That's what I've always been told for plugs, and .025 for points. Don't know how true that is though...
I know this sounds lame but www.autozone.com has a bunch of tune-up specs and torque specs for your truck. It's not the know all end all of technical websites... c'mon it's Autozone here... but it's close enough to get you running. I usually go there to look up specs the first day I drag home some rust and am jonesin' to hear the thing run. Obviously get a shop manual for your pickup to fine tune it. .035 is correct for the spark plug gap. Make sure you replace your points and condensor and check the wiring to your coil to make sure it's in decent shape. Almost every manual i've had from the 50's has started off it's tuneup cycle with "polish all electrical connections and grounds under the hood." Take this to heart. Polish the grounds, and where they meet the chassis and block. Polish the starter cable. Polish the starter solenoid if it has one. If it's got a floor starter, pull off the wires and polish the connectors. This will eliminate so much BS it's not even funny. Plus you'll notice your truck will more than likely crank faster than it did before too... brighter headlights etc. Good luck with that 223. I've got a 215 sitting in my dad's barn with a 4 speed out of a '53 F100.
Yup, i've heard that too. If that's not exactly what's called for, it will certainly get it running. There's been a few point gaps that i've seen smaller around the .015 range... but I forgot what that was on... could've been on one of my bloody brit mobiles... .035/.025 is always easy to remember and should get ya goin'.
Sweet! Finally I get to fire up the truck tommarrow and even better its my birthday, my 21st birthday haha
Thanks to everyone that gave me help and advice. The truck runs great now! The only thing is that it doesnt seem to get up to speed like the other motor.
Confirm that the distributor advance mech. is working. And double check the timing. I just helped my buddy light off a 60 P/U with a 223 yesterday. No carb to start with ,jumper cables,screwdrive and a bit of gas in the manifold. And away we went!! Old bitch sounds pretty good. Get a carb on it this week and a bit of tinkering and around the block we'll go.
Well I drove the truck to the nearest muffler shop and they installed 2 inch pipping and ran a cherry bomb glass pack in the middle then to the bell flower tips. It sounds nice and mellow. The only thing is, that its smoking alittle. Im not sure if its cuz im running the 3o weight and one quart of atf? or cuz the pipping is burning off all the shit that was in it?? Any info would help
Only screw is idle mixture.turn in all the way then turn out 1 1/2.this will get you a starting point.I have a 55' ford manual.plug gap says .028-.032.Timing is 5 deg btdc. point gap .024-.026,dwell at idle 35-38.Valve lash hot is .015 intake .019 exh.This is all specs for 55' 223 ford f100 i dont know if they changed much for yours.
These motors had the "LOAD-O-MATIC" distributor, no mechanical advance all vacuum. Make sure your vacuum advance is hooked up and working. Your problem sounds like the same problem I had. My truck has a Carter YF carb on it when I bought it and it didn't have a vacuum port above the throttle plates. Ran like SHIT!! On the oil side of the discussion I can't believe nobody has said anything about ZINC. The only oil that I see in stores now that says anything about Zinc on the bottle is Valvoline Racing oils. I've seen a couple of cams go flat lately and it was thought to be caused by the lack of Zinc the newer oil formulations. I'm running Valvoline Racing VR1 30wt in my 223 '57 F100.
those tuneup number look pretty spot on. the timing is one place 223 motors changed from year to year, and car/truck. make sure your vac advance diaphram is good. easy to diagnose. take the vac line off, there should be an imidiate change in RPM. if not, take it for a spin. if you're still havin power issues without the vac advance hooked to a vac source, thats your culprit. i remember when i was collecting parts for mine i had a hell of a time finding an advance for it. PM GMC Bubba here on the board, he prolly either has one on the shelf, knows where to get them, knows an interchange or can do a conversion or something. wish ya luck, and dont forget to change yur oil/filter a few times after that "cleanout" cocktail... if you dont have a motor with a spin on filter boss, and its the canister/insert style, get rid of it. specially after flushing the motor. dennis carpenter and a couple other places sell a filter boss conversion kit to allow use of spin on filters.
Thank you everyone for the advive, it was very useful. I got the spin on oil adapter at napa and its made by mr. gasket.
Stick with the 30 wt non-detergent oil. This is a solid lifter engine and partial flow oil system,so you don't need detergent oil for the lifters and the engine is designed for any heavy trash that isn't caught by the oil filter to sink to the bottom of your oil pan and be drained out with the oil. High detergent oil just keeps it in suspension instead of allowing it to sink to the bottom of the oil pan. True story on my 57 Ford tractor with the 4 cylinder OHV engine. The tractor held 40 psi oil pressure when I bought it,and gradually the oil pressure dropped down to less than 5 psi after I started using it. I figured the guy had STP'd it to death to hide the low oil pressure,and figured I was due for a crank kit. Since I needed the tractor right away to do some bushhogging,I figured I'd just change the oil filter and the oil for the time being,and drop the pan later to swap out cranks when I had more time. Imagine my surprise when I unscrewed the oil filter,and the damn thing felt like it weighed 10 lbs! I put new 30wt non-detergent oil in it,installed a new filter,and when I fired it up,it held 50 psi oil pressue when warmed up. I used it for a couple of hours to cut some grass,and the oil pressure dropped down to 40 psi by the time I was through. I left the oil in it this time but put a new oil filter on,and it jumped back up to 50 psi again. What had happened is the previous owner of the tractor didn't know what he was doing,and changed the oil and put high detergent oil in it. This caused all the years of sludge to break lose in the engine and clog up the oil filter,which caused the oil pressure to drop. He had obviously changed the oil and filter again when he put it up for sale because the oil was clean and the oil pressure was up. The new filter got clogged up again after I started using it,and I got most of it out when I changed the filter and installed non-detergent oil. The last filter swap was to eliminate the last of the sludge. Now I just run straight 30wt non-detergent oil in it,and have no problems whatsoever with oil pressure,base pressure,or oil burning. The ONLY time you want to run high detergent oil in these engines is if the engine has been rebuilt and had nothing but high detergent oil in it since the rebuilt. NEVER run high detergent oil in a old engine that was built before around 1960 unless it came from the factory with hydraulic lifters. As for the Zinc,I'm not so sure this is a problem with the non-detergent oils because removing the zinc was to prevent damage to catalytic converters,and there has never been a car or truck built with a catalytic converter that used non-detergent oil. If you want to be on the safe side,find a oil additive that is advertised as having high zinc levels in it. If you are positive your engine no longer has any sludge or trash in it and you have a spin off filter,you MIGHT consider running a good diesel oil like Delo 1300DX 15W-40 high detergent oil. You can buy it by the gallon at any Advance Auto or similar stores. Diesels don't have catalytic conveters either,so there was no need to lower the Zinc levels in diesel oils.
The NAPA store brand. I buy it by the case so I always have it on hand if I need a quart. Just tell them you want 30 weight non-detergent oil.
Yes. I haven't ran this tractor in well over a year now (bought a newer one with more power) though,which means the oil in it was bought maybe 2 years ago. I think that is around when the oil companies started removing zinc from their motor oils. I doubt they removed the zinc from the non-detergent oils because they aren't suitable for modern engines with hydraulic lifters anyhow,but I will use a zinc additive the next time I change the oil it it to make sure I'm on the safe side. I rebuilt one of these old 4 cylinder tractor engines a couple of years ago that had a bad cam,and the cheapest cam I could find was $300. No way am I going to take a chance on killing the cam in it when the additive is available. Please note that I haven't bought a case of 30wt non-detergent in a couple of years now because I buy it a couple of cases at a time and haven't used it all up yet. This means I haven't read he labels on the non-detergent oil that is being sold now. If Zinc is listed as one of the additives on the label,and/or it meets all the earlier requirements,there is no need to buy a additive. As I have said before,this oil has never been suitable for modern cars and trucks with hydraulic lifters and catalytic converters to start with,so there is no reason for the oil companies to have changed it. It is still made and sold primarily for farm equipment and antique autos. If I can't find the zinc additive,I will drop the oil pan and clean it and the oil pickup screen out really good,and then start using 15w-40 Delo 1300DX diesel oil and change the filter every time I see the oil pressure starting to drop until the new detergent oil flushes out any remaining sludge.
I had a 223 in my 55 Customline. It was a good little motor, but it wouldn't get out of its own way. Maybe it was just the stock gearing and the Ford-O-Matic, but I replaced it with a 302, C4 and a Granada rear end. I know that a lot of the old roundy-round dirt guys liked the 223, so there's something to be said for that. I did run straight 30 in mine and it seemed to be fine. As for the ATF trick, I have a Camaro 305 in my '62 Chevy pickup. When I first fired it up, it had been sitting for a while and I only had 5 cylinders working. Did a compression check and had ZERO compression on 1,2 and 7. I pulled the plugs on those cans and squirted some ATF into the chambers, replaced the plugs and fired it up. I let it run at about 2,000 RPM for 15 minutes and all three started firing. Turned out the rings had seized into the grooves. The ATF created artificial compression enough to get a few good explosions and ZOOOM! The rings freed up and now she runs like a top. I changed the oil and went about my merry way. ATF is good for a lot of things when it comes to old engines.
Yeah I hear ya, I do plan on doing the v8 swap eventually. Its just that I have a bunch of projects and they need to be done first.
i use napa 30# ND all the time but not in a vehicle,use it in vaccumm pumps. napa 30# should be fine in your motor. here is some 223 ford info for easy id: 223 is the only ford ohv 6 that has the dizzy on the passenger side.
Hey Arthur, I'm with ya' on the detergent and non-detergent thing. I forgot to add that this is a rebuilt engine. On the old engine definately non-detergent oil. The Autozone(Coastal) ND30 doesn't say anything about containing zinc. STP oil treatment still says it contains Zinc.
Put your NON- detergent oil out in the barn along with your buggy whips. Non detergent oil has pretty much ZIP for a additive package. This is good for somethings like air compressors but not for engines made since OH !! 1955 or so.
Pretty much have to agree with you. Most engines up until the advance of lubrication chemistry in the 60's only were good for 60k or so before things started to go south. I realize that a lot of other technology came along as well, but oil without some kind of cleaning agent is like taking a shower without soap. Take the advice to phyically clean out the pan and any other cover you can remove and get the crap out of, including the sump screen, a good spray solvent is Sea Foam, the pressurized version is the same as the additive, and the stuff has done miracles for me at times. Take a toothbrush to the small stuff (my wife hates it when I use hers), and clean, clean, clean. Use your compresser to clear as much as possible from every crack and crevice before you button her back up, be sure to find all the oil passages and put some pressure to those. If you can, take apart the rockers and do the same with those. We are talking less than a hundred bucks of very well spent money! I have a 61 223 with 97K original on it and she still ticks right along with this kind of care. BTW straight 30w works great, and I put a bit of the Sea Foam in with every oil change. If your engine is using oil, start moving up the viscosity chart. Good luck, and think twice about parting with the ol inline 6!
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