First of all, let me be very clear that I'm new to almost all of this DIY stuff, especially on older trucks like this. My experience totals changing Radiator, Alternator, serpentine belt, and oil changes, air filter, etc. That was all on a 99' Ranger. Long story short, I just bought a 1985 f150 with the 300 4.9l straight 6 a couple days ago. I was so excited to buy it, I didn't even ask the previous owner about some obvious things. lol.

I changed the oil today and clear water came from the plug. Also noticed some oil leaking and accumulating at various spots. Looked around and it became glaringly obvious (to me anyways, could be wrong) that the PCV system is all jacked up. I don't really even know where to begin. A lot of the hoses are cut, the oil cap is solid and all the holes are empty where it seems there should be some hoses coming up out of the valve cover. Anybody care to give some thoughts or point me in the right direction. Again, I'm very green at all of this so any help at all is appreciated.

It seems to run really well though. Pretty quite and no odd noises that I can tell. Here are some picture hopefully. I've only driven maybe 50 miles since buying it.

 

Water out of the oil pan? Any oil come out? How does the coolant look?

It looks like the PCV has been removed, along with the connection to the oxygen sensor in the exhaust manifold. That it runs well with no noises is a good sign.

You are not the first in this boat. Do you have to have this thing inspected or smog checked? Getting back to OEM with that mess is going to be a real project. Scroll through this for valuable info, and some OT questions as well.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/8...6-300-a-2.html

 

85, thanks for the reply.
When I went to change the oil as I was unscrewing the plug clear water came out before all the oil came out. It wasn't a lot. And when the oil came out everything looked normal. The oil was nice and dark. I'm guessing the water was condensate from the engine since isn't being circulated properly. Or maybe rain water had found its way in to some of the open holes where parts of the PCV system has been removed? I don't know. But it wasn't milky so I don't think it ever got too hot. And the coolant looked a little brownish if I remember correctly but it's probably pretty old. I'll have to check again this evening.

I think the carburetor on this isn't stock. The previous owner mentioned something about it. Would that have anything to do with the PCV system being changed?

I live in Tennessee so I'm not aware of the need to have anything inspected or smog checked. Thanks for the link. I will check it out!

 

What part of Tennessee? Someone [forum member] may be close by. I am in northwest AL.

 

First thing I see is that the two holes in the top of the valve cover are wide open. That would be a VERY easy entry point for moisture, rain, whatever. Oil floats on water, so if you have any water or coolant in your oil and then it sits for a while, it'll always drain out first.

Is there actually green coolant in the radiator? If so, that'd be good because if you have green coolant in the cooling system and WATER came out with the oil, then the water didn't come from your coolant.

From the look of it, the EGR has been capped off, the O2 sensor has been cut, but it still has the computer controlled distributor. It won't hurt anything, but your performance will suffer because it won't properly advance the timing since it's source of input (O2, carb) are changed out.
You'll want to get a DuraSpark II distributor from an early 80s truck and swap it in. Fortunately, they're at most parts stores and aren't too expensive.

Otherwise, the good news is, that looks like they actually did a decent "hack job". I've seen much worse. Things are properly dealt with, like the plugs on the EGR system (the metal plate and plug on the spacer underneath the carb).

If you want to quickly get things patched up, get a crank case / valve cover breather cap that will fit into the front hole on the valve cover. Measure the diameter of the hole so you get the proper size.
Then, get a gasket and PCV valve for that engine and run a vacuum line from the intake to the PCV valve. Put the PCV valve into the rear hole.

Go through the rest of it and make sure everything has fresh vacuum caps and vacuum lines so you don't have to deal with vacuum leaks.


On another note, it looks like a wire from the alternator fell off. You can see the orange/red cap for it dangling freely in the center bottom of the last two pictures. What does that go to? If it's the carb, your choke won't open properly. If it's to anywhere else, it's possible that your battery isn't charging properly.

 

Thanks I'll look at it tomorrow and fill you all in. Been a long day for me and didn't get a chance today. (I didn't drive it today) I'm still learning. Had to google what EGR was... So, couple of questions. What does the EGR being capped really mean? Is the O2 sensor being cut a real concern? I don't know anything about these things.

Thanks again, I'll let you know what I find tomorrow hopefully.

 

EGR capped means just that. No EGR system. May or may not cause issues depending on engine design. Some EGR setups help control detonation. Without it, the engine management system will hold back timing, or the engine will ping and detonate. Some are just emissions control to keep NOx down--not much happens when those are capped, but combustion temps rise either way, which may or may not cause other issues.

O2 sensor being cut leaves the computer blind as to the mixture, and will result in a "pig rich" (TM, some other member, I forget) default running. Since the carb was swapped, that's not an issue. See the prior post about timing though.

Do you want a "stock" truck or were you thinking of warming it up a bit? IMO "cleaning this up" via EFI exhaust manifolds, a 4bbl intake manifold, small 4bbl carb, proper PCV and a little degreaser would be one way to go.

However, confirm by driving that it does run good consistently, and is free of major malfunctions (other than those noted) first.

Good luck with it!

 

Thanks. I'd say stock because I just want it to last as long as possible. It's going to be a farm truck/hauling/pulling stuff for me. I've only owned for a few days now but I have never heard it make any abnormal noises. I'm assuming it's been in this state for a while now. The guy I bought it from only owned it for 2 years and he bought it from a guy that runs his own auto shop. So I'm assuming that guy did this.

If this was causing a timing issue then it would have to run rough and knock I would think. If the strokes weren't timed up I'd have to hear it right? Or maybe it would just run hot? I'm starting to think I don't have the expertise to figure all this out just yet. haha. I don't want to try to fix it and actually end up messing up the timing myself ya know. It seems to run really good to me right now. Just the water that came out of the oil plug kind of freaked me out and that got me to looking at those open valve covers.

I'd like to see a diagram of how everything is suppose to look on this particular engine. Does that exist? Someone else tried to post a diagram in another thread but I couldn't follow it cause it didn't really look like what I see under my hood.

Maybe I'm blind but I don't see what you're referring to being unplugged from the distributor. There's so many things unplugged or capped off, I'm lost trying to trace where everything goes.

I could keep this thread going forever probably trying to learn so if it's annoying feel free to bow out!

 

Yikes, I meant alternator. I went back and fixed my post. Sorry about that.

If it's going to be a farm truck, I'd say leave it with the 1bbl carburetor.

As for the timing, not having the computer working (lack of O2 sensor, lack of carb with the computer controls) is going to keep the distributor from advancing your timing properly. This isn't going to cause knocking, etc. since that's generally caused by the timing advancing TOO much.
Not advancing is going to cause a loss of power an fuel efficiency. It'll still run, it's just going to feel extra doggy, and you're just not going to get the most out of your engine. That's why I suggested the DuraSpark II distributor. It's plug and play, which is great. Pop the old one out, pop the new one in, and hook a vacuum line up to it, and it's up and running. I forgot to mention you'll also need an ignition control module with it, but that's not too bad either.

Another option is to go with an all-in-one HEI style distributor:

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/s...view/make/ford

That would completely replace your whole ignition. Just need to hook up a 12v key on source to it and away you go. There's also some $90 options on eBay but I have no idea about quality.

 

The diagrams you got in your other thread can be made sense of by doing a google search for images, and ask for "1985 ford 300" or "1985 ford 300pcv". Try variations if you come up empty but you should get about 10 million pictures of 300s, and of that, maybe 5 or 6 million will be bone stock with all PCV stuff in place.