Saga of a six (sometimes lady luck shines her light on you)So, I bought a twenty year old $700 donor truck to get an engine for my project. As the truck was a runner, I could test drive and evaluate the engine before buying it. The seller admitted that the rad had a leak that he addressed with Bar's Leaks. Okay, so the test drive around the block went okay, but for the steering pump being so loud that you could hardly hear anything else. The plan was to drive it home 250 miles over the Hope Princeton Hwy. As I got up to Allison mountain pass it boiled over big time. I put more water in it and limped along a few miles, but it kept overheating so I called a tow truck to take it the rest of the way home (125 miles) as I would have had another climb over Sunday Summit. When home, I found that the coolant was not circulating at all. So when dismantling the truck I took the bottom tank off the rad to discover that the core was totally plugged with Bar's Leaks. The engine also was a replacement engine from, I assume, an auto wrecker, so I have no Idea how many miles it had on it.
Fast forward to last week, my engine guru friend, fellow Inliner Dick Knorr 1573, took the engine to go through it to see what it needed in anticipation of turbocharging it. I expect a relatively mild turbo job with a stock spec engine and 8 psi boost, give or take. Although Ford 300 sixes generally have a good reputation for durability, I also read on the internet that they are susceptible to cracks in the combustion chambers and piston skirts. So after the overheating, I'm expecting bad news, maybe a cracked head, needs a rebore and crank grind etc.. Well it turns out all the news is good. It's a standard bore only worn half a thou, the crank is standard and no damage, the cam and lifters good, the head did not show any cracks when checked with dye penetrant and the head has been worked on before as it has the valve guides sleeved. Looks like no machine work required, just a light hone to restore the cross hatch and it should be good. I'm a happy camper!
So to cope with the turbo we're going for new Speed Pro hypereutectic pistons, new timing set with aluminum cam gear, high volume oil pump, ARP rod bolts and head studs and new rod and main bearings. I'll also clean up the ports and combustion chambers to remove potential hot spots, unshroud the valves and lower the CR a bit.
