Good Morning, I spent the better of two hours surfing. Quit a nice forum. Lots of knowledge on this site.

Need some feed back! I found this 1965 Ford Step Van pretty much left for dead. I bought it and started fixin it up. I believe the engine is a 300 cid inline 6 but could be a 240. Cleaned it all up first, and then began trouble shooting its illness. New battery, new plugs, wires, rotor, points condenser, fuel pump, new carb - carter Y type single barrel, oil and air filter, Fuel pump and in line filter. New intake and exhaust gaskets.
Motor flushed as best I could with new oil and filter. Pulled fuel tank, flushed and cleaned. New fuel lines.

Transmission is a 3 speed manual crash box. small

Timing set at 10 degrees with rotor pointing to #1 front cylinder. Wired for 1-5-6-3-2-4 timing.
Compression Test- 1,2,3,5,6 -125 lbs #4-98 lbs.

Problems: First the engine starts right up, but tends to accelerate and de-acceeratre by itself. Timing chain?

Runs good, and revs up nicely while in nuetral. Took it for a test drive. First gear power and rpm's seem normal, a little hesitation or power loss in 2nd, and then it seems to not want to gain rpm's enough to shift from 2nd to 3rd. When I shifted it to 3rd it bucks , pedal is to the floor.

Any suggestions?

 

here are my thoughts, in no particular order.

just a guess, but i'd check / remove the cat and muffler. I just removed mine over the weekend (I have a 1983) and replaced it with no cat and a 2.5" Dynomax super turbo. The power difference was definitely noticable, but not earth shattering. Regardless, you wouldve been amazed at what a crumbly, chunkified mess fell out of the cat once i cut it off. Seeing as how yours is much older than mine, if its the stock exhaust system its gotta be in sorry shape. Something to consider.

Did you gap the plugs right? The books said mine wanted .044" inches. Yours, being older, might be different.

You could try going to a duraspark 2 set up.

Does the tranny just need to be rebuilt?

Are all the vacuum tubes hooked up right and in good shape?

Are you dragging a brake?

Rear diff flush? Tranny flush? Wheel bearings?




good luck!

 

I doubt that the 65 has a cat. Converter. The timing may be advanced a little too much, and is the vacuum advance hooked to manifold vacuum rather than ported vacuum? If the vacuum advance is getting vacuum at idle this could cause the surging engine speed at idle, especially with 10 degrees initial timing.

 

I believe your firing order is off. It should be 1-5-3-6-2-4, not 6-3. If thats just a typo, nevermind, but the aformentioned is a I6 firing order, and could explain your problem.

Your number 4 cylinder compression is alittle on the low side, you should ussually be within 10 or 15 percent on each cylinder, its probably not a huge deal, not exactly earth shattering but just thought i'de point it out.

 

Gentlemen,
I would have replied earlier but I was having difficulty getting my password to work. Thanks for your input. I appreciate it. I have gone through your suggestions and ideas and was still having problems. After working with my issues a little further and talking with my father, I discovered that intake valves 3 and 5 where not opening. When I removed the rocker cover I noticed the push rods working okay but they were not opening the intake valve via the rocker arms.
Does anyone know what the clearance should be, on the rocker arms. How do I adjust them. They are very loose.

Thank you,
vroc55

 

My experience with the 300 six was an older engine (78), and on that engine the only clearance adjustment was to use different length pushrods - no other adjustment provision. Sounds like you have a couple of collapsed lifters.