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I have a '55 with a 223 also. The truck has a remanufactured engine in it that hadn't been started in about 10 years when I bought it. The very first thing I did was a compression test and found a couple cylinders with extremely low or no compression at all. I ended up pulling the head off to investigate and found several burnt valves and all the exhausts were suffering from seat recession. The later engines such as the replacement that you picked up for your truck had a different head that produced significantly higher compression and much better power. I decided that if I was going to have a head rebuilt, I'd rather invest in a later high compression head. I sourced three different units which all turned out to have burnt valves and more importantly were cracked. After buying and paying for cleaning and inspection on three junk heads, I surrendered and started down the motor swap path.
My message here is that I would strongly suggest that you remove the head from the replacement engine BEFORE you install it and have a machine shop check it out for cracks and burnt valves. If you knew anything about the engine or had heard it run, it would be a different situation. But I wouldn't blindly trust an unknown engine to be good to go. After my experience, I feel like the heads on these engines may be prone to cracks. A head gasket set is dirt cheap compared to the frustration of trying to pull the head off one of these things over that 18" wide fender! And at least then you'll know what you've got.
That was a little depressing rage. It's the reason 75% of these old trucks are running around with a small block Ford of Chevy and half of them got IFS clipped in the process. Not that opening the modern swap can of worms doesn't cost considerable time and money too. I was expecting valves would beat the seats to death. Sounds like a very thorough valve job would be required on most any rebuild core in this time period. You're likely going through the bottom end too. The old wives tale about the rings not being able to handle a fresh heads compression is sometimes true. I built a few smokey blowby machines for customers that just wanted a valve job on older iron.
Was there a trend in the crack area on the heads? A guy could hit it with a can off dollar store oven cleaner and a pressure washer and maybe save the expensive of a hot tank and magnaflux on obvious junk. I did this when I started wondering if I was gong to make the local machinist rich finding my flatty block cracks before I gave up.
Took the rocker assembly off so we could get at two head bolts to lift out the engine. Heres are some more pics of a crack on the assembly at the #4 cylinder and one push rod. The push rods were stuck in place. I still have 3 that wont come out.
How do the top end oil tubes come out. I got one end out but the long part that goes into the head wont come out. Pic also below.
I was looking a little closer at the bottom side of the rocker assembly for forensic clues. Look closely at the wear surfaces. That is not corrosion damage. The metal is smeared. First reaction was insufficient oiling, but oil quality was worse than lousy then too. That engine was likely making considerable noise before the truck got parked.
It was aggravating for sure, but that's what we run into with this old stuff. We roll the dice every time we open our wallets and I came up with snake eyes on that deal.
I think it's got everything to do with lead being removed from the fuel and better roads/higher speeds. The gearing and power levels of these old trucks dictate that they've really got to turn to keep up on the highway. Once the lead had been removed from the fuel, that kind of service would recess unhardened seats pretty quickly until the clearance was all gone in the valvetrain. Then they don't close completely, leak, get burnt, and you get hot spots that can cause cracks. If you can find a good one that isn't cracked, a rebuild and a set of hardened exhaust seats would make it last indefinitely. I just got tired of pouring money into the search.
Back to the OP's truck - I agree. The top end of that engine has ran dry for some time. They weren't know for being great valvetrain oilers to begin with.
Yes removing lead took a lot of motors out. This is also 20 years before the time when turning an odometer much past 100K without severe oil usage wasn't a small miracle. In the 50s engines were routinely rebuilt or at least reringed/patched not much past 50K. Usually just patched was reality. Touch up the valves and seats, new rings and hope for another year or so.
There are some questions in each here so anyone who can help it would be appreciated.
Old engine comes out tomorrow morning. Hoping to be able to run the compression test on the replacement motor too. The advice to get the head checked out is a great idea. If it is in good shape I should put hardened seats and new valve guides in anyway so the top end is fresh and solid going forward.
I have another neighbor who does sandblasting as a side gig and he is going to bring his equipment over and blast all my parts etc. with crushed glass in the next week or two. It looks like fine sand but is glass.
Questions:
If everything is sealed up can he strip the engine and a transmission with the glass medium? It would save a ton of time.
What color is the transmission? Black?
I spent time looking over the replacement engine. The bell housing is definitely different than the one currently on the truck. There is no way to bolt the transmission to the other bellhousing. You can see how the bolt pattern is different. The original is asymmetrical and the replacement is square pattern. I am assuming I can just swap the original bell housing onto the replacement motor. On the Picture below.
I poked around a little in the replacement engine. Below is a pic of the #1 spark plug. All six looked exactly the same. Running rich? Burning oil? Incorrect plug?
The water pump on the replacement engine is toast. I can wiggle the shaft back and forth really easily and there is a ton of play in it. Hopefully the pump never failed and it overheated.
I took the intake and exhaust manifolds off the old engine. Even when it was running I doubt it ran very well. Look at all that carbon!
Definitely hardened seats or don't even bother with head rebuilding. Shop around for somebody interested in your old motor. They are out there. Rage and I can't even know if your motors ever saw unleaded fuel which would have eaten it alive. Lasting until they killed lead completely around 1973-74 actually would have been a good service life. Old Ford haters we are not. They did what they could with current technology. These old engines wouldn't last long on clean gas without help, and clean gas is what you are going to run her on.
Regarding the carbon. Sure it could have been running rich, or just running like trash for a year because valves and seats were at the end of their life and were leaking. Leaking valves = bad vacuum and a carb can't work properly. Add in chokes that open too slow, thermostat stuck open. This really is just speculative engine forensics because we weren't there.
I am open to opposing views but here is my opinion on media blasting. Hell no don't blast the block. It isn't necessary. A hot tank and a bit of work with a wire brush and some brake cleaner and paint it up. You need to do some cleanup and air blowing out passages after a hot tank anyway. A pinch of sand trapped in a passage in the motor is not worth the risk. The tranny is your call. You could probably seal it up but is it really worth it? I am pretty sure you are not intending to build a show truck right? Tape it off good, hit it with some oven cleaner and power wash it the next day. Paint it your favorite color the next day. It will be about as pretty as it left the assembly line. I am a sandblasting nut because I like perfectly clean surfaces. I don't blast engines and transmissions and my drivetrains are shiny enough.
I'm with 'fenders on all points. Definitely have the head checked out. If it's in good shape and has already had hardened exhaust seats installed, then feed it some fresh valve seals and run it. If it is uncracked but has no hardened seats, have hardened exhaust seats put in and have the valves and seats all reground regardless of it's condition. Also ask the machine shop to check the guides also while they're into it that far. A cylinder head overhaul may add a couple hundred bucks to the price tag of the project that you hadn't planned on, but you will absolutely not regret it. You'll never have to service that head again in the rest of your lifetime, but I'd lay heavy odds that you'll be back into it in a short time if you drive it much without hardened seats.
X2 on no blasting engines and transmissions. It WILL find it's way into somewhere that you don't want it and it WILL do bad things when it gets there. You will be very pleasantly surprised what a couple 99 cent cans of dollar store oven cleaner and a pressure washer will do. I prepped my entire tractor for paint that way and it turned out great! The paint has been sticking well for almost 20 years now.
Best you can hope for is what rage said. Find a head with hardened seats. Clean it up, new valve stem seals and get a few years of driving life. If you end up needing "the works", new hardened seats, valves, guides, seals, re-decking you are in a tough spot because that gets pricey. A factory remanufactured head starts looking good and it comes with a warranty.
Also, on projects like this where you aren't trying to spend a fortune, do a you tube search on the art of "lapping valves". It doesn't fix anything IMO, but it's a good visual test of whether I am wasting my time installing a used set of heads with new seals. I've done that plenty of time on a low use toy. We aren't trying to brow beat you into a $500 valve job. It easily turns into that if you don't locate a decent head.
I dont mind spending $500 to do the head over as long as it doesnt lead to a $3k rebuild.
now the update that I am sure you have been eagerly awaiting.
The engine came out without event for the most part. Got a little hung up on passenger fender well and put a slight bend in the lip but a little dolly and hammer and it will straighten right out. Some action pics below.
The hood news is I was able to test the compression on the replacement engine. Here are the results.
#1 120
#2 125
#3 130
#4 100, 115 after adding some oil to the cylinder.
#5 120
#6 125
So #4 is a little weak but I assume good enough? I dont plan to drive it more than an hour from the house and really just use it for around town.
I am sure you all probably know this but apparently the 62 motor uses a different size spark plug and they are not interchangeable.
I did not have time to check but the front engine mounts on the 62 are on the side of the motor. On the 55 it is a single bracket mounted on the front of the engine. I am not sure that the 62 block has the bolt holes for the 55 mount. There was too much grease on the front of the motor and I ran out of time to look closely.
looking forward to starting to get everything cleaned up and painted. I am going to start on the front brakes, suspension parts and fuel tank once I get the frame and suspension parts all blasted clean and painted and work on cleaning the block and transmission for paint on rainy days. The trick is sitting outside for now to give me room to work in the garage.
I assume that was a cold compression test? Those aren't horrible numbers for an old low compression engine. It doesn't have any valves completely torched out of it yet or you wouldn't have 100# compression. If it were mine I would pop the head as 'rage suggested. I would also pull the oil pan and look for surprises. I would probably end up installing rings and inspecting the main and rod bearings. Rings and bearing won't make it a rebuilt motor without machine work but it highly increases your chances of knowing approximately what you have and improving oil pressure. You don't have to buy parts before you give it a deeper look. I'd do this mostly because I would be afraid I'd get it all together and it would have 10 LBs of oil pressure. Yes any disassembly could open a can of worms and you don't have to do everything I say. Whenever you don't drive the donor engine around you are faced with choices. You could just bolt the head back on with new seals if it isn't cracked and drive the motor around. There is certainly a chance you'll end up pulling it back out but you might get some miles out of it and figure out what you have without dropping much coin. By pulling the head you can have it checked and get a good look at the cylinder walls. That's worth some peace of mind with no real investment but a little time before you make decisions.
Progress staging for the next wave of work. Truck is outside and way up on jackstands for easier access. Plenty to do in the garage on the replacement engine when it is raining or too dark to work outside so I am in good shape.
starting to remove brackets and other items that will benefit from sandblasting or need some heavy duty cleaning. Also preparing to clean and polish the existing firewall and prep the truck for undercarriage sandblasting.
I am going to try something unconventional painting the undercarriage. I am going to use a Linseed paint I found online that looks very promising and easier to apply with the body still on the frame. This is also what I am going to finish my bed with when I replace it or maybe pine tar.
I have a woodshop and love to use linseed oil for an undercoat on indoor furniture. For metal I would suggest an affordable solution like Rustoleum rusty metal primer. Follow it with most any alkyd enamel any farm store carries for farm implements. I used John Deer Blitz black because I saw it recommended in Hot Rod magazine 30+ years ago. You'll see what it looks like almost 20 years later if you check my build thread update later tonight. I did DIY sandblast my frame but it really lasted.
Thanks for the reply! Check out the paint links. I dont think the linseed oil product they sell is the same as regular linseed oil which is why it is effective in metal. I have samples coming to test out and will post the results.
I am trying to avoid having to spray everything and also avoid the fumes. But it may come down to your recommendation based on the test I do.
