Have a 302 in my 1993 F-150 that needs a front cover gasket, a front crank seal, a water pump and the gasket set that entails, and a right rear freeze plug. I also need an oil pan gasket, but that's not on the front burner, yet.

Can a novice replace these gaskets? Are there any tricks, special tools I'll need for the job? Should someone with limited experience attempt this?

Thanks,

 

Yes.

What you do is this. You take a piece of cardboard, about 2' square, and put it on the radiator support to one side. Then draw the face of the engine on it with a marker, and make big 1/2" dots around your drawing of the engine everywhere you see a bolt head.

Then poke those holes with a phillips screwdriver. As you take off the bolts, push them through the hole on the cardboard that corresponds with where you took the bolt off.

If you miss a few dots, don't worry, draw them and poke them with the phillips screwdriver as you go.

This way, you won't mix up the many different length and thread bolts, and be able to put them in the right spot the first time.

This is were most people, who have never done this, mess up. They toss everything in a coffee can or on the ground, and upon reassembly go "oh... crap..."

 

If any of the gaskets tear, just make you sure clean the surface, want a nice smooth one for the the new gasket.

 

like stated, a clean mating surface, and organized parts are gonna be the most important for a painless and quick install of the parts.

 

THAT is F***ING BRILLIANT, MAN! such a simple way to organize it, and i never thought of it. jebus! is there anything you CAN'T fix?

won't the oil pan be a PITA? don't you have to get the engine up a little or something like that, or is that only if you're replacing the oil pickup?

Mike

 

Fredric has the brains of this whole website lol. He amazes me lol

 

Glad you liked the cardboard trick. It's not original. Back in 1983 when I bought my first car (as a not-quite-old-enough-to-drive kid), I started tearing the motor apart down to the block while it was in the car. My friend came to help, and his father dropped him off, and his father was curious and noticed I was "storing" all the bolts I removed along the inside lips of the fenders, both sides. Many were on the street too. *I* didn't even think to use a coffee can, I was just so excited to be tearing into my first car it didn't occur to me I had to put this together at some point.

Anyway, his father pulled a piece of cardboard out of the garbage, drew the engine front and both sides on it, and poled holes with a phillips screwdriver. Then we spent about 2-3 hours picking up all the bolts I scattered everywhere, trying to sort them into the holes the best we could.

I do the cardboard thing even now, many engines later. The less I have to remember the better my brain feels. Except now, I hang the cardboard from the garage ceiling with a bungee cord so I can't accidentally kick the cardboard sending the bolts all over the place.

Yes, there are many things I cannot fix, or have made worse, or ruined while trying to "fix". Some of these things were insanely expensive too. I generally don't brag about such things in public forums however. It's perception management. I'd rather you think I'm amazing, rather than the disorganized, tool destroying klutz that I really am

 

frederic, i bought my second car, a 68 dodge hemi coronet r/t, in 1969. the sunoco gas station i worked at was owned by a mechanic who had owned and raced an original 64 plymouth hemi super stock race car. he taught me a few tricks. one was the cardboard trick you mentioned, second was do not force anything, and the third was keep everything clean as you can in the area you are working in. we even put white sheets on the workbench while assembling things.

by the way, after we ported and polished the heads, put headers, 4.88 gears, a manual shift valve body in the torqueflight, a racer brown cam and other tricks to various parts of the car, this car jumped. i was a bad boy street racer and won a whole lot of races and money with this car. i would let the other car get about 4 car lengths in front than shift into second with the dual guad carbs wide open and blow past whatever was racing me and all the while listening to the 8-track in the dash.

that was a real musclecar. it was red with white vinyl top and white interior. at every high school reunion people still ask me about that red hemi r/t.

that is when i got my nickname, quicklook.

 

Absolutely. I've spent a good portion of my life trying to stick dirty bolts back into dirty engine blocks, and about four years ago I decided no more. While I don't put out sheets, that's an excellent idea, I like it a lot.

I made a parts washer for my garage. What I did is cut out a large hole in the top of my tool bench on the side, and mounted a tall aluminum cooking pot underneath. I chose this pot because it's deep enough to stick a 460 head in, and it was $10 at National Wholesale

Anyway, I put a single fawcett above it, and bored a drain sized hole at the bottom, and installed a sink drain. The drain has plumbing that goes straight down through a hole cut in the top of a 20 gallon rubbermaid container. Also in the container, is a sump pump that pumps the contents of the container up to the fawcet. I wired the pump to an electrical box with a switch, and a second switch for an electric heater element, which I installed in the bottom of the pot sticking straight up towards the the side of the pot so it doesn't get banged too much, then slipped a piece of brass sink trap over that with many holes drilled in it.

The rubbermaid container is full of the simple green mixed with water. I can then close the drain in the pot, pump the water in, stick a head (or other items) in, turn on the heat and let it soak.

For smaller things like bolts, I have a stainless collander which I stole from the kitchen (shhhhhhh) and I toss that into the pot and chuck the bolts into that. Then cook those.

I had everything but the pot lying around, even the fawcett and the plumbing, so this was cheaper than buying a benchtop parts washer, and it works pretty well actually. I expected to have to change the solution in the rubbermaid container more often, but i generally get a spring/summer/fall season out of the solution before it's useless.

While I've never really been a dodge/plymouth/chrysler fan, I do have to say I've always liked the Coronet and the Charger body styles. A friend of mine built a sleeper out of a Coronet wagon that had a pukish green color. Color aside, it was a really fast car. The 440 was stroked pretty far and he installed a 4-speed and an air locker in the rear, which I think was a ford 9" if I recall correctly. Even though it was a wagon, it looked very aggressive. And it's performance backed up it's stance extremely well. He built it up in the late 80's, and sold it about three years ago after having his first kid. His wife ruled out "man toys" in exchange for a honda pilot of all things.

 

I recommend doing the oil pan gasket and change the timing set when you do the front cover gaskets. The timing set because it's 20 bucks and you have already gotten down to it, may as well replace it while you're in there. The oil pan gasket mates to the bottom of the front cover. If you get a gasket kit (NAPA has one for timing set replacement), it has two small cork pieces to replace the front corners of the oil pan gasket if you don't take off the entire pan. This works fine, it's what I've done on my truck. The gasket kit came with water pump gaskets, timing cover gasket, oil pan front corners and center piece, and the front oil seal. You will need a harmonic balancer puller (not the jaws type, the one that threads into the metal center section), which can be borrowed from autozone. Take your time and keep up with which bolts go where and you should be fine.