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1986 F150 5.0L first start in 6 years and it was not happy
Good evening all, looking for some input on my 86 F150 5.0L EFI I bought a while back. Some info on it: One owner truck bought new at the Ford dealership here in Athens, GA where I live, so I thought that was cool. 68,000 actual miles (not 168k… you can tell) I don’t know any history on it, why it was parked, I just know it hasn’t ran since 2017. And it’s clean, complete and unmolested. Put a battery in it, it turned. No fuel. I replaced the pump in the tank (single tank truck), the high pressure pump, and fuel filter. It fired up but man was it raising hell. It will sit and hold idle, but it’s clanking and knocking like crazy. Sounds like no oil is getting to the top of the motor. Ran it off and on maybe 10 mins total. When to change oil, oil came out smooth and black, nothing out of the ordinary. When I took the oil filter off to change, hardly anything came out of the filter. Filled with Rotella T4, nothing changed sound wise. Can’t check oil pressure via gauge, all 4 are inop. Don’t have a pressure gauge, but was going to get one and see. Does it sound like this motor is smoked? Where should I go from here? Also, I doubt it has anything to do with it, but the smog pump is completely seized. I just cut the belt off that ran from it to the alternator.
I also say get a gauge on it.
I was going to say maybe the oil pump drive broke but that would snap the roll pin in the dist. gear and not run.
Unless someone had the dist. out and dropped the oil pump drive shaft down into the oil pan?
May want to pull the dist. to see if the drive shaft is in place.
Then use a drill on the pump shaft and build oil PSI and lube the motor before putting the dist. back in and running the motor again.
When you put the new oil filter on did you fill it with oil first?
I am also wondering if the filter & pump went dry from sitting and now the pump will not pick up any oil?
That is why you pack a oil pump with Vaseline so on start up it will pull oil and the Vaseline is light enough that it will melt with motor temp and not plug the filter.
Filling the filter the oil may run back to the pump so it can pull oil again?
Dave ----
About that smog pump, do you need that in your state to pass emissions test ?
I agree with pulling the dizzy, and use a drill to spin the oil pump. You could remove the oil pressure sending unit and see if oil comes out when you spin the pump. It's located above the oil filter on the left front corner of the motor. Kind of below the PS pump.
Also, you said you replaced the fuel filter. I assume that is the one on the frame rail under the cab. Be careful with that, as it seems they are next to impossible to get a housing for it.
I can’t figure out how to reply individually too all of y’all, so hopefully everyone will see this:
with none of the gauges working, I assumed it was the IVR so I ordered a new one before I even posted this, so hopefully if I install that, the gauges will work and give me an oil pressure reading. $25 on Amazon. If not I guess I’ll spend another $25 on Amazon and get a pressure gauge to screw in and test. If I have oil pressure I guess I’ll start by pulling the d/s valve cover and check for bent pushrods then go from there. Might try to pull distributor and check down in there. I’m pretty mechanically inclined, but never done that before, so I’m a little shy to. It would be nice if it’s something I can fix from the top end, instead of pulling the engine to replace an oil pump/pickup. If I do that, I’ll end up doing a lot more, spending more time and money. I’m impatient and ready to cruise this thing, lol.
As for the smog pump, I don’t live in an emissions county, so I’d like to delete the system, but that’s another thing I’m scared to do because I don’t want to mess up the vacuum system or whatever… or spend a bunch of time talking stuff off to take more stuff off. My plan was to take off the pump and try to free it up.
as for the fuel filter, I replaced the tin can one mounted in the fuel rail. It’s not a dual tank truck, but I did take the plastic cap off the one mounted between the take and high pressure pump, there was no filter in it. I bought a canister style filter, but it looked like it I put it it, it would block where fuel is coming in and out. Kinda odd.
Oh and regarding the oil filter, it was weird, I thought these engines took the standard FL-1A oil filters. I had a couple of FL820S filters here (for my 02) so I was going to use one of those, since it’s a shorter FL-1A, when I went to put it on, either the female hole was too big or more recessed than the filter that was on it. Some Royal blue filter with no markings whatsoever on it. Didn’t want to reuse it, but figured it would be ok to test until I found the right filter. And I did fill it with oil before screwing back on.
I can’t figure out how to reply individually too all of y’all, so hopefully everyone will see this:
with none of the gauges working, I assumed it was the IVR so I ordered a new one before I even posted this, so hopefully if I install that, the gauges will work and give me an oil pressure reading. $25 on Amazon. If not I guess I’ll spend another $25 on Amazon and get a pressure gauge to screw in and test.
I am on the edge of my seat waiting to see if you get the factory gauges to work. If they do , what is going to happen then? Your oil pressure gauge may go up to the "N" in "NORMAL". What does that mean? Is that good? What if the oil pressure gauge goes to "L" in "NORMAL". Is that too high? No, it's still "NORMAL" correct? The factory gauges are lousy, even if you do get them to work. You need the gas gauge to work, other than that, the other ones are a waste.
I am on the edge of my seat waiting to see if you get the factory gauges to work. If they do , what is going to happen then? Your oil pressure gauge may go up to the "N" in "NORMAL". What does that mean? Is that good? What if the oil pressure gauge goes to "L" in "NORMAL". Is that too high? No, it's still "NORMAL" correct? The factory gauges are lousy, even if you do get them to work. You need the gas gauge to work, other than that, the other ones are a waste.
It's ok Dave do you feel better now
FYI Dave is not much on the factory gauges if you did not figure that out.
I do have to say in your case I would pick an after market gauge oil on before the next start up so I knew just what is going on after your first post.
Then get the factory gauges working and then you can see where the factory oil gauge and the after market ones sit so you know and then remove the after market one if you want.
Me I run all factory gauges.
The AMP gauges never work in any of our trucks.
Because of this some send it out and have it made into a volt meter.
I am happy with my oil gauge sitting in the middle of normal.
My temp gauge sitting at the first line at the cold end is not where I would like to see it but after 2 stats, 1 sending unit and checking with a IR heat gun I know the coolant temp is normal and the gauge just reads low so it stays.
Dave ----
ps check the fuse first.
Pull it and clean the ends and the box holders and see what happens.
Do this for all fuses as they get a funk on the fuse ends and holders and dont connect.
As for the fuel filters on your truck, the only one I know of on my 1986 302EFI is this one under the cab, driver's seat area, This is the old one. The mounting tabs broke when I went to remove it.
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