1965 F250’s Rejuvenation

I should have been a bit clearer with my McDonald comment. Yes they are the king of mosquito control but are a stationary engine nothing to do with your fine looking truck.
As for the Lucas treatment I have not heard of this brand before but I do live in the back of a cave at times. Nulon make some great oil additives too but have never tried any of the anti smoke treatments only the slippery stuff to reduce friction for a smoother running engine.

Commonest cause of smoke would be oil down the valve stems........this kind of smoke gets bad if you just idle and move around the yard,but generally clears up once you get out on the road.

cobbadog, the Lucas product I used is called an ‘Oil Stabilaser’ for reducing yuck noises, basically looks like really thick oil. Says it also reduces smoke, not sold on that but did quieter the engine.

JOHN.K, thanks mate. When I had the head apart I do recall some of the valves having a touch of play in the guides. Cylinders 3, 4 and 6 had a bit of oil on the plug. It’s only really sat around idling with a few stabs of the throttle here and there. Be interesting to see what happens when it has to do a bit of work.

The new windscreen went in today and had the rear screen rubber replaced at the same time as it leaked like a sieve. All the rain we had soaked the carpet. We love and we learn…..again. The guy who did the job said it looked to be the original screen as it had been set in place with wax. There was no signs of rust around either so that was positive. Ignore the pink steering wheel. I have been trialing different methods of covering it. That is some cohesive bandage (vet wrap) which we had here. It worked extremely well. I’ll be getting some in black to do the full wheel to see how it goes. I think it’s a winner. Will be wrapping the steering wheel spokes with macrame cord to break it up a bit. Hopefully it comes together well and covers the imperfections until I decide what I want to do. I feel a smaller steering wheel would be more practicable but there is a part of me that would like to keep it original so will likely end up getting a reproduction one.

I would not be going for a smaller s/wheel. There is a reason for the large wheels on the older trucks. Non of them had power steering. It would be far
to hard to steer / turn. The legal eagles may also take you to task if you were pulled up and inspected. Just my thoughts. No expert. Dave.

Cheers Inter-Action. That is something which has crossed my mind. Will probably be more evident when I’m driving it a bit. Hasn’t seemed too bad with the couple trips up to the house so far.

Urchy87, I spoke to an engineer/truck restorer mate yesterday. He says he first thing to do about smoke/loose valves is to replace the valvestem seals. No need to remove the head, pump each cylinder through the spark plug hole with compressed air remove rockers and fit the new seals.

I find on a lot of these old motors that have been sitting a while they smoke really bad until they get nice and warmed up and run with some load on them

I think (personal thoughts and no science here) the rings get stuck in the pistons and they need the heat and the load to loosen the rings up so the rings can seal again


Paul

Morris wrote:

Urchy87, I spoke to an engineer/truck restorer mate yesterday. He says he first thing to do about smoke/loose valves is to replace the valvestem seals. No need to remove the head, pump each cylinder through the spark plug hole with compressed air remove rockers and fit the new seals.

An alternative to relying on compressed air, which can slowly leak out, is to bring the piston up to near the top, feed a small rope or electrical wire into the bore and then raise the cylinder to compress the rope/wire to stop the valve from dropping while you replace the seal. To remove drop the piston and pull out the rope/wire.

But I agree with Mrs, give it s good run with a load and see if the smoke clears.

Terry

I go along with Paul's thoughts. Stuck rings and old oil can be the culprit in a lot of engines that have been sitting for a long time. If it was me i would
take it for a run , bring it up to operating temp. Take it home drop the old oil and filter then take for another run with fresh oil. Many times in the last century we used "Flushing Oil" to loosen up the "Gunk" . Only used while motor idling and vehicle stationary. Drop that out and replace filter and fill with fresh oil. Sometimes it worked , sometimes not? Also agree that valve stem seals become hard or crack over time, so they need checking/replacing also, before doing any serious surgery to the motor. My thoughts for what they are worth. Dave.

I have never used the rope trick to change valve stem seals but used it a lot before owning a rattle gun to remove the blade holder each year on the mower to change the blades.