2.8L V6 wont stay running. When running it hesitates. It hesitated when I tried to drive it.

[MadMax_636]

@RobbieD
Id engage the starter. It would turn, stop, turn some more, and then stop, and then it would puff a little bit of smoke out the carb.

That's all it would do. Ive never seen an engine act like that. Unless something internally was damaged. (LIke someone was trying to start a blown motor but kept trying to crank it)

 

[RobbieD]

Good, that you can spin the motor now. Take your time, and find TDC on the compression stroke. When you plug the dizzy back in, it'll be a good idea to peak down in the hole and make sure the oil pump drive shaft looks OK. Get the rotor pointing at #1 cap tower, and remember that it'll start a little off, but it'll end up pointing to #1 after it meshes with the cam gear and seats.

 

[RobbieD]

@RobbieD
Id engage the starter. It would turn, stop, turn some more, and then stop, and then it would puff a little bit of smoke out the carb.

That's all it would do. Ive never seen an engine act like that. Unless something internally was damaged. (LIke someone was trying to start a blown motor but kept trying to crank it)

I think your first step is to verify, or get, the distributor clocked right.

 

[MadMax_636]

Good, that you can spin the motor now. Take your time, and find TDC on the compression stroke. When you plug the dizzy back in, it'll be a good idea to peak down in the hole and make sure the oil pump drive shaft looks OK. Get the rotor pointing at #1 cap tower, and remember that it'll start a little off, but it'll end up pointing to #1 after it meshes with the cam gear and seats.

So, Ive got the dizzy in, pointing at #1 and at TDC on the compression stroke. (I put my thump over the whole till I felt air coming out. After that. I kept turning until it got to 0 on the balancer. I got the dizzy in and on the oil pump shaft. It seats 100% in no issues. Now, the issue is the starter. The gear is pushed out as if its still engaged/got power. IDK how to correct that.

 

[RobbieD]

Try gentle taps on the gear, or, with it laying on the ground, use jumper cables to make it spin, to see if the gear will reseat afterwards.

 

[MadMax_636]

Try gentle taps on the gear, or, with it laying on the ground, use jumper cables to make it spin, to see if the gear will reseat afterwards.

I got it seated. I used a flat heat and gently pushed it back. It was stiff.

 

[RobbieD]

I would still bump it a few times, on the ground with jumper cables, to feel good that it'll work right before reinstalling it.

 

[MadMax_636]

I would still bump it a few times, on the ground with jumper cables, to feel good that it'll work right before reinstalling it.

Yeah, I'll probably do that. Better safe than sorry.

 

[RobbieD]

Better late, than never!

 

[franklin2]

It's too bad this thing is in such rough shape. The distributor swap could have been a nice little project. But I didn't realize the starter had problems and wont even crank the engine over. I think I remember you said a bunch of other things don't work on this vehicle. Even I would be a little overwhelmed at all that work at once.

 

[MadMax_636]

It's too bad this thing is in such rough shape. The distributor swap could have been a nice little project. But I didn't realize the starter had problems and wont even crank the engine over. I think I remember you said a bunch of other things don't work on this vehicle. Even I would be a little overwhelmed at all that work at once.

Now a bolt and the tweezers I was trying to use fell into the head. Like around where the push rod is

I can see them but I don't have a tool to get them out.

(I edited this because the comment was posted out of frustration and anger.)

 

[AndyB.]

Now a bolt and the tweezers I was trying to use fell into the head. Like around where the push rod is.... FML!!!!!!

I can see them but Ford had the grand idea of not making that shit magnetic and also making ONE FUCKING BOLT under the fucking throttle cable holder. This shit is getting fucking annoying!!! Im fixing to just start tearing shit fucking whore down right fuckin now! Get the rebuild out of the fucking way! Shes covered in fucking filth everywhere I look, everything I touch my hands get filthy just looking at them.

I just at my wits end with this "project" More like NIGHTMARE!!!

My luck can't get any worse!

Umm, what?

If you didn’t have the valve covers off, how did it get into the head? What bolt isn’t magnetic?

 

[MadMax_636]

Umm, what?

If you didn’t have the valve covers off, how did it get into the head? What bolt isn’t magnetic?

Sorry, I was a little worked up a bit. I had the valve cover off. I was trying to remove a bolt that was giving me issues hiding around the intake manifold. When I pulled it out. It fell into the area where the pushrod lives.

The bolt I'm talking about is the small valve cover bolts. Since the one I was having issues with was under the throttle cable holding cracked it kept trying to thread in sideways. Pure anger-inducing.


Here is a video of the situation.

 

[MadMax_636]

Id likes to apologize for that long post. I had been working on getting this one bold to thread in properly and it kept going sideways. Im pretty sure it must have screwed up the threads. Luckily its on the top. Really not a major area that can easily leak. Its also the stupidly hard to get to bold under the bracket that's mounted to the carb intake that holds the throttle cable system.

I kept trying to get it to thread in but it kept going in sideways due to the small area I had to work with. So it must have messed up the threads. Im planning on just getting the bolt out, and maybe seeing about "fixing" the threads so that it can be held in.

When I take all of the parts to get machine work done on them. Im gonna ask if they would see about drilling out and tapping threads that are stripped. Since Im sure there are some that I don't even know about. Once that haven't been touched is years ruined by someone else.

I was working on it for hours. getting eaten by bugs, listening to squirrels and just have bs after bs happen. LIke someone was wanting to see me get angry. Its like the truck was taking my stuff. Im gonna go to harbor freight tomorrow and get a tweezer set. So Hopefully I can get the stuff out. Then I can put the valve cover back on and not have to worry about anything BAD happening once I get the motor running. I still wanna just stop working on the duraspark thing and tear it down and get it all rebuilt and have it over with. Since Ive got my wiring all done and stuff. All id need to do is pop the dizzy in and fire her up. Thats after I fix the nightmare of a starter. (Only issue with it is that it tend to walk is ugly ass away from the flywheel. Since the spacer between the motor and bell housing is so worn out and destroyed) Here is a thread on what its doing. This is on a 2.9 but the 2.8 and 2.9 share so many parts in that area so its the same.... https://www.therangerstation.com/forums/index.php?threads/common-starter-issue-fix.171835/

 

[AndyB.]

Got it. Get the ignition system working before seeing if you need a rebuild. You wouldn’t want to be wondering why it won’t start—engine mechanical or ignition. The threads in the aluminum intake look like they could be cleaned up with a 6mm rethreading die. If they get stripped, a helicoil would fix it.

Here’s an unsolicited picture of what environment that bolt is living in—it needs to come out. Original bolt is magnetic, btw.