i have an 1989 f150 with the 302 efi and im having one heck of a time figuring it out and its 1 thing after another. and the problems are never ending.

heres some additional info. 1989 f150 302efi. 4x4 6in lift 35x15.50x15 wheels.

Bought this truck and it is in poor shape and maintenance appears to be something unheard off.

ran great when i bought it and moved it around several times and never had an issue starting. I went to move it and it started cutting out and stalling. THIS is where the problems start. When it would start it only ran on the driver banks only. a few pops out of the passenger side.

weak spark so installed new, distributor, icm, coil. No change, fuel pressure checked out. under the hood is covered in oil and coolant. and notice a large intake manifold leak. Took 30 mins of scraping just to find intake bolts. Pulled intake and found handfuls of carbon. so i decide to replace gaskets thinking maybe plugs were coolant fouled. and ran into more problems. Both exaust manifolds are broke in half in the same location. This is my only solution so far...

Degrease engine, clean and flush with kerosene, replace head gaskets, arp head bolts, new intake gaskets, tune up. and just hope that this truck will run again.

Is it common for a 302 to be sludge up and have so much carbon? and have decent oil pressure. Is normal for the manifolds to crack in half? can they be welded or is there anywhere to buy them cheap.

should i trash the motor and just get a replacement, any info is greatly appreciated

 

If you don't do oil changes on a regualer basis then yes a crap ton of sludge is to be expected out of it. the manifolds sometimes just go due to old age and allot of heat cycles, should be able to get a cheap set on ebay or an autoparts store. Not sure bout the spark here but I'd worry about getting the manifolds done first for sure as they will make her run like a pig. As for flushing it, I vote no, I've heard of folks flushing out a carbon filled engine and either ending up with allot of leaks and I mean allot or the engine literaly blowing up the next day just because of how tired it already was. Just do a bunch of oil and filter changes with a high detergent oil like whats used in the deisels every 500 or so miles and that will clean it out good and will be allot safer than kerosene. Just my two cents.

 

Im still trying to figure out why the passenger side banks wouldnt fire, As for the kerosene ive never flushed out the whole engine while apart, but every oil change i drain the oil on a warm engine and run 3 quarts threw for about 15-30 seconds. It seems to work good on my older vehicles. I have done it to my chevy for over 6 years with 301k on it, i wouldnt attempt it with a newer vehicle. I will just scrape and vaccum everything i can out and leave well enough alone.

thanks for your input

 

Seeing as it's batch fire injection, I would suspect something wrong in one of the injector bank circuits. Could be ECM, but that would be after all other avenues are checked. Look for a broken wire or bad connector. Get an EVTM for a guide.

 

when I first picked up my 1986 F250 2wd 5.0 EFI with manual trans 20 years ago, I picked it up from a kid who didn't even know where the oil went. Everytime I changed the oil, it would be black as tar (after 100 miles). I finally ended up pulling the motor to do an upgrade and the entire valley area was filled with hardened sludge. The rings were also shot. I would vote for new motor time.(Glad I did)

 

I can pick up a 351w from a 93 econoline dirt cheap but i dont know if its a direct swap

 

If you did grab it just take everything in the engine bay you want or have that van driven up to where you live and you just strip out what you do need. Do a little googling for some old threads on this swap. Its really straightforward and if you have all the stuff you need from the engine to the exhaust maniflods to the ecu and the intake etc etc etc and you can the whole van for dirt cheap you'd be crazy not to do it.