Hello, this is my first post and first ford as a matter of fact. I recently became interested in the ol' idi for a variety of reasons, but the biggest one I'd say is its reputation for being reliable and durable. I thought I could trust the guy who sold it to me so I made the grave mistake of giving it a ****-poor once over prior to purchasing it. After driving it home with the only real issue being soft brakes and a power steering fluid leak, I looked into the radiator and wouldnt ya know it, there was a nice layer of oil sitting atop the radiator fluid. It runs fine and refuses to heat up, so I am really just trying to gauge, from the rest of your reactions, is this truck worth sinking some time and money into, or should I cut my losses and try to sell it for parts or something. Thanks for readin.

 

This is gonna sound stupid af, but if the PO was a slob and topped off coolant after an oil change he could hand used the same funnel which will cause oil at the top of the radiator.

 

I had that thought, I just flushed the radiator and the oil in the hopes that that was the case. Unfortunately it does seem to be very slowly leaking oil into the radiator, water doesnt seem to be going into the oil though, which is strange.

 

Welcome to the Forum.
What year is the truck? and indicated mileage. odometer only goes to 5 digits, so may
have rolled over 2 - 3 times.
6.9 or 7.3. They both use the same OC. Basically same engine. 7.3 is a bored out 6.9
and went to 1/2" head bolt from the 7/16" and a couple other things.

You bought a used truck, first one was 83 and now 39 yrs old.
Last one built 1994 and is 28 yrs old.
It is all about condition of the body and engine.

Soft brakes could be weak vacuum Pump or Vac leaks.
Maybe a weak Brake Booster.
Rear Drum s need adjusting.

Oil in the Radiator is most likely the Oil Cooler. It is down on the drivers side
under the Exhaust Manifold.
I went through this a few years ago, not the end of the world. Sort of an easy fix,
though a few steps to repair it.
And flush out the engine cooling system.
You didn`t detect coolant in the Oil?

Following link is the Gaskets and "O" Rings kit.
https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/...ting+kit,10227

This is what the OC looks like, just posting show you.
https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/...il+cooler,2084

Not heating up could be the Thermostat. use the Motorcraft one. Highly recommended
https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/...hermostat,2200

https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo...sn=565&jsn=565

Where in the country are you located? and year of truck.
Fill out your signature so people are not asking .

We bought our 86 in 2014, paid $1800, didn`t know if it would make it home the 153 miles.
had to replace 4 tires, Rotors, Calipers and Wheel bearings first thing.
At the time 192K miles.
Today rolled over 322K miles. The engine just keeps on going.
We can walk you through how to fix the things that come up.

Let us know.


Charlie

 

The year of the truck is 89, its a 7.3 idi, I'll include that in the description, sorry about that. From what I could tell there is no coolant in the oil, so i guess i lucked out there. Im in cali, so the condition of the body is quite nice, the engine seems good, its messy though, due to power steering leaks. I am going to start school again soon, so its gonna be an extended project unfortunately. I did some research and I think youre right, it could well be the oil cooler.

 

We moved out of Santa Cruz 8 years ago to be here in Nevada.
Best move we ever made.

I made a thread, but thought is was the head gasket blew, 3 guys came back and said OC.
I`ll did it up and post it.
After finally R&Ring the OC, I are and expert now....well sort of. The next time will be
quite a bit quicker. Though I was doing it in January between snow storms.

Found it:
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...-goodie-3.html

Charlie

 

Wouldn't low vacuum or a bad booster cause a hard pedal, not a soft pedal, since it's no longer 'assisting' anymore?
HIstorically, soft pedals are cause by air in the brake lines, or maladjusted rear brakes. Ford didn't do a good job of designing the rear brake auto-adjuster, so it's common to have to go under the truck with a screw driver and manually turn the auto-adjuster.

 

You are correct, bad Booster will cause a hard Peddle.
Maybe I should say low to no Vacuum will cause a hard peddle, like pushing on a Brick.

I went through this last spring , I should have remembered that.

I totally agree with with you that the adjusters do not work. (at least on our truck)
They are a pain to adjust from the backing plate, have to hold down the Adjuster
and then turn the Adj. wheel.

I read where a guy removed the drums, adjusted the brakes and put the drum back on.
never heard of doing it that way, but it works. Iam in need of doing it again.




Charlie

 

Ok, so here is what has happened so far. Sorry to be away for so long, but its been pretty hectic. In addition to the issues I initially noticed (brakes, power steering leak and oil in the water) I have also noticed a couple wires smoking which I think maybe go to the glow plugs? Also when I was looking at the wheels a bit closer i realized that someobdy must have used an ultra thin, and i mean ULTRA THIN, socket to tighten the lugnuts down on the tires, since there was basically no clearance which would allow for a normal socket. I took the truck to a couple of shops who told me I needed to weld sockets to the lugnuts to get them off, but I ended up shaving a regular socket down to basically razor thin, and it miraculously does not snap when I torque the lugnuts, so thats a plus. I also replaced the master cylinder and now I seem to have some brakes, but i still need to bleed the brakes to get response on the first pump. Soooo overall this is going to be a lot of stuff to do, but I'll keep you all posted.

 

What size are your lug nuts? My '88 came with huge ones, like 1-1/8" or 1-1/4" (can't remember which but they were chunky) My '93 came with more normal sized, like 15/16" or 7/8". Both are the same thread, and cone shape at the business end, but just '88 ones are just mondo sized. I'm guessing the rims are some aftermarket fancy ones, and the PO just re-used the original lug nuts instead of ones that would fit a normal sized socket.

At some point I picked up a parts truck with aluminum rims, it came with long acorn style (closed end) chrome lug nuts. The mondo nuts from my '88 won't fit with those rims, and i'm not sure the regular sized open end ones from my '93 would work right as there isn't much clearance at the bottom of the nuts (might be same issue you have) But the long chrome nuts let me use a short socket and keep it up away from the rim and a normal thick impact works fine.

Did you bleed the master cylinder before you installed it? Often times new masters need to be 'bench bled' before/during installation to clear all the air out. Basically you just loop lines from the output back into the reservoir and keep pumping until there are no air bubbles coming out. Then quickly swap out the loop lines for the actual lines and bleed like normal. The ABS thingy on the frame may also need to be bled, or bypassed to fix soft pedal issues on these trucks. The ABS system is rear axle only, and not terribly useful btw...

 

The lugnuts were fairly standard I think, they were just 7/8, but the rims were indeed aftermarket and shiny. I think you are correct that the person just re-used the old lugs, because not only was there a ridiculously small amount of room between the rim and the lugnuts, but they were also set in the rim. By that I mean that i needed to jam a socket into the rim to even torque the lugnuts at all. I did not bleed the master cylinder before installation, which i realize now was probably a mistake, I'll fix that in a little bit, but for now im just happy to know I can stop at all.

 

Hello all, I have been away for quite some time, and I'm pretty sure that anybody who saw this thread has now lost any interest in it since its been so long since the last update; but i figure i owe it to anybody who is curious about what has been going on. Up to this point I have replaced the brake booster (not the master cylinder), replaced the power steering pump, which was the cause of a horrendous leak, replaced the rings and gaskets on the oil cooler, done the heim joint modification to actually be able to shift into 1st and reverse and bled the brakes. I'll be changing the tires soon, which will be a bit tricky due to the issues mentioned earlier in this thread. Everything seems to be working alright for now, however there remains a layer of oil residue atop the coolant, despite multiple flushes. I could lose my mind over this, but im just gonna run it for now, while checking fluids frequently. I'll update again to let you guys know how its going. Oh yeah, one last thing, there is a ton of blowby on the ol' girl, so shes probly a bit tired.

 

Looks like you are coming right along with getting old girl where she should be.
If you read mt link in post #6, I had to flush the cooling system 6 times with
Cascade Dish Washer soap or Dawn, (may have used both) to get all the oil
out of the cooling system. Then 6 flushes with clear water to make sure the soap
was totally out. I used Distilled water. Then 50/50 Distilled and the precharge
Anti Freeze.

Also replaced all rubber hoses as they were gunky inside.

These engines all have blow by, read it is the larger gap in the rings from what
I have read, and also a engine with a ton of miles.
Some use gap less rings to slow it down when rebuilding an engine.
I guess mine has Blow by, don`t pay any attention to it, but with 338K it`s there.

There will always be something to do on these old trucks from time to time.
Keep on Truckin.


Charlie

 

Thanks for the kind words charlie, I may yet do more flushes. Its been a helluva ride thus far, and i hope to keep er goin for quite some time.

 

Glad to be of help. Yeah these trucks will run a long time if taken care of.
Different story back east in the rust belt.

They do use that Brine solution on the roads here in Nevada.
Starting to get that rust bubbles on the right bed arch.
Do grind it out and throw in a bunch of POR back in the hole and
then use POR Patch to fill and sand smooth. But it is growing.

The thing that will put a stop of driving your old truck, is if/when Ca.
won`t let you register your truck. Too old, and or not CARB compliant.


Charlie