I am fairly new to the Forum and thought I would share what I thought was a parts truck for my 71 F-250 CS. I was looking through CL and happened upon a listing for a 71 F250 CS. All it said was rebuilt engine, new exhaust. $1000. I called and the woman selling it told me it was a 410 ("Suuure" I thought) and that her and her husband had the engine rebuilt 2 years ago and that it only had about 200 miles on it due to a "relationship issue" that she would rather not talk about. I went out and looked at the truck (71 CS Sport Custom) as I was primarily interested in the engine as a donor for my tired non original 352 in my project truck. Lifted the hood had what looked like a 8/71 production 390 service block based on the vertical webbing. Truck was built 6/71 with a 360. Removed the air cleaner and damn, the bottom of the air cleaner was filled with oil. Still a 2BBL which I found strange... Got the truck started, and while it ran well, had a lot of blow by and was dripping oil out the back of the engine. Put it in gear the trans slipped, yet the trans was clean like it had been rebuilt. Not really knowing what I was getting into and it was about 10 degrees and snowing I told the owner that I really only wanted the engine. She asked what running engines were going for and I said around $500 and she said "I'll take it if you get this out of the yard" So the next weekend I haul it home and upon closer inspection, 1) Her husband blocked off the PCV system, causing the air cleaner to fill with oil and blow out out of the oil pan gasket 2) The transmission kickdown was never hooked up which caused the KD lever to be in a intermediate position causing the slippage 3) Based on the stroke it really appears to be a 410 (390/428 type crank??.) 4) What I did not notice was that there was a recent custom bent dual stainless system running down the passenger side. Bottom line, I installed a PCV system on it, reconnected the KD and no more engine leaks, blowby or oil in the air cleaner, the trans shifts great and it is a pretty clean truck. Sometimes you just get lucky, but most of my "parts trucks" have been exactly that.

 

Sounds like a nice deal.

 

Wow, good deal, sounds like you got a really good deal. Can't ask for nothing more, how's the body.

 

The body is really good for a Michigan truck, far far from perfect but it was "Texaco"ed when it was new and has still sticky undercoating and all inside the doors, under the bed etc. It is interesting that this Texaco stuff has actually leached from the inside out in some seams such as the front of the hood and other places. I will post some pics, but right now I do not have permission to do so for some reason...I think this one is worth saving and will probably drop a 68 390 I have in the garage after I remove the 410.

Pic below is when I went up to look at the truck.

 

 

 

 

 

This could be a good lesson for all of us guys. Get in trouble with the little lady and we could lose our trucks.

 

I agree! Hard to say what that situation was, I can only guess, but with the economic situation here in Michigan and the fact that it is the middle of winter, the owner told me she had had only a few folks look at it and she was running out of time to get it gone, so I suspect she needed to move. Next step I was told if it did not sell was the junkyard. So yes, an unfortunate situation and a case of good timing. Working in the automotive industry, I needed to cut back on my spending on my project truck and finding a good running engine vs. doing a rebuild is the best move considering how bad things are here in Mich.

 

From the pics that one is well worth saving. Congrats on the new ride.

BTW, I'm with you on the economic situation. Western PA is fairing a little better than a lot of areas but overtime and side work money which fund my toys is hard to come by.

 

welcome aboard and great find! Looks pretty solid/well maintained which can be very hard to find these days.

 

Thanks so much, I have really appreciate the great info and assistance on this forum.

 

Yep what 60F100 said...if you have problems with the ole lady make sure your truck is safe or she will sell it for nothing and all your hard years of work will belong to someone else. Takes us years to get our trucks just the way we want them and its a shame that the trucks usually are first ones to go LOL.

 

What are you going to do with the 410? I'm looking for a crank and rods from one.