Ok so yesterday I took my 1960 f250 out on her maiden voyage around the block... she was fine, ran smooth not much power as expected, stopped at my buddy's house and ran er home and she idled fine as I shut er down... about 10 minutes of road time... now this morning it was hard to start and runs rough smokes n knocks a bit tried pulling plug wires whilst running an got juiced with the electricians pliers, ouch... tried pulling then starting but its hard to tell the difference... almost seems like a misfire but I'm 29 and the oldest vehicle I've owned is and 82... as this 223 l6 should be simple, I don't know much about it yet. So ran it drove it fine, now smoke rough idle but it starts fine now there's a little oil on the threads of the plugs but the conducting part its dry.
Newer plugs
Rebuilt Carb
New fluids n filters
Any help to get er running smooth again will be greatly appreciated
Thanks
Joe

 

Update ... all plugs are dry except cylinder #4 gets soaked with fuel but it gets spark... changed the plug and the wire... same condition

 

Got it, rocker jumped a valve

 

I have a 223 and it runs great. Knock on wood. But anytime a thread like this comes up I like to pay attention in case something like this happens to mine. Can you explain to me, a fellow youngster of 35, with little engine experience, how a rocker jumps a valve but most importantly how did you fix it?

 

Hey what's up man!! Nice truck!!! yeah same engine as mine... So what happend with my little experience is the valve adjustment "valve lash" had too much play so when the rocker arm lifts the valve rod is able to move to the side and the rocker arm comes down beside it instead of on top of it... sorry if my terminology is off but yeah that's what happened and I was pretty bummed this mornin...

So what I did was put a rod in the valve adjustment bolt and lifted it till I could get the valve rod back in place then adjusted it so it can't comeback out I hope...

 

I have a a 215 in my 52, and it likes to work its valves out of adjustment over time. I would run it some more and check it again. In the manual it says the valve lash when hot should be: EXHAUST MIN .014 MAX .016 INTAKE MIN .014 MAX .016 and the MAX CLEARANCE VALVE STEM GUIDE should be between .0025 and .0030 I am 17 and just about got my 6 cylinder figured out! Even though I am still learning

 

Nice!! yeah I gotta get a book for mine asap!!

 

29 and 17, nice to know there's new blood coming into the old truck hobby. I'm not ancient, at least I don't think so, 47, starting working on my truck when I was 18. Man, that's a long time ago!!

 

Well, I started when I was 13 with ONE truck now I have ONE truck done, 3 projects and 4 parts trucks and 67 heaters. It is like a disease that cannot be cured.

 

I have a 215 as well. When I got the engine running after a few years of sitting idle, the first thing I did was adjust the valves. It's easy to do.

Since we're dating ourselves, I'm 32 and got the 1951 and 1952 when I was 24. The Airflow came about four years ago. I, too, started with one truck, but then the habit got worse.

 

I jumped in here before I finished reading the whole thread, sounds like you have a good handle on the problem.

 

Don't forget to set the dwell angle, and then time the ignition afterward, in that sequence. These steps can make a big difference in how the old girl runs.

You can do the point gap by the old fashioned feeler gauge (or matchbook cover) method, but I find using a dwell meter after you get them pretty close will give a more accurate result. I'm pretty sure the dwell on your 223 should be about 36-37 degrees, and ignition timing right around 5 BTDC, but you might wanna check those.

If your old points look worn/burned, don't be afraid to replace them. Also replace the rotor and the condenser at the same time just to be safe. Cost will only be a few bucks at your local NAPA, AutoZone, or whatever, but is well worth the peace of mind. Good luck!

 

Thanks guys!! Yeah I'm in love with this truck... I do have somewhat of a handle on the problem... it is running nice again.

My dad has a dwell meter up at his house, I'll get my hands on that. The points look to be in immaculate condition and it has the matchbook gap on the high point... anyone have some steps on how to tune these valves in?

 

I just take the spark plugs out(so its easy to turn with fan) then take the valve cover off and which ever valve your adjusting I just made sure the mate to the valve was in the open position so i knew that the valve i was adjusting was all the way closed

 

How do you set/change dwell and what is that impacting. I have two old meters that meter dwell and I haven't done anything associated with it, maybe I could try that in troubleshooting my 223 problems.