Working on my kids Pickup

Ok this mess started with a couple of water leaks and has progressed thru pulling the 302 engine out of the chassis and doing alot of work on it, on Christmas last year my kids truck an 88 F 150 blew the water pump and as I got into repairs I found all the engine freeze plugs were rusted thru and leaking, so instead of fighting the stupid things in the chassis we pulled the engine and decided to do some work on it, well the timing cover had broken bolts and the chain and gear set were sloppy so we did that, new timing cover had to be gotten due to broken off bolts that someone had tried to do a hack repair on...I installed all the freeze plugs timing chain and gears and we pulled the upper intake to do the valve cover gaskets too, found the motor mount rubber is bad so he is getting those, while it was in the driveway we power washed down the engine and the engine bay so he could paint it up pretty I also stuck the wand in the coolant passages and got rid of all the goopy rusty mess in those...

we have been taking our time because my son has little money to do all at once, but now we are coming together and hope to install the engine back in the truck this sunday and then work on all the periphals and hooking up all the crap that has to go on one of these efi engines...
He did get a new radiator for it a nice aluminum radiator than the plastic tanked crap that was in there before....

Here are a few pics of what we have so far, I can say is a sight better than what was in there before

















so thats where we are at right now I will have more once we put it in the chassis and get it running again......

Wow... That sounds like quite the project. I enjoy working on my motorcycle, but I can't imagine pulling the engine out of a truck. It's cool that you guys can do that.

Also, the engine looks great all cleaned up and painted!

I gave my engine stand away. Still have the chain hoist but those days are over for me.

I only do this kinda stuff for my sons and myself these days, between me and my oldest son we have plenty of tools and equipment, this is my youngests truck we are working on now

If you're up for a small piece of advice, I'd recommend picking up 8 rockers off a 460 from the junkyard. Looks like you are fellow blue oval nuts, so you probably thunk of it already, but it helped my E7TE heads.

But then again I'm a power junkie.... lol

Rooky said:

If you're up for a small piece of advice, I'd recommend picking up 8 rockers off a 460 from the junkyard. Looks like you are fellow blue oval nuts, so you probably thunk of it already, but it helped my E7TE heads.

Click to expand...

Yup BLUE OVAL for life here, this engine is tired and will need a complete overhaul in a year or 2 but for now it will be mostly all stock, his money is tite and I want my car back, he has had it 4 months now and I really want his done and outta my shop but when he has enough saved again it will get done all over again...

Right on. I'm slowly gathering parts for my 95 Mustang. I really have to do the rear end, but I'm still up in the air on gears. I want 4.10, but it's a 40 minute highway ride to work.

My next project is gonna be My dads 76 Ford F 100 ranger pickup, he bought her brand new and I bought her from him and drove it for years, it has a 360 FE engine and a 4 speed manual, I am gonna be doing a basic frame off restoration on this one, I want 400 horse out of the engine and gonna put in an auto trans (I am tired of rowing thru the gears) probably a streetfighter 2 from summit so I can roast the tires when the mood strikes

My first truck was a 76 F-100. 300 with a 3 on the tree. Ya might consider Performance Automatic too. Melt the tires and cruise.

I hope you do a build thread on that one. Those FE engines are the stuff!

Oh ya for sure I will have a complete thread on that old girl, I will never sell my pickup, that is an heirloom vehicle, they don't make em like that anymore

That's why I still have my Honda. Last thing I have that me and my Grandpa worked on together. Wish I still had the 100. Oh, the things you don't know at 18.

My 302 is more fun.

Looking good with that engine Jam. Your kid is lucky to have such a talented dad.

What 302 you got @X?

Rooky said:

What 302 you got @X?

Click to expand...

Coyote. Yes, I know, not a classic. Still alot of fun though.

I'd love to do a Coyote swap. Those sound SOOO sweet!

Rooky said:

I'd love to do a Coyote swap. Those sound SOOO sweet!

Click to expand...

Not with the stock exhaust. First thing I did was swap in some new axle backs.

Jam Racing 1 said:

Yup BLUE OVAL for life here, this engine is tired and will need a complete overhaul in a year or 2 but for now it will be mostly all stock, his money is tite and I want my car back, he has had it 4 months now and I really want his done and outta my shop but when he has enough saved again it will get done all over again...

Click to expand...

Blue Oval fan right here too

Well today we fired the 88 F150 up, she did take a bit to get running right (damn computer controlled stuff) but once she did fire it sounded a bit rough for a bit then it squared away and actually runs much better now...

We had it running quite awhile in the driveway and checking for coolant, oil or trans leaks, so far looks pretty darn good, no leaks as yet, so it looks like he will be getting it back next weekend, the old guy just ran out of power for today....
things that remain are the small details, install the hood and align it, set timing for the final time, drain out the water and put in antifreeze/coolant and put some miles on it before I let him take it back down to the valley for daily duties.....

All in all I am pleased with how it runs, no knocks,leaks or anything I see wrong.......
I will get some pics and a short video of it running next week sometime......

Nice job Jam! Looking forward to those pics and vid!

That's great Jam!

Well as promised I took a couple short vids of the truck, it does run really well, no leaks or anything bad, he is now driving it and happy to have it back.....

Nice work Jam! Sounds good