Crackers said:
Wait, so you're building a truck as a tribute to a beloved family member, and you don't even intend to keep it?
I can't be the only one that thinks this is odd.
Don't get me wrong, do what you will. It's just surprising.
Looks like a good base to start on in any case.
I like to name all of my cars and the whole reason for my interest in this particular model was my great grandfather. I understand what you’re saying though. It it had been his actual truck I would park it and never sell it, but it’s not and that makes it different for me.
I started pulling the motor yesterday and got stopped pretty quickly. Here’s why. 
These rubber river things are holding on two plastic pieces and I’d like to take them off without breaking them. Any suggestions?
More photos from last night...
Here's my organizational system.
Other side of the rubber/plastic rivets
factory a/c sightglass
Replaced a/c compressor apparently
evidence that this thing hasn't been run much in a while. 
Bust those rivets and replace them during reassembly. "Penny wise" and all that.
AngryCorvair said:
Bust those rivets and replace them during reassembly. "Penny wise" and all that.
Yeah. That’s true. It’s not like this thing is going to be a perfect truck after. Thanks.
grover said:
AngryCorvair said:
Bust those rivets and replace them during reassembly. "Penny wise" and all that.
Yeah. That’s true. It’s not like this thing is going to be a perfect truck after. Thanks.
I am somewhat of an authority on being penny wise. I probably spent 1.5 hours trying to remove the plastic fender liner and undertray pins on my wife's Odyssey before finally succumbing to the berkeleyits and busting them all. Replacements were something like $8 for a bag of 50 and included the removal tool.
AngryCorvair said:
grover said:
AngryCorvair said:
Bust those rivets and replace them during reassembly. "Penny wise" and all that.
Yeah. That’s true. It’s not like this thing is going to be a perfect truck after. Thanks.
I am somewhat of an authority on being penny wise. I probably spent 1.5 hours trying to remove the plastic fender liner and undertray pins on my wife's Odyssey before finally succumbing to the berkeleyits and busting them all. Replacements were something like $8 for a bag of 50 and included the removal tool.
I can attest that those things are a pita on an oddy. I’ve gone to using zip ties in between oil changes.
things have escalated. As it turned out, I got to leave those weird rubber/plastic rivets.
pretty sure the original listing said 4 barrel carb....this is not a 4 barrel.
Also, you can see that this spacer/vacuum thing has a cast error and they tried to fix it with a few gaskets instead of a new part. Doesn't seem to have worked. 
oh well, I guess we'll deal with that. 
and now it's time to dig in. 
I've seen spacers similar to that use ducted coolant or exhaust to preheat the intake in cold weather. They often corroded out like that, especially after being disconnected by redneck mechanics in the sunny south. I doubt it was a casting flaw that bad on a factory part. You can probably get a phenolic spacer to replace it cheap. As you said, it's never going to be all factory.
It’s been a while but I have done a bit of work.
I took the transmission to the local shop and it was pretty smoked. The oil pump seal was wiped and the torque converter was mostly gone. It got a full rebuild with a new TQ. Just over $800. :/
I started tearing down the motor yesterday and got a good ways through. It’s in rough shape. This doesn’t look like a reseal job. 
that crud seems to be plastic and from inside the valve springs? Are there plastic liners?
Also notice the blocked port in the 2nd photo from bottom. 
Yuck.
These pistons need work. Thankfully I have the official GRM scraper
Not too bad. I do have this chink in this piston, wasn’t done by me..thoughts?
Typical cylinder wall. Should these hone out? 
Let's just take a second here and recall that this impressive chunk of engineering drove you "all over town" on February 5th. Sure, it's in rough shape, and you can make it better, but the readiness of something in that condition to do the job it was designed for deserves serious respect.
NickD
UltraDork
4/11/18 5:31 p.m.
A little after the fact, but a number of people I talked to all agreed that the C6 transmission is just about the easiest auto trans to overhaul short of the Powerglide. My father and I did one on an '87 F-350 for a friend, and had never done one before. Just paid attention to the details when taking it apart and putting it together. Installed it in the truck and 3 years later it has not given a bit of trouble.
NickD said:
A little after the fact, but a number of people I talked to all agreed that the C6 transmission is just about the easiest auto trans to overhaul short of the Powerglide. My father and I did one on an '87 F-350 for a friend, and had never done one before. Just paid attention to the details when taking it apart and putting it together. Installed it in the truck and 3 years later it has not given a bit of trouble.
I’ll be honest, I was pretty scared of trying. Would like to do it eventually though.
Stealthtercel said:
Let's just take a second here and recall that this impressive chunk of engineering drove you "all over town" on February 5th. Sure, it's in rough shape, and you can make it better, but the readiness of something in that condition to do the job it was designed for deserves serious respect.
That’s true, and while taking it apart I was pretty surprised at how much gunk was in it even though it ran so well. Should be a great motor soon.
chink in the piston tells you which way points to the front
plastic detritus in the head were once valve stem seals of an inferior material choice.
can't tell the state of the cyl walls by the pix, but usually they get measured about an inch down with T-bore gauge and caliper ...measure X and Y direction to determine extent of out-of-round. they do that lower down the bore and that is called taper. A Ford shop manual will tell you the max readings before you have to bore out to the next larger size.
If you are within tolerances or out but not by much you can get a ball hone and a drill and hone the cylinders out , reuse the std pistons then put new stock rings in it. This was the classic gas station overhaul of the 1950-60's etc...probably get 30-40 thousand more out of it.
for a truck you are going to flip - may be better off trolling CL for a fresh working engine....machine work and new pistons TC, crank turn head work and gaskets will be north of $1000. probably more roller 5.0's out there in nice shape or a 351W...
If "classic" is what you want: you got one, if you just want a truck, there's plenty of higher mileage 2004ish F150's out there that will ride/drive/treat you better for $3500 range which is where you might be headed with this fine beast...
I sent the heads out because I had a bad feeling about the valves... somehow I missed this. So new springs and valve stems are headed in.
Also, I seem to have a 390 piston in addition to the 360’s. It has the exact same dimensions though. Need to start measuring the cylinders.
I think 360/390 are the same piston
I also think 360's had a forged crankshaft - this will be a great project!
here's a T-bore gauge set,
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Telescoping-T-Bore-Gauge-6-pc-Cylinder-Hole-Smooth-Gage-Professional-Set-w-Case/371871688336?epid=535437764&hash=item569547a690:g:FGAAAOSwTuJYqfBT
For deglazing and crosshatching the walls I think 240 grit is what you want, you can use a little diesel fuel as the cutting lube..
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002XUL1M6/ref=biss_dp_t_asn
Well it's been a while, and that's what happens when you buy a 100 year old fixer upper house. Oh well, on to truck stuff. When we left off I had sent the heads off. Turns out there were a few things not working properly in the heads, which makes you wonder how it ran for a day fairly well. Heads are back now and I finally found a local shop from a board member. I had the block cleaned he honed my cylinders for me as well. The block was dirty, he said it took 3 different runs through the washer to get it clean. Also, at least one of the freeze plugs was basically rusted through.
I got the block back yesterday and started in on it today.
First up: paint.
Next up drop in the new camshaft and endcap...
We're having so much fun, let's add crank bearings..
Ok, so not pictured. Once I got on the new cam sprocket and the dowel pushed in...The cam wouldn't spin. It actually didn't spin once it got into the last bearing, so I've got a problem. I was extremely careful putting the cam in, but I did have to tap it in the last 1/2 inch. I think I'll just take out the mains and take the thing to my machine shop guy to check the journals on the cam. All of the replacement parts are engine tech stuff from rock auto, and I know that cams don't always show up perfect. At least it was obvious because I don't really have a way to check those clearances. So- back to the machine shop and hopefully next time I'll have a motor put together finally.
See...these are the things that make me afraid to rebuild my own engine.
ultraclyde said:
See...these are the things that make me afraid to rebuild my own engine.
Yeah, it’s annoying and slower than I want. Also, I don’t have all the fun tools that would allow me to do the stuff myself, so I have to wait on people. This is why people just swap in used motors. It’s easier and faster.
This cam was a little tight going in, but I thought a little tapping would be ok. As I said before though, the cam wouldn’t turn once in. So today I started taking it out. Unfortunately it didn’t cooperate. I ended up taking a bearing out of an idle pully and using some washers as spacers as a puller.
Then it became fairly obvious what the issue was. This is the rear bearing.
those ridges on the edge are unfortunately not just assembly lube...
so I see a few things that could have gone wrong.
1. That rear bearing was too small for some reason
2. The rear journal on the cam could be too large, it did go through the other bearings though
3. The cam could be warped.
4. The rear bearing could have been installed wrong
5 I could have pushed the rear bearing some when installing the rear plug- it didn’t look like it installed, but it’s possible.
At the least I’ll need a new bearing and I’ll probably just get all new bearings and have dave the machine shop in his garage guy check the cam and the clearances. I suppose this is all a part of the learning process.
well, I know calipers are not ideal, but I compared the rear journal on the new cam to the old cam and they were exactly the same. I'm going with bearings.
Wow, that looks like the inside of the 302 in my 1970 Ranger. So much schmegma that the oil return galleys plugged up. That a Ford thing?
In reply to 914Driver :
Perhaps, I think it’s more of a “never ever change the oil” thing.
