78 Courier engine problem
 

I'm buying a 78 Courier with the engine out of the truck. My friend said before he took the engine out it was smoking on start up and eventually it started running rough. He gave it a tune up and still ran rough. He diagnosed it down to a bad valve guide. Anybody have any input on what could be wrong before I spend money to have that fixed if it doesn't need. Any help would be great, thanks.

If you buy it here's a forum dedicated to Couriers...

Ford Courier Collector

Is the engine the 2.3 ford, same as the ranger, or the madza engine?

It's the 1.8 engine.

Thanks for pointing that out montana.

I remember that year of courier well......very tempermental......the 1st thing I would do is to run a compression check...i know it is out of the truck, but while your arm may get a little tired, you can spin the engine enough to get a basic reading....but I could almost guarantee a rebuild is in order....they were known for short live on the valvetrain (under 100k miles befor needing a valve job).