my big 78 ford f-250 4x4 project, 460 flowmasters. mud truck

my 78 ford f-250 when i bought it it was in pieces no interior it didnt even run. me and my father worked on it all summer and this is it now. It ...

My 78 ford LTD is broken down and will not start?

Dec 16, 2006 by NIGHTSHADE | Posted in Maintenance & Repairs

It's a 78 landau, has a 351W under the hood. It only has 80k mile and RAN fine. It has a leak in the haedgasket. I could see traces of water in the oil, it had froth in the radiator, and it would be empty on coolant every 2 days. I let a friend borrow it. They drove it empty on coolant for about 8 miles where it laid down. I put a new starter on it, its getting fuel, but has a weak orange spark when I check the spark at the plugwire. And it is not even attempting to start.
What in henry fords name is the problem here?
I've run lesser fords w/ lesser motors red hot before. Even if the head gasked breached fully into one cylinder or more, it should still start or at least try. Could it be the coil?
It turns over at about the same rate it did before, I don't think it's fast enough, but it used to start without giving it any pedal on the third turn. There is no smell of burn bearings in the oil. The ignition electrical is in poor shape, the plug wires are old, there were deposits on the contacts in the distributor cap, the rotor contact was very pitted. After turning it over many times I can smell fuel and it smells odd, not like fresh gasoline. The fuel in it is only a week old.

What is the problem here, is that a)you don't know how to take care of vehicles. b) you're dumb for running this perfectly decent car to death, and c) even dumber for lending it to a friend so he can run it even further into the ground...possibly beyond repair. But, laying that aside-

My educated guess on this is that the gasket indeed blew, big time, and you're pumping at least some water into one or more cylinders...and it may not necessarily try to start under those conditions. (Water doesn't compress.) And your buddy likely fried some bearings, meaning rebuild time.

Why would you continue to drive the car with a head gasket blown? (if it runs out of coolant every 2 days, it's not a leak...it's BLOWN.) And just because you've run other cars to death without a problem doesn't mean you haven't roached the engine on this one. If you have spark, then there should be nothing wrong with the coil. Pull the heads, clean out the water and crud, check the cylinders for damage and scoring, replace the head gasket, and hopefully you haven't ruined a perfectly good 351 Windsor. But don't be surprised if you have.

My husband has a 78 ford pickup and needs help resetting the proportioning valve. Can anyone explain how to do

May 10, 2008 by TFALES | Posted in Maintenance & Repairs

Its a 78 Ford F150. He's trying to bleed the brakes

I'm assuming that one of the brake lines blew and the system was ran out of fluid. what you can try is to open the bleeder screw on one of the brakes that are working and push the brake pedal down hard and fast a couple of times to try and move the valve over. make sure there is fluid in the reservoir. sometimes the valve will get stuck. Then when someone is pushing the pedal down with the bleeder open try tapping on the valve. A few times with older trucks i have had to replace the valve because i couldn't get it unstuck.

Need to do a tune up on a 78 ford with a propane system?

Mar 20, 2009 by krondor420 | Posted in Maintenance & Repairs

Need to do a tune up on a 78 ford with a propane system. Its been a while since it ran, and ran for quite a while when it was running without a tune-up. so I need to know everything I could possibly do to make it run better.

P.S. will google on how to do things mentioned

It is probably an "Impco" fuel system. They made most of the propane conversion equipment at that time. It could also possibly be an ALGas system, but not as likely. The main thing you want to do is change the filter in the fuel lock-off. The lock-off is the first "item" the fuel travels through after it leaves the tank. It will have either an engine vacuum line or an elecrical oil pressure switch that tells it to open when the engine is turned over. That filter is a under the eight screws on the inlet side of the lock-off. Should be marking of "VFF-30" on that item or something close to that. Inspect the diaphragm on the mixer. That is the propane version of a gasoline carburator. If the diaphragm is cracked, or hard...replace it. A backfire can damage these pretty quickly.

The other thing you need to look at is the cooling system. Especially if you live in an area where you see sub-zero temperatures. It is very important that the coolant is clean and the PH is adjusted correctly. Dirty coolant leaves a film on all of the surfaces of the fuel converter that doesn't allow the fuel to vaporize effectively on cold starts. Also the converter is made of aluminum, so if the coolant is acidic it will eat holes in it over a period of time.

Other than that, just do the usual ignition system stuff and you should be fine...

A lot of people get fooled into thinking that the oil in a propane engine never gets dirty. It doesn't get full of black carbon like a gasoline engine does, but it still breaks down and gets contaminated. With gasoline engines the fuel actually gets into the oil and can thin it out some. Propane is a very dry fuel. Oil in a propane engine actually thickens over time if it is not replaced, so do that too.

One final thing...Be very careful that you don't run that engine too lean! You can run a gasoline engine slightly lean and get away with it! It will run a little warmer. But it does not take long at all for a lean burning propane engine to burn it's valves out. It runs considerably hotter if it gets lean! Be careful! Good luck with it!

I have a 78 ford 150 pick up truck that will not turn over or try to start. Any ideas on problem?

May 23, 2020 by Colton R | Posted in Ford

we replaced the battery, starter relay, and voltage resonator. It will only turn over when 2 screwdrivers bypass the starter relay. Any ideas of what else could be wrong?

On the starter relay there is a third wire. Ck the wire to see if you are getting power to it when the key is in the crank position. If you are getting power to it sometimes the relays have 2 small terminals it may be hooked up to the wrong one. Here is an easy test. Take a jumper wire from Battery positive and touch it to the small terminal on the relay. If it cranks then you probably do not have power from the small wire. That small wire comes from the Neutral Safety Switch. Do you have a stick or an automatic trans. If it is a stick then the NSS is attached to the the clutch pedal near the top where the pedal pivots. If is an automatic trans, then put the trans in neutral and try cranking it, if that does not work then put the emergency brake on real good and apply the regular brakes and put the gear shift lever in all different positions and try cranking. If vehicle fails to start either you Neutral Safety Switch is bad or the wire is broken from the NSS to the starter relay, or ignition switch is bad or the wire from ignition switch to the NSS is broken. If you need and more help just wright a comment on this page and I will reply in a day or 2

I have a 78 ford truck it has a 351m and i have a buddy that is givin me 460 will it bolt up to my 4 spd trany?

Aug 30, 2009 by jhull2007 | Posted in Ford

the 460 is out of an old mercury with an auto transmission. i figure i will need new motor mounts.

If the 460 came from a Lincoln car, you won't have to change anything. The motor mounts from the Lincoln will sit right down over the top of the mounts on the p/u. You will need to drill a hole horizontally through the frame mounts and get a 4 1/2 inch lon bolt and it will fit right in. The tranny will fit.