Carb tuning issues - 82 F250, 351w

[Shran]

I ordered a new gas tank for it. $126 shipped is worth more than my time trying to clean out the old one. Hopefully should have this truck drivable in the next couple weeks so that I can park it somewhere other than at my house, I'm kind of tired of looking at it.

 

[Shran]

Found the problem... this was "cleaned out..." right. I never witnessed these kids eating tide pods or anything but I'm starting to suspect it.

New tank is in, I sucked about 4 gallons of gas out of the old tank. I'm not putting it back in, gonna run it in the lawnmower or something.

I cleaned up the China carb and put it back on. The other one had a bit of slop in the throttle shaft. It runs better but not really good… kind of rough idle and I can’t get the vacuum above about 16. I’ll play with it some more this evening.

 

[Uncle Gump]

Found the problem... this was "cleaned out..." right. I never witnessed these kids eating tide pods or anything but I'm starting to suspect it.

New tank is in, I sucked about 4 gallons of gas out of the old tank. I'm not putting it back in, gonna run it in the lawnmower or something.

I cleaned up the China carb and put it back on. The other one had a bit of slop in the throttle shaft. It runs better but not really good… kind of rough idle and I can’t get the vacuum above about 16. I’ll play with it some more this evening.

View attachment 134567

That looks pretty good compared to my Bronco II tank I replaced.

 

[Shran]

The China carb must be plugged up somewhere that I can't find. I cooked it for an hour in my heated ultrasonic cleaner, washed it out, cleaned again with carb cleaner & compressed air, and I cannot get it to hold a tune. After another hour messing with it last night I figured out that the passenger side is hardly getting any fuel and the driver side adjustment screw doesn't really do anything unless you go all the way in and then the engine just dies...so I am done with that POS.

I put my other older spare on (the D3OF-EA one) and it runs way better. Smooth idle, and I can tune it to an acceptable spot. So I think I can rule out other engine/mechanical issues...this is all in the carb.

Although it does idle way better, it is really kinda doggy driving around. I did replace the accelerator pump - that was leaking - but not the power valve. If the diaphragm inside that is dried up will it cause a loss of power? When the China carb was working good, this truck was pretty snorty, way better than this one. What's the group opinion on that, is the carb I'm currently using just too small and not jetted right or can I tweak it a bit and make it acceptable?

 

[Shran]

In the last month I got quite a bit done. It's running 99% better and my only complaint is a really light shudder around 1/2 throttle and occasionally the throttle blades stick a tiny bit when returning to idle - but it's totally drivable and actually runs pretty good, all things considered. I did clean out the D3OF carb again, replaced the power valve, and put bigger jets in it (59F, it had 49F to start with.) The 59F jets came out of the original one that I tried so I figured since that came off a 351M, they would be a better fit for a 351W than the smaller ones.

Instead of working on projects I care about, I've been spending a lot of time on this junk. Besides the carb & fuel tank I got this huge list cranked out:

- heater hoses
- heater core (original one exploded... sounds dramatic but it did, I lost 3 gallons of coolant on the ground in about 30 seconds.)
- Thermostat
- Radiator cleaned out with CLR
- kick panel compartments cleaned out - mouse nests and large amount of dirt in both
- Replaced stock radio with a newer head unit, rewired speakers
- Door seal kit - this helped a LOT with road noise... wow
- fixed broken HVAC blend door cable
- Redid the fuses panel, none of them were the right amperage, some were missing
- Cleaned interior, vacuumed out a lot of leaves. Leaves everywhere.
- Front bumper, seat, and core support bolts/nuts were just threaded on a couple turns, fixed that
- Removed broken spare tire carrier
- Welded a receiver hitch to the rear bumper - Bumper itself is 3/16 rectangle tube, really well built
- Added 7 way trailer plug
- Added rear license plate light

To-do list is getting pretty short, this is what I have left:
- transmission gasket & filter (leaking)
- repack front wheel bearings - they are a bit loose
- replace steering linkage entirely, a bit of slop in every joint
- get it aligned - camber is visibly off on the driver front and I don't understand why.
- need add-a-leaf or taller blocks or maybe just new rear springs. Rear sits lower than the front even with nothing in the bed
- would really like to find some 16" or 17" wheels to make this look nicer... but it has brand new 16.5 tires...so not a high priority.

 

[superj]

Nice looking old school truck

 

[Shran]

Nice looking old school truck

It's very solid as far as bull nose Fords go. Just a couple small rust spots in the cab corners and by the rear bumper.

I REALLY wish the previous owner had just left the paint alone. It was gold with brown interior and now it's spray painted red with spray painted black interior. No surprise it's all flaking off.