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$80-90 a piece shipping when if I had had the time to drive to Long Island I could have bought the pair for $50

The heat shield is very important but I can't imagine paying that much for any motor mount. Yesterday I washed my truck for a second time this year. Parts are trickling in from the usual sources. I need to find some solid D3VE a2a heads locally. Nothing this old in the junkyards around here.

No, just heads. My quest continues.... I've never heard that gearboxes or outdrives can't handle the torque. Just that things go sideways very quickly when massive power tears the engines loose from their bunks. If they get loose *even a little* the misalignment will cause a lot of damage. On another note everyone at the boatyard says you can never trust the French big block. 460's rule for longevity and the Olds 455 if you must have GM.

Gary, how far SE of you is Hulbert, OK? Maybe I should follow through on the whole OMC 460 thing?

Yes Gary, those are efi valve covers. If you want a pair I will strip them off my future short block.

Have you considered loading the trailered vehicle backwards so the engine is not putting all the weight on the front axle? I've never owned a car trailer but I have rented them from uhaul. Usually I just borrow a flatbed.

Here's a Gflex video

Gary, if you want me to send you some tape lmk. I think I have 7 & 9" widths, though 5 (in half) might be better for your purposes. It is very difficult to work with in that if it touches *at all* you are not going to get it off. And if it touches *itself* fuggetabotit.

If I were not going to use foam weatherstrip tape to seal ducts to each other I would use the rubber flashing tape from 3M. This stuff is meant to seal plastic window and door flanges to Teflon housewrap (Tyvek) and sticks like crazy while allowing quite a bit of stretch. PM me your address if you have time to finish and I'll send you a few yards of the wider stuff that you can slit in half. No need to spend $60-100 on a 75' roll for a little job like this.

West System Gflex epoxy will bond PP and PE plastics together permanently. Comes in thickened paste and thick syrup forms. Just follow the prep instructions about sanding the surface clean and oxidizing the bond area with a very quick pass of a propane torch. Clothespins always worked for me. You can also use this to bond in the hinge if you like. Check out their video of cutting a kayak in half with a chainsaw and then the repair.

Good photos Bill The serpentine accessory brackets on the efi engine are very different from the carbureted V-belt ones. One hole in the front of each head is tapped larger to accommodate. Thermactor plumbing is far different and there is a Cat on '88& up trucks. Because of the different valve geometry piston cutouts are different for efi engines. Efi engines have a 'straight up' double roller timing chain from the factory. The heads use center bolt cast valve covers and the manifold flanges (both I&e) are different. Early efi engines have big chambers and smaller piston dish than later F3TE castings. A popular swap is late heads on an early short block for a little more compression. if you want a carb on an efi engine with a manual gearbox the simple solution is Price Motorsport's CA 460-efi. This fits a square bore onto the efi lower manifold and comes with brass plugs for the injector bosses.

Good score! They will clean up really nice. I just saw a pair of the Blue Thunder plain valve covers NIB on the local Craigslist for $250. https://cnj.craigslist.org/pts/d/fordbig-block-blue-thunder/6293690664.html

This used to be true, but not any more. (AMHIK) After burning through more than 6 relays; Motorcraft, Carquest, NAPA, Ametek, Standard, BWD, Cole Hersee, I'm running a cheap Chinese PMGR starter from DB Electrical and couldn't be happier. The Advance store brand relay has no problem with the starter's 40A pull in or 13A to hold.

I posted on FTE my fill tag from the Zf5-s42 in my truck. It came from a '89 plow truck that couldn't even be brought to the scrap yard in one piece. It clearly says "use type H atf" I flushed out most of the strawberry milkshake and filled it with Royal Purple synchromax. This last time I put Mercon V and it seems OK but not great. Zf used to have all the shop manuals and diagnostic bulletins on line but I can't seem to find them after they updated their site a few years back. They listed a WIDE range of acceptable fluids depending mostly on climate.

Thinkin' on this a little more (in other words, I still don't have any personal experience to draw from but I'm still going to give you more of my opinions, or in still other words, let the 8-page micro-analysis continue...), the reason shackles at the front would give a worse ride is that with a positively arched spring as the front axle needs to move up when the tire hits a bump the leaf spring makes it move forward, jamming the tire into the bump, which means the tire needs to move up faster, which means it gets stuffed forward into the bump harder... It's a bad cycle. A reverse shackle kit in this situation would pull the tire back away from the bump as the axle moves up, which would make the bump less jarring. On the other hand, if the leaf spring was flat, or negatively arched, then as the axle moves up it will not be pushed forward (flat spring) or will even be pulled backward (negative arch), softening the hit. So a reverse shackle kit would seem to be counter-productive, causing the problem of stuffing the tire into the bump rather than solving it. So unless a TTB F-250/350 has been lifted with positive arched springs, I think a reverse shackle kit would probably hurt the ride. And that brings another thing to mind: ride height. I don't know for sure about on TTBs, but on solid axles reverse shackle kits are said to give about a 3" lift. That's great if you want a 3" lift, but for my daily driver that my 5'6" wife needs to be able to get into, I kind of want the ride height to stay lower. So just another thing to think about, whether it fits with your own goals or not. Read the link. This kit is under 2" and less if you use the template to trim down the rear spring brackets.

"Inserts *on* the valve guides"??? Sounds kind of oxymoronic. .. A good machine shop will install new guides, ream to size and either cut the seats (if it won't leave the valve too deep) or shrink new seats into the head. If you're talking about knurling the inside of the guides, please don't. That's never a long term solution.

With a solid axle swap? Absolutely! F-250 springs need to be stiffer than F-350 springs because of the added leverage the traction beams have against the springs. F-250 springs with a solid axle will ride rougher than either a stock F-350 or a stock F-250. I think Gary is asking if he would have to change springs if he were to keep the TTB. No. Sky is the first and only (afaik) to offer a kit that fits 250's The cross brace at the front helps eliminate the infamous steering box crack by tying the whole front of the frame together right behind the bumper.

I said I'd only do it with a D60 swap, so no drop pivots required. The positive arch 350 springs ride MUCH better than the stiff 2 leaf pack of the 250 and the solid axle does not twist the springs every time the truck encounters a crack in the road. Shackles and bushings should last much longer.

Also 250s have the leaf springs trying to keep the lower ends of the traction beams from moving from side-to-side while the traction beam pivot points force the lower ends to move side-to-side as the suspension cycles. That stiffens things up as well. The pivots locate the springs in an arc. This is REAL hard on bushings and the shackles. The springs (kinda) locate the beams front to back, but remember they are negative arch springs and the shackles *is at the front* This is why you get that crazy toe in when you back into a parking space.

Well my aluminum intake probably weighs 40# less than the stocker, but we are still talking close to 1000# less on the front end with the engine out. And MUCH better access. 250's ride rough because of the very stiff reverse arch springs and the shackles being in front. If I was ready to do the D60 swap I would use Sky's No Panhard RSK and be done with it, getting better turning radius in the process. Right now I need to address the leaky oil pan and the ticking without a garage or driveway, or much downtime. I think a 32k bottom end with the 7cc dish pistons and refurbished heads with some Scotty style exhaust porting would be a blessing. I also need to address the drivers floor before salt season rolls around again.

I asked how the guides and seats look. If they are still good (tight and not recessed) you can go with the Melling valves from RA --I know, I know.-- $5.67 each. Replace them all for under $50 if it makes you feel better.

Look at the first post. I got the impression that he felt maybe 'better' valves would not fail like these did. Re: seat width... For a given cam, time on the seat is what ever it is. But *area* for heat transfer, over time on seat goes up dramatically. As you said it's pretty amazing that ice's hold together as well as they do. I don't teach but I DO learn.

Yeabutt it's a truck engine..... I've seen plenty of seat recession where the valve pulled right up into the head. No one needs really fancy valves in this application. I'm looking to redo a set of heads for my truck asap. Light porting and a compression cut once I get the short block worked out.

I'll make a thread when, and if, any actual progress gets made.

Engine *out* is about the only way I'd want to change them. There is close to 800 lbs less weighing down on them (if you count the radiator/coolant, and the Zf being up on a jack) ... and I'll have access to both sides.