Thread: 1st post and a couple q's

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Greetings all,

New here and new to Ford Big Blocks. My girlfriend just bought a 66 F250. I think she did pretty darn good for 3800.00 Bucks.









The engine smokes, leaks and spits oil. I was told it is a 390. It has C8AE-H heads on it. The engine is covered in oil and gunk 1/2" thick so I can't easily find the casting on the engine. So my first question is do I need to remove the Starter to find the casting number? I was told the number is on the engine near the starter and I'd prefer not to have to clean the entire engine just yet

My second question is more of an open comment/question. I'd like to freshen up the engine for her and the purchase price basically wiped her out dollar wise. So I'm looking to do this on the cheap to give her something reliable for a couple years when she's got more money to put into it. I have every tool I think I'll need as I have successfully rebuilt the engine on my Ford 8N tractor. But I have never rebuilt or freshened up the engine on anything that revs higher than 2600 RPM. Actually, that's not true I rebuilt the Th400 tranny in my suburban about 40,000 miles ago by only reading books and it's still running strong. My problem is (this is were you guys come in hopefully) that I can't seem to find books specifically geared to stock rebuilding of Ford Big Blocks. Every thing seems to about performance increases and modifications. So any advice would be appreciated at all as to where to start. I'm sure I'll have lots and lots of dumb questions in the future.

TIA

Dusty

Did you check Barnes & Nobles book store?
I'm sure that you will get PLENTY of help here - but it still makes it nice to be able to read it from your own book when you can....

Welcome to the club !

Originally posted by hambiskit
Welcome to the club !

Thanks

I just found the Haynes for the Ford. I think that will tide me over for a little while. Thanks for the fast reply as well.

Dusty

390's usually clean up good with a simple ring and bearing job, and a valve grind. Seldom see a worn out engine that needs rebore. The cam and lifters are usually reuseable, unless you want some more "go". Good idea to put another timing set in, though.

Originally posted by DustyD
Thanks

I just found the Haynes for the Ford. I think that will tide me over for a little while. Thanks for the fast reply as well.

Dusty

the haynes books are good. but if you can get the chiltons BIG book, they are better

go to you'r local library, they should have enough books on what your looking for . be prepared to spend some time reading.

along with what R pope said. I would replace oil pump , get some plasti guage and pull the mains and check for oil clearences, makeing sure they are within specs," the specs should be listed in the haynes book".

as for cleaning the engine up, you should! a clean engine is easy to find source of leeks .

you said the engine smokes and spits oil. you could get a engine rering kit. if the engine has alot of miles on it the new rings can help restore lost power, the heads could use a good cleaning and a valve job, install new valve seals,

and of course the basic items that should be replaced are all belts and hoses, use new clamps, pcv valve, filters, plugs wires, and cap rotor, all vacuume hoses, fuel line ruber"including from the tank".

make sure everything on the truck is in working order, and look over all wiring, for exposed and rotting wire.

the truck should be as new again, good luck

My dad could have had a nicely done driver ( had a few runs in the paint, but was a frame off and it showed it when you looked underneath ) 1971 F100 short bed, lowered a little, '68 Grille, 302/4spd from early F150, dual exhaust, new tires/ mag wheels, for $4,900 but the seller was willing to go $4,500. Unfortunatly, he found it too late because he had arleady bought his '72 Chevy C10.

Great looking pickup Dusty !! I'd say your girlfriend did quite well picking one out!! The guys have given lots of good advice on a motor rebuild, only thing I would add is when you have the engine out clean and detail under the hood so it looks as good as the outside of the truck. A good overhaul on an FE engine should give you years of trouble free use.

Thanks for all the replies. All of that sounds like good inforamtion and suggestions to have to me. I've found a nice master rebuild kit from PAW. Should be just what the Dr. ordered. Rings, bearings, gaskets, oil pump, timing set and a few misc dodads. Unfortuneately, I'm looking an 04 PAW, which says 188.00 bucks for the kit. I'm sure the price has gone up but that's still a great deal even if it's +/-20 bucks more.

I guess now I just need to finish the three other projects I need my shop for so I can make some space to pull this engine out and verify that it is a 390, check my bore taper, and mike my journal and crankshaft. So I can make sure to order the right stuff. I know when I have the engine out and I'm disassembling it I'll be asking way more questions here. I sure wish the internet would have been around for me when I rebuilt that tractor.

When I get around to pulling the heads, what do you guys recommend I ask the machine shop to do to them for me? Keeping in mind that the budget is pretty tight this go round. I need to be as froogle as possible but I don't want to be penny wise and a dollar short either.

Thanks again,

Dusty

If the heads are pre-1972, they will not have hard seats. If you don't use hard seats with unleaded gas, you'll experience a problem with recession, a condition whereby the valves will sink down into the heads as they eat away material at the seat.

You can either have the machine shop install hard seats and valves or find a set of heads from a 1972-up motor that would have been designed to run on unleaded.

Some fellows will go ahead and run unleaded on early heads, sometimes using a fuel additive, but I personally prefer to do it right while the motor is down.

DustyD: I sure wish the internet would have been around for me when I rebuilt that tractor.

I hear you.

and like techinspector1 had said . get the hard valve seats. plus ask for a 3 angle grind on it to.