I pulled my 6 cyl out two days ago. I tapped the lifters out with a screwdriver and out of all the motors I have torn down....this was the worst lifter wear I had ever seen, as a whole set of lifters, apart from just a single lifter being wiped out. The surface of each one was amazingly dished.

I thought I would never get the distributor out w/o completely destroying it.

The metal timing gears look amazingly good.

Pretty cool how the main caps are numbered in the casting.

My rods were numbered, I don't know if this was from the factory or a rebuilder. I don't know much about the motor except THEY CHANGED THE OIL MAYBE ONE TIME THERE IS SO MUCH SLUDGE....

I had my stencils ready to number stuff and didn't need them.

I had at least one broken ring, and the head was cracked in at least two places, each one on the exhaust seat.

In spite of it, truck ran good, and got good mpg on 5 cyls. I was sorry for yanking it out because of the $ situation but when I saw the cam lobes and lifters I was glad I did it. Also I can't stand leaky gaskets and oil spots. thats not how I roll.

 

I'm not adding a whole lot to this thread (actually nothing that you don't already know), but Ford was actually pretty good at rod and main cap numbering. Every engine I've taken apart has had the rods and rod caps numbered, and IIRC, the numbers point to the driver's side.

Also IIRC, in addition to having the main caps numbered, they also have an arrow cast into them to denote their orientation to the front of the engine.

HTH,
Pat

 

Since you have no history on the engine you can't really judge the wear. You didn't say how far the lifters were worn, except that one was gone and the cam lobe as well .

 

I hope that this is not an indication of what flat tappet lifters will do with the new oil formulations that I heard removed the Zn component that helps prevent wear. But from all the other stuff, I think this engine was not maintained very well.
tom