So I got my engine out of the trailer and up onto the hoist yesterday. And today I got it mounted on an engine stand, pulled the valve covers, and pullled the oil pan. Got oil everywhere, and antifreeze. Lots of fun. Here is what I know so far: D20E-6015-AB So it's from a 1972 Ford Fairlane, right? Anybody know what "3B6" cast under that number means? Could anybody give me any info on this engine from the pictures up at: http://www.ruttencutter.com/49ford/ Under the 302 teardown 1 section. There are two pages of photos, and the second page has all of the engine internal photos. I'm trying to determine if my main goal should be to rebuild the motor, or if I should take the information gained from the picture and go forward to trying to get it to run and then clean up the externals. The inside looks decent to me, but I don't know what I'm looking at. I would appreciate any insights If anybody wants to link specific photos to the forum for further review, please feel free to. If you need me to pull numbers off anything else in the engine, let me know. I'll sure try to! I took Thurs and Fri off work to mess around with this engine, so hopefully I can get somewhere before Tuesday Thanks! -Scott
The 3B6 is a date code - you should be able to search online & find out how to decode it if you're interested. Well, I can't see the bores or the bearings, but that thing looks pretty damn clean to me & very likely rebuilt in its recent past. If the bores look good, I'd pull the center main cap & one or two rod caps to check those bearings. I'd check the timing chain with a degree wheel to see if it needs any help - or you could just pull the front cover. If all looks well, I'd put it back together & run it.
I'm in the middle of uploading larger images as I type. Maybe you can see the bores a little better with these. Check out the bigger photos link: http://www.ruttencutter.com/49ford/302-teardown-1-large/index.html -Scott
Still can't see the bores - pop the heads off that beast & have a peek down in there. Saw one head with minor rust from (probably) condensation in the rocker area near the rear - prolly need to pull those rockers & clean 'em well. Looking in the one exhaust port w/o a header stub - doesn't look like much carbon buildup (=low mileage?). Pull the plugs & see what they look like - they'll tell a good part of the story too. I'd be inclined to invest in a complete overhaul gasket kit, tear it apart, clean everything, replace those freeze plugs, bolt it back together & run it as-is unless I found something significant. It looks good from what I can see in the pics.
Plastigauge Read up on it's usage Scott, your garage is cleaner than my livingroom! Looks like the engine sat dry a long time to me, thus the rust coloration on the mains. Pop the heads off and take a few shots down the cylinders.
Okay, Two other questions. 1. Where can I find the freeze plugs on this motor 2. Is there any good way to identify a cam? Thanks -S
Looks like a pretty clean engine. There is a book at Hastings on rebuilding Ford 302 engines that will be very helpful for you when getting that thing bolted back together. Youll need the torque specs, most are in the book, and a quality torque wrench. Check your motor mounts, the molded rubber isloator seperates after many years of use, but their cheap for new ones. But if they look good, just clean them up and use them. Looks like a decent C4. Did you make sure to get the shift linkages off the car? The starter is the same for either the larger or the smaller flex-plate sizes, so no worries there if it dont work or need replacing latter. But if you go to replace the torque converter or flex-plate, you WILL have to know which size one it is. Also, when you go to put that thing in the car, if you have clearence issuses with the oil pan, I have a Mustang dual sump oil pan Ill give you free if you pay the shipping. You'd have to buy the pump and the pick-up tubes if it will save you a couple of inches compared to that front sump pan you got. Ill measure the depth of the front part of the pan if you need. Oh, FWIW, Ford F100, 1983-87 (I think on the dates) came with a rear sump pan and its front depth is even closer (more front clearance) than the Mustang pan. Another thing, if you get the JEGS or Summit aluminum water pumps, be prepared, there are two different bolt patterns Ford uses, and all of the aftermarket ONLY uses the newer larger diamater bolt pattern on aluminum pumps. So you might need to get a differnt pulley or re-drill the water pump bolt pattern. IF you plan on running power steering or A/C, just accept the fact that you might have headaches than you would have had with the flat-head due to the amazing number of parts combinations Ford used throughout the years.
Freeze plugs are the circular things that look like inverted jar lids. they vary in size from about 1.5" down to about 1/2" in diameter. They're located all around the block, and their purpose is to pop out if the coolant in your block freezes in cold weather in order to prevent cracking the block. You need to sit down with a book and read about doing this before jumping into it I think as for the camshaft, a lot of times the end of them have the make and model numbers engraved in them. Then you can cross reference that by getting info from the manufacturer about it.. I mean you CAN just measure the lobes and get an idea of what sort of camshaft it is, like if it is a performance, or fuel economy, or RV/truck cam...
1 - The freeze plugs are along the side of the block - three on each side - looks like you've got two that have been replaced with rubber expand-o plugs instead of proper plugs & at least one of your remaining plugs looks "iffy". Any decent parts store should be able to sell you a complete set of freeze/welch plugs - pony up the extra $5 & get 'em in br*** & put 'em in with a little aviation permatex around the edges. 2 - It's the long skinny shaft in the middle of the engine with lots of little bumps on it - sorry couldn't resist. What exactly are you asking? If it's an aftermarket cam, there may be markings on the end of it that might ID it. What is your objective with this engine? Do you just want to see if it's worth rebuilding? Do you want to see if you can run it as-is? How much do you want to spend? What do you expect to get out of it? The answers to these questions will help you get better answers to some of your questions...
Oh, I have a book and I'm reading as I get lost. Got the intake and heads off. Photos are up here: http://www.ruttencutter.com/49ford/302-teardown-head/ Here are my goals, in order: 1. build a reliable engine 2. do it once 3. do it once I bought this engine out of a car that was "meant for the track" as the owner put it. It was supposidly recenty rebuilt and then the guy building the car lost interest. Right now I want to evaluate things as is and see if a rebuild is in order. If not, I want to clean the engine up, get rid of the rust and paint it, then try to get it started and running. When it is done it will be a long term replacement for the dying flathead that is currently in my 49 ford. I left the heads on the other side of the engine so I can do a compression test. The spark plugs looked to have a puffy black coating--just like my flathead. Running rich, right? Thanks for holding my hand through this. If anybody is in the Madison, WI area and wants to teach me a thing or two--drop me a line -Scott
If you want to be sure the engine has some mileage left in it you'll need to take a look at the cylinder bores and peek underneath the rod and main caps. (Don't mix the caps up, they'll need to go back on in the exact same positions if everything looks good.) There's a flat pad cast into the block on the the right front of the engine where the head meets the block. If you clean this up you should see a stamped code that will tell you the exact date the engine was originally ***embled at the factory. This is a more precise way of dating the engine than the casting numbers--sometimes castings sat on the shelf for a while at the factory. The oil pan was obviously hacked up for some sort of custom installation in the past, but you might need to get a rear or dual sump pan to fit the engine in your '49. I haven't done that swap so I don't know for sure.
If yer putting it in a shoebox, you will definitely need a rear sump pan. Bronco, 4x4 truck, & Fox-bodied (Mustang, capri, T-bird, fairmont, etc) cars should have a dual-sump pan & the correct pickup tube. If you can find one, though, the late 60s-early 70s econoline Van pans are probably even better - they're nearly flat with a mini center sump - and a unique pickup. Plugs look rich - but better rich than lean (in general). Pistons look fairly clean - no major carbon buildup. But the chambers tell me this thing was running very rich - the exhaust valves are covered in soot. Normally, they'd be tan there. That open plenum Torker intake & a big carb prolly contributed to a soggy bottom end. The heads look like the good 68-72 heart-shaped chamber heads. Nothing exotic, but good basic heads. Can't see any cross-hatching in the picutres - can you see any in person? Is there a ridge at the top? (if so, see if it's carbon, or wear by trying to s****e at it a bit) Head gaskets are FOMOCO - that doesn't mean they've never been off before, but who knows? The rust in the lifter valley tells me it has been sitting a while. I think it will be fine though. Tear it down, hot tank (or bake) the block & heads, check everything for wear & go from there. Pop that center main cap off & snap another pic or two of it & the crank journal. Do the same for a pair of rods (don't mix the caps). This thing looks run-able as-is to me. As for a compression check - you prolly shoulda done a leak-down check prior to pulling the one head. All a check will do on that one side is tell you the condition of that side. I'd see about priming that engine before spinning it over for a compression check...
No cross-hatching. No ridge. Walls look smooth. Do you really think tanking is necessary? I'll pop the mains and rod caps this evening thanks again for the info. good to know I'm on track. Thanks, -Scott
Scott, you will want to see crosshatching as a sign that the honing was done by a machine shop. From the way it looks, the cylinders were honed out at home. You should scratch some carbon off of the piston tops to determine if they bored over, or if those are the stock pistons put back in there. The engine looks runnable to me, but that's just eyeballing it. Nothing looks majorly out of whack. Then again, it might have never been run long, if it was in a project car that never saw the track. You'll be learning all kinds of good information while you do this though One thing that helped me keep everything in line was labeled zip lock bags. I also took a 2x4 board and drilled a bunch of holes in it to stick the push rods and their lifters and the rockers and valves all together, so I got them all back in the same cylinder they corresponded to.. the 2x4 was just to store them for the year it took me to dink around with my small block project... That way I couldn't possibly forget where each one went.
Lookin thru the bigger pics, I see the bottom of the skirts on some of the pistons look scored. Could be just oil or whatnot on them but you might want to check them.
Okay, I got all of my pictures up at: http://www.ruttencutter.com/49ford/ My todo list for tonight is to plastiguage the bearings. After that, I'm looking for a little bit of guidance on where to get started. The cylindar walls do not have a lip from the piston rings--but they are also fairly smooth--I can't see much of the honing that was done. There is also some carbon built up on the piston heads, and on both sides of the valves. It is sooty black carbon, and not oily, so do I need to remove the valves one at a time to clean them off the stem side? So from what you can see, what would you suggest I should do before ****oning the engine back together again? Thanks much. -Scott
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