1965 F250’s Rejuvenation

While it is still off the engine I would go back and touch up the 2 valves that had a small weep as it wont get better with use only worse.

cobbadog wrote: While it is still off the engine I would go back and touch up the 2 valves that had a small weep as it wont get better with use only worse.

^^^^^^ What He said^^^^^^

Urchy,
You may have this info but written in my book.
Hydraulic valve lifters, screw down until quiet then 3/4 turn.
Cylinder head tension 75 ft lb
David.

Cobbadog and hayseed, I wasn’t able to unfortunately. Had borrowed the gear to do it but gave it back yesterday afternoon. I do agree with what you said and would have if I was able to.

Wouldyou, cheers mate. When you sent that through I would have been elbow deep in oil. What you said was pretty much what I did.

The head is back on but I ran out of time to sort out the cooling and fuel side of things. Dammit, fingers crossed for tomorrow.

I do have 2 questions though. The lifters were still primed. Despite all of my logical thinking of they will pump up anyway I took them out and stripped them down to release the pressure so I could see the preload. I feel I didn’t need to do it but my lack of experience urged me to strip them down anyway. What do you do in this situation? Obviously they aren’t always easily accessed.

Second question, I want to check head bolt tension at some point after a couple heat cycles. Do you do it and if so when do you decide its time to check them? 3 heat cycles, that’s what I was thinking?

Thanks Urchy

Lifters, I make sure they are primed before chucking them in and then just chuck them and adjust the valve clearances as instructed to in the manual
Some hydraulic lifters dont need any adjustments and some need to be, each manufacturer has their own way

I check head bolts or studs once on assembly and thats it
I did on one occasion on a motor I was habing issues with re tension when hot
My normal practice is at assembly only as that is all any other motor gets coming down the production line

Paul

Urchy,
My lifter advice was with motor running.
David.

Was there not any instructions with the head gasket set? They usually spec if the head needs re-tensioning.
Cheers Steve

Cheer Mrsmackpaul, so many methods out there. Good to here how you do it and I’ll take on the advice for the next one.

Thanks wouldyou. I took the play out of the lifter then went 3/4 turn but without it running. Should be a similar result I hope.

Blackduck59, it was a Fel-Pro VRS kit. The A4 sheet mentioned some of the other gaskets but not the head which surprised me as it would be the most important. I expected it to come with torque settings etc but it didn’t.

Urchy87, the VRS gasket kit I purchased for the Bedford came with no instructions at all!
Good luck with the start up.
Cheers Pierre

Cheers Pierre, I was surprised to not have the information with the kit. Mitigates them from any mishaps I guess.

Today I tidied up the remaining pieces of the puzzle and turned the key. The good news it runs and there was no bad noises. That’s a win in my books. The water pump has now decided to develop a leak after being dry for that period. It also only likes to run with choke or on a high idle so I’m guessing there could be a decent vacuum leak or an idle circuit issue, this was there (but worse) before removing the head. Investigating that will be on the cards next. Likely to be a few weeks before I can get back to it though.