Hi, I’m new to the forum and new to Ford trucks. My question is: What sensors, gaskets, seals, parts, modifications and adjustments should be made to a donor junkyard motor prior to installation?

And now, the rest of the story…
Six weeks ago I bought a 1992 F250 XLT regular cab equipped with a 460, E4OD automatic, four wheel drive, 3.73 gears, and 92,350 original miles on the ticker. I bought the truck from the estate of the original owner and it wasn’t running when I purchased it. It was at a shop that had done a bunch of work but the family was done spending money on it and sold it as is. Despite all the shop’s work, it had no fuel pressure at the fuel rail and so I felt confident that I could get it running with new fuel pumps. I’ve got a fair amount of experience with engine swaps, drivetrain, suspension and even a bit of body of work. All of my experience is with Chevy and Jeeps. I’m looking forward to learning about OBS Fords as this father/son project will be a great way for me to impart what I know with my son and for us to learn together. The truck is being built primarily for reliable fun transportation for a new driver, some mild off roading and occasional hauling duty, and lots of fun. I’m open to proven performance upgrades to include exhaust upgrades.

We towed it home and got started on the fuel system.


This truck, named “Gramps”, will be my 15 year old son’s first vehicle when he gets his license in about 8 months. We have had a lot of fun with the project. Once we got it home we pulled the bed to get easy access to the fuel pumps and senders. The job went as planned and it was a great feeling to hear the motor fire up instantly and run smooth. It was clear that the truck had sat for long periods of time over its life. The fuel that we had to drain out of the tanks was literally the color of Mountain Dew.





After replacing both fuel pumps and senders, it was running but started running rough the next day. A quick search pointed me in the direction of the MAF sensor and after replacing that, it ran very well and all was well. My son even was able to get his first burnout under his belt. Now that it was running, we turned to some of the aesthetics and replaced the headlights, got a new instrument bezel, painted the grill with some bed-liner spray and were just generally enjoying driving it around. In our state, new drivers are required to log several hundred hours of driving with a learner’s permit under the direction of parents - we were having fun doing that and logged about 350 miles running around town and a couple short interstate trips.




This is where the fairy tale took a turn - I decided to load up the camper and take Gramps on a longer trip for a weekend of camping. In my state, we have 80 MPH speed limits and I got a little carried away with how well the old truck was handling the camper and maintaining that speed limit, it was glorious. After about 40 miles of those speeds, and that weight, she lost power and started running rough. I stopped right away and looked over things and noticed instantly a pronounced rod knock. My guess is that an oil passage may have been blocked and a bearing didn’t get oil as it should and spun a bearing on the crank. I called the wife and she came and picked me up.



It still fires right up, but about 30 seconds after start-up, you can hear the knocking. It’s down low, seems to be coming from the oil pan so I’m pretty confident that is what it is. We love the truck and want to keep get it back on the road so I searched and found a junkyard 460 with a supposed 82K miles on it. I took delivery of the motor and am looking for advice on how I should prep the donor motor before I install it into the truck. Any suggestions or advice from ya’ll more experienced with these motors would be much appreciated.

 

When I put the 460 in my truck in place of the original 300 Six, I replaced the oil pump and screen and of course the oil pan gasket. In hindsight, I should have done the timing chain and cover at the same time as it's easier to get the oil pan gasket to seal over the timing cover if you take it all apart at the same time.

 

Thanks, Jas. Great suggestions.