Ok, here's the deal.

I purchased a nice condition f-150 a while back for a reasonable price. I was driving it from Columbus(I'm an OSU student..Go Bucks) and the engine started to sound horrible, oil pressure went down, and power went down. Well, I stopped for several min and waited for the car to cool. The car ran fine and I continued on my way. Well....I lost all power and the car died again about 15 min later. I was on about a 150 mile drive and had completed about 140 miles by then. As I was waiting for AAA to show up, my lower radiator hose blew. I towed the car back to my apartment and changed the hose. I was having trouble starting the car and ended up adjusting the timing...I can't remember if I retarded or advanced the timing....I turned the distributer counter clockwise. I tuned by ear as I didn't have a timing light/tach-dwell meter available. Well....The car ran fine for a few more days until I decided to make the drive back home to my fathers house. I was going back to my fathers house to use his tools to correctly time the vehicle. Well, the car suddenly died and I haven't been able to revive it since...
When I try to start the car...it almost doesn't seem like I get any spark, but I know I'm getting spark and fuel. I can't remember what you call it, but once in a while the carb will spew gas out of the intake. Shooting the intake with starting fluid does nothing. Could something be wrong with my timing gears? The distributer, ignition module, and coil are new.
I know that I shouldn't have driven it, but it was my only car for the week. Any suggestions? -William

 

William,
Sounds like either timing or a blown head gasket. I'm guessing it's the head gasket. Check to see if you have oil in the radiator, or water in the oil. That costs nothing and may tell you right away what the problem is. If you have either of these symptoms, it's the head gasket. Luckily, they're cheap and easy to change.

Good Luck,
Ernie

 

hmm, headgasket...never thought about that. I know that there's no oil in the coolant, but i guess i'll have to check the oil. I hope its a headgasket. Should be easy enough. -Will

 

nother think them i6's from the 80's are famous for is chewing the pin out of the bottom gear of the distributor. if that pin shears you will see spark but it will constantly act like the motor is out of time but while slow cranking you will see spark on the plug. try takin your cap off and wiggleing the rotor left and right and if it does not move very much you should be allright but if it moves like 1/2 inch then that is your problem. hope this helps

 

Thanks for the help. Unfortunately, i still don't know what the problem is.There is no coolant/oil interaction and the distributer is fine. I'm still guessing it has to do with the timing gears. I've read some where that one of the gears might be made of some sort of plastic material. Could this have worn out, thus changing my timing? -Will

 

You could take the timing cover off and dry-crank the engine until you can see if the cam and crank timing marks line up, which i'd say is worth a shot. that would also answer your plastic gear question. if you're truly getting spark and fuel (i assume you're getting air), then timing is the only variable left in the equation. how many miles does this beast have? any aftermarket ignition parts? I had a similar experience with my '86, and it turned out to be the distributor (6 months old, no less!), after i had replaced just about everything else. go figure. that's all the useful knowledge i can provide, hope it helps...if not, sorry!

 

That was exactly what I was going to do tomorrow. The vechicle should reach 200k soon if I can get it up and running again. The trucks actually pretty nice for the 600.00 that I payed for it. It pissed me off though that when I got the car towed, the tow guy dropped the boom(i think) on my bumper then tried to play it off. I put the new bumper on about 3 months ago. Oh, also...my distributer is only 4 months old. Oh well..back to the garage tomorrow...

 

It seriously sounds like its jumped time to me man, if u get her running, find a timing light and time it right, then drive it a bit...and then check it again...

ive had similar problems with my 86 f-150 with a 300 when i bought a crummy arsed NAPA distibutor...ended up frying my coil because of the darn NAPA CRAPA but they wound up replacing all my parts after i threw a huge fit and wrote some nasty letters...havent bought a napa part since....

 

I thought the 300 only had 2 metal timing gears that meshed together, no timing chain to connect them? I could be wrong, but thought I would bring that up.

 

Syco, you are right. No chain on the 300 six.

 

any one of those gears could be worn down though

 

(opps for got to add) if its not the distributor... good luck man.

btw my cousin goes to OSU a bio major i believe (random though) but shes smart n goin to Pitt for grad skool.... (sorry man gotta talk up Pitt a bit, though their bball team sucked in the NCAA tourney)

 

I'm almost positive it has something to do with the gears now. I'm just waiting to tear down the truck. Unfortunately, I only have a one car garage and the things being occupied by my MG. I guess it's still not bad though, considering it's about to hit 200k. Originally I bought the truck because my main vehicle was in an accident....I was driving home from class one day in my YJ and a woman ran a stop sign. It was a blind intersection and in fact her bumper was over the into the oncoming lane. I know this is a Ford forum, but did I mention that I hate Explorers. The SUV took out my fender, hood, grill, radiator, shock tower, shock, and bumper. Miracuously, it completely missed the frame. On top of that, I didn't even get an insurance settlement and the woman gave me a headache. She acted like I was an inconvenience during the whole process. On the insurance form, the family had four brand new identical explorers. Geeze, what a waste of gas...now if they were covered in mud, maybe I would have a little more respect....this is what prompted me to buy a big truck...Sorry, just had to vent.. Prior to this, i was not a big fan of Fords....but i guess i fell in love with this truck.
Ah, biology. I still have yet to take any bio classes at Osu. I'm actually a chemistry major down here...but surprisingly enough I have yet to take any bio classes. I enjoy biology though. -Will

 

Back to the truck. Sounds to me like you got it really out of time. You need to find the #1 cylinder compression stroke and look at the distributor rotor and see which plug wire is getting ready to fire to be sure.

I've never seen bad timing gears on a 300 six. I drove one for slightly over 300,000 miles, and sold it to a pal. I put a new front oil seal in it before he took posession, and had a look at the gears during the job.

I'd rather drive a larger older truck than something small. I feel funny in a small car anymore... all the people on the cell phones in SUV's whizzing by...