ford 302 help!

I was driving my ford the other day (leaving the parking lot at the local burger king) when some p***erby says "hey your leaking coolant!" I pull behind the BK to take a look, and sure as **** coolant is not leaking, but geysering out of the side of the head so hard that its hitting the inner fender well about a foot away(not from the head gasket, or any type of freeze plug but from the side of the head.

So tonight I get the fun and joys of pulling the head off to see what can be done (if anything). My question is (having never done this before on my 302) now that i have the intake off and am looking at the pushrods, do I need to keep them in order? And do I loosen the rocker arms to get them out? Or should leave the rocker arms alone and take them out when I unbolt the heads?

Sorry for the noob question, but the heads I am used to dealing with always had hydraulic lifters and no pushrods (watercooled vw's).

 

Loosen your rocker arms and slide the pushrods out. You can keep them in order...I like to...but many folks just toss 'em in a coffee can or something and that works too, I guess!

Get a service manual and loosen your head bolts in the reverse order of the suggested tightening pattern for best results. (It'll be a circular pattern...Fords use 10 head bolts per side, so it's easy to figure out).

Sounds like you have a real issue with that motor!!!

 

Thanks for the quick reply! Thats pretty much what i figured but i wanted to be safe rather than sorry! haha. I am pretty bummed and really surprised about the location of the leak. I put up pics of the offending head after i get it off.

One more question though, should i keep the rocker arms in order, or am I making this more difficult than it needs to be?

 

I'd just back off the rocker arms enough to remove the pushrods but not enough to remove the rockers at this point. If you pull them do not mix the rocker and the fulcrum parts. Keep them together. It sounds as if your head is toast, so you may have to swap the rockers over on it's replacement. So remove them one at a time and swap them then.
Good Luck!

 

Drill & tap the hole & install a br*** plug, provided there is enough meat to do that.

 

you may luck out with just replacing the headgaskit. but keep every thing in order. dont reuse the head bolts.

 

I always keep everything in order. Pushrods, rockers, all of it. Listen to these guys. I do have several sets of heads if you need one, and it sure does sound like you do.

 

I just might..... I dropped it off at the local machine shop today and am awaiting word back as to what the damage really is.