Could have been a chunk of carbon. I fired up a V-8 after several years and it sounded like the rods were coming unglued. Pulled the heads, cleaned out some carbon and it runs like new. I think it had less than 70K on it.

They should go at least 150,000 before rebuild.

My daughter's 200 had 220,000 when it broke a piston. I rebuilt it and the car had about 290,000 when it got totalled. Still have the engine and tranny. Great engines that I think were very reliable and minimal maintenance.

Good Luck.

 

I think I am going to keep this one stock, it never will be a high dollar car but with 44,700 miles I just will leave it a plain putter--putter car, the wife will drive it most of the time, I just hope I can remember where all the pieces go on reassembly!

 

Rather than rebuilding your 6, consider buying one off ebay from a 6-> 8cyl conversion. They practically give them away.

 

While you have the engine apart, have you considered the performance modifications available on the engine? For example, you can swap a mid-80s 250 head on to the block, which will give you larger intake and exhaust valves, plus a larger ID intake log, ports, and runners. Just mill it to keep the compression ratio up. You can zero deck the block, which is even more effective than milling the head, since it does not alter the shape of the compustion chamber, as would milling the head. The original Ford head gasket was a steel shimmed gasket with a compressed thickness of .025. Headgaskets made now by FelPro compress to around .050 and by NAPA, about the same. This means your compression ratio will drop about .4 or so just from swapping head gaskets. You need to mill .025 off of the head or block to keep the compression ratio stock. There is a special high performance head gasket which compresses to .038, but you have to call the maker direct to get the part number as their catalog does not list it. The maker's name starts with a "c" and I am having brain fade on the maker. If interested, I can research it for you since I bought one!

You can also get roller tip rockers, valve springs with more seat pressure, light weight, one-piece valve spring retainers, a higher lift cam, etc. The engine will look bone stock, but have more power. Of course you can also open it up more with headers and a 2v carb, if you don't mind departing from the factory look.

If you really want to get extreme, you can replace the head with a crossfire head made in Australia. This is a head that has a separately cast and bolted on intake manifold, which allows you to do wonderous things with the carb - such as a 4v carb or tri-power. www.fordsix.com has a good tech forum on this stuff.

good luck.

 

Sounds like a plan. Be sure to have the block hot-tanked and install a new (stock) oil pump. I once had a loud knocking in mine that I couldn't identify, and it turned out to be a loose timing chain. Another time I had a worn fuel pump making a loud noise. That longer block sometimes seems to "telegraph" sounds so it's hard to pinpoint. You're covering all the basics, so you should have an engine that's good for another couple of hundred thousand miles when you're done. :lol: