Tiggie's 1976 F100 Parts Truck

[Tiggie]

It made vroom vroom noises today. That's the short version of the story.
Engine sounds good, no knocks or ticking. Other than it's still a V6.
Carb is not pushing fuel out to the engine so I am going to throw a $20 kit at it and see what happens. Fuel pressure okay and it's running off a clean jug. Once it's running better I will see what the oil pressure looks. I am leaning towards the heads having to come off to fix the V6 issue.
Carb is a 2150 off a 77/79 F-Series with a 400. The seller had that truck at his house and I wonder if he switched the carbs.
Also learned my 1974 actually has a Motorcraft 2100 not a 2150. It's got a choke pull off, so I figured it was 2150 but the guts are very different.

[packman]

If this were 6 years ago; I would have given you the headers I had on my 390FE. They seem to be good engines behind a 4-speed. But behind a C6, they are pigs. That was the case with my Dad's '73 F-350; which that 390 came out of. They had 2 gas tanks for a good reason.

[DerekTheGreat]

Every engine perks up with a manual trans behind it.

Extra fuel capacity is only useful if one can afford to fill the tank(s). From what I remember, my mom never put more than $10 in at a time no matter what she drove.

[Arquemann]

From what I remember, my mom never put more than $10 in at a time no matter what she drove.

I wonder if the increased fuel stops make up for the slightly improved MPG due to lugging around less weight.

I'm the exact opposite of those kinda people, I can remember like a max of 5 times I've ever not brimmed the tank.

[DerekTheGreat]

I wonder if the increased fuel stops make up for the slightly improved MPG due to lugging around less weight.

I'm the exact opposite of those kinda people, I can remember like a max of 5 times I've ever not brimmed the tank.

No idea. But with how my brain works, any MPG benefit is negated by those increased stops, what an inconvenience. I remember as I got a little older I did that in my head, "She put $10 in it just now and $5 a few days ago. Why didn't she put the $15 in all at once? Or, why not fill the tank so you can stop less?" It didn't occur to me until I was in my teens revisiting those memories that perhaps those few days ago, she didn't have the $10 to put in the tank. Yep, once I started working, there was only one time I didn't fill my tank when I got gas.

This reminds me of a story which at the time reminded me of my mom.. Fast-forward to my mid 20's and this girl I had just started seeing interrupted an evening nap with a phone call. I answered and she was sobbing, telling me how horrible her day was and that it had gotten even worse as her car just died. The conversation went something like this:

"Oh no, I'm sorry. What happened, was it making a noise or anything?"
"No, I ran out of gas earlier and my dad had to come up and put some in. I don't understand it, I had just put three dollars in it and now it died again."
"..You didn't get gas after your dad put some in? How much driving did you do?"
"No, my dad just put some in so I didn't think I needed to. I didn't drive that much, just to place A, B and C." (For context, she drove a ratty black Mazda 5 or whatever. To her credit, it was a stick shift.)
"Is your gas gage broken?"
"No, why are you--" I interrupted her, as at this point I was feeling more irritated that she interrupted my nap for this B.S. and thought maybe she was kidding. No way she could be THAT stupid..
"So you ran out of gas already, got your dad to drop whatever he was doing to help you and now you ran out of gas again? That's on you."
"WOW! I'm having a shitty day and I called you. You! I could've called anyone but mistakenly thought you could help make my day better."
I sighed. "It's okay, we all make mistakes..." I don't remember how the conversation went after that, certainly didn't last long and I want to say I mentioned something about my nap and wanting to get back to it. I don't think I saw her again. Shocker, right?

[packman]

Every engine perks up with a manual trans behind it.

Extra fuel capacity is only useful if one can afford to fill the tank(s). From what I remember, my mom never put more than $10 in at a time no matter what she drove.

That F-350 was my Dad's 2nd welding rig after he parked the '53 F-250. IIRC, he removed the gas tank behind the bench seat and ran off the main tank near the end of its life. And my Dad just corrected me; the 390 that I got, came out of his spare (another) '73 F-350 4x4 that he was building up; which was towed away with the other welding rig when he got Putter Project. I remember him saying that he no longer had to fill-up 2x when commuting round-trip to his water company job. To be honest, I am not a fan of automatics for doing work and/or commuting for that reason.

[Tiggie]

I am absolutely a manual transmission fan BUT don't dislike the C6 in the 74. No idea on this 76 if it even works lol. I would require brakes before checking much into that lol.
Mounted two junk tires that hold air so I can get dad back his spare and fix the slow leak tire on the truck currently.
I did rebuild the carb and all went smoothly. Will try to install it this weekend and get some more run time to hopefully get the engine warmed up fully.
Opinions on running this for a while with the two dead cylinders? I want it to warm up and see what it's actually got for oil pressure. I also don't want to ruin the cylinder walls. It's got spark, so it shouldn't be fuel washing the cylinder walls, right?

[DerekTheGreat]

...Opinions on running this for a while with the two dead cylinders? I want it to warm up and see what it's actually got for oil pressure. I also don't want to ruin the cylinder walls. It's got spark, so it shouldn't be fuel washing the cylinder walls, right?

Unfortunately, if that spark isn't igniting the fuel/air mix, you'll be washing those cylinder walls down with gas. You'd have to figure a way to keep the valves closed on those dead holes, I don't think there is one which doesn't also negatively affect oil pressure.

I'm a big manual trans fan. However, I do think the 351/E4OD combination in our F-150 will smoke my 350/5LM60 combo in my K1500. Unless I bang shift (which I never do), I lose a lot of ground between 1st & 2nd- especially in every day stop & go traffic.

[Arquemann]

In this case it's a shame it's shaft rocker, otherwise you could've just popped off a few rockers.
If it runs properly with the other 6 cylinders, maybe just leaving the plugs out would blow out most of the fuel. Downside is it'll make a mess and it could also make it an external combustion engine

[Tiggie]

I swear this thing is starting to make me lose my patience.

Messed with it Saturday. Tried to get some brakes. The hydraulics are hopeless. It all needs replaced. Did get some parking brake action after removing the rear drums and working things a little bit.

Put the rebuilt carb on. One of the studs was buggered from a hammer hit, so I pulled that and retapped it. When tightening down the carb, the same stud gave up. Apparently the threads were thin enough to not hold any torque. Not like I was really tightening it but anyway... so I used a piece of all thread I had handy to make it work.

Cranked it finally and not much luck. Smelled gas. Long story short, it was draining the fuel bowl into the engine. The gasket for the power valve must have shifted when I tightened it. With at well over a quart missing from my gallon jug fuel tank, I had to change the oil. Fixed the carb problem.

Day two: changed the oil. Cranked it up and was immediately met with the same hit here or there crap it did the day before. It was not dumping fuel but I suspected the plugs were soaked from yesterday's events. Pulled those. Cleaned them up.

Checked compression again on One and Eight and was pleasantly surprised with an improvement. One went from zero to around 30. Eight went from zero to about 80. Reinstalled plugs. Cranked. Same thing. Hits a few times here or there.

Checked spark color. It's yellow. Put new points in. Still yellow. Tried another coil. Still yellow. Replaced distributor cap (apparently the electronic cap is different than the points cap). No change. Bypassed the truck hot wire and still yellow. A condenser is next to try. Keep in mind the truck had no distributor when it arrived, it's a factory electronic ignition system, we bypassed all that two different points distributors (one used from an non-running engine) and one a new reman.

I'm disappointed it doesn't run yet. Put a lot of time in this. Dad is a pretty darn good old Ford mechanic and he's been with me this whole time. But even he is at the end of the rope on what could be wrong.

I did buy the correct electronic distributor but haven't installed it yet because I thought the points setup would be less junk to go wrong. Also the engine is missing the clip for oil pump driveshaft to its Russian Roulette when you pull the distributor as to whether you'll get the driveshaft or not (last time I was lucky and it stuck in the distributor and I grabbed it).

[Tiggie]

Dad just called. Well lo and behold, it runs and runs smooth. Coil number two was bad. The timing was also off a tooth, so that the spark was retarded compared to where we thought it was.

[DerekTheGreat]

Man, we sure get thrown for a loop when the replacement part is also defective. Hopefully all you had to pull was the dizzy? Glad it runs. Get it warm, throw some RPM & load at it and see if those valves don't come around a bit more.

[friskyfrankie]

Man, we sure get thrown for a loop when the replacement part is also defective. Hopefully all you had to pull was the dizzy? Glad it runs. Get it warm, throw some RPM & load at it and see if those valves don't come around a bit more.

Defective parts (yes, even new ones) have become the bane of both the DIY'er and professional alike!

[Tiggie]

Messed with this a little today. It does run. Number 8 is coming online. Number one sounds mostly dead still by the exhaust note. No weird bottom end sounds. Oil pressure with 10w-30 is 50psi cold and 20psi warm (maybe 30 minutes of running).
Got some brakes on it. Reinstalled the brake caliper the PO had removed. Rear line was leaking, so I hammered that shut. Reset the prop valve. It's got some brakes. Enough to stop. No panic stops please.
Drove it around in a limited area. It shifts good 1/2. Didn't get fast enough for 3. The 3.00 gears the door tag claims must be right.
I think the next step is to verify the compression again on number 1 and 8 and get some real air on them to make sure I know where it's going. And swap out the distributor for a correct electronic unit.
Also would like to bring it over to my house and start working on the bed.

[P72Ford]

Dang, I love me some dentside content. Do you have a thread for your F-250? Any details on that rig?

I hardly drove my '76 this past year... Went out to the F-100 Nationals (not in the truck ), and was inspired to do the coyote or godzilla swap (undecided still). Hopefully kicking that off in the next year once I have the garage space I need.