Just got my truck running. Had to do most of it outside as the Mustang resides in the garage. It's been raining off and on so it took much longer than expected!

I had a motor w/150k, an oil pan with the drain plug welded up and a clutch that was on it's last legs. Pulled the motor and trans and did a seal-n-shine. Tore it down and pulled rod and main caps. Bearings looked pretty decent. Replaced the oil pump, oil pan, timing gears and chain, freeze plugs, all gaskets, wire wheeled all the carbon off the tops of the pistons and buttoned it back up. Both heads were cracked so I had to get some new castings. The local machine shop ground the valves and put all my old hardware back into the new heads. $640 for new castings (ouch)! Rebuilt the injectors, bead blasted the intake and exhaust mannys, etc.

Also, pulled my heater box and replaced the heater core and evaporator core. Already posted a thread on that. Was having trouble getting it started and determined the timing was off. Pulled the distributor and repositioned the dist driveshaft. It was one tooth off. Turned the key and it fired on the first kick! Drove it down to the muffler shop where they welded up my y-pipe that I cut to get the motor out. So it's back on the road and now I can concentrate on my next project. '27 Model T, lakes style with a track nose and powered by a turbocharged 2.3L 4 cylinder. Life is good!

 

Dang! That is a lot of work. Where are the pics?

 

Dang Crazy, I didn't even think about taking pics! I've done so many of these seal-n-shines it was just a project to me. I guess I should've done a writeup. I took a couple of pics but that was only for reference so I'd know where all the wires and vac lines went to.

Anyhow, I inherited the pickup from my dad. He bought it new and passed away in '98. When I got it, it had 29K and a towing package. I've been driving it ever since with no problems at all. Probably the most dependable vehicle I've ever owned!

Here's a reference pic of the motor before I yanked it...................



Here it is after reinstallation........................





Nobody around to help me R&R the tranny so I made a basic trans adapter for my floorjack. Took about 15 minutes using scrap lumber. I just lifted out the saddle on my cheap floorjack, used a 1" x close pipe nipple as a spacer and bolted it to the floorjack. This thing made all the difference in the world! Made R&Ring the tranny a piece of cake!









Heater box was alot of fun..........................







Was tired of the headliner fabric hitting me on the top of the head so I pulled it out and reglued it......................









Still have to install front shocks but I'll get to that next week.

 

Nice cleaning/restore, makes me almost want to drool, lol. Some of the things you did to the engine should make it run better ofcourse but also give you a little more power&torque, am i right?

 

I Hafta say, that motor looks dam nice. Solid work d00d, wish I had the skillz to get work like that done! All in due time I'm sure...

 

Nice and shinny! I like the Jack idea.