First off, I'm new to the world of Ford. I have always been into Chryslers from the 1950s and '60s, so some of my questions may seem rather novice. I have a neighbor who recently gave me a 1965 Ford f-100 long bed, 300 inline 6 with 3-speed on the column. It has set for many many years. I can confirm it has said since 2007. There was nothing mechanically wrong when parked.
Fast forward to yesterday. I would like to get the truck running so I could drive it over to my property which is only about 150 ft away from where the truck sits. I did the responsible thing and pulled out all spark plugs. No sign of rust, Just looks like the truck was running very rich. I didn't have much on hand, but I squirted a little bit of penetrating oil and engine oil into each cylinder. I took a breaker bar and started turning the engine. It moved quite easily until about halfway through the revolution, then it felt like it would not spin any further. I don't want to buy a battery or invest a lot of money into this until the engine rotates freely. I'm thinking that it might be a valve that is stuck in the closed position. If this is the case, I'm going to pull the valve cover and liberally apply more penetrating oil to all of the valves and lightly tap them each with a mallet. My question is, if this is the problem, if the valve does not want to return to the closed position once it has been opened, is it feasible to stick a screwdriver in through the spark plug hole and gently pry it closed? I'm open to all suggestions. The last thing I would like to do is pull the head, but if I have to, I suppose I will. I'm trying to go about this in a very methodical way. It is still on my neighbor's property and I would hate to start disassembling everything before I can get it over to my house. Thanks for any suggestions and comments..

 

Well,,, if it was me and someone gave me a 1965 truck, I would get the title and drag it to my place...
Next, I would pull VC and just see what was happening, if you keep trying to rotate it the pushrod will probably bend anyway.
For free, in my opinion you have a large head start on the budget aspect.
Even if you pull the head and check bore and cyls it will give you a good idea of which way you need to go.

 

Welcome to FTE and welcome to the Wonderful World of Ford.

It sounds like you're approaching this correctly. Removing the valve cover and tapping the valves should reveal any stuck/stubborn ones for sure. However, I do not think that you would be able to use anything to lever it closed thru the spark plug hole. Give the penetrating/motor oil some time to work thru the rings. Based on your forum name, I'm guessing you're from Mississippi and the humid air could have rusted a cylinder wall if a valve was left hanging open. 17 years plus, is a long time. You may have run a piston into a rusty area on a cylinder wall. Maybe try spraying some WD-40 into each cylinder to lubricate the cylinder walls as well.

If 'home' is 150 feet away, is there no way to drag it over there? Seems like you'd be better off working where your tools are. I'm sure others will be along to make suggestions. These straight six engines are not that complicated. Shouldn't be too hard to get the engine to turn over.

 

Welcome to FTE

I would spray a lot of fluid on the valves under the valve cover and give it time to work in.
Spray it let it sit a day or 2 and spray, day or 2 spray etc.
I say this because if you try and use a mallet on the valve you may also drive a guide out of the head.

I think with the valve cover off and pull the side cover you can see what valves are moving.
I know you cant keep going the way you were turning so go back the other way till it stops checking the lifters & rockers.

Also as said if it has working brakes, foot or Ebrake then get a helper and drag it to your place.
Good luck
Dave ----

 

Thank you all for the replies and words of welcome. The weather here has been raining, so yesterday, the only thing I really did was take some old motor oil I had lying around and dumped it right down the carburetor.. I was expecting to see oil dribbling from the spark plug holes, but none came out. This clarifies that at least the intake valves are stuck. Later today, I will remove the valve cover and liberally spray all of the valves. After turning the engine over by the crank bolt going clockwise, it felt like it hit a stop, so why did not push any further once I realized it would not budge. I was planning on turning it counterclockwise, but now the crank bolt just loosens up.. I will spend the next few days lubricating the valves and hopefully after a few days, they will start to loosen up.
And as my name suggests, I do live in Mississippi where Summers can be very humid. My brother-in-law has a truck and would probably be willing to help pull the truck to my property. He has to leave for Nebraska in about a week, so hopefully our schedules will both line up. I suppose in the meantime, I will make sure all wheels turn freely and see if these tires will hold air. Once I get the truck mechanically sound, I plan on giving it to my daughter as a father-daughter project/ birthday present..
I will keep you guys updated and if I have any questions, I will make sure to ask. Thank you all.

 

BE SURE TO RETORQUE THE CRANK SNOUT BOLT TO 140 - 160 FT-LBS or you risk shearing off the cam gear and a real mess on your hands.

 

I'm not so sure about that. If a valve was open and oil did make it into the cylinder, there may not have been enough oil to fill the cylinder to the point where it would flow out of the spark plug hole. There may be some cylinders where the valves were closed or closed enough that oil didn't make it into the cylinder. So, you may have a bunch of oil just sitting in the intake. It also depends on the level of the truck (side-to-side and front-to-back) where it sits. Additionally, the intake does not sit level with the engine, it has a slight forward 'lean' IIRC. So, a lot of the oil could be sitting in the intake towards the front of the engine.

You may be right, the valves may be stuck. But, I'm not sure if I would consider this comprehensive proof. Keep us posted!

 

Good news! The engine is now rotating freely. I took off the valve cover and soaked everything with marvel mystery oil mixed with acetone. I tapped each valve lightly with a mallet and try it again to turn the engine over. It broke free and all of that oil from the intake shot out of the plug holes. At least I feel like everything is flushed out and oily 😀. I did purchase a battery and it seems like everything is electrically dead. I still need a ignition switch. The starter appears to be dead. I pulled the starter off and decided to bring it home. With battery hooked directly to the positive stud and the negative side grounded to the starter housing, there is nothing but sparks.. I suppose I could take a mallet and try beating on it a little bit. Starter seem to be fairly cheap for these, so I ordered one just in case. I'm starting to feel very confident that this thing will run given a little patience. I'll be waiting on a replacement starter, ignition switch, and will probably replace the solenoid just for good measure.

 

Good to hear you got it to turn over by hand it is all down hill from here

On the solenoid do not go for the cheapest one got top of the line one.
The cheap ones dont last and if you can get it replaced for free you will get the same cheap one that will fail in short order.
This is a known fact over in the 80 to 86 truck area.
Dave ----

 

GREAT!

Sound like you've been watching Fred Williams/Dirt Daily on YouTube. He's a big proponent of acetone & oil mixed to create a rust penetrating solvent. You might want to pour some more Marvel Mystery Oil into the cylinders to see if you can get the rings to free up (or condition them from sitting for so long). After that, it might not be bad to run a cylinder compression test (of your choosing) to see if the rings are sealing as are the valves.

Maybe it's time to drag it home before your brother leaves for the Great Plains. And, maybe it's time for you to introduce it to your daughter....

Keep us posted!!