Oh Lordy, I now own a Fordy (a Lincoln actually)..

[njsteve]

I only broke two bolts during the entire process: one was a tiny 1/4" mounting bolt for the choke tube assembly to the intake and the other was the top water pump to timing cover 3/8" bolt. Everything else came out easy which is pretty darn amazing for a car that spent it's life in New Yawk.

Here's all the parts. I wasn't able to mount the engine to a stand today as I did not have the 5 inch by 7/16"-14 bolts that the 460 uses - much larger than the 3/8" bolts that usually go with GM engines. I had one old GM motor mount bolt that was perfect but without the other three, I was dead in the water. Going to the local Fastenal store tomorrow to get the right grade 8 bolts for the stand.

Time for cleaning that enormous engine bay. I'll be borrowing my friend's pressure washer his week to get all the old grease and gunk off the engine bay and the front suspension.

One thing I did find was missing: the water pump backing plate. My Dad brought the car to the local Lincoln Mercury Dealer to have the water pump replaced back in 1998 - they also did the timing chain at the same time since they broke a bunch of water pump-to-block bolts and had to pull the timing cover off anyway to drill out the broken bolts. (and set the timing to 5 degrees AFTER TDC when they were finished!!!). Looks like the dealer never bothered to reinstall the backing plate that gets sandwiched between two gaskets behind the water pump and directs the flow into the engine. Luckily the car never overheated since it was never driven around much after that repair job twenty years ago. I guess that also explains why the fan belts were wearing a bit weird due to being cocked from the 1/16" misalignment from lacking the water pump plate.

[njsteve]

By the way, does anyone happen to have an original power steering pump dipstick? The metal curled part of the handle broke off and is missing from mine. They make a chrome repro but I'd prefer an original one in case anyone has an old Ford rusting away in the backyard somewhere...

[njsteve]

Got the 7/16 x 5 inch bolts this morning and got the engine on the stand. Boy is this thing big and heavy. I started the disassembly and have already broken two 3/4" Craftsman sockets trying to pull the heads off. Those are some torqued down bolts! I'll need to use an impact rated socket tomorrow (after I buy one).

There is a ton of gunk inside that engine. When you touch it it crumbles more than smears. So it looks like I'll need to completely take this apart and hot tank the block to get all the goo out. That's what comes from 47 years of cold starts and limited driving. When I drained the oil (that only had 400 miles on it) - it was like black coal coming out of the drain plug. Can't wait to see what the oil analysis will say.

I pulled the first main cap to check the bearings. The crank looked great but the bearing was all copper. The rod bearing I checked looked fine and still had all its material intact. I'll Plastigage each one before I pull it all apart in the coming days. I like to know exactly how things were wearing in case I just go with a polish and re-bearing at STD size.

Interesting thing I am learning about Fords - they number the cylinders 1 through 4 on the passenger side and 5 through 8 on the driver's side. Not 1-3-5-7 and 2-4-6-8 like a GM. All the rods are number stamped.

[big gear head]

A friend of mine put a big block Ford together many years ago and put the rods and pistons in like a Chevy and couldn't figure out why they didn't look right.

[njsteve]

I got the engine fully apart today. Almost got a hernia too, breaking loose those $%#@*& head bolts with my old trusty diesel mechanic 3/4" drive ratchet and a pipe on the end of it.

The rod bearings looked decent but you can see the small copper wear pattern on the tops of each rod bearing - most likely from my Dad running the 10-1/5 to 1 compression engine on 87 octane for the random times he was driving it over the past couple decades. OUCH! All the mains were at the copper layer top and bottom. The crank itself looked very nice. I guess the original Ford Clevite bearings did their job and sacrificed themselves instead of the crank journals.

I Plastigaged a couple bearings and the rods looked to be really tight: much tighter than the minimum 001. line on the paper. The mains came in at .002.

I had to borrow a ridge reamer from the local autoparts store to get the minor ridge out of the tops of the cylinders so as not to damage anything coming out.

The lifters has a varnish buildup and were sticking in their bores at the top of their travel so I just left them there and turned the block over and then pulled the camshaft out while the lifters hung upside-down. I then pushed them back down their bores and they slid out nicely from underneath without scratching the lifter bores at all. The original camshaft looked decent but there was varnish on the surface in spots. All the bottoms of the lifters were evenly worn with a hint of concave wear.

The combustion chambers on the heads looked very nice, as did the pistons. Not much carbon buildup at all.

[njsteve]

And here's the giant assemblage of parts as of this evening.

[njsteve]

I dropped off the block and all the engine parts at the machine shop today. The machinist noticed the "Felpro blue" on the deck surface and said that the headgaskets had been replaced sometime in the past. It had to be when Grampa had it as I have no paperwork documenting any major engine work since we have had the car since 1991.

We also notice how badly the valve stems are chewed up. Looks like we need a new set of valves and rocker arms, at least.

Stay tuned for further episodes of "As The Wallet Opens..."

[big gear head]

I don't think I've ever seen valve stem tips look like that before.

[Jonesy]

Wow Steve when you make up your mind to do something, things get done.
This will be fun to follow.

[Canuck]

Steve
I am following along, great project. How many people did it take to lift the hood off?
I know a fellow up in Vermont that is into these older Lincolns. Let me know if you want his contact info, he may be able to offer some info of tricks he has learned over the years.
Couldn't help but notice Grandmas Firebird and your old Suburban in the background.

Paul