Thread: Car has been parked for an extended period of time...

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Excuse my ignorance, but is the Ford 390 a solid lifter engine? I was thinking not which begs the question as to whether the lifter won't "pump up" when trying to counter the pressure of not only the valvesprings but also the "stick" in the valve stem.

I'll look at them again tomorrow, and if I'm not 100% sure they are good to go I'll yank 'em off. I just don't want to get caught in the downward spiral of "well, since the intake and heads are off, might as well throw a cam in it...since you're putting a new cam might as well throw a new (insert $$$ here)" lol!

Basically I wanted to do the bare minimum to get her running again...but it looks like that's not gonna be the case. I'll roll with it though...

I know that the Ford 144-250 I6 uses FE lifters and they are non oil thru hydraulic lifters.. they don't have the oil thru hole for oil thru pushrods, the rocker shafts provide that oil.. so I'm pretty sure your FE 390 is hydraulic

Based on that, they are definitely hydraulic.

I didn't get a chance to work on the car yesterday, but maybe today...

Thanks Matt, you've been a big help.

Originally Posted by firebird77clone

They are gonna tell ya to pull the distributor, and run the oil pump with a hand drill.

For anyone considering this, I say don't..let the distributor do the work - or at the VERY least be ***extremely*** careful with it.

I decided that since I had the intake off and could access the oil pump drive easier I'd go ahead and do this - it would also confirm the oil pump worked.

got it all connected fine and oil pumped up into the heads...mission accomplished!

...until the oil pump "driveshaft" (not sure what its called) stuck with me instead of the oil pump (it just sits in there??). For a bit, I thought I could get it with a magnet pen...then it fell completely down into the oil pan.

Sooo... several hours later I've also discovered there is no way to get the oil pan off with the motor still in the car. I've also discovered that the motor mounts in the car are shot. I've discovered there is a significant amount of sludge in the oil pan. Whee!! Are we having fun yet?

An old timer told me when I was a kid that "It'll stay in the pan and not hurt anything". What do the rest of the Club members think about that? Edd

hi i was just reading the posts..if the mounts are bad..why not just pull the engine and buy a gasket set (probally needs it anyway since the old dried up gaskets are bound to leak)..that way you can inspect the engine bearings for wear see how tight the rings are and look at the ridge to see if its worth trying to run the way it is.. clean it up and when it goes back together it will be good to go..no more guessing..plus stuff a new front seal in the tranny.. but im the kind that likes to be sure what im doing before i do it..and dont mind the extra work for the security of knowing what i have under the hood

uppster - I would never leave something loose laying in the oil pan. One good speedbump and *boom*

rclarke - While I see your point and I agree, I hadn't even planned to do THIS much with this engine. Long term plans for the car include an engine swap from a modern car. I wanted to get the engine running to get a feel for the rest of the car before I start investing larger amounts of money. Additionally, I have not yet obtained an engine hoist. The car only has something like 76k miles on it, and all the issues I've discovered so far are from it just sitting for so long.

Now it looks like I really don't have a choice.