Figured I would provide some updates on my Ford project. I've been rather lax in getting pictures so please accept my apologies, I promise to do better in the future.
I got the truck towed to my dad's shop and then he, my brother, and I had a discussion and came up with some semblance of a plan. My brother, who is quite the ambitious lad, was pretty set on yanking the motor and digging in. My dad, on the other hand (ever the voice of reason), thought it would behoove us to set a baseline first. Check compression, get it running for at least a few minutes so we could listen to it, diagnose any and all issues, and then embark on the rebuild.
So, compression test first: We began pulling the spark plugs and discovered that whoever put them in last really cranked on them. That, coupled with some rust action, made the extrication process rather difficult and time-consuming. However, I am very happy that we didn't break any off or damage the threading. The compression test produced positive results, showing that two of the cylinders likely have tired rings, but overall it was decent.
I went back out the next day to see about trying to get the motor running for a bit. It is worth noting that the carb that the truck came with had a cracked footing, making a proper seal impossible. I have a 4 barrel carb that I plan on putting on it but I am not in a place yet to replace the entire intake manifold just to get the truck running so I was able to scrounge up an old carb from a '69 Ford with a manual choke to put on temporarily. I installed that carb and put new spark plugs in and after some confusion on the firing order, I gave the old beast a turn of the key.
It turned over, but it was sluggish. almost as if there was some resistance somewhere. Weird.
I checked my cables, noticed that my solenoid was a bit warm, but didn't think much of it. So I gave it another go.
This time, it turned over just fine, but the engine wasn't firing up. So I turned the ignition off to kill it and noticed nothing happened. It kept trying to turn over. No amount of key jiggling was having any effect. I promptly bailed out of the cab and rushed over to the battery and noticing that the solenoid was smoking, I quickly yanked the negative line off the battery and that killed it.
Off to the parts store to get a new solenoid. Got it installed and gave it another go. Still sluggish. A couple more goes made it to where it almost wasn't doing anything. So I yanked the starter out and tested it, noted that it was bad and headed back to the parts store to pick up a new one.
Installing the new starter made a remarkable difference so I poured some gas in the carb to help it along and gave it yet another go. This time, I could tell it wanted to fire up so I checked to make sure I was getting fuel and then poured a bit more gas in the carb and attempted to fire it up once again.
The engine came to life with a mighty roar! My excitement and adrenaline levels instantly rose and then I quickly realized that the RPMs were rapidly climbing and I had to kill it before something blew up.
Excited, half deaf from the deafening roar (muffler is literally blown in half), and experiencing a smoke filled shop (from the oil used in the compression test), I dove in to see why my engine wanted to commit suicide. I quickly realized that I hooked up my throttle backwards, so it was wide freaking open....
Oops....
I remedied that and attempted to try again. At this point, my dad thinks it might be vapor locked because it didn't want to fire up. So we gave it a little while and then tried again. Still nothing. I started to think about the quality of fuel that might be in the tank. Though the previous owners said they put a full tank in it, they also said the truck had been sitting for at least six months and there is no way of knowing how old the gas was or even how truthful the folks were... So my dad thinks the gas is degraded and that we might be sucking up the water that is likely on the bottom.
So I yanked out the seat to get a look at the tank (that was a real pain in the butt, by the way, broke a few bolts....). While I am doing this, my dad takes a look at the distributor cap and when doing so, it completely falls apart.
So the next course of action:
- Drain the fuel tank, put in an additive and fresh gas.
- Replace distributor. (Going to upgrade from the old school points while I'm at it)
- Get motor running
Sorry, that was rather long winded but I am pretty excited to get into it finally and I think steady progress is going to be made.
(I realize that there might be confusion in regards to my dad. I might have stated here or elsewhere that my dad passed away almost two years ago. I was adopted so that is who I considered my dad. This "current" dad is my biological dad and I don't really know of any other way to describe him.)