Hi! I’m new to the forum and looking to learn as much as I can. A few years ago my dad and I cleaned up this truck while he was staying with me to recover from an illness. I brought the truck from Craigslist with little information other than it was a project truck that the owner lost interest in.

It’s lifted, has 4 wheel drive, 4 speed manual transmission (1st gear is very low) and I believe a replacement 351C engine.

It sat in storage until this year when I started using it regularly to drive to mountain biking trails. So far it’s been reasonably reliable. I replaced the radiator, the distributor sensor and wiring, the rag joint and the fuel tank. Recently it’s started over heating and I’ve started to plan to dig more into the engine.

I have two hopefully simple questions:

1) What’s the best way to verify it’s a 351c engine? I’ve read most of the identification guides but I’m still stumped

2) In the third photo you can see the water outlet from the engine to the radiator. It looks to be the wrong size to me and I’m wondering what all the additional fittings are for? My fist thought for the overheating is to replace that and the thermostat.

Sorry for the long post and thank you to anyone who has time to respond,
Karl

 

You can measure the stroke to tell if it's a 400. it really doesn't matter that's the only difference.

I don't see a problem with the outlet and I assume the radiator is good. your fan set up is probably lacking and or the thermostat on it might be messed up. I'd junk the Ronco fan garbage and put a real fan and shroud on it if it were mine.

I'd also lose that breather thing and put a stock cap with a tube to the air cleaner , and put your PCV back in and hook it up.

 

Thats cast ridge under your distributor vacuum canister says it a 351M or 400. Hard to see in picture though. Thermostat housing looks to be a later one. Should work fine.

 

I do not see any water pump lines going to the heater core ends sticking out the fire wall. I bet it has NO heat also. The NP-453 1st gear is (none synoecized) and called a granny gear for a reason. You should pretty much just start out in 2nd gear most of the time.

1st is so slow you will reach RPM and need to shift way before any real speed is built up. So take off in 2nd and go for it to build up speed and RPM and then shift to 2nd.

 

I'd ditch the electric fan and go back to conventional, and importantly, put a fan shorud on it.

 

I don't think I've seen Wago nuts on a vehicle before. Those inlet things on the neck is a vacuum switch. Cool truck!

 

440 Six pack - thanks for the info.

Any thoughts on the right Fan and Shroud to use for this setup?

As for the PCV hint, I've done a bunch of reading and what you suggest seams to make a lot of sense. Do I put stock caps on each valve cover run one tube to the Carb and one to the Carb Mainfold?

Thanks again.

 

Thanks 5851a.

I'd like to check the Thermostat in the housing however it was installed with this set up.

If i'm not mistaken it looks like a threaded rod was used with a nut to secure one side of the thermostat housing. I'm stumped on how to get it off. I've cut up a couple of sockets with the grinder and even ran one on the lathe. Nothing I do can get a wall thin enough to clear the carb manifold?

Anyone have suggestions as to the right approach to get it off?

 

77&79f250 - thanks for the reply.

I'm in Nashville and the truck came with a leaky heater core. I decided to bypass as I had no idea how big a job it would be to replace and its not usually cold enough to need it.

Thanks for the transmission info. I had no Idea what it was called but I have been pulling away in 2nd gear since the second day I owned the truck. I took the truck to town and left it parked in 1st due to a dodgy parking break. Coming back from hardware store I accidentally turned the key while still in first and without my foot on the clutch (I guess I was too used to modern starting interlocks). To my surprise and those around me it promptly started and flattened the local bank of America sign. An expensive trip to the store to say the least..

 

Mwoj - the wago's are part of a carpark distributor sensor swap. On the list of things to clean up.

The sensor wires for the Duraspark had total disintegrated. I noticed that the vacuum advance does not hold a vacuum when i replaced the sense so I'm trying to work out the best next step. Replace the entire distributor or just the vacuum module. Any thoughts?

 

The breather tube should go into the air cleaner . the PCV should go from the valve cover gromet to any large vacuum port .

You could put a fan clutch and stock A/C or aftermarket fan on. they repop the shrouds I'd just go stock for looks and function.