1967 Ford F100: Bolt Debacle

During my 30 minute run today I realized that this had boiled down to the bolts. I had a water pump bolt snapped off in the block, all of my transmission bolts wouldn't fit, the water pump bolts that weren't broken needed to be replaced, the timing cover bolts had to be sorted out and cleaned, and lets not forget the "better Idea from Ford" to use metric head bolts with standard treads for all the brackets I raped of the 1990 F150. Damn bolts.

Not to slander the previous owner, but the "fresh" 351w is about as "fresh" as the bottom of a 500 barrel oil field tank in West Texas. To quote David Freiburger on his Roadkill series, "this thing is clapped". Maybe not so much. It runs and I pretty much expected a larger amount of wear and tear than was stated. It runs too, right though your fingers like bad gojo. The booger in the bottom of the oil pan was sure signs of some one pouring after market engine crap in it. It was always my intention to set it up get it running for a while and then after the kinks were gone put a real 351w in it.

So after booger removal and a good de-greasing and clean up, we (Alaina and I) got the timing cover and oil pan installed. Then the new balancer from Summit Racing showed up JIT. The old one looked like an 8th grade potter had sculpted the yoke. The likely hood of it sealing was slim to none and age old silicon smeared on the outside of the timing cover was a indication of an amateur stop leak prevention method. I detest leakage.

Per the instructions the balancer was boiled for 15 minutes and presto! The thing slid right on! The install kit I got from O'Reily's only took a half of a turn the stopped dead. I torqued the bolt to 90#'s and done. Since I am upgrading to a serp belt system, I found this water pump and it made all the measurement requirement and will probably work with a stock timing cover due it's configuration. It can be purchased at American Muscle for $44.99 no shipping!