Well damn, only $2700? Can I get two of 'em?

Instead of letting this mechanic dude keep poking at it, I decided to have it towed back to my place. This weekend, my brother and I are going to pull the engine out. We figured what the heck, it needs a good cleaning in there anyways, and it's probably easier to take it out that to try to mess with it still in the truck.

Plus, the more time I spend on the truck, the less time I have to spend fixing the house. The truck is more fun...

 

Question... Does your brother know what he is doing? Pulling the engine is NOT a trivial task. It can make rebuilding a carb seem like child's play. Better to clean the outside while it is IN the truck! Do you have all the special tools and equipment it takes? From the first part of these posts I would guess you don't. It takes newbie's many many many hours to do this. An old hand with all the right stuff can R&R an engine in a day if motivated.

Check out the Garage forum for some tips on engine cleaning.

 

Oh yeah, I totally admit that I have no idea what I'm going. That much should be obvious!

But, my good brother (who owes me a few favors) has an engine hoist and all of the other good stuff. While he's no expert, he's taken quite a few engines out before.

Good call, though.

I'm pretty sure that the damage is in the bottom end of this beast, so a removal is pretty much going to happen anyways. I do plan on pulling off the valve covers first to see if there's anything obvious up there.

Plus, pulling the engine will be a good learning experience for me. Even though I don't know what I'm doing, I enjoy working on the truck. This will be good for me know more about the finer details of the engine.

 

I would get more than one opinion on the noise b4 I pulled the engine. Some mechanics even have a scope that can look down inside that cylinder to see if a nut is in there.

 

Might pull the plugs and look to see if there is any damage. If the nut did not imbed immediately, it might have banged around long enough to damage that plug.

 

I thought that y'all might like another update on this issue...

I finally had a free day to putz with the truck. My good brother came down and helped out. We started 'er up, and tried to identify what part of the engine the noise was coming from. It sounded like from the driver's side, towards the firewall. Neither of us were convinced that it was a bottom end issue, so we opted not to pull the engine, but to pull the top end off instead.

We started with the intake, which too WAY too long. Finally got it off, and didn't see anything unusual in there. Took a telescoping magnet down into the ports, but didn't pick any little pieces up.

Then, we pulled the driver's side head. There was no obvious damage at first. But after closer inspection, we saw a piece of metal resting on the back piston! It looks to be like what was once a washer, but has since been pounded into a little flat thingy.

We ran out of time (and gaskets), so we couldn't put 'er back together again so we don't know for sure that it was the culprit, but it just HAS to be it. If not, I'm borring the neighbor's shot gun and putting some slugs into it.

I plan on putting it back together next weekend. I have to get a few gaskets, and I want to clean up the intake a bit more before I put it back on. Damn... did you know they're BLUE under all that gunk!?!?

 

FWIW, if it is on the edge of the piston, you might have cruched the ring groves. Result, stuck rings and burning lots of oil.

 

 

I've heard of fuel pumps going and allowing fuel into the crancase (happened to my Torino). This can cause ignition under the pistons from the temperatures and pressure, and try to force the piston up while on it's way down. Might cause knock...
On my Torino, when I checked the oil, there was more every time, and you could smell fuel. Let's hope that's all it is!
Mark


Ford started it; Ford will finish it!