Hey, everyone, I'm looking for your opinions. I bought a 1978 F250 last year that I pulled this 300 from. I was going to get rid of it until the clutch went bad in my driver and the motor has been clattering like crazy. Bonus is the clutch in the 78 is almost new.

My dilemma comes in the form of questioning the condition of the engine as a whole when finding a broken main bolt for #3 in the bottom of the oil pan while I was taking tins off to change the gaskets and main seals. The wear of the bearing suggested it had been like this most of its life. Using Plastigage to measure the clearance on the old bearing, I got about .002, which is higher than spec. Measuring #2 didn't even touch the smaller Plastigage, but with a new bearing it's at .003, double that of spec. I haven't touched the other mains, but I expect similar results.

I don't want to put money into this engine that would be better suited to either a 410 buildup or a diesel swap, so my question becomes this: Has anyone had similar experience or know if I can at least get this to go a few years and 10-20k miles? I suspect I can, but it also makes me wonder if I should bother doing the main and rod bearings. It does at least take up a few thousandths of the slack...

For those curious, I did take a crappy video while it was still in the 78. It seemed to run fine to me and had great power.

YouTube - 1978 Ford F250, 300 straight six

Damned, I forgot to post this. Got busy with watching YouTube vids and had to get back out of bed. >.>

 

Since you have it somewhat apart you could go ahead and put in a set of crank bearings...that might be more than enough to get you down the road quite a few miles before any real major work needs to be done.

 

I plan to at least do the bearings on the bottom end since I have it apart and I already got a standard set. New bearings will at least take up some slack...

The .001 over-sized sets seem difficult to get a hold of.