351w

[Stevie-D]

i've got a 78 thunderbird that i am planning on re-doing. it's been sitting for close to 10 years in my barn. i now want to start it up. it ran when it went into storage. i removed the gas tank to get all of the old crap out of there. i took out the carb today and cleaned it up to get all of the gunk out of it. besides changing oil/plugs, what else should i do before i attempt to start it?

[LuckyOxygen]

Plug wires and a battery wouldnt hurt.

[nosliw]

might want to shoot some wd-40 down the sparkplug holes and let it sit overnight if your worried about it being a lil rusted

[Scott-300ex]

check compression

drain oil and put new oil in it

take off the distributor and crank the oil pump with a drill to get the oil everywhere, or just pour the oil in both valvecovers if you have 2 breathers, or take off the covers and have new gaskets

might as well put new plugs and wires on it

once its running set the timing

good job on cleanin the carb, i rebuilt the one on my truck and used a carberator rebuild kit, new power valve, accelerator pump, needle and seat, gaskets and more, if you want to you could get one of them, cuz i told a difference on acceleration with the pump, and i had a whole in the float so it helped me, lol

clean air filter

good job on cleaning out the gas tank

blow out the fuel lines cuz on an 82 5.0 i was workin on i took the line off the fuel pump and blew it out with an air nozzle and so much crap shot out at the back cuz we had it disconnected from the tank too

maybe a coil, rotor, cap, and points

tranny and rearend fluid you probably don't need to check

if i think of anymore i'll post it, im goin way over the top though, but if your bored like me, you can do all that, lol:D

[bulkdriverlp]

lol, wow, thats a classic. very cool motor, whatever you do dont get rid of it, rebuild it. that was a very saught after motor in its day. cool find:D

[nosliw]

Originally posted by bulkdriverlp
lol, wow, thats a classic. very cool motor, whatever you do dont get rid of it, rebuild it. that was a very saught after motor in its day. cool find:D

were they making clevelands in 78? seems like it would be soooo detuned because of the embargo that no matter what letter after the 351 is it would be really weak.

[Out_Sider]

Originally posted by nosliw
were they making clevelands in 78? seems like it would be soooo detuned because of the embargo that no matter what letter after the 351 is it would be really weak.

the windsor goin into my '70 f100 custom is pushing about 450HP at the crank, but the motor is from a 68 with no smog pump or anything, and massively modded :macho

[Scott-300ex]

the cleavland was the sought after motor


they started them in 69 or 70 and went till late 70's

we got one in our 64 fairlane



















just kiddin, seein if you were payin attention, in our 70 fairlane, cuz they didn't have cleavlands in 64

[Stevie-D]

lol, wow, thats a classic. very cool motor, whatever you do dont get rid of it, rebuild it. that was a very saught after motor in its day. cool find

the t-bird was my mom's first car back in the mid eighties. she ran it until about 96, since then it's been in the barn. i've found out that the carb was bad when it was taken off the road. so cleaning it was a waste of my time. however, my friend bought a bronco last winter, proceeded to drive the thing home, and the motor blew on him. lol. it's been sitting up in a field behind his house. since he has no need for the bronco, he is letting me use what i want off of it. (the motor is a 351W) so i'm going over later on to get the carb off of it. then probably to napa for new plugs.

i removed the plugs earlier today, and they were fouled to he!! and back. (bad carb) so i cleaned them off, sprayed some wd40 in the holes, let it sit a while, put the plugs back in, and cranked it over. the motor turns over decently, but i'm not getting any spark. i'm going to check the distributor in a while. how should i check for spark? i'd hold a wire to the block and crank it, but the ends on the cable stick out about an inch farther than the connecter. :confused:

[Scott-300ex]

for spark, you can hold the plug up to the block and see if you see spark comin threw the plug, you can also buy a thing that goes in between the wire and plug and lights up

for no spark, first check plugs and wires, then rotor, cap, points unless you have electronic ignition which you probably don't, then coil too


good luck

[schootar]

Great thing about the 351, is the distributor is on the front and easy to get to. If you're getting spark it should jump from the end of the plug wire to the block. Can you pull the boot around the connector back? Or even get a spark plug wire from something else that doesn't have as big a cover on it and use it.

I have an '83 Bronco with a 351W. It's been a great truck and engine. Easy to work on and super reliable. I had trouble with spark also at one time, but I have a complete MSD ignition (box, coil, distributor) in it and it was just a power issue to the ignition box. So from time to time I have to clean the hot post that the box connects too. Just one of the things you deal with when living in a damp area.

Good luck with the spark thing. Use the process of elimination like Scott-400ex wrote. You should be able to narrow it down that way.

[Scott-300ex]

Originally posted by schootar
Great thing about the 351, is the distributor is on the front and easy to get to.

Use the process of elimination like Scott-400ex wrote. You should be able to narrow it down that way.

all fords distributors are up front

fords up front

chevy's in back

thats another thing that sucks about chevys:rolleyes:


and if that last sentence was about me, its Scott-300ex

lol

not that im mind or am givin ya $hit, just sayin

:D

[nosliw]

im pretty sure mopars are up front too.

[Stevie-D]

all fords distributors are up front

no, the 3.8 v6 has the distributor in the back of the motor.

[nosliw]

Originally posted by Stevie-D
no, the 3.8 v6 has the distributor in the back of the motor.

your right.

also the ps 7.3 and 6.0 dont have distribs up front :huh

[sportraxkid]

Maybe because there internationals. :rolleyes:

[Scott-300ex]

Originally posted by Stevie-D
no, the 3.8 v6 has the distributor in the back of the motor.

maybe that was the gm 3.8, like the ones they put in the gn and gnx

and if you mean the ford ones probably because the 90's, at least, have coil packs and not distributors



and 7.3 and 6.0 diesels don't have distributors up front?

maybe cuz their diesels!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

lmao, good one

[cknox88]

Originally posted by Scott-300ex
all fords distributors are up front

fords up front

chevy's in back

thats another thing that sucks about chevys:rolleyes:


and if that last sentence was about me, its Scott-300ex

lol

not that im mind or am givin ya $hit, just sayin

:D


Hows that make a ford any better? Yea a ford is alot easier to time and change cap,rotor,plugwires and all. but with the distributor in the back on the GMs atleast you wont get your cap wet like on fords.
I know a guy who had a old ford van he always went hunting in. well every time he wqould hit a waterhole fast it would get wet and he wold have to sit their and wait for it to dry out or would have to take it off and spray some wd-40 or dry it out.

[Scott-300ex]

they'll all get wet

my dad and his friends used to go four-wheelin with thier trucks all the time in thier 20's and they rarely had water in the cap, if so, wd-40 fixes it quick

and they all had them in thier the same amount of times ford or chevy, chevy's are just more pain to get to


hey look, theres one now \/

[Stevie-D]

maybe that was the gm 3.8, like the ones they put in the gn and gnx
88 ford taurus had a distributor mounted in the back of the motor.
i know, i had one go bad;)