Last weekend, while doing a favor for a friend, my '65 Slick started blowing steam out of the passenger side pipe--a blown head gasket. Driver's side also needs replacement. Decision time.

Kids and expenses rule out a brand new smoking crate engine. Thought I would ask this group for their advice.

Option one: Top end rebuild. A good engine guy wants $1500-$2500
Option two: Complete rebuild. $3000+
Option three: Decent rebuilt engine $2500 and install $1500 ($4000)
Option four: one of the above plus power steering conversion

Truck ('65 LWB, FE390) is like a treasured hunting dog to me. Not perfect, but a known quantity. I want to pass it on to the next generation. What would you do????

Thanks in advance!

 

What motor is it?

 

Replacing head gaskets is a very simple repair...it's just messy and a little time consuming and involves some muscle work. Depending
on how the lower half of the engine looks, it may only need the gaskets or a valve job. I had a valve job done by a custom shop on
my stock 302 heads and it cost me about $600 and then the cost of the gaskets...engine runs like a champ.

Question: Do you plan on doing the work yourself??

Pull the heads and see what you have...see what the pistons and rings and cylinders look line...maybe it ain't as bad as you think.

Personally, I think power steering on these old trucks is over rated...I've never had trouble, either has my wife.

 

I had to make this same decision last November.. I chose to do it right... I took a week off of work, and rebuilt my engine... while i had it at the shop for the milling ie; honed bored, line bored, decked, heads rebuilt, i spent that time going through everything under the hood... Wiring, hoses, inner fender repair and repaint.... with everything new including One wire 140 amp Alternator, High Volume waterpump, Radiator and electric fans,MSD 6al,new dizzy, intake, carb, headers, all new ARP bolts and fasteners I mean everything new! it cost $5000, but now the truck runs like a new truck, while I was at it I redid the manual steering, and after rebuild it steers so nice... basically everything from the cab forward is new.. it was a no brainer... I have a massive Horsepower increase, and almost doubled my MPG... it is nice to have that reliability! Don't think about just do it!

There are a lot of shops that sell very complete engine rebuild kits including new pistons, rings bearings, gasket sets and valve train, for around $500.... My shop fees for complete milling, including hot tanking, magnaflux, everything ready for assembly was $1300 ...My focus was on top of the line parts, with real reliability, and efficiency.. I have a 352 FE now 361 with .040 over bore.... in my 64 F250 I get 16 MPG around town, and 21.5 highway towing my Toy trailer.. haven't done highway without the trailer yet.. it Dynoed at 348bhp at the crank.... Just do it right the first time... you will be glad that you did...

 

If money's are tight? I agree with ''Cropdusterman'' it probably just blew a head gasket
and that is a simple fix if that is all there is? and not a lot of ''Cash, just a buddy to help
with the heavy stuff...lol?

 

I have to agree with the other posters. A head gasket replacement is not bad just takes time. I would pull the heads of and see if there is any other damage, then make your decision. How many miles are on it?

 

I'd suggest doing a quick compression test at every cylinder - it would likely provide some telltale information.

How would you have 'graded' the engine condition before the 'steam show'? If it was providing adequate power, using/leaking minimal amounts of motor oil, provided decent fuel mileage for a 45+ year-old big-block truck, then maybe just a head gasket is the best move at this point. If it was already tired before the steam show, then I'd seriously consider Option #2, yanking it and going through it top to bottom.

Regarding the steering, if you have lots of slop in your current steering setup, then I'd suggest you try to determine if the box or the linkage is the source - is it worn out or just out of adjustment. If it is in decent shape, then I'd do as CropDusterMan, I'd just run the original setup. One less source for fluid leaks/drips! However, since your asking - obviously you'd like to have PS. Personally, I'd still get the engine work completed first; then I'd re-visit the steering issue after you've built up your 'play money stash' again.

If you haven't already switched to a dual-reservoir master brake cylinder, I WOULD RECOMMEND doing that while you're under the hood. "Safety & Reliability before Comfort". It is less cost and work than switching out to power steering and makes for a much safer truck.

BarnieTrk

 

Yepp,, do it yerself!! Save money and gain experience, learn new words and patience, and when your done, you can say YOU did it,,, this is a large amount of satisfaction in that,, NOT to mention the LARGE savings!! Buy a manual and a torque wrench,,, get busy!

And on the power steering issue,,, my ,, hmm,, I think it was my second 66, I bought a wrecked 74, the rear was crunched, and did the disc and power swap,,, never liked it,,, just my opinion. The last 3 or 4 I have just used ALL NEW brake components, had all the drums turned and it stops like a dream, and all new front end parts, lubed and 235/85/16 tires,, steers just nice,,, I even have 265/70/15 on my current 66 F100 on 16x8 rims and original manual steering,,, I like the feel better than p/s,, and it is my daily driver,, but again,, that is me,, they designed it a long long time ago,, and it is still on the road,, somethin to be said about that!
Joe

 

OK, well what engine is it? Ths suspence is killing us...

 

Here's what you do. I'm assuming this one has the FE motor, (352, 360, 390, etc.). Find a 73 to 76 on Craigslist that's got a rebuilt motor for $500 and swap the motor plus the power steering and disc brakes. Craigslist is full of those deals. Just do your homework to make sure the rebuild isn't the "Krylon Overhaul". I just picked up a 70 F100 with a rebuilt 390 with less than 100 miles on it for $350. The body is shot and the PO just lost interest in it. PO had all the receipts for the $1600 spent on the motor. It supposedly has a rebuilt C6 also although there is no paperwork to back that up. There are at least four to five Fords with "rebuilt FE's" on Craigslist right now here in Spokane for less than $800.

 

I decided to wait on a full rebuild and instead opted to bolt on a set of the Edelbrock aluminum heads. Also raised the engine up a bit to better accomodate the old school Hooker headers (a bitch to get to line up with the new heads), installed new plugs and wires, etc. Engine is running incredibly smooth now.

For those who care about performance on a stock 390, My initial impressions are as follows. Bear in mind the new heads need to be broken in. I will follow up down the road. Setup is a stock 70s FE390 with a 650 CFM Holley and a dual plane Edelbrock intake and Hooker headers.

1. Much quieter than before. I must have had an exhaust leak with the old setup.
2. Acceleration is not as rapid as it was with the old heads. Truck used to take a second or two at full throttle to wind up, then ran like a scalded dog from 25-70 MPH.
3. Transmission (Ford-o-matic) takes a long time to shift into 2nd. It used to slam in hard, now it seems to "stall" for a lot longer, creating a gap in power.

Any advice on tuning for the new setup would be much appreciated, particularly simple changes like timing, carb adjustments etc. Anyone out there add just the heads to the stock setup and have suggestions for getting the most out of it?

John

 

With the better breathing heads and headers you will need to advance the timing up a bit.. also if your headers are too big in diameter, with a stock cam, you will have a power loss, it is possible to over size the headers, which causes a loss in torque, you will see however better top end.. but as a daily driver you probably will never get up to that 5500-6000 rpm range. advancing the timing will help with that, and if you have a stock dizzy you will need to adjust the vac. adv. pot on the dizzy to get it to engage the timing a bit sooner.... Putting a bigger cam or better breathing cam in will help make up the difference also. The heads are not the issue as much as the headers are.. but you can overcome all of those issues with a little research and a lot of adjustments.....

 

Thanks JetCopterPilot. I plan to advance the timing and will look into a different cam.

 

John there is more to it then setting the timing... there are several adjustments you can make in the dizzy to help improver performance... twisting the dizzy is only a small part of it.. all that does is set initial advance... you also have Vacuum advance controlled by the advance pot that can be adjust to bring in the advance sooner... aka more torque! There is also Mechanical advance, little weights inside the Dizzy those can be adjusted to using lighter springs to bring in top end advance sooner.. the Dizzy can also be recurved to adjust the amount of timing advance in the weights.. A dizzy is not plug and play, and with a change of heads and headers you need to understand how all of it works together With new heads and headers you have less vacuum, so the vac advance needs to be bumped up to regain the lost low end torque. I am attaching a few links that will help you understand it better.. read them and understand them, and then you can fine tune your engine.. there are a lot of videos on Youtube on how to dial the dizzy in to match your set up... Remember Knowledge is power!

Timing Tips for Ford Distributors
Distributor advance

 

One other thing... your tranny is acting different now, because of the different amount of vacuum in the intake.. better breathing heads= less vacuum and changing from manifolds to headers also lowers the vacuum.. it all has an effect on the tranny.