Technical Students 59f100 and timing issues

I believe the timing chain is good.
Rotated and watched #1 intake open and close. #3 opened as #1 was closing
The student was confident he did the chain correctly.

 

The only year for a deck height concern is with a 1969 block.

 

Ok. Thanks.
When he was first trying to crank it I had him back if the rocker arms a tad.
wanted to do some looking into the parts he is using.

 

Finally got back on the truck.
Mechanical timing looked good during a hand rotation.
Did a compression check.
Cyl PSI ranged from 20-80.
Did an air leak check. He has air out the exhaust on at least 2 cyls and out the carb on another.
the PSI is way low even for the better cyls.
He didn’t do any head work on this engine.
So looks like they will come off and get built now.
So looks like he learned a good lesson.

 

Thanks for the update. Please let us know what else you find when opening up the engine.


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Will do.
I guess we had school at home today.
The former student came over and helped with the diagnosis.
He was ok with pulling the heads and I guess relieved that the issue was his ignoring the heads and not his short block assembly.

 

Anthony, good on you! Once a teacher always a teacher and as for me my students were more than that. They became almost like my kids and I told the, that, "You have my name attached to you now and therefore I'll always expect your best effort!" and I meant it. In 37 years of teaching there might be five I rather not see ever again. And when the rest may bump into me it's always with a smile, but those other five might bump me into traffic!

You are going a good thing for your former student but take some pride that he came back to you for advice and help. By the way, did the Windsor and Cleveland 351s have different timing sequences? What are the heads off?

 

Never built a Cleveland so I can’t answer.
but the heads are 69 351W

 

Brain fart on th etiming point...

 

Your 59f100 looks exactly like my 1960 f100

 

Anthony,
I hesitated to recommend this but then I remembered the dilemma my brother got into with 1969 Windsor Heads.

My brother took a set of heads to a shop in Birmingham. This shop supposedly had a good reputation. (highly recommended) He assumed it would be a good idea to have the heads renewed for his new engine. These '69 351 heads came off a running engine.

Long story short....Those guys could not build those heads correctly. They could not get the guides right. The valves would stick when the engine warmed up. He took those heads to that shop 3 times. He believe the last 2 trips, they didn't even look at them. Whatever they did or did not do, those heads were ruined.

The following will only work with good cores. Fortunately I believe "most" heads qualify as good cores.
Have him pull the heads and help him read the gaskets.
Do a rough visual on the heads.
When preparing to take the head down, do the finger nail check on each valve tip and dress each valve tip with a file lightly so the slightly mushroomed tip does not damage the guides.
Take the heads down and make sure he has a block to keep the valves in order.
Inspect the seats.
By now you should already know if these heads are a good core.(or at least a good candidate for the following)
Clean out all the carbon and rust from the seats.
Inspect and clean the valves.
After removing all gasket material head surface, have him true the head surface with a large flat file. (After the gasket material is cleaned from the deck surface, use a sharpie marker to mark up the surface of the head....file until the marks are gone. Make sure he holds the file flat and true, make sure he changes direction.)
Lightly oil the valve stem and replace the valve. Wiggle the valve, checking for excessive wear in the guides.
Apply lapping compound to the valve lip and use a drill motor to "lap" the valves. Spin the valve in it's seat one way, then reverse the motor. Move the valve off and on it's seat. Look for that good contact and seal surface on the valve and the seat.

In my experience most heads will clean up.
Maybe just maybe, those Windsor heads my brother had so much trouble would have done fine had he done this. To this day he thinks those heads were good and the shop ruined them.

I just don't trust shops these days. On this old stuff, nobody takes the time anymore to do it right, so we have to.

 

Update.
He bought another set of heads and worked them.
The truck runs good, except he has now learned what high lift cams do to press on studs.