Yes, removing the front clip would make things a lot easier.

Thanks everyone for the compliments, but sometimes, pictures say a thousand lies. The passenger side is in worse condition then the drivers side, all because of where the p.o parked it when it crapped out. I bought it from a airman stationed at our Naval Air Station. When the truck died, he parked it in a big, open parking lot for a few months. The passenger side was the side facing the ocean. So the wet salty wind that came off the water hit the passenger side. The paint is starting to oxidize, and there are some rust holes in the door jamb. The headliner is missing, and the roof is rusty. The bed has some surface rust inside, and the paint on the top of the side is scratched from having a camper moved in and out....

All in all, it was decent for $650. Not the best, but hey, it's my first car. And teen's first cars are usually not in the best of shape

 

You got that right. My first was a '77 Chevy 4X4.

Outside of the crack in the engine block and every panel being rotten it was a pretty good truck.

 

Took exhaust and intake manifolds of yesterday, and here is what it looked like below the oil drip pan



Good thing I bought a new engine

 

Update:

It's been a little while since my last check in, but I've had other things going on. Here is what I got done today

Oil pan off (Full of gunk)
Timing chain cover off
Pushrods out
Lifters out
Timing sprocket & gear out
Cam out

Interesting story, but this confirms my suspicion about why it went bad. While I was pouring (more) gunk out of the oil pan, my dad noticed something in the pan. I fished around, and pulled up some metal chunks. After we cleaned them off, we discovered that it was a piston that had shattered. And it was a shatter from LOTS of strain on the engine (Think street race). So that piston's connecting rod was then loose, and damaged the cylinder wall. Must have hit the cylinder head too.

 

ouchh poor engine

 

The rod wouldn't make contact with the head but it probably drove some chunks of piston into it.

 

nice looking truck

 

great deal and nice find!! noticed the air cond compressor after market for sure sandon??
i just cringe when i see screws in those lariat inserts and aggreed could be head gaskets better off pulling the motor a lot easier that trieing to do things "over the fenders" and you will probebly have to replace motor mounts any ways

 

Sorry It's been so long between updates, but I've been busy.

Since the last string of pictures, we have opened up our garage, so instead of being 8 feet deep, it's now 22 feet deep. There is now plenty of room for everything, and we don't run into each other while working. That meant I could start work on tearing up the engine.

The first step was to order the gasket set I needed. NAPA was charging too much, so I went ahead and ordered a Mr. Gasket set from jegs for $60. Shortly after the order, I got a email saying it was out of stock, and would ship on August 24th. I didn't want to wait that long, so I called and cancelled the order. After waiting for the bank to re-credit the money, I ordered a felpro kit. But then I get a call later saying that one was out of stock, even though I just talked with someone who said it was in stock. So I call a third time, and cancel that, and order a different felpro, and it shipped on time, and I got it. After getting it, I realised that it only included the water pump plate to block gasket, and I needed that plus the pump to plate. So I went to NAPA and they got it for me the next day.

After a couple of days of cleaning the oil pan/pump, I got those on. But when torquing the oil pan bolts, we noticed the bolts had missed a few holes, so the gasket squished out the sides. So we pull the pan before the RVT hardened, and found one end of the gasket sheared off. So we went to NAPA, and got another set for $40. This time we made sure the holes matched up, and got it on without a hitch.

Next was the intake manifold. Even though both manifolds were the same casting number, the one that came with the engine I bought didn't have all the holes punched out for sensors. We get it off, and the valley pan stayed attached. we got it seperated from the manifold, but it was damaged beyond re-use. So we had to wait for one to come in.

Next up was the carb and vacuum advance. Had to order a new gasket for the vacuum to manifold, so waited for that to get in.

Now, I am struggling to get the distributor in. Also put the motor mounts in.


Here are a few pictures.

This is how it looks as of today



and here is my mess of parts

 

I'm 15 and just bought my first truck a 73 F250 390 with bad rod bearing for $850 and I'm starting to get things ready to piece together. Its good to know that there are kids my age out there doing this. Nice truck btw

 

Thats great man. My biggest problem is finding the money to do stuff. I don't have a steady job yet, so it makes things interesting

 

I decided to make life easier on myself, and I'm taking the front of the truck off. Got the grill shell off this morning, and now i'm looking in how to get the radiator support off. As for the a/c condenser, the hoses are long enough for us to dangle it down out of the way without having to discharge the system.

 

Hey guys, got another thing for you

Yesterday was going to be the day that the engine got installed into the truck. But we came across a problem. The engine we bought is a industrial engine, so the crank is a larger diameter. We didn't think it would be a problem with the timing cover that came with the truck. Turns out, it did. We were trying to slip the harmonic balancer on, but it wouldn't budge past a certain point. The harmonic balencer was such a different size, that it wouldn't slip though the oil seal opening, even though the crank did.




After a trip to NAPA, we determined that there was no possible way to get a seal with a large enough opening to accommodate the larger crank. So we have to use the timing cover that came with the industrial engine.

Here is the difference in seal sizes


Our biggest problem with the industrial cover, is there is no oil dipstick tube going through it like the stock cover. Fortunately, the oil pan that came off the industrial engine had a dipstick tube that mounted in the side of the sump.



Drilled out the rivets


and used a dremel at 30K rpm with a mini burr bit to cut away the epoxy on the inside



Just a little more info, the guy at NAPA looked up some things for us, and as it turns out, the engine is either a 460 or 429 industrial (difference is in casting number, 460 is D9TE-AB and 429 is D9TE-BA, mine is D9TE-ABA). Because it is industrial, it has a heavy duty crank and cam (built to last), sodium filled intake and exhaust valves, and tuned to get little horsepower but s**t tons of torque between 750-3500 rpm. There is a good chance that is has an equivalent of police interceptor heads. The engine had 185 hours at its last run, which translates to about 20K miles. But thats 20K miles of 1500 rpm running

 

Not a bad idea to go through the engine. I just bought a 1977 w 351M, patched it and when it got hot I had no oil pressure. So now the block is in the shop for cam bearings.
Lot of work when I could have done it right the frist time. But I'm still young and learing I'll only be 61 on my next birth day. Good Luck and Thanks/Robert

 

Forgot to update this. Iran into a problem with the crank pilot hole for the torque converter. Long story short, unless I buy a new crank and thicker crank bearings, I won't be using this engine. We already have plans to pick up a new 460 and C6 combination on Wednesday. Both rebuilt, 0 miles on both, for $800.

Engine is from a '72 Lincoln, full rebuild with roller cam, edelbrock intake and 650 cfm carb. Dyno'd at the shop for 365 horsepower.

Transmission was from a '71 Lincoln, full rebuild after 65K miles. Never been used since. mild shift kit installed.