Hi I have a 71 F100 with a 360 engine. The truck previously sat for 3 years and never started up. My son and I worked and finally got the tank cleaned out lines and radiator flushed and soon had it running, sounded fairly good but smoked really bad, we soon figured out we had a bad head gasket so we replaced both head gaskets as well as new intake and exhaust manifold gaskets. I thought we had it all back together correctly but when we started it up it sounded like something was loose inside so I pulled off the valve covers and checked the rail that has all the rocker arms on it it was still tight not loose like expected,reinstalled them and before I could get it from the street to the driveway it was sounding really scratchy like it wasn't getting oil somewhere and idleing really high. I didn't check the oil pressure before I shut it off don't know whether to restart it to check that or what. I'm sure I am at least really close with the timing because it started right up.Still sounded like something was loose but I couldn't quite figure out what it might be. Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks

 

Get a gallon of Marvel Mystery Oil and add it to oil and fuel per instructions. You probably have gummed lifters and rings.
Some guys advise Seafoam. They are light penetrating oils and work magic.

 

So you think it will be ok to run it then? At least idle in the driveway.

 

Are you sure you set the valve lifter adjustment properly? We can advise you if you are not sure. They should be centered in the plunger travel.
If you are sure- and you have oil pressure- run it.

 

Could be you should have pulled the Dizzy and manually moved the oil pump"s driveshaft down below the Dizzy 1st to get oil through the engine, or rusty cylinder walls. Usually takes more than 3 years but the cylinder walls can get rusty with none use. Then when started the rings have to scrape up against this. If I were there I would yank all the plugs so you can spin the engine over easier via the bolt in the middle of the vibration dampner. Mark the plug wires for their correct location before you remove them off the plugs. Spin the engine over by hand via a ratchet and socket on that bolt. Do you feel what you heard?

 

Before we ever started it we put Mystery oil down the cylinders and hand cranked it several times, then we cranked it by the ignition with no plugs in it, then we put the plugs back in got it to fire and run to help burn some of the mystery oil, changed the plugs and ran it, ran good except that it smoked real bad for a couple of days, that's when I checked the oil again and found water in the oil so we changed the head gaskets and now it sounds scratchy. Cylinder walls looked good. When I pulled the Distributor it looked like all the pictures I could find on line so I didn't think I missed anything. But no I don't know what the Dizzy is and I don't know how move the oil pumps drive shaft like you say. When I pulled the Distributor there was just a round end like a pipe that went through a hole in a piece of metal down there that I thought was just to help hold everything in place.
COUGAR JOHN when we pulled the intake off we made sure all the lifters were in place and not turned over or anything, and then when we reinstalled the pushrods I made sure the rods were in the center of the lifters. I didn't adjust anything I figured I didn't do anything to unadjust them, maybe I am wrong in that idea. But no I don't have any oil pressure at least not enough to register on my gauge.

 

The distributor goes down and sits over the top of the oil pump driveshaft, and that's what drives the oil pump. It's pretty common that the little slip washer on that driveshaft (that keeps it in place) disappears somehow over the years, so when you pull the distributor out, it can also pull the driveshaft out far enough, then drop down into your oil pan and you would never know it (if you didn't know to check that is) until you start your motor again and all your rockers start clattering, and you have no oil pressure. This happened to me so I know all about the noise.


If your not sure if you have oil pressure and don't want to chance it, pull the distributor out, look down the hole and see if you have an octagon shaped shaft sitting down there. If not it's in your oil pan and you found the issue. I just left mine in my oil pan and bought a new shaft knowing that I would someday be pulling the pan off and deal with it then.

 

That makes sense I will check it out. Thanks for the info.

 

Yep that missing guess I'll be headed back to the parts store for one. Thanks again I'll let you all know when I get it in.

 

Great. At least it's somewhat an easy fix. Just be careful putting the new one back in, use a good telescoping magnet and go easy..

 

I've seen on here where some guys used RTV two hold it into the dizzy shaft end from falling out.
The magnet is hard to stab the shaft with out pulling it back out again. Or dropping it.

You may be in for an engine rebuild now if you ran it to long sorry to say.

Also if you don't have a auto shop manual that covers the engine, I'd say it's time you get one as you could have avoided this.

I have done the replacement shaft through the top myself back in the 60's when pulling the dizzy out like some many have done who's ever pull a dzzy out of these Fe motors.

My fix so this would never happen to me again was I used JB weld on the retainer washer. I First made sure the it was in the correct placement then applied the JB weld epoxy to both sides of the washer and turning the shaft end to end to keep it from dripping off an centered until it set up some them installed it when it was safe to do so.

But this can only be done with the pan off and as your replacing the oil pump!

Orich

 

When I get the new shaft installed can I pull the plugs and spin the shaft with a drill to move some oil through the engine? Then just start at Top Dead Center and redo my timing from there?

 

Not necessary to pull plugs to spin the oil pump with drill as the crankshaft does not rotate.

 

However, good idea to pull number one plug, get it TDC on compression, then install dist.

 

Thanks will do