The Brown Bear Tear down Chronicles.

[Hiball]

Long Story Short.. Purchased a 1986 F250 Ext Cab that was supposedly "Road Ready" and come to find out it has Blown Head Gasket, After talking with Al and reading literally hundreds of threads I decided to start tearing into the Motor. After careful consideration I decided to pull the front clip versus the Up, up and UP and Over method, I did read Mel's writeup on doing the heads "In Truck" and while it was a great write up i felt more confident working on the motor via the Stand. Ive included some pictures of the Progress so far, I intend on removing the cab later this week along with the utility bed, Then rolling the frame into the Shop for dismantling and off to Blasting. Im sure ill have some more questions as this is my First dealing with a Ford, Ive previously done 2 Chevy frame offs and im really looking forward to this one.

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Interior is Fairly Clean, Not a lot of Rust in the Floor boards and this the cleanest Frame ive ever seen from a 25+ year old truck from Missery.

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Does have some Rust in the Lower Cab corner of the Extended Cab, Anyone know of any Parts? Or will i have to fab the pieces up myself?

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Front Clip Off.

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Pressure Washed and Put on the Stand, Removed the Alt, Ac and Brackets.

1st Discovery... Not the first time this motor has been Removed, Again 86 F250 with either a 84 Replacement motor or Flywheel.

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I didn't have much time today, and im trying to find the Block Casting to determine what Year the block is, Hopefully its a "B" Block versus the Earlier "A" <--- Or so ive Read.

 

[riotwarrior]

Nice thanks for the pictures we love pictures here!

Post your engine's serial number and maybe one of the OLD farts can figure it out

These trucks are really quite simple to work on and I"ve got something similar with the Brown Bruin build...what's up with you using my truck naming theme?????? Huh????

Have fun with the build and keep us posted and ask any questions you need to!

Al

 

[Hiball]

Nice thanks for the pictures we love pictures here!

Post your engine's serial number and maybe one of the OLD farts can figure it out

These trucks are really quite simple to work on and I"ve got something similar with the Brown Bruin build...what's up with you using my truck naming theme?????? Huh????

Have fun with the build and keep us posted and ask any questions you need to!

Al

Will Do... Thanks.

 

[icanfixall]

Thats the older heavy cast iron flexplate flywheel setup. No longer available but used and even those are getting hard to find. I think I still have the last stamped steel torque converter plate Ford had so I bought it. That heavy whell was over $450.00 when Ford had them. They don't break but the starter gear wears off on three places. Simple repair is heat it up. Remove it and clock it around till new teeth are in the old worn teeth areas. Don't flip it over either. Its beveled on one side so the starter gear can run in easier to it. Napa sells the gear for about $50.00 too. Drill some holes in it. Hit with a chisel and hammer to fracture the gear and its off. clean the wheel. Heat the gear in the oven only when the wifeys not home to 250 degrees. Drop it on and your done. Please torque the bolts to 47 lbs and use thread sealant on them because they go thru the crank flange to the oil pan side and oil will leak past the threads no matter what.. Seen that a few times too on other engines.

 

[Hiball]

A few Questions?

And Remember im fairly new to this engine, I have a complete Gasket set for the Engine (including a Valley Pan) Outside of the No Brainer (Thermostat Housing, etc) What other areas should I check/Re seal while I have the engine Removed? I noticed a lot of Oil buildup below the Oil filler Neck and quite a bit of fresh oil at the Rear Main (Under the flywheel cover) and quite a bit of oil around the Oil Pressure sending unit, so it could have been dripping down.

 

[Hiball]

Removed the Heads today, Here's a Recap of my Compression numbers prior to teardown.

1. 440 2. 350

3. 450 4. 425

5. 425 6. 425

7. 450 8. 450

Picture of Cylinder 2,4,6,8 You can actually see coolant in cylinder 4.

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Cylinder 1,3,5,7

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Head off of 1,3,5,7

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Head off of 2,4,6,8

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Again there was coolant in #4 and you can see some flash rust on Valves on 4.

 

[riotwarrior]

I see coolant in #4 not two. there is a bit in two not much.

Other than that, I don't see much else. No noticeable cracks however that's something you can see.

Keep the pics coming.

 

[Hiball]

I see coolant in #4 not two. there is a bit in two not much.

Other than that, I don't see much else. No noticeable cracks however that's something you can see.

Keep the pics coming.

Yeah I mistyped, the coolant was in #4 as clarified in the bottom picture, I goofed early in the thread.

 

[Hiball]

I've read that the 7.3 rocker was a better design than the 6.9, is the below picture of my rocker a 6.9 or 7.3 version.

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[icanfixall]

That rocker pic is the 6.9 and its no longer available. But thats a good thing too. Your cooling system in that engine was not kept up. Way too much rust seen. I don'y know why the rust is on the dry head bolts either. Has this engine been opened up and bored by chance. What was the reason for opening this engine. Being a 6.9 is can easily be bored safely. If you did not drain the block of coolant when you removed the heads then thats a reason for coolant in the cylinders.

 

[Hiball]

That rocker pic is the 6.9 and its no longer available. But thats a good thing too. Your cooling system in that engine was not kept up. Way too much rust seen. I don'y know why the rust is on the dry head bolts either. Has this engine been opened up and bored by chance. What was the reason for opening this engine. Being a 6.9 is can easily be bored safely. If you did not drain the block of coolant when you removed the heads then thats a reason for coolant in the cylinders.

I have No prior knowledge of the Engine, As I stated earlier this is a 86 F250 and when I pulled the motor it had the 84 F350 wrote on the Flywheel. I opened the Engine up because of a Head Gasket issue, I first noticed and thought there was a problem when the Upper radiator hose appeared to be about twice the Normal size after running the engine around the farm (No Overheating), verified by checking the Radiator for combustion gases, with a Kit I have and lastly using Al's method of letting it run for a bit and listening for the "****" when you take the cap off and all 3 tests indicated a problem. I drained the engine as best I could by removing the Hoses and while it was being transported by Loader tractor to the shop, some More came out.. I have no doubts that there is still some coolant in the block but when I removed the Heads the only cylinder that had coolant in it was #4 and if you look at the Valves off of #4 it is the only one that had "Flash Rust" on them. Coincidence? Again I have never titled this truck, Only driven it around the Farm (less than 5 miles total), I invested in the Previous owners description as "Road Ready" and addressed the glow plugs, Injectors and return line along with a New fuel filter etc.. And here we are now.

I did take the added steps on loosening the Head bolts in Reverse Order to "Possibly" prevent any stress on the mating surface, Of course I was loosening them with a 24" Ratchet, but I did notice that some of the inner bolts wasn't near as tight as the others. Maybe the PO lost track of a couple when it was tightening them back down? Dunno.. Just food for thought.

 

[Hiball]

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Is this the Number that indicates my Block Year? If so can anyone decipher?

 

[Hiball]

Probably a Dumb Question but it got me thinking after reading a previous thread about removing the Injection pump Cover/Gear etc.. I worked on this motor some more this afternoon and decided to go ahead and do a complete Disassembly and Inspection/rebuild, so im in the process of lightening up the block of Accessories so I can hand it off to my Local Machine shop for Cleaning, Inspection and Probably Cam bearing installation. Im assuming the reason its frowned upon to remove the gear cover is because the line up marks seen in the Picture below (Swiped from Gary) are impossible to see with the covers on, and its Not a issue to Realign things when all the covers are off upon reinstallation?

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Anything else in particular that I should have my machine shop Inspect?

 

[icanfixall]

Not a problen using one of my pics. Thats why I have them. Now if your front cover is still in place what you can do is take the injection pump gear by itself away from th housing and the injection pump. Scribed a line from the top of the gear down to the "Y" timing mark. Just make sure you have the gear with the drive pin on that side when you make the line. Now even if the front of the engine is in one piece you can slide the gear down to the cam gear but only if the engine is at top dead center # 1 cylinder. And all the gear timing marks will line up. Once the gear is plcaed use a square to measure if the gear is correctly aligned with the cam gear. Notice my gear is leaning to the passenger side a bit. No matter. When the gear is straight up and down the line will match up correctly. Now realize the gear will roll from side to side but.. It will not jump teeth on the cam doing so. Be sure to clean the mating surfaces of the block, front plate and the aluminum gear housing and use quality rtv. Use enough so it squirts out some. Clean it off when its hardened or leave it alone.

 

[Hiball]

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Well Outside of removing the Cam (already removed the gear) I have everything ready for the machine shop. I going to have him inspect the block and Heads and go from there, Outside of having him install new Cam bearings (don't have the tool) is there anything else I should have him do?

I posted a Picture earlier in the thread of what I thought was the Block ID, I didn't get any feedback but I did find this number on the bottom end of the block..

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Does this mean '86?