Ford 8000 engine rebuild

[ford401]

Hello all,

I'm restoring a 68 Ford 8000. When I got the tractor, the motor was stuck, and I have no history on it. I decided to disassemble tractor and the motor. To start off I drained the oil and found about 5 gallons of water/antifreeze mixed in there. So right away I figured the cylinders cavitated. So since then I've taken the motor all the way apart. Now i'm not an engine builder but the inside of this motor really doesn't look too bad. The main and rod bearings have little to no scratches or grooves on them. 2 of the 6 cylinders were "frozen" in place, and I hit them out with a block of wood from the bottom to the top. These cylinders had some rust built up, so I cleaned them up and honed them. There is some pitting in these, but unless the pitting has miniature caviation holes in them, i'm not seeing how 5 gallons could have gotten mixed into the oil. So at this point im not sure what to do....the tractor will not be in the field working very much for the rest of its life, I just want to get it running and complete small tasks with it. Where else could this coolant/water have come from? Is there a common place to be looking for cracks? or freeze plugs? Also how much pitting is too much for this motor?

thanks in advance! I'm sure ill have a million more questions!

 

[ford401]

Here are some pictures i've taken along the way.

 

[Bern]

Assuming you have this engine block stripped completely down, what I'd do is put the petcock back in, pour about an inch of water into the block, up to the level of the freeze plug hole, and see if anything leaks onto the floor. If that doesn't show anything, I'd put all the soft plugs back in and make a block off plate where the water pump goes, and fill the block clear full to the top with water. If you see nothing coming out of the cylinder walls, take some compressed air and a blow nozzle with an angled tip and blow the inside of the cylinder walls to dislodge any possible contamination that might be in a hole. If that is still not conclusive, I'd bolt the head back on and pressurize the cooling system after filling it with water.

See my post below about the TW35 with regards to where to look for cavitation.

 

[ford401]

OK thanks!

like in the picture of the block, I did not take the camshaft, front plate, or those 2 gears off the front of the block. I wasn't sure if i really needed to or not. Im assuming I can still do this method with leaving that stuff where it is??

 

[shaun wallace]

I have honed cylinders,washed down with starting fluid or B-12 and fill with strait antifreeze. It will seep out crack or pinhole.

 

[Bern]

Yes, you could leave all that stuff on.

 

[showcrop]

It is hard to be sure, but the bearing that is shown appears to have a little wear that the shop manual says is due to dirt contamination.

 

[ford401]

That is the worst looking bearing out of all of them, and that groove is not very deep at all. Would anyone advise against reusing that? like I said this isn't an everyday used tractor.

 

[Bern]

I would not hesitate at all to reuse that bearing, assuming you're going to reuse all the rest. That bearing did exactly what it was designed to, and that is to absorb the contamination that came into because it is the softer metal. The resulting grove has reduced the surface area of the bearing by maybe 2%. It's no big deal.

 

[Tracy Brown]

A friend of mine who has been a long time ford mechanic fills the coolant cavity with gasoline to check/find crack or hole or cavitation. It will seep
through when water will not.

 

[the tractor vet]

Well not being and expert on Fords but having rebuilt a lot of engines in my life time i will tell you like this , If i was doing it even for myself i would send it off to my one friend and have him put the boring bar to it and bore her out to the next size where the block will clean up and take a honing . If the block was cracked in a bore we would install a repair sleeve and borre it to what the rest cleaned up at , six new pistons and rings , rods would be rebushed and checked . Crank would be checked for out of round , if it mic'ed good then a micro polish would be in order and new bearing installed . I would install new cam bearings now that you have it this far . Then comes the head here i would have it pressure tested , checked for flateness and do the valves making sure they are at the correct higth as if they are not setting with in spec.'s and compression is down on the engine due to poor ring seat she will be a hard starter from day one . Ya have gone this far no sense in being cheap and taking short cuts now. just MHO

 

[bobwhitecar]

I would put about a inch deep hard block in it,

 

[ford401]

I fill the block with water and was able to find some water seeping into the cyl walls! Tiny amounts, but I?m sure more was going into when engine was hot. I?m going to take it and have it bored and sleeved now, I?m having trouble getting the cam out, is there a trick to getting these lifters out??

 

[showcrop]

(quoted from post at 10:05:04 12/23/19) I fill the block with water and was able to find some water seeping into the cyl walls! Tiny amounts, but I?m sure more was going into when engine was hot. I?m going to take it and have it bored and sleeved now, I?m having trouble getting the cam out, is there a trick to getting these lifters out??

I haven't pulled the cam out of my 9000 but others that I have, all you need to do is turn it upside down.

 

[ford401]

(quoted from post at 11:05:16 12/23/19)

(quoted from post at 10:05:04 12/23/19) I fill the block with water and was able to find some water seeping into the cyl walls! Tiny amounts, but I?m sure more was going into when engine was hot. I?m going to take it and have it bored and sleeved now, I?m having trouble getting the cam out, is there a trick to getting these lifters out??

I haven't pulled the cam out of my 9000 but others that I have, all you need to do is turn it upside down.

Turn the block upside down? I'm assuming that will move the lifters out and allow the cam to slide out?

 

[Bern]

The lifters only come out the bottom of the block. By turning the block upside down, you can then remove the
cam since the lifters will fall away from it. You can then extract the lifters by hand or with a magnet.

 

[strum456]

Don't forget to put the lifters in first when your reassembling the engine (I will only do that once)

 

[ford401]

Can anyone tell me if these are standard size main bearings out of my 401? If you can't read them they say FORD "C5NE6333" A2 B2 and "C5NE 6A338" as well as a "G" and "E" in a
square and 1 says "KX" the other says "GX"thanks!