Hi, I have just purchased a 1956 F-100, that has a 1969 302 2V bolted into it. The truck is in good shape, but the engine needs work. It runs well but burns oil like you don't believe! It will go through about 1 quart per 100 miles! One thing I notice is that when it first starts in the morning, it will blow an oily trail out the exhaust on to the drive way. I have been trying to trouble shoot it myself, but can use your input. Over the weekend I did a power balance test on it. Ran the idle up to 1000 RPM then disconnected each plug wire and looked for a corresponding drop. Each cylinder that was disconnected went down about 50 RPM except cylinder 6, which really didn't drop at all. I pulled the plugs and checked compression. Cyliders 1 thru 4 had approx 95 to 115psi, but Cylinders 5,6,7,and 8 ranged from about 65 to 85. Cylinder 6 being the worst. In fact even though 6 had about 65 psi, it didn't seem to try to push the compression gauge out of my hand, like the other ones did. The plugs from cylinders 6, and 7 are extremely oil fouled, and there is some excess oil on the plug from 8. Another thing I noticed, is that the plug wires on the cylinder 5-8 side, get an oily residue on them, that I have to keep cleaning off, where the 1-4 cylinder side is always pretty clean. I'm thinking it might be a bad head gasket, since that is a common thing that those cylinders share. But the engine does not overheat, and I'm not sure that would account for the oily plugs. Your thoughts would really be appreciated!

 

Your motor is worn out. Valve seals are gone, crumbled into chunks for the most part. Valve guides are worn. Oil is pouring down the valve stems. Your rings are worn. And you may even have a cracked piston or two.

A complete rebuild is in order.

Head gaskets don't cause this kind of trouble. They cause a misfire, water in the cylinder, gases in the coolant, overheating, or a combination of the above.

If you think it runs well now, wait till you freshen it.

 

Thanks for the reply. I was kind of afraid of that. I have been kicking around the idea of trying to replace the valve stem seals to see if that will at least slow down the oil consumption. I think your right though. It still has some zip, and if I can swing the money for a rebuild, it would probably suprise me!

 

The umbrella type stock seals can be replaced with the heads on, if you want to try that. You need a set up to pump air into the cylinder to hold the valve while the job is done. Another method is to fill the cylinder with rope to hold the valve. Then you need a tool to compress the spring.

Not sure what a shop would charge, but probably a bit less than a rebuild.

HOWEVER, if you have a fubar'd ring that has cut a groove in the cylinder (seen that done) you will still be buying oil by the drum.

These are good engines and they run a long time, but, they does has their limitations....

 

About the valve seals, I've been kicking around trying to do the job myself. I've got the umbrella type seals from Felpro, both intake and exhaust, and bought a valve compressor tool, along with new valve cover gaskets, and have read a bunch of things on how to replace the valve seals, but the question I have is once you are all done replacing the seal, what torque do you set the rocker arm nuts to? One or two places talk about tightening down the rocker nuts while wiggling around the push rod to the point of 'just getting the slack out of it' then going another 3/4 turn. Is that right? This is assuming you are TDC with hydraulic lifters.

Thanks!

 

A '69 should have rail type rockers. You can tighten those with the engine running or do it this way:

Kelly hotrod - hydraulic valve adjustment procedure

Engine running is a real mess, the other way you might have to fiddle with it a bit--you might get a clacker as your engine is pretty worn.

 

I got an old valve cover from the scrap yard and cut holes on top so I can adjust the rocker stud nuts with the engine running without the oil bath.

For the non-positive-stop nuts, I found the static method, adjusting to zero-lash at base circle, and then adding 3/4 turn, works pretty well. I found doing them this way I could not get them much better adjusting them with the engine hot and running.

 

It needs an overhaul Bud. Go to the junk yard and pull a Windsor 351. it will bolt right in. if ya got to rebuild one than do the 351. ya won't be disappointed. The 302 is a heck of an engine. but yours is worn out. So do the 351 if ya got to rebuild.

 

I replaced the valve stem seals on a friend's Fairmont with a 200 6 cylinder a couple months ago. I used the compressed air trick which worked pretty slick and the engine only turned over on the compressed air twice.

It had been a horrendous oil burner to the point of bridging a couple of the spark plugs with oil ash every couple hundred miles. Since then, the oil consumption has dropped to about a third, and the plugs were still okay last time I heard. However I did change the valve cover gasket as well which reduced a bit of oil leakage.

So in that case it was well worth the effort of just changing the seals.

 

Hey hooler, you can go ahead and change your valve seals if you want to, but I don't think it will make much of a difference. It will be kinda like putting a bandaid on a bullet wound. I've got a '65 Falcon with an all-original 289 that has just a tick over 100K miles on it and it just so happens that I'm in the middle of replacing the umbrella valve seals right now. It runs excellent, the compression is around 125 PSI in all cylinders, it doesn't use a bit of oil, doesn't smoke at all once it's running and warm, and the plugs are all a perfect beautiful tan color. It does, however, fog up half a city block with embarassing white smoke when I start it up until it clears its throat. These are the classic symptoms of bad valve seals. When I started changing the seals I found that they were no longer rubber. They were petrified from 45 years of oil and heat and resembled hard plastic. Every one of then had some sort of damage, but most were busted up in several pieces.

Now compare my symptoms to the ones you described for your engine. Yes, it's quite possible that you do need new valve seals, but the bad rings, gouged cylinder walls, or sloppy valve guides that you've got going on are going to keep hemorraging oil into the cylinders and it's going to keep on smoking. I'm only telling you this because changing the seals is a big, time consuming pain in the backside with the engine installed and the heads on. I'd hate to see you dink around with it and do all that work anly to find out it made little or no difference.

Do you have a Pull-A-Part anywhere around? If so, go find a '96-2000 Explorer or Mountaineer with under 150K miles and a 5.0L. They're the best production 302 Ford ever built. I was at my local yard this past weekend and they had 4 of them. Easy to find! Swap your oil pan, timing cover, and front dress onto it, pick up a used 4bbl carb and intake and you'll have a cheap, reliable little powerhouse that will keep a grin on your face for miles to come.

 

I haven't been keeping up with the newer 302s. Can you elaborate on what makes these blocks "the best"?

 

Roller motor, good heads, decent compression, decent cam. I probably missed something.

 

I just want to Thank You all for all the input. Each and every response is appreciated, and gives me much to think about! I like the idea of getting a used 5.0L from a late 90's Mountaineer or Explorer. I had a 2000 Mountainer with the 302 in it, and man did it move! A 351W would also be a great engine. I think I'll go ahead, pull the valve covers and try replacing the seals first and see what that does for me. You all are probably right, it may not help much. If it doesn't...then I'll have to start shopping for a different power plant, or overhauling this one. Thanks again all the help and advice!

 

When you have the valve covers off, clean them up and straighten the flange before reinstalling. Usually the flanges are bent by the bolt holes due to overtightening over the years. I like to clamp a piece of 1/2 x 2 inch hardwood vertically in a vise as a dolly for resting the covers on before hammering them carefully straight.

Also the late style gaskets with a steel core and rubber coating seem to be better than the old style but can be expensive.

 

well i;d like to add to this my 84 f150 is doing the excat same thing as yours i tossed aroud the idea of new seals also until i found someone to rebuild a 351w for me. i've been told that the TQ that i'd get from the 351 vs the 302 would benifit the truck better than the truck. more tq = better take off with less rpms possibly getting better milage oh it doesn't hurt to get a set of Gt40 heads from the explorer to go on the 351w, a good cam and headers it all should break the bank either i'm looking at close to $2000 for everything..