SO Ive been working on this truck the last 2+ years. Bought it and did a poor job of looking it over before buying it. Ive stripped the frame from the back of the cab to rear bumper. rebuilt front axle, transmission, transfer case, rear axle. Both gas tanks are new with new pumps in them.

Its been inside for little over 2 years. no battery the whole time. It ran pretty good before I brought it inside.

Now all I have done motor side is cleaned up some broken vacuum lines, and changed cap and rotor. The smog pump was frozen and most of the hoses are gone. No converter and new exhaust Y pipe back. the EGR vac line was not hooked up

fast forward to today. Ive removed vac lines for smog, but left valves in place and hooked up. hooked up the EGR to the vac line. replaced some cracked vac lines with rubber, including the Evap lines down to the canister.

truck starts up and sounds good. till it gets warm. Then idle drops low/ slow and is rough. drive ability becomes poor. almost like it starving for fuel, but can feather the gas and get it moving.

 

I have heard of a reset you can do like turning ignition to on position and back off three times but not sure exactly which thread it was in

 

Ignition Control Module can cause rough running when it gets hot or a no start condition when its hot. There is a temp sensor that is tied to the PCM and im pretty sure it affects fuel trims. The PCM itself can have a leaking capacitor but when my PCM went bad it wouldn't start randomly but ran fine when it was running.

 

new plugs ? vacuum reading ? what is the timing ? check for any lose or duty ground to the engine and body

 

My 94 van had a misfire / stumble hot since I've owned it.
Got worse and worse.
Replaced the TFI module and Stator with OEM Ford parts as well as a new coil. Replaced plugs and wires, all Ford
Processor solved it. Runs so good now, I'm keeping it.
The caps were only slightly leaking and there was no damage to the circuit board but the capacitors were the problem.
You might want to pull the processor out and inspect it, maybe find another before it does give out

 

Just curious - how much money are you into this process? Looking at a similar truck, and while I do plan to have a mechanic do a detailed look before I buy, if I end up needing to sink money into I’m curious how bad it can be.

 

About 825.00 in parts including the new processor I luckily found
What would be a ton of labor but I did all that myself
Stator replacement requires distributor R&R and the gear and shaft removed about 3.5 hours
TFI module and coil replacement about 1.5 hours
Tune up on a van 3.5 wire set add 1.0 hours
Then finally the processor another 1.0
So, 10.5 hours labor is about 1050.00 more
Do it yourself.
It does not take a press for the stator but it helps
Rest of it is just a real fight

 

I think you are being generous with that $100/hr labor figure. Maybe a mom and pop mechanic but most shops are $150 or higher per hour. $825 for parts that are all at about their use life and should be replaced anyways if reliability is the name of the game. It is far cheaper to buy parts for my OBS than my 2022.

 

OK sorry life has been super crazy and the truck has been sitting in the yard with issues after issues.

SO my idle and drive-ability issues have been taken care of ..... for now. Ended up my EGR was causing my issues. I unplugged the vacuum to it and all those issues went away, then came right back if I plugged the vacuum back on the valve.

Now I am in a new issue. The motor over heats horribly and very fast!

First snow fall that the truck is ready to go. Its a wonderful 7° NE ohio morning. I head 2 mins down the road to my first drive, spend about 10 min pushing snow, head out and notice the temp gauge is like 240° ... drive back to my house and were pushing 250° Open the hood and notice the fan is not really spinning well... SO I replace the fan clutch. .... take it for a drive ... Just driving around for about 10 min the temp is 215°. Back home I go. Take it all apart up front. flush out the radiator, clean and check the water pump, it looks newer. .. replace all the hoses, new stat and go with a 180° this time, I test it and watch it open around 182°, new backer plate for water pump. LIGHTLY use some RTV black on mounting surfaces, reassemble and let it sit 24 hours + to be sure its sealed. Even tightened water pump bolts to spec... fill, start the truck up in the the garage and let it idle. I have a Auto Meter digital temp gauge and I just watch the temp tick a ° every couple sec..... after about 10 min of idle were at 210°, enough heat in the cab to cook a chicken! and the top hose and top of radiator is cold. I can lay my arm on top of the radiator. Next step I pull the engine oil cooler out expecting to find it plugged up, but it clean inside.

Using a Shop Vac I was able to pull air through the block when I had the water pump and thermostat out. Sticking the vac hose in the stat hole I could feel a good air flow through both front water pump ports, I could pull the other way and feel the air flow at the stat port.

What could be causing my over heating? With the cold upper hose I say the water is not flowing. Can figure whats causing my blockage?? With being able to pull with the shop vac. If I had a cracked head I would think my upper hose would get hot?? Only step I can think of now is pulling the engine and pulling it apart? I really wish to do so if thats not my issue but ????

 

Your thermostat is in backwards or is stuck closed
The upper hose should be hot enough to cook chicken

 

I have seen new radiators come with a plastic plug in the intake / output
You leave one of those in there and you get the same trouble (no coolant flow)
Look and see what might be causing that
Wrong reverse flow waterpump etc.
Hard to get a thermostat in backwards unless it's one of the smaller ones.
I would verify the spring is in the manifold and the point with the pin faces the radiator first

 

stat is installed correct. far as I can tell doing research there is NOT a reverse rotation water pump for the 460.

so over heating issues with two different water pumps and two different stats pretty sure there good. stat was tested in water first and 180° opened about 182° pretty sure that's good. There were no caps on the water ports of the radiator. I did look in both before install. the transmission cooler lines were capped,

Fan shroud is installed, and in the clips at the bottom, fan blade is correct direction. ..... not that it matters for this issue as the radiator does not get hot.

 

Correct, brain fart on my part
Keep looking for the blockage or reason hot coolant is not hitting the upper hose when the thermostat cycles

 

Right now my plan of action is to remove everything I just did ( rat, water pump, stat ) just to triple check. If I can find something, then its pulling the engine. Maybe plugged water passage? I know work has been done to this engine, just don't know what, or if done correctly.

Ive had most of this truck apart for over 3 years. Not looking forward to pulling the motor. Trying to make sure I cover all the bases before I pull it.