1961 Ford F500 project.

[Eugen]

The pan and the bottom are a nice surprise! I would not be worried about any thick stuff in the oil clogging things. It'll clean up well in no time.

[propane1]

Nothing wrong in that engine. Just driver.

Noel

[JSinMO]

Had a little time to mess around this evening. I scrubbed, and scraped, and washed, and cleaned. I don’t know if I’d eat off it, but I think that’s about as clean as I’m gonna get it. Should be plenty fine to hold oil!

I don’t think I’ve ever seen something with so much dirt and grime caked to the outside side of it! I must have scrapped, sanded, and wiped 10 pounds of dirt and grease off! But once cleaned up, and a $5 paint job and it looks pretty good!

Once I get the pick up and the block clean I’ll be ready to slap it back together!

[MattA]

Looking good

Maybe I missed it, any plans for the truck when its finished up?

[Eugen]

Looks perfect to me!

[propane1]

Now you did it Jeff. You gotta paint the whole truck inside and out.

Noel

[JSinMO]

Looking good

Maybe I missed it, any plans for the truck when its finished up?

It’s just going to be for our personal use. Maybe haul what we need around here. There are a couple of small local car shows and tractor/ farm shows I might take it too once in awhile. Hopefully just enjoy using it!

@propane1 The thought of painting it up has crossed my mind! I don’t know know that I want to fix it up too much, I might not want to put it to work if it’s all shiny!

[JSinMO]

Here’s today Herbie the old truck update. I think I’ll call this one the good, the bad, and the odd!

Let’s start with the good.
I started the day making some templates of the oil pan gasket, and valve cover gasket in case I every need to make some.

With the oil pan cleaned painted and ready to go I sprayed the gasket with a some copper coat for a little extra protection, and so hopefully it would stay in place while I get the pan in place. I’m not sure if this is a common practice or not but I tie a little sewing string through to bolt holes to help keep the gasket in place too.

I slipped the pan into place and started the bolt. Once they are started I know my gasket is in the right place so I can cut my strings and put the last few in.

I attached the pickup tube with new seal to the pump. Ford recommends some thread sealer on the threads where the pick up goes through the pan. With that all loosely assembled
I ran up all the pan bolts.
Speaking of tools we don’t use anymore I dug out the old speed wrench for this job!

I got everything tight and put a new oil filter in and the filled it with 10W30 high mileage oil with a zinc additive for our run test. This is where I know I could never be a professional mechanic. Besides being way to slow, I get very nervous when it’s time to start something up after I’ve been in it. I usually check everything 10 times, stop and think if I’ve done everything I was suppose too and then check it all again!


I decided to crank the engine over with the coil wire disconnected so the engine could build oil pressure befor it started. That plan work well.

Now let’s throw in some of the bad!
First item.
I had one last look at the bottom end before I put the pan on. Everything seems fine to me, except for the timing chain.
I don’t know how much play a Ford 272 from 1955 is supposed to have but is really seem excessive to me.
What do I do about it? I thought about it for awhile and here’s what I came up with.
The engine runs fine, makes no noise, and runs at a relatively low RPM compared to modern engines. If I go after the timing set I might as well figure on an engine rebuild.
Having considered all this I decided to run it! At least for now and see where it goes.

Second item.
When I cranked the engine to build oil pressure it didn’t take lone to drain the battery dead.

I pulled the battery out and put the charger on it.
The cable connections were of course loose and dirty, with a terribly rusty ground!

Enough of that! Back to the good!
With the battery charged and clean, good connections it’s time to crank it up.
The engine immediately stated as soon as I bumped the key! And I’ve got oil pressure, I see my fresh oil on the rocker arms!

A quick check underneath and no leaks!
A couple more gaskets, and a couple of nuts and it looks like a complete engine again.

With that I fired it back up and drove it out of the shop. Things seem to be functioning as they should at this point!

And now for the odd

When I went into the shop yesterday I noticed brake fluid under the truck.

It’s coming from the passenger rear drum. That’s one of the cylinders I “reconditioned”. I wasn’t happy seeing that, but what can you do.
Well I checked it today and it’s not leaking. I drove the truck back and forth in front of the shop and I have brakes and no leaks! How does a wheel cylinder just spring a leak and then stop? it’s been my experience that once they start leaking they don’t stop. One of you will have to explain this to me! I guess I’ll keep an eye on it and see if it start leaking again.

Next step will be the high idle run test. I’ll be checking these items.

Points dwell

Timing

Charging system

Cooling system

Another question for you guys, what am I not thinking of that I need to look at under the hood? I got to be forgetting something!

Before I do any of that I gotta clean up the shop, I made a heck of a mess again!

[Gordy]

So once you got the battery connections clean and tight, did the starter spin good and strong? With the oily/greasy engine like you described I have had starters that seemed real week. Oil had gotten in and formed a black layer on the commutator that acted as a insulator, some 400 git emery cloth cleaned that up, then run a pick between the commutator segments to ensure they are clean and no shorts can form.


Gordy

[DavidBarkey]

When I went into the shop yesterday I noticed brake fluid under the truck.
@JSinMO
from in side the drum or out side ?

Outside , bleeder screw or line not sealing .

Inside , cup seals hard from age . Will flair and seal when warm and under pressure . Will leak when cold and no pressure usually over night when cold and not in use . They may or may not soften with exposure to new fluid . After all they are just a hydraulic seal but made to alcohol based break fluid in stead of oil based fluid .