beautiful ford 300 engine

Van Living Forum

Help Support Van Living Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

technerd88

Well-known member
Joined
May 12, 2018
Messages
52
Reaction score
11
I bought this box truck with only 102,000 miles on it from 1985. It's a f350 inline 6. These are original miles. I experienced dry rotted hoses, a bad smog pump and a stereo that drained power and bad spark plugs/wires/rotor & cap) and the thermostat housing cracked on me when installing a new gasket and thermostat. I guess it was brittle as it was the original and someone before me over tightened it but the coolant and oil and transmission fluid are perfect and not contaminated at all with oil or water where they don't belong. It's running beautiful now. I can't wait to get my videos up, but I have to wait to do that until I'm completely done and happy with the progress. I don't expect or do perfect, but I do make it work, except for engines where it is a precision machine that needs to be running perfect ::D love the sound of that ford 300 I6. its beautiful. Whats funny, is its older than me by a few years.  Just a happy note for anyone out there experiencing a lot of engine work/work
 
That is one of the most reliable engines out there and has great low end torque for a gas engine.
 
I owned an '86 F150 with that engine, last one from Ford with a carb. Bought it new and drove it for 27 years, it's almost bullet proof, loved it. But, finding someone who can overhaul a carb is getting tough. Most auto techs these days haven't ever seen one, kinda like office workers who have never used a typewriter. ;^)
 
Yes. The Ford "Big-6" 240 and 300ci engines are the best engines Ford ever put out, second only to the Dodge Slant-6. I have personally taken slant-6's that were seized due to piston rust, squirted some Kroil into the spark plug holes, waited a day, then carefully worked the crank back and forth until it just broke loose... reassembled the ignition and it fired right up like it was never stuck after some smoke from the Kroil.
 
I had an '88 E150 Custom with that engine. That ol' van wouldn't quit.... well, not until I parked it for a few years, riding my bicycle full time. But... The engine was still fine, just a bunch of rotten seals and hoses under the van. I ended up donating it.
I kinda miss that old van. It'd never win any races, but it always got me where I wanted to go.
 
Carbs are very easy to overhaul btw. I have a slant 6 truck right now. The Ford has a lot more power than the slant 6 but it is true you can do anything to the slant 6 and it will keep running.
I had a buddy with a nice self built van that had a 300 6 in it. He got really good gas mileage and it never broke on him. Plus very easy to work on.
 
Itripper said:
Carbs are very easy to overhaul btw.  I have a slant 6 truck right now.  The Ford has a lot more power than the slant 6 but it is true you can do anything to the slant 6 and it will keep running.
I had a buddy with a nice self built van that had a 300 6 in it. He got really good gas mileage and it never broke on him.  Plus very easy to work on.

Yep. There is a reason why there is no such thing as a slant-6 get away car...
 
The last truck my DAD had before passed on was a 3/4 ton van with the 300 inline 6, he put over 300K miles on that van and the engine was still going strong (van rusted to pieces). It's a great engine.
 

Latest posts

Top