hey evryone hopefully you can help me out here. own a 83 f250 300 inline 6 in it. Tryin to get thye thing started but cant. replaced coil,cap, rotor there lots of spark at the end of the plus so it aint that. took out plugs there fine and it does get gas in there. tried top dead center nothing i dunno im stumped
any ideas

 

without knowing much more, it will be hard to tell. If you slipped the timing chain a tooth or two, TDC will not help.

Does it try to run?
do you hear ticking through the exhaust?
Does gas blow out the exhaust?
do you have the firing order right in relation to dizzy position?

ron

 

no gas comin out tail pipe but does smell like gas. as far as i know the wires are in the correct places and so on. we had her runnin but it was really missing and farting like incorrect timing or something . i kept adjust the distributor and there are defn. spots that seem like she want to fire up but to no avail. so i started replacing theses things new distributor maybe. p.s. dont know what dizzy position is?

 

sounds like it may be timing chain. here is a quick way to check.

using a socket and breaker bar, rotate cranck pulley to 0 (zero) at the timing mark. Then apply some pressure in reverse rotation direction. turn in back just far enuff to where the chain engages and resistance sharply rises. note the degrees on the crank pulley it moved back to see how much play is in yer chain. Now keep in mind if the chain is tight it will not tell you if it skipped over some teeth and is off alignment, but usually it it jumped teeth it is from excess play.

ONLY rotate reverse a little way, dont rotate it back to far.

Ron

 

oooops'

dizzy position....the distibutor alignment in relation to the cam teeth. When the teeth mesh, it turns the rotor. if the distibutor is dropped in and it turns the rotor too far it will not fire the correct plug at the correct time. Sometimes they get dropped in out of rotation and the mechanic just reorders the wires at the cap to compensate as opposed to repulling the distributor. I have gotten mine just far out enuff where it would not even hit the contacts when it was firing. It has to align at just the right spot at the teeth to be dead on, to allow you to rotate the installed distributor to adjust yer timing.

Ron

 

Look to see if your distributor cam gear has not spun on the shaft, common problem with 300rds. The roll pin brakes and throughs the timming off....

 

see if your distributor gear has not broken the roll pin,,,,easy check

 

The post by captcarstop suggested checking the timing chain. The 300 Six and the 240 Six truck engines were geared only. However, his line of thought is quite valid in that the nylon cam gear is fairly apt to crack.

Most aftermarket timing component manufacturers offer both gears in steel. IMHO, that is an improvement in accuracy and durability.

 

I was refering to the gear on the distributor,,, The roll pin that holds it in place are prone to shearing off,,,,,

 

I stand corrected on the chain, guess I have v8 on the brain tonight LOL!

 

Highly doubt that you have broke a gear or roll pin because you have spark. But to make sure take off the cap and grab a hold of the rotor and try to turn it. If you can turn it by hand then something is broken, but like i said if you can turn the rotor by hand then the enging can't turn the rotor and if the rotor isn't turning then there would not be spark.

This is what i would do

1 Make sure that you have your wires on in the right order.

2. Make sure that you starter is turning the engine over fast enough. I had a situation where my starter has a bushing out of the shaft, It would not let the starter turn fast enough and it acted as if it were out of time.

3. Test the fuel pressure, it should be 45 - 55 psi KOEO.

4. Check the engine timing. Get #1 Cylinder to TDC. That mean at the top of the compression stroke. A seasoned mechanic can use his thumb stuck in the spark plug hole to determine if you are on the compression stroke. I needed a compression gague, It threads in to the spark plug hole and when the you enter the compression stroke on the fornt cylinder the needle will raise. When the cylinder is at TDC the rotor should be pointing at the #1 plug wire. if it's not then you have jumped time.


I think that is could be that you have jumped time, but you need to eliminate the easier problems first.

 

The fuel pressure for an 83 300Six would be much lower than Weasel's_truck post says in line 3. He is dead-on for the fuel-injected engines. The 83, though, has a Carter YF-1A one-barrell carburetor. The fuel pump pressure for it is 5-7 PSI.

His other points are quite valid--especially one that a lot seem to overlook: check the speed of the engine as the starter is engaged! (1) If the starter won't spin quickly enough, the engine won't run. (2) If the head amperage of the starter is drawing too much current, there won't be enough voltage left over to fire off the ignition. (However, since you said you had a lot of spark, this should not be an issue.

Your engine should be timed at 10 degrees BTDC. The plug gap should be 0.044. It should idle @ 600 RPM with a manual or automatic transmission.

Check the choke on the carburetor. On a lot of the YF 1A's, they develop choke problems as they age. It is a really good OEM carb, and Ford used them on everything from F-100's to F-600's but the choke is the weakest point about them of which I am aware.

That nylon and fibre cam timing gear CAN crack enough to ruin the timing and yet still
mesh just enough to spin along with the crank. IMHO, the cam gear on the 240 and 300 Sixes was their weakest OEM component. The crank gear can, over time, whittle away part of the fibre on the cam gear until it cracks away at the edge of many of the teeth and some of them will totally shear off. On two occasions of which I am aware, a 300 Six backfired and spun backward quickly enough to break the cam gear teeth on two brand new fibre and nylon cam gears. (Yep, the guy THEN went ahead and bought him a metal cam gear!)

Weasel's other suggestions are highly helpful, though. IMHO, you need to give his post a lot of serious thought!

 

Not necessarily, sir; don't forget the "small block" car Sixes were chained. The 200 and 250 Sixes had chains. You were quite correct in your suggestion--just had the engine styles confused there a wee bit.

 

thanks for the ideas--im gonna put it to top dead center again and start over. Starter is turning fast enuff and i did do the tdc with finger on plug hole and the rotor lines up to number 1 cylinder but ill try it again. also i cant turn the rotor by hand. even when i prime the carb it wont start then dye out so i dunno but ill go try some of your guys suggestions and keep you posted

 

Good luck--please do let us know how it does.

And, please, don't forget to check the choke with the truck cold! I do most strongly suspect that is, at the very least, a part of your trouble.