Just pulled a '68 F 250 camper special in from the field. Spent the day yesterday preping the engine to see if it would run. I've got spark, put in new points, Cleaned the fuel tank and added new fuel, changed oil, checked the fuel filter (was clean).

The truck turns over and we got it to run, sputter, on fuel dumped down the carb. Not getting fuel to the carb through the fuel line.

What advice do you have to preceed?
Mark

 

Hi Mark, Welcome to FTE and the 67-72 forum The Nations #1 truck stop for ol Ford truck tech support.

I would like to see you pull all of the plugs, pour in a little fresh oil and maybe a little Marvels mystery oil into each cylinder, and turn the engine over until you get oil pressuer up to normal on the guage before starting the engine.

The fuel pump may not be working, a check method would be to pull the pump connection going to the tank and use a fuel line hose into a plastic jug with gas in it. I have used a antifreeze container wedged in, and run it as a gas tank. If that works you might try removing the gas cap and blowing compressed air into the gas line back into the tank to clear any debris from the pickup screen.

Give that a shot and report back. I'm sure our other members will have more suggestions as well.

Hope to see ya around.

John

 

Thanks for your tips.

Here's what we did. Removed the plugs and squirted ATF in the cylinders. A mechanic friend told me that ATF penetrated better than motor oil. Then I sprayed down the carb with PB Blast, inside and out. All the linkages were rusted. After about 30 minutes I turned the engine over by hand and it turned pretty easily. Drained the oil and replaced the filter. Poured oil in the top of both valve covers. Removed the fuel tank from truck and cleaned it out with vinegar and fresh gasoline.

I turned over the engine to see if we were getting spark. None. I had decided to buy some points and a new coil when I bought the plugs. We put in the new points and we had spark. I cranked the engine over a few times and dribbled a small amount of gasoline down the carb. The engine tried to start but no fuel was getting from the tank to the carb. We did fill an antifreeze bottle and stuck a tube in for a make-shift fuel tank. The fuel pump is working as we got fuel in the carb. The carb was leaking so we stopped and decided to send the carb in for a rebuild.

Now I'm trying to figure out why the fuel is not flowing from the tank to the fuel pump. Might be the screen is plugged up. Might be that the engine was not turning over enough to draw fuel from the takn. I can blow in to the fuel line from the engine compartment and hear bubbling in the tank but cannot get any fuel to siphon out. Checked the fuel valve, has the auxilary fuel tank, and it is working fine. Might hook up the air compressor to the fuel line and blow harder to try to clean the screen! Any advice?

 

Looks like you are doing some things right. With the plugs out turn the engine over until the oil pressure comes up on the guage, and then a little longer. This will assure that oil is through out the whole engine without stressing the starter. Then you can put the plugs back in and regain compression.

With the tank side gas line removed from the pump, gas will flow out by gravity. Using your air compressor will be "quote:blowing compressed air into the gas line back into the tank." You have to have gas to the pump before it can pump it to the carb.

I suspect that you will need a kit in the carb to get it to run well, but start it first.

keep us posted

John

 

You might be looking into replacing the fuel pump.
You should have gas flowing out of the rubber fuel line feeding the pump just by gravity alone from the tank.
When you primed the carb that would been long enough to pump fuel to the carb unless the pump was bad or the carb needle was stuck shut in the seat with passsages inside plugged up.

 

Beemer Nut and Jowilker,

Yeah, I've ordered a new fuel pump, only about $30 so probably a good idea even though the existing pump seems to be moving fuel from the temporary tank to the carb. I'll see if I can get fuel to siphon out of the tank to the fuel pump connection before I try to start it again. The fuel line comes out of the top of the tank so I'll need to get gravity working. The carb is going to the rebuild shop today and I'll have it back in about a week.

I also noticed another issue. I was crawling under the engine looking around and noticed engine coolant (green) dripping out of the Y pipe where it connects to the exhaust pipe. I'm sure it is inside the pipe as there is no sign of it dripping externally on to the pipe. Before I tried to start the engine I checked the radiator and it was a little low so added a gal of coolant and one gal of water to top it off.

I'm thinking it could be: intake manifold gasket, head gaskets or worse case crack in one of the heads. I want to make sure I solve that issue before I try to start the engine again. Any thoughts?

I appreciate your feedback.
Mark

 

Mark keep the level about 2" down from the bottom of the neck. This will allow room for fluid expantion. Best to just let it juke it out until it stops. Once it reaches the level that it likes it should stop on it's own.

John

 

since you are going to have some down time while the carb is out getting worked on i would soak down the y pipe bolts with a good penetrating fluid and take down the pipe to verify where the coolant is coming from.