comparison to others, so I spend more time documenting things on my web site than looking things up to answer questions.

 

One other thing I thought of; When you take the intake off(apparently you already have it off) look at the top of the lifter bores. They should be machined flat and the center of the valley should have spots with holes that are tapped. If your casting is not machined flat, you won't be able to install the factory roller cam setup. The keepers that orient the roller lifters sit on this machined flat surface, and the spider holds them in place.

When Ford came out with the roller blocks, they machined the ones for the cars that got the roller cams, but when it came to the trucks they just left them unmachined and put a regular non-roller cam setup in them, even though they are a roller block.

It depends on what block someone swapped in place.

 

3J = 1983 Light Harbor Blue Metallic, Ford basic part number: 5918

3J = 1986/87 F150/350, Bronco, Econoline & 1986 Passenger Cars: Medium Light Regatta Blue Metallic, Ford basic part number: 6086

 

I have already verified this, and as soon as I start the cam and lifter swap I'll add pics to this thread so most of the newbies signing up can have that info. Not extremely hard to tell the difference. I did however get ahold of a 85 parts F150 one time with the Feedback 2150 and TFI-IV ignition system. That engine had two bosses in the lifter valley that weren't tapped for the bolts to hold the spider down. Was kinda odd, most non roller 302's were flat in the lifter valley sans the lifter bores and the casting numbers/characters.

 

I guess with that Light Harbor Blue Metallic being a one year only color I'll repaint the truck that color when the time comes. I've actually kind of grown fond of the color and am sure when cleared and waxed it'd look gorgeous in the sun light.

 

Well gentlemen, it's been awhile since I've updated this.... since the last posting, I've swapped in my factory FoMoCo Mustang roller cam and lifters, had to pull the passenger side head off to do it.. It appears like most vehicles do that it's been modded a bit, it's a 302 bored .010 over with 4 valve relief flat top pistons, D8OE coded heads(69cc IIRC) that's been milled I believe, hence me not being able to get two lifters in on the passenger side without pulling the head.

As of right now, my stainless shorty headers are on, I had to purchase a new water pump and timing cover, seems the PO glued them together with a lot of RTV as the timing cover had a pretty nice crack in it.. Here it is before and after I set the valve lash on it:





A couple weeks ago I picked up a factory 4bbl 289 intake, removed the rusted studs and chased the threads for the carb studs with a 5/16 course thread tap.






I met up Saturday with a nice older gentleman that was selling a NIB Edelbrock 1403 carb and a new air cleaner for $150, which is a deal I COULD NOT pass up! He used to run a shop and ordered the carb and air cleaner for a customer through Summit, Summit tuned it on a 302 for him and then boxed it up and shipped it out. Guy never came back for it, so he put a mechanics lien on it for 90 days then listed it. I've got to get a linkage piece for it Thursday, Edelbrock P/N 1483 which is the adapter to run a Ford Kickdown which is what I'll need for my C6 when I swap it in. Also need to get a phenolic spacer or aluminum carb spacer.







After all this is done, and the truck is finally running again, then I'm gonna get to work pulling the AOD out and swapping my C6 in. I had planned on waiting and buying the R Servo for the C6 and installing it before I put it in, I still may, who knows I can always install it after it's in.

As for the gear box.... a buddy of mine has a Mazda B4000 he bought for a parts truck, mainly the engine as it ran like a top but the input shaft on the M5 broke, so he used the engine in his 97 Ranger, just so happens the gear boxes are the same. We've tried a pitman arm puller, tried smacking that SOB with a hammer, it just won't come off the pitman arm, which is the last thing holding it on.. Gonna try a pickle fork before I concede defeat and buy a gear box..

Also got another bull nose, which I need to get a thread started on.

 

What did you pay for that 289 intake and are you sure it is for a 289by the numbers?


If it is then I would think it would be for a 289cid / 271hp motor and hard to find one.
Dave ----

 

Paid $60 for it. I'll have to snap a pic of the numbers but everything I've read points to it being a 289 K-Code intake. It's a C4OE revision number. I'll have to remember to snap a pic tomorrow when it's light out, little late for it now.

Edit - Maybe Numberdummy will show up and can shed some light on the intake revision numbers if possible!

 

How did you set the valve lash? You are still using the factory bolts to hold the rockers down correct?