Whew! I never thought 28 years worth of grime would take so long to remove. That and tracking down all the little parts that needed to be replaced. My son came over this saturday and we wrestled the engine back in. I still have to hook everything up. I've attached "before and after" pics. Will post some of it installed when I get it running. It'll be nice to have a truck again.

 

Looks good!

What parts have you actually replaced?

Any internal modifications done?

Details man! We need DETAILS!

 

and more pictures!!!

 

makes me want to rebuild my engine

 

Engine died after 276,000 miles. Bottom end started knocking. I have yet to tear it down to see exactly what was wrong. Oil pressure had been dropping for a while. I found a remanufactured long block from a place in TX. It had been remanufactured for Ford in 1999 and never sold. (The paperwork was in the original crate) I bought it for $800.00 and had it shipped to GA for $150.00. I had been looking at $1400.00 for a rebuilt one, so a pretty good deal.

I replaced the water pump, water outlet (so much rust inside), harmonic balancer (rubber was shot), Flex plate (teeth on starter ring were chewed up), Starter gear assembly (was chewing up flex plate) and oil pump. Bunch of little stuff too. The wire to temp sender was burnt from being too close to exhaust manifold, rounded bolt heads, wrong/missing fasteners, etc. Rest is usual stuff, sparkplug, wires, gaskets (previous owner was a BIG fan of “form-a-gasket”, used a lot of it!), filters, radiator cap, etc. I had the radiator cleaned and rodded at a local shop.

It took a LOT of time to clean parts, both inside and out. I painted all the blue parts with “old ford blue”. Some sources say this is not correct for a 1982, but it was the closest match tor the remaining paint on the valve cover. The brackets were painted semi-gloss black. I painted the new water pump and outlet, which my wife thought was crazy.

What’s left? I finally figured out the vacuum routing, thanks to a bunch of posts on the site. So I can now get my heater controls working. I’ll put the factory air on when I get the controls working. The bent tube on the heater fitting on the water outlet which also has the 4 port vacuum switch was rusted through. I found a fix that works and looks good too. I’ll post more on that later.

Truck is stock and I’d like to keep it that way, well as much as I can. I make frequent trips to the Pull-a-Part yards. I have attached a picture of the truck the engine is going in.

 

Bottom end knocking... sounds like a piston rod journal is either busted or worn and the crank's bottom cap is whats holding it on. Prolly have shredded bearings too. I am willing to bet the cylinders are still good tho.
At least it will give you something to do when you cant tear into your ride!