resto
Member
Hey everyone, I am a mopar guy and have bought my first classic Ford Truck. She is a 76 F100 long bed with a 1978 400cu motor with Elderbrock 4bbl intake manifold and a Holley 600cfm 4bbl carb, and a '78 c6 tran with 9" rear end. It has long tube headers with dual cherry bombs. I traded an 89 Celica for this truck and I just love the body style. It needed a radiator when I first got it, and after changing the radiator I noticed I needed new head gaskets. I changed all the gaskets and fixed the leak from the heads, and now the motor turns over but will not start up. It is popping and gas and air are blowing from the top of carb. It sounds like the distributor is 180 degrees off to me. It would start before the new radiator, but I wouldn't let it run for more than ten seconds. I only did that once. After the new radiator and before I installed new Fel-Pro gaskets it still cranked up. I bought a new battery because the other battery that came with it was way to small. During the head gasket job, someone came up and got all my rocker arms out of order on the passenger side, so I put them on as best as I could remember. Since the exhaust and intake rockers are the same, I was told that they would be fine if they were in a different order. They were all torqued down. I did have to order 6 new rocker arm bolts because 6 of them were no good. The new ones came with washers, but the original ones had no washers on them. I torqued everything down to spec, but was wondering if the rocker arms may be a reason why it is acting up this way. I believe the timing needs to be rotated 180 degrees and was wondering if anyone of you Ford guys had any tricks up your sleeve to diagnose and any easy ways to set the timing back. Also, before the head gasket replacement I was having coolant leaking from my oil pan. After the new gaskets, I filled the radiator with only water in case there was still any problems, and there is still water leaking from the oil pan. I ordered new oil pan gaskets thinking that was why it was leaking, but haven't replaced them yet. I just dont understand why it would still be getting in the oil pan after doing a succesfull head gasket, intake gasket, valley pan,and exhaust manifold gasket replacement. Like I've said, this is my first classic Ford and can use all the pointers I can get. I really appreciate any and all responses. I'm ready to get this sexy hot rod on the road. I will post some pictures up soon. If I left out any important information please let me know. I could really use some advise from anyone that is familiar with these Ford 400cu motors. Thank you all very, very much. I will be out there today hoping to get it on the road this evening. -Jeremy