This truck wants to go to the scrap yard so bad!

So here's the scenario. Starts and runs fine till the engine warms up. Then she wants to die at every other stop. It always starts right back up though. Now I'm noticing white clouds of smoke from the pipe when I rev the engine. My coolant is dissappearing and It overheats every time I drive it more than a few miles. oh, theres also white foam on the oil cap and what looks like water droplets on the dipstick. My friend thinks it's a head gasket. Sound like the culprit?

 

do a compression check.

 

do I have to get one of those compression guages to do a check or is there some "redneck" way to check?

 

Unfortunately, the most common cause of the symptoms you describe in a 2.9 is cracked heads...

This usually results in good compression on all 6 cylinders but still allows the coolant to get into the oil. Check out this article:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/article/...placement.html

And sorry: I don't know of any good redneck way to check compression with any degree of accuracy without a compression tester. But they're pretty common, you may know someone who has one, you can often rent them, or even buy a cheepo type for probably under 20 bucks.

 

Thanks, that last bit of info was pretty helpful. I drove it down to the carwash today and used a few quarters to get the engine all degreased and ready for a teardown. -suprisingly everything came off real nicely... Anyway, on the way home I noticed the even thought the idiot guage never even got into the warm area when I'll pulled in and looked under the hood there was coolant everywhere. And when I was parking I noticed a fairly strong smell of burnt oil. Normal with a blown gasket? I'm starting to suspect multiple culprits or something different all together. Why must this engine suck so much. I'm thinking of just pulling it and dropping in a 302. Thanks for any help, advise, or otherwise.

 

The burnt oil smell is probably oil leaking from the valve covers and running down to the exhaust manifold, a common problem on these engines after the gaskets dry out and crack. And you could very well have a coolant leak, you need to determine if the leak is coming from a hose, a leaky gasket, the radiator itself or even from the overflow/radiator cap.

302 isn't a bad swap and is relatively easy in terms of wiring if you were to swap a carbed 302 into it. I wanted to stay with EFI so the wiring has been a bit more work...I'm still not finished with it.

 

well my worst fears were confirmed. I've got a cracked head. I got the passenger side head off yesterday and after cleaning it up was able to see a hairline running from between the valves all the way down to the exhaust ports. So at least on head is junk. And if I'm gonna replace one, I might as well replace the other. So I'm thinking things could get pricey. Anyone know if any high performance/aftermarket options are available?

 

If one head is cracked, chances are good that they both are. There are aftermarket heads available but they're not high performance...just crack resistant. They're made by World Products and have more material in the castings in places that are prone to cracking:

http://store.summitracing.com/egnsea...9&autoview=sku

Better plan on new head bolts along with the heads, as the old bolts are not reusable. They're torque-to-yield, which means they stretch when torqued and will not torque properly once removed.

A few other things to consider: Has this engine given you any problem with lifter tick? If so, you might want to consider other options. And how much have you driven it with water in the oil? The acid that is created by the water/oil mix attacks bearings and very quickly eats tehm. I replaced my rod bearings but should have replaced the mains as well. The bottom end on my motor was never quite right again, and had main bearing noise and oil pressure problems right up till the day I threw in the towel on it and yanked it.

Options include: replacing heads, either with aftermarket or reconditioned factory heads, and pulling the pan and replacing main and rod bearings...might as well throw in a new oil pump while you're under there

Pulling the engine and rebuilding it

Pulling the engine and replacing it with a rebuilt

Pulling the engine and swapping in another, either a 4.0 (easy swap) or a 5.0 (more difficult, some fabrication required)

So there are a few things to consider...

 

I've been looking around for new used heads (sinse the other was basically broken in half) if I can keep from it I'm not going to get new aftermarket ones. I will, however, take the time to do a little porting and deburring on the new heads when I find them. There's some good deals on Ebay so that's promising, but I'll still have to switch out some of the valve train components, so now I'm looking at upgrades in that department. Comp carries a few items that caught my eye... Will any 2.8 parts work on the 2.9 as far as rockers, cams, or spings? There are a lot more parts for the 2.8 available than the 2.9. Plus I've got a buddy that will give me an old engine if it is partable. But to say the least I've decided to stick with this engine and make it stonger than it was. When I get it all back together I'm going to put on a bigger throttle body and injectors too. Then sure enough the tranny will go out. -I hate Murphey's law.......

 

2.8 rockers...maybe. Early 2.9s had adjustable rockers even though hydraulic lifter, so those are the ones to look for. But be sure to check the rocker shaft by sliding each rocker to the side against the spring and looking at the bottom of the shaft. If it shows signs of galling, don't bother with it.

I'd have to take a look at 2.8 vs. 2.9 rockers side by side to see if they might interchange. I have both, just not sure I can get to them right now. The two engines used different valve arrangements so it's possible the rockers might not work.

Cams won't interchange for sure. Not only is there the valve arrangement problem, but they rotate opposite directions. The 2.8 is direct gear driven so the cam rotates in the opposite direction from the crank while the 2.9 has a chain driven cam which rotates in the same direction as the crank. It would be nice to swap a solid lifter 2.8 cam into a 2.9 and use the gear drive system, but with the different valve arrangement it wouldn't work...