Well, spring has sprung, the mountains of snow have finally withered (mostly) away, and the '65 F100 got hauled out!



The 302 has a serious rear main seal leak, and a slight rod knock, so it's due to be pulled and rebuilt. Over the winter, I bought a '96 roller cam block that has BEAUTIFUL bearing surfaces and was freshly punched .030" over, and the plan was to buy some aluminum heads, some forged pistons, jam a Comp XE266 roller cam and long tube headers, etc. at it, and I purchased a complete T5 setup, so I was gonna run that with some 4.10-ish gears and enjoy the hell out of the truck!

However, things fell into place, and now my beautiful fiancee and I are getting married in July. While that is a wonderful thing, it seriously curtails the budget for the truck. Now I'm going to do a re-bearing and re-ring on the existing block (1971-vintage 302), maybe stab a baby flat-tappet cam like the Comp XE256 or 260H, and run the 4-speed Toploader and stock 3.25 gears in her for now. I bought a Weiand Stealth 4-bbl intake and shorty headers too. Kinda bums me out that I won;t be able to afford to build the motorand drivetrain that I really want, but things are what they are.

So, tomorrow begins the fun. I've always been a GM guy, and this is my first Ford, so I'm looking forward to the experience. The final goal will be a good, reliable, relatively-strong running little pickup without a rod knock.

 

Sounds like a fun project, and an ambitious one for a man about to be married. I don't recall having much time in the months before my wedding.

 

I've been happily married for 17 years and have 3 kids.....so I'm not knocking getting married.....but....my response to the above statemet is...."get used to it".

I've had to remain determined to steadfastly hold onto my old car stuff over the years, because there's always something, with a wife and kids, that will come along and take away any and all budget money for old car stuff.

So...treat that lil' gal nice...give her all that she needs....and some of what she wants......but not ALL that she wants.

 

Just remember to compromise a little. My wife is letting me build my 66 custom cab that I want to maintain as stock as possible. Her request/requirement is that it be painted yellow. I guess that is a fair compromise. At least she likes the Springtime yellow but she wants a light metallic look, so I am not sure if I am willing to paint it myself.

 

Hey guys,

Thanks for the advice! Luckily, Rachel grew up with a father who always was fixing old cars and trucks (he has a '56 Chevy 210 2-door wagon with a 409 and a M22 Muncie that I hope to inherit! ), and she enjoys riding around in them, and she understands that it's my "getaway" and keeps me out of trouble. So she's never given me any flak about investing a few bucks here and there and time into my cars.... the agreement is as long as the bills get paid and a few bucks get put into savings, and the house isn't falling apart, she really doesn't care. I got lucky! She's a good one and understanding of our sickness...that's why I'm marrying her!!!

 

Well, thankfully, most everything has fallen into place and planned already! So as long as the crank doesn't need to be polished and no major machine work is needed aside from resurfacing the crank, it SHOULD so relatively smoothly...so keep your fingers crossed for me!

 

Congratulations on the wedding, and on buying a FORD!!!!

 

Thanks! There was some mystery as to what the motor was...today I found it is definitely a 1971 302. It has D0OE heads, and it came with full aluminum roller rockers, and double valvesprings. Looks like someone was planning on doing more to the motor. The heads date code to the same month and year as the block, so Im guessing they're original to the motor. Everything looks good...just grubby....so its all systems go! Spoke to a Comp Cams rep and he recommended the XE 256 cam. Gonna pull the block tomorrow to tear it apart....keep your fingers crossed for me that no machine work is needed!

 

Looks like you got yourself a nice setup with the engine. Best of the luck with the rebuild. Shouldnt be too bad on price.