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EFV-8 Club Forum / General Ford Discussion / Help! Running on 4 cylinders

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Posted By Discussion Topic: Help! Running on 4 cylinders -- page: 1 2 3 4 5 6     TomO 08-02-2017 @ 7:46 AM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 7256 Joined: Oct 2009 Charlie, did you check the label on the foam kneeling pads to make sure that they were compatible with cast iron? You never know with the imported foam, what it will attack. That is a great idea and you should submit it to the V-8 Times editor as a "It worked for me tip". Tom chask 08-02-2017 @ 5:49 AM reply profile send p.m. Member Posts: 48 Joined: Feb 2017 Thanks Tom, I'll look into the harnesses at Rhode Island. Just started the brakes and the first one I looked at has a bad leaking wheel cylinder so will need to take care of the whole braking system before wiring. I forgot to mention something I did to prevent dirt from getting into the piston bores when cleaning the block face. I bought the 1/2" thick Foam Garden Kneeling Pads you can find in the Dollar stores and cut some over sized plugs (using a compass) to seal up the valve and piston holes. It worked really good keeping out all the scr*pings and when done you just vacuum the debris and lift the plugs out (starting with the valves) and any residual debris gets pulled out with the plug. The holes stayed nice and clean. Hopefully you won't tell me the foam will eat the block but maybe it will help others in the same situation as me. Attached is a picture. Note that one piston was taped but I later just moved the pistons so all 4 cylinders could hold a plug. Charlie TomO 08-01-2017 @ 7:17 AM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 7256 Joined: Oct 2009 Charlie, I would suggest that you buy reproduction wiring harness from Rhode Island Wiring, rather than building your own. The wires will be the same size as the original ones and the correct color and length. It will be an afternoon's work to install the harness, even for an old guy like me that has to nap. Your truck looks great. I would be proud to have it in my garage. Tom 40cpe 08-01-2017 @ 7:01 AM reply profile send p.m. Member Posts: 477 Joined: Jan 2010 That is a beautiful truck. I'm glad it found someone like you with perseverance to see it through the repairs it needs. chask 07-31-2017 @ 5:40 PM reply profile send p.m. Member Posts: 48 Joined: Feb 2017 Hi Tom and Paul, good to hear from you again. I don't think this old truck will be at the Nationals or any judging shows any time soon. As the saying goes "It looks good from afar but is far from good". Still needs lots of work to make it a reliable driver. Tom you are right the cable to the starter is undersized but for now does work since the engine starts immediately when you touch the starter button. I am also in the process of rewiring the whole truck with 14 AWG stranded wire (except for the larger gauge generator and ignition switch wiring) and will be putting it back to Positive Ground. The wiring in the truck was a mix of wire sizes and patches, most of which were undersized. It was also wired with Negative Ground with most of the required connections for negative ground changed except the coil. I changed that to match a Negative ground configuration at the start of this trouble shooting exercise. I have a running list of parts to order including the cables but that got put on hold to fix the engine problem so I will need to get back to that. Thank You once again for all your help and patience. I don't think I ever attached a picture of the truck so I will do that. Maybe someone out there will recognize it and know some history. I think it last lived in New York State but I bought it from Illinois. Charlie TomO 07-31-2017 @ 1:49 PM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 7256 Joined: Oct 2009 You do good work, Charlie. I am glad that the engine is working good now. It may just be the angle of the photo, but the cable from the starter switch to the starter looks like it may be too small to carry the current needed to crank the engine. It should be either a 0 or 1 gauge and it looks like a 5ga or 6ga. Tom pauls39coupe 07-31-2017 @ 12:45 PM reply profile send p.m. Member Posts: 205 Joined: Jul 2014 Wow! The engine looks great! I'm glad we could be of some help. Thanks for posting the results, that helps everyone. Now will we see you at the Grand National in 2018? Paul chask 07-31-2017 @ 11:47 AM reply profile send p.m. Member Posts: 48 Joined: Feb 2017 UPDATE: 7-31-17 Well guys, looks like problem solved thanks to the guys on this forum who responded to my questions including JayChicago, Coup, 40Cpe, and especially Pauls39Coupe and TomO. TomO called it in his post of 6/15 that the valve springs were the wrong ones! Thanks again for all your great help! Here are some more things I found since my last post: When I pulled the driver’s side head which had a mix of Grade 8 and Grade 2 bolts I found antifreeze between cylinders 6 & 7 on the head and head gasket. The bolts were very easy to remove so I think they were not properly torqued or the grade 2 bolts lost their torque. The heads were not mounted on the correct side of the engine. Doing some research it looks like the 81A-6049 head has a combustion chamber of 79cc’s and should be on the passenger side and the 81A-6050 has a combustion chamber of 81cc’s and should be on the Driver’s side. I measured the depth of the recession for the intake valves on both heads and verified that they were indeed different. Also, when mounted correctly the P/N on the head should be next to the fuel pump stand. I installed them on the correct sides. I replaced the bolts with studs and nuts from Roy Nacewicz and after much searching for NOS valve springs without any luck I went with new valve springs, keepers, and valve guide seals on the intake only (they were on both the intake and exhaust when removed) from Mac Van Pelt. I modified the cooling to the heads per TomO’s recommendation on 6/20/17 and flushed the heads and block. Reassembled valves, adjusted valve to lifter gap to .011” intake and .015” exhaust. Used Best Head Gaskets (59A Type, P/N 511G) and Intake manifold gasket bought at Mac Van Pelts, installed the heads and torqued per Tom’s post of 6/20/17. Reassembled the rest of the engine, changed the oil and antifreeze and started it up! Now runs smooth and quiet and starts on the first push of the starter. Checked the manifold vacuum and it reads exactly 20 inches Hg and is rock solid! Measured the temperatures of the heads (~166 Deg both sides) bottom radiator outlet (~128 Deg) and top Radiator inlet (~160 Deg) with an Infrared Thermometer just to make sure nothing got blocked. Attached is a picture of the completed engine and if nothing else it looks pretty good. So now that the engine runs, it's on to the brakes to make sure it stops. Someone changed the mechanical brakes to hydraulic brakes but left out the emergency brake and handle. Will have to figure that one out after pulling the rear drums to take a look. Thanks again for all your help, for without it, there is no way I could have solved this problem. It’s been a great learning experience!! Stay tuned for brake questions!! TomO 06-22-2017 @ 9:55 AM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 7256 Joined: Oct 2009 Check with one of the Regional Groups in NJ and New York. There is a truck parts supplier in your area that had loads of NOS Ford parts. Tom pauls39coupe 06-21-2017 @ 2:16 PM reply profile send p.m. Member Posts: 205 Joined: Jul 2014 The last set of studs I bought from Mac's were correct and good quality. Roy's bolts and studs are also well made. Go with ARP studs if you have the big bucks, their quality is second to none, but you pay the price. Speedway is one of the vendors for Best Gasket co. gaskets. We have had very good luck with Best Gaskets no matter where you buy them. They also make a big bore gasket set if your engine is punched out .060 or more. It will keep the gasket out of the combustion chamber. Isky valve springs made for performance flatheads are top quality, and won't wear out a stock cam. Be sure you order the correct length. If you can find brand name stock spring, they also will likely be OK. The problem we have seen with "valve kits" is that the springs must come in a barrel shipped from overseas. No quality control the length and spring pressure are all over the map. A flathead doesn't need a lot of spring pressure but some of these measure 20-22 lbs, then you are back to your original problem.

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