How do you guys do it?! I am a Chevy mechanic by training and experienec but I bought a 1973 Ford 3/4 ton F-250 4WD pick up from a friend. It has an FE 360 motor and 2 bbl and had only 37K on the clock when I bought it. It used to be a brush fire fire truck.

It is an awesome truck BUT it is the bane of my existence!

It has had an intake manifold leak, an exhaust manifold leak, a timing chain cover leak, a rear main seal leak. It started pushing oil out the dipstick and when I finally ended up taking it into a shop they spent several weeks tring to figure out what was going wrong with it and ended up rebuilding it. When they tore it down they said they found 5 of the 8 pistons had the ring gaps aligned rather than staggered!

In any case I got it back from them and it was running fine (for about 15 minutes) and then it started acting like it had a vacuum leak. I looked and looked and looked and couldnt see anything so i pulled off the carb and rebuilt it. When I put it back on it was running worse! I pulled it back off and then I noticed some discoloration around the spacer plate and the manifold. I pulled off the spacer and there was a small pile of carbon. I looked at the spacer and the (right rear) corner had a piece missing which I asssume was/is my vacuum leak.

Have you seen this before?!

Do I need an exorcist?!

Where can I get a replacement spacer and gaskets?

Thanks,

Scott

 

I have to wonder if this is an EGR spacer. I've read they have a reputation for corroding away.

Does the intake have a round hole under the corner that is bad?

 

Thanks for the quick response.

This is NOT an EGR spacer.

I may or may not have figured out how to attach pictures to my threads but I have put a picture of the spacer (top and bottom) in my album here and I will send some to you via email.

The "corrosion" is impressive. The "pile of carbon" that I found underneath the spacer in the indent was also impressive. It may be that the carbon build up was what was keeping it from leaking and then it started leaking and my rebuilding carb disturbed it more making the problem worse.

I have a proven track record for taking a problem and making it worse.

Do I even need to replace the spacer? I have looked on eBay and they have 2 bbl spacers but many of them are for small blocks and/or they have an integral vacuum nipple which mine does not.

I dont know if the spacers are "generic" and fit any size block because the mounting surface and carb "butterflies" are the same size and/or if they have a different vacuum configuration (nipple versus non nipple) if I need a different intake manifold to spacer gasket.

The motor issues with this truck have been formidable. The motor always ran very well but I could never fix the rear main seal leak on my own.

Also every time I got one leak fixed on this motor another one started.

When I finally gave up and took it in to the shop they agreed that the motor seemed to run perfectly but they observed that oil was being forced out of the dipstick under load.

They finally determined that the motor needed to be rebuilt and as I previously described they found that several of the piston rings had the gaps on the rings aligned rather than staggered. They got it all back together and it ran great for about 200-300 miles and then I noticed that the motor did not want to idle smoothly and smelled like it was running rich and here we are.

It has now become a challenge to have it run well for a whole 1000 miles. As I said it is an incredible truck but I have NEVER (and I include Chevy Vegas in this) a motor with such problems/issues. It wont stay fixed!

 

Here's the "spacer":





If it had an EGR valve on it, I'd call that an EGR spacer because what that corroded portion looks like it would cover.

 

I would say that in my application the spacer is more used to allow the linkage to clear BUT...

When I scraped off the intake manifold to spacer gasket I found a mysterious hole (that had been covered by the old, appeared to be original Ford part gasket).

The new Felpro gasket has a cut-out to accomodate this hole.

While this hole corresponds with the "erosion" on my OEM spacer (both are located in thr right rear corner) there does not appear to be any place for this hole to "vent"/route/send emissions to/from the spacer other than the hollow in the bottom of the spacer.

Does anybody have any thought as to what this hole does and whether it may try and "erode" another spacer (from heat?)? Was the fact that it was covered up (one) of my problems?

 

The hole in the intake is the port for the EGR to return exhaust gas into the intake stream.

Sounds like you have the heavy-duty 360 setup which does not require the EGR, just like my '74 did originally.

There are "phenolic" spacers (plastic) meant to do the same thing, but not sure if they cover the EGR port in the intake or not.

Guys?

 

OK, the wheels are turning. I have a 4-V manifold and similar spacer that would block exhaust gas. The hole goes down to the exhaust crossover, which, some people prefer to block at the intake to head interface. I have contemplated cutting threads in the EGR hole and plugging it. That is far as I've gone with that idea. My truck is not required to have EGR, I'm not putting it on. All I have to do is block the exhaust from the carburator base.


The report that a vacuum leak smells rich is confusing to me. Maybe you have that lean-burn, high Hydrocarbon/burns your eyes thing going on. Does the idle surge, or manifold vacuum seem to slowly fluctuate?

A rich burn, crappy idle sounds like a bad power valve.

 

A low vacuum would cause the power valve to start dumping fuel as the carb thinks the engine is trying to go top speed.
The spacer plates that Ford used served several purposes including an EGR mount/fitting, carb warmer and at times as a carb spacer to isolate it from heat. Ford also used spacers to accomodate throttle linkage. I suggest that you block the hole that the exhaust is coming through with a threaded pipe plug and find another spacer.

 

Thanks to everybody for their input.

I think that plugging that EGR hole/port is an excellent idea but not only is there very little room/clearance to enlarge the hole and thread it,

that means taking the intake off again to cut some threads and I would would almost rather be flogged then do it.

There are entire V6 motors that weigh less than that intake, and I wont even begin whining about it being an integral part of the heads and wanting to leak no matter how careful you are setting it back in place!

I will work on trying to identify an appropriate replacement spacer and think about the options you have suggested/recommended. I will of course bore you (if you pardon the expression) with the results.

On the one hand I really dont want to have that EGR hole continuing to work its evil while I drive the truck. On the other hand it took about 37 years to become a problem and based on my current luck with this motor a problem recurring on a 37 year cycle would not even be on the radar/invisible to the naked eye .

Do you think that the heat from the EGR hole/port is significantly greater at that point than other heat created where the spacer mates with the intake? Would I melt a phenolic (sp) spacer?

Thanks again

 

Braze the hole shut and slap it back together

 

There is another solution to brazing or tapping for a plug that is really easy. Just clean the hole as good as possible and stuff some Reynolds wrap foil or even steel wool in the hole then get some Lab Metal tm. svailable usually from welding supply shops. It is a use from the can product a lot like J.B. Weld or MarineTex and it works great, it will set up damn near instantly so be ready. It is so fast that when I used it to fill a small rust hole in my old Ranger I didn't have any time to work it, I had to use my die grinder and bring it to shape the hard way. Check out "Lab Metal" on line, it is not a plastic filler.
Good luck with it and let us know your results.

 

I will look up the lab metal.

I was thinking about something along the lines of JBWeld but was concerned about its ability to stand up to severity of the conditions.

A further concern is the far end/bottom end (or in this case what I believe is a bottomless end) of the hole.

I stuck a small wire tie into the hole and it appears to go down and into the intake.

That being said whatever I stick into the hole has to stay in place and be impervious to what I perceive would be rather hellish conditions. I don't want to take the chance of sucking anything (even a tiny piece of steel wool/aluminum foil) into a valve and/or a cylinder.

I wonder if I could use the lab metal to "glue in" a short stainless steel pan head screw? A screw of small enough diameter to fit into the existing hole but with a head on it that would lay flat AND would not be able to fall down into the hole/intake.

Of course if the lab metal sets as quickly as you describe that could be problematic because I am not known for my speed with such things.

FYI - I stopped by a place near me in Fairfax, VA called Bubba's East Coast Rods and Customs that do a lot of classic car restoration and custom work. They were pretty nice folks and spent some time trying to find me a spacer. After doing some measuring on the old spacer they ended up ordering a spacer for me from Summit Racing. It is supposed to be in Tuesday. We will see how that looks/works/fits.

In the mean time I will puzzle more on whether to/how to plug the hole/port.

As always thanks for the input and support.

 

Without removing the manifold you could us a large drill bit to put a countersink in the hole and then use the steel wool/foil method I spoke of. You could even use some wadded up newspaper which will burn up when the engine is started. The steel wool/foil is only there to reduce the amount of filler/Lab Metal that you use, Believe me it will not fall out. Just plug the throttle bores to keep any metal out of the intake while doing the countersink process.

 

You use to be able to buy those spacers at NAPA.


Have A Good Day----Hotwrench

 

Well I finally got around to working on truck. I decided to drill out and tap the EGR port. I tried to gauge how big a hole I would need to drill and it [I]appeared[I] that the carb stud (5/16" X18) would NOT fit in the hole. Went and bought the appropriate drill bit for the tap BUT when I twisted it into the hole by hand I realized the extent of the carbon build up.

After twisting several other old drill bits in the hole I finally found metal for a 1/2" X13 plug.
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/p...ictureid=32454

I then used a Holley 17-72 phenolic 1" spacer "designed" for use with a Holley 2bbl and of course the linkage rubbed up against the left side of the spacer!
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/p...ictureid=32453

Well in this case I was glad the spacer was phenolic because I just took a file to it and removed enough material to get clearance for the carb linkage. Naturally the studs that came with the spacer were too short and I also had to trim the carb base gasket that came with the spacer because it also was causing the carb linkage to bind.

Once I got it all back together it didn't want to stay running. I still am not sure what I did but between the mixture screws (the carb kit said to set them at 1 1/2 turns from lightly seated but she seems to like 3 1/2 turns MUCH better), the fast idle adjustment screw (apparently named that because it does NOT have ANYTHING to do with adjusting the fast idle) it is now running pretty well.

It still runs kind of rough when cold but at least it runs. If it keeps running well, then all of a sudden starts acting like it has a vacuum leak I will consider getting a rebuilt carb. There are no more external vacuum leaks.

We are now (re) starting the 1000 mile without messing with it "odometer".

Thanks for the help.