1980 F150 4x4 Flareside Project

[Gary Lewis]

Been there, done that.  Was very upset with myself.  In my case it was the thermostat that slipped.  

But at least you have the right perspective.  It'll work out.  

And at least the radiator and core support fit correctly.  Well done.  

[grumpin]

Bummer!

Truck is looking good!

[salans7]

That truck is looking so good! Great work Cory!

[Rembrant]

salans7 wrote

That truck is looking so good! Great work Cory!

Thanks Shaun! I’m afraid you would not be impressed if you saw it in the flesh LOL. It is a heap, but if you can see the beauty in a heap then I guess it is OK.

[salans7]

Rembrant wrote

salans7 wrote

That truck is looking so good! Great work Cory!

Thanks Shaun! I’m afraid you would not be impressed if you saw it in the flesh LOL. It is a heap, but if you can see the beauty in a heap then I guess it is OK.

I understand heaps quite well, as my F350 fits the bill. I can see the beauty in them, but it's hard sometimes because I have to resist the urge to make it perfect.

[FuzzFace2]

Looking more and more like a truck every day

I found my housing was cracked when I pulled it for anew stat.
Now you may want to pick it up local as you could run into a problem of the part that screws into the side.
The one I got at Auto Zone the threaded part was to small and I could not screw the fitting in.
Someone run it to the same issue  and I found he got his from O'reilly's auto parts and it was the right one.
Just don't want you waiting weeks and find it is wrong even if it is only $10
Dave ----

[Rembrant]

Thanks for the heads up Dave. I checked with the local shop and they told me there wasn’t a single one in the country and that they’d have to order from the US, which for them would take weeks. Rock Auto has at least a half a dozen different brands, and they deliver in about a week so that is what I did. If the factory fitting doesn’t fit I guess I’ll just have to make something up for it.

[FuzzFace2]

What they dont like 300 six up there to not have at least 1 
If the thread part was to large it would not have been an issue but it was way to small.
Any in the junk yards near you?
Dave ----

[Rembrant]

FuzzFace2 wrote

What they dont like 300 six up there to not have at least 1 
If the thread part was to large it would not have been an issue but it was way to small.
Any in the junk yards near you?
Dave ----

Dave,

I guess there's no market for them here. Not many 300's on the road here anymore besides summer cruisers. Might find some EFI 300's at the junkyard, but for $10 I just ordered a new one. I don't need it right away anyway.

[Rembrant]

This picture doesn't really look much different from yesterday, but the core support is secured in place now, and the stone guard is installed. You forget how much time everything takes. I installed a new battery tray today as well as the vertical bracket next to it that attaches to the tray, the fender liner, and the core support. Then I had to tweak everything a little bit to get it lined up. It's actually not too bad...but we will see what happens when I install the hood.



Seems I had planned to do a bunch of other things, and getting everything above all lined up and tightened down seemed like forever.

Anyway...tomorrow I'm going to seam seal the cowl trough, and install the cowl panel and wipers. After that, wiring and carb install, and maybe even bend up a fuel line and see how that goes. I need to clean up the shop and put everything back in it's place as I will be taking a break until next weekend.

Wasn't sure if I told you guys, but I had listed some old 3" spring hangers for sale locally (they came loose with the truck but were for a van E250/E350 and did not fit). Anyway, a guy showed up to buy them as spares for his '89 Bronco. He didn't have a Bullnose, but did have some extra Bullnose parts at home so we worked out a trade, which was even better.

I got a set of bumper guards, which I needed anyway (the truck had them from the factory, but the originals were rusted out). My bumper had clear lines where the guards were, so it's nice to have another used set to stick on there (they will match lol).

[Gary's New Test Name]

Yes, it is amazing how long things take!  I always get less done that planned or hoped for.

But, the key is the keep on keeping on, as you are doing.  Then you'll get there.  Maybe not when you thought, but some day.

Anyway, that was cool that you were able to trade with the guy.  

[Rembrant]

Another question...possibly a dumb one, but it just occurred to me. This truck came from the factory with a 302 and a factory tach. It now has a 300 in it...and it appears that whoever swapped in the 300 also used the 300's wiring harness for the DSII and oil pressure, etc.

Is the tach going to work properly with the 300? Or will I need to change something?

[FuzzFace2]

I think the wiring is the same between them but it is the wiring at the back of the tach from what I seen posted.
1 gets a ground and the other does not but I cant remember what one dose or does not and what post it is on. Gary must have it on here some where I would think.

I was lucky my truck did not come with a tach and when I installed one it worked.
Dave ----

[Gary Lewis]

The wiring differs between six and eight cylinder engines, and the difference is in the ignition wiring.  As shown on our page at Documentation/Electrical/Tachometers there's this schematic:

[ArdWrknTrk]

I think it says right on the flex circuit (ground here for 8-cyl) or something like that.

Easy enough to clip a wire if it's a 300.

[Rembrant]

FuzzFace2 wrote

Now you may want to pick it up local as you could run into a problem of the part that screws into the side.
The one I got at Auto Zone the threaded part was to small and I could not screw the fitting in.
Someone run it to the same issue  and I found he got his from O'reilly's auto parts and it was the right one.
Just don't want you waiting weeks and find it is wrong even if it is only $10
Dave ----

Dave,

I lucked out, and the new housing from Rock Auto (4 Seasons brand) was identical. Only difference is that it had a removeable plug on the neck and my original was permanently plugged.



I got some more work done to the old girl today. Few more things to work on tomorrow morning and if all goes well by lunch time I will be cranking her over and see if she starts. If it does not I guess I'll do a compression test and see what it looks like. If the engine turns out to be no good, it's not a big deal to change it out. I basically had nothing to lose by trying it (other than my time). There is a small engine shop only about 1.5 hr drive away that has a freshly built 1986 300/6 in-stock for $1200 (with core).

[Gary Lewis]

Cory - Good move on the thermostat housing.  

Hopefully the engine will fire and run well.  

[Rembrant]

OK, some actual news with data today! I finally got this thing wired up enough that it could be cranked over.

As I probably mentioned before, the history on this engine is unknown other than it has been sitting for quite a few years. I sprayed some Kroil in the cylinders months ago and rotated it a few times by hand. I did that again later on...still months ago now, but I can't remember if I used Kroil or Fluid Film. Rotated it again a few times by hand.

Today I gave the "new" junkyard PMGR starter a workout and whirled her over at cranking speed for a cold compression test. Here are the results:

1. 130 PSI
2. 168 PSI
3. 140 PSI
4. 138 PSI
5. 130 PSI
6. 130 PSI

So, what are you thoughts on cylinder number 2 @ 168 PSI? I later tested it again and got the exact same number. I also cranked it over with no spark plug in case there was any oil in there to spit out. I've read that compression numbers for a 300 should be between 100-150 lbs, so the cold numbers look OK, but cylinder #2 is weird. Carboned up I suppose?

Tested for spark (good) and gave her a spray of starting fluid and it flashed up instantly. Only ran it for a couple seconds. I won't try it with actual gasoline until next weekend.

So far, it looks promising lol. I'm thinking that once I can run it and warm it up a bit it would loosen up and maybe given me some different readings/?

[Rembrant]

Oh, and a couple pictures of old crusty's engine bay.

[grumpin]

Good news on firing up with starter fluid.

On the #2 cylinder, my first thought was oil in the cylinder, which you did also. Really good rings, or oil in bad rings, or the rings are carboned up as you said, or sludged up.

Odd that it’s only one cylinder though.