Hello new users!

[Gary Lewis]

Gary, he's in New Mexico (the land of enchantment) and chili peppers.. (red or green)

Oops! I had it the wrong way 'round.

As for peppers, I don't use them. However, I love the look of the chile ristras!

And you do remember that we took Big Blue out to NM recently and enjoyed it thoroughly!

[Rickman Metisse]

Oops! I had it the wrong way 'round.

As for peppers, I don't use them. However, I love the look of the chile ristras!

And you do remember that we took Big Blue out to NM recently and enjoyed it thoroughly!

Yes I am in New Mexico but originally from California. The truck is a CA model and used to easily pass smog until the cat started to bad shortly before I sold the F250 and it needed a bit of coaxing when I finally put it up for sale. Having a CA smog cert in hand when selling a vehicle there goes a long ways in attracting potential buyers. The third owner informed me he replaced the cat and by the time the truck was sold back to me, the replacement catalytic converter was starting to die. This truck has been hard on two things, catalytic converters and tailgates.

New Mexico has a smog program only for those who live and work in the Albuquerque area. I made sure when I moved here, I moved to a location where I did NOT have to have my vehicles smogged. Even so the smog requirements in this state for the county where ABQ is located only applies to 1989 vehicles and later. Thus my F250 will never be subjected to smog testing as long as it stays in this state.

Regarding the comment about the engine with 250k miles, I will address this topic in part 2 a future posting from my original posting..

 

[grumpin]

Here's how I found this website.

While researching parts and information about my Ford pickup, I learned two things. The first being my truck was called a Bullnose and the second thing was this forum. My Ford pickup is a 1985 standard cab F250 4x4 5.0 EFI w/ a 4 speed automatic overdrive transmission. The first owner was my father who leased the truck new from Ford 1985 to 1988. When the 3 year lease expired, I purchased the truck from Ford for the residual amount. I have no recollection of how many miles were on the truck when I purchased it in 1988 but it wasn't very many perhaps around 25,000 miles. It was the very first vehicle I ever purchased with financing.

The truck served me very well over the next 15 years and was like having a faithful friend. In 1988 I was single and by 2003 I was married with a family of four. Well four people don't fit very well in a standard cab pickup so I had to part ways with the Ford and purchase a crew cab pickup. At this time the truck was in pampered excellent condition having about 160K miles on the clock.

It turns out the buyer of the '85 Ford was a neighbor of my dad's and over the next several years I saw the truck many times out on the road. Seeing it always brought back fond memories.

Fast forward to 2018, one day I am in town were I grew up at the hardware store. Assisting me happens to be the current owner of the truck who is the son of the guy who purchased it from me. A conversation about the truck ultimately leads to me buying it back. I hate to admit it but I bought it back out of nostalgia not completely thinking through this purchase.

By now the truck has 250K miles and has been well used and a bit abused. No longer is it the nice truck I originally owned but it appears to be a sound basis as a fixer upper. I already have a current model pickup so this truck really is a toy so to speak, something I just had to have but really didn't need.

I get it home by having to trailer it nearly 800 miles to New Mexico from California. I am glad I did. A few days later after arriving I decide to start the truck one morning when it was 18 degrees outside. I am met with metallic clanging in the engine while the engine is being turned over by the starter. The engine did start but there was an obvious problem with the noise and the engine not running on 8 cylinders.

After working to diagnose the problem, the decision is made to tear down the engine. Immediately when the valve covers are removed, bent pushrods are found. I was hesitant to go further because of limited shop space. We proceed and in fact seven of the intake pushrods were bent. In talking with a machine shop, the cause was determined to be from stale gas causing the intake valves to stick due to varnish. While this problem didn't appear when the weather was warm, temperatures in the teens was no doubt a contributing factor.

part two to follow . . . .

Welcome!

[Gary Lewis]

Yes I am in New Mexico but originally from California. The truck is a CA model and used to easily pass smog until the cat started to bad shortly before I sold the F250 and it needed a bit of coaxing when I finally put it up for sale. Having a CA smog cert in hand when selling a vehicle there goes a long ways in attracting potential buyers. The third owner informed me he replaced the cat and by the time the truck was sold back to me, the replacement catalytic converter was starting to die. This truck has been hard on two things, catalytic converters and tailgates.

New Mexico has a smog program only for those who live and work in the Albuquerque area. I made sure when I moved here, I moved to a location where I did NOT have to have my vehicles smogged. Even so the smog requirements in this state for the county where ABQ is located only applies to 1989 vehicles and later. Thus my F250 will never be subjected to smog testing as long as it stays in this state.

Regarding the comment about the engine with 250k miles, I will address this topic in part 2 a future posting from my original posting..

So where are you? I ask because we have a map, which you can see in the menu at Bullnose Forum/Member's Map. We can add you with a city or zip.

[Rickman Metisse]

So where are you? I ask because we have a map, which you can see in the menu at Bullnose Forum/Member's Map. We can add you with a city or zip.

The closest city would be Albuquerque.

[Gary Lewis]

The closest city would be Albuquerque.

You are now on the map, although I put you at the airport.

Man, that street off I-25 to the airport is one ROUGH piece of pavement! Big Blue bounced all over the place on that a few months ago when I drove down from Santa Fe to pick up our son. But it was worth it as we had a great time. Camped at Bandelier and visited Valles Caldera and plenty of other places. This was back in May when the late snow was melting and many of the roads and areas were closed.

[Rickman Metisse]

Welcome! Glad you joined. And glad you got your truck back.

Anxious to read Part 2, but am worried about the emissions issue in CA. Is your truck originally a CA truck?

Part 2-

Here I have an engine which suffered a serious failure due to stale gas. I am no stranger to stale gas having worked in my father’s outdoor power equipment shop making repairs to customer’s machines. In addition one of my hobbies is vintage motorcycles and I’ve overhauled/cleaned numerous carburetors in the process of getting an old motorcycle running again.

In addition I retired from a career in the fire department in 2011 and moved to New Mexico. After moving here by popular demand I opened a repair shop for motorcycles, ATVs and other small engines. Stale gas is a frequently encountered problem when someone says my bike won’t start.

This is however my first experience dealing with stale gas in an automobile and it turns out to be a situation with catastrophic results.

Did I regret buying back the Ford, you bet I did. My wife is still pissed at me for doing this. My mother is sorry for encouraging me to buy it back.

Speaking of my mother, she too has a bit of nostalgia with this truck for what it represented at the time in 1985. In 1979 due to a poor economy, my folk’s business, which supported the construction industry, failed which led to a bankruptcy. The Ford F250 was the first new vehicle since the bankruptcy they were able to obtain by qualifying for financing.

The truck sits with an engine disassembled down to the block which is still in the frame. Against my better judgment I let this happen because it would have been simple to button things back up once the bent pushrods were discovered. Thus it has to reside inside my shop otherwise to leave it outside in this condition would be the kiss of death due to dusty dirty windy desert/mountains I live in.

The positive aspect to this is I can leave it be until I decide what to do with the engine.

So I ponder several options. If this were any other truck besides the one of my youth, I would have probably sold it as-is and taken the loss. Of course the easiest repair but perhaps the worst option would be new pushrods and put it back together. Next would be to rebuild the existing engine. Another option is the buy a remanufactured/rebuilt engine. I looked into getting one from Jasper. Then I looked at other trucks for sale with the idea of buying one just for the engine. One promising truck was a 1988 F150 with a 300-6. Turns out this truck was too nice to part out and would have been a great project itself but I already had one project truck and I didn’t need two old pickups. This led me to consider swapping the 302 out for a six cylinder but there was too much in the way of modifications required and I didn’t want to go down that road. Yet another option which a couple of friends are still trying to talk me into, is to put a Cummins diesel in the Ford. Both of my friends have done this previously with other trucks which did not originally have Cummins diesel engine.

The most promising, at least initially, was the 1986 F150 5.0 EFI I found parked in a field nearby with a for sale sign stating it had a bad rear end. Turns out I couldn’t get in contact with the owner and gave up after trying a couple of weeks A few months later it disappeared, I surmised someone wanted their field cleaned up of debris and junk cars.

A couple of years passed and I found another promising lead on Craigslist 300 miles away in Arizona. Here was a 1986 302 engine w/EFI, AOD transmission, and transfer case removed from a Bronco with about 60k miles on the engine. Everything was just like mine. By the time I contacted the seller, the trans and xfer case were sold but he still had the engine. A positive aspect to this is I had a friend who lived close by who was willing to take a look for me to see if it was worth the drive. I should mention this took place during covid. My friend advises the engine was outside under a heavy tarp on a crate but was sealed up properly and most important it turns over. So it’s worth the drive for me to come check it out.

Turns out the engine was removed from the Bronco so it could be repowered with a 460 along with all the running gear out of a wrecked donor pickup which was itself, was present still in the process of being parted out and sold. For $450 bucks I take the gamble and brought this engine home for my F250.

Part 3 to follow-

 

[Rickman Metisse]

Part 2-

Here I have an engine which suffered a serious failure due to stale gas. I am no stranger to stale gas having worked in my father’s outdoor power equipment shop making repairs to customer’s machines. In addition one of my hobbies is vintage motorcycles and I’ve overhauled/cleaned numerous carburetors in the process of getting an old motorcycle running again.

In addition I retired from a career in the fire department in 2011 and moved to New Mexico. After moving here by popular demand I opened a repair shop for motorcycles, ATVs and other small engines. Stale gas is a frequently encountered problem when someone says my bike won’t start.

This is however my first experience dealing with stale gas in an automobile and it turns out to be a situation with catastrophic results.

Did I regret buying back the Ford, you bet I did. My wife is still pissed at me for doing this. My mother is sorry for encouraging me to buy it back.

Speaking of my mother, she too has a bit of nostalgia with this truck for what it represented at the time in 1985. In 1979 due to a poor economy, my folk’s business, which supported the construction industry, failed which led to a bankruptcy. The Ford F250 was the first new vehicle since the bankruptcy they were able to obtain by qualifying for financing.

The truck sits with an engine disassembled down to the block which is still in the frame. Against my better judgment I let this happen because it would have been simple to button things back up once the bent pushrods were discovered. Thus it has to reside inside my shop otherwise to leave it outside in this condition would be the kiss of death due to dusty dirty windy desert/mountains I live in.

The positive aspect to this is I can leave it be until I decide what to do with the engine.

So I ponder several options. If this were any other truck besides the one of my youth, I would have probably sold it as-is and taken the loss. Of course the easiest repair but perhaps the worst option would be new pushrods and put it back together. Next would be to rebuild the existing engine. Another option is the buy a remanufactured/rebuilt engine. I looked into getting one from Jasper. Then I looked at other trucks for sale with the idea of buying one just for the engine. One promising truck was a 1988 F150 with a 300-6. Turns out this truck was too nice to part out and would have been a great project itself but I already had one project truck and I didn’t need two old pickups. This led me to consider swapping the 302 out for a six cylinder but there was too much in the way of modifications required and I didn’t want to go down that road. Yet another option which a couple of friends are still trying to talk me into, is to put a Cummins diesel in the Ford. Both of my friends have done this previously with other trucks which did not originally have Cummins diesel engine.

The most promising, at least initially, was the 1986 F150 5.0 EFI I found parked in a field nearby with a for sale sign stating it had a bad rear end. Turns out I couldn’t get in contact with the owner and gave up after trying a couple of weeks A few months later it disappeared, I surmised someone wanted their field cleaned up of debris and junk cars.

A couple of years passed and I found another promising lead on Craigslist 300 miles away in Arizona. Here was a 1986 302 engine w/EFI, AOD transmission, and transfer case removed from a Bronco with about 60k miles on the engine. Everything was just like mine. By the time I contacted the seller, the trans and xfer case were sold but he still had the engine. A positive aspect to this is I had a friend who lived close by who was willing to take a look for me to see if it was worth the drive. I should mention this took place during covid. My friend advises the engine was outside under a heavy tarp on a crate but was sealed up properly and most important it turns over. So it’s worth the drive for me to come check it out.

Turns out the engine was removed from the Bronco so it could be repowered with a 460 along with all the running gear out of a wrecked donor pickup which was itself, was present still in the process of being parted out and sold. For $450 bucks I take the gamble and brought this engine home for my F250.

Part 3 to follow-

Part 3

After getting the 1986 5.0 engine home, do I immediately put it in my F250? No, due to other circumstances the project stalls and I loose interest somewhat. The truck is on one side of my shop and the replacement engine on the other side near my regular work area. My regular work area is always seems to be filled with a customer’s motorcycle or ATVs. So again the truck sits for almost another 2 years until I need to bring my travel trailer back inside in order to do some major work on it.

I move the F250 over to my work area or should I say now a greatly reduced work area. Now at least it is next to the engine. With the Ford now encroaching in my work space, working is cramped and takes creative thought on how I can squeeze one more machine into my shop. I am forced now to work on and maintain my own automobiles outside, hopefully when the weather is nice. Then it hits me, I am spending all my time fixing other folk’s machine that I can’t fix my own. It’s decided I need to retire from being a small engine / mc-atv mechanic so I can concentrate on fixing my own stuff. With the trailer, truck and some vintage motorcycles; I have enough projects of my own to last several years.

By the end of 2022 the trailer’s repairs are completed. I’ve retired a second time and now I can finally focus on the Ford. Plus my wife is nagging me to do something with the truck. An important step is to be able to borrow a cherry picker. In June I start prepping the replacement engine for installation in the F250. It starts with removal of all wiring, alternator, power steering, etc. I made a lifting plate which attaches to the lower intake manifold, now comes removal of the upper intake manifold. I found evidence of stale fuel varnish in the fuel rail. Now I am dreading a repeat of sticky valves due to stale gas varnish.

I ponder how to deal with this potential ticking bomb. I want to avoid removing the lower manifold in order to obtain direct access to clean the valve stems. My solution was kroil. I started by spraying some into each intake port. If you aren’t familiar with Kroil, it is perhaps one of the best penetrating oils available. Plus it will act as an effective solvent to old fuel varnish. It is not as good as carb cleaner but I didn’t want to be spraying a bunch of carb cleaner directly into my engine either. I take the kroil one step further by spraying it on the valve stems directly while in the process of replacing the valve stem seals as an additional precaution.

I find the engine turns freely with the spark plugs removed. Conversely, it’s considerably more difficult to turn over with the plugs installed which means there is decent compression. All looks go so far.

Several other external parts are replaced including the water pump and thermostat.

The Bronco engine came with O2 sensor headers so I decide to leave them on, hoping they will line up with the stock exhaust on the truck.

In 2018 I did not take apart the engine in my truck; a friend did, so I have to figure out how to re-attach the power steering and a/c. The Bronco had factory air but my truck has dealer installed air. They are considerably different with mounting brackets and v-belts. The only memories I have of working on this truck date back over 20 years. The power steering was easy to figure out but the a/c was still a mystery. The a/c compressor was still attached to the system inside the engine bay. Plus being a dealer installation finding a photo online of the a/c system has been impossible so far. Keeping the a/c intact was essential since it blew cold air last time I drove the truck and it is still has R-12 Freon inside!

A big day arrived, a couple of weeks ago, with the replacement engine going into the truck. Everything lined up except the exhaust which was close but not quite. Then I recalled that while the exhaust system was essentially stock, it was not the original factory installation. The entire system had been replaced at least once, its no wonder things did not quite line up.

The a/c mounting mystery was easier to figure out once the engine was in place. Plus as I continue to work on the truck, my memories of working on it in the distant past are coming back too.

When I put coolant into the engine, I discovered a coolant leak at the thermostat housing. What a pain to access being it is partially behind the water pump. I now did what I should have done in the first place which was to replace the housing when I replaced the thermostat. The replacement part in appearance and fit was a noticeable improvement over the OEM cast housing from Ford. Note- thermostat housings are not terribly expensive and a worthwhile investment to avoid a potential headache later especially if access is difficult.

With everything back together I realized it is time for the big test and see if the engine will run. Initially it would not start due to not getting fuel. The high pressure fuel pump made the appropriate noise but would not pump fuel even with an auxiliary tank connected feeding it via gravity. Then the engine tried to start but wouldn’t stay running. I then re-connected an auxiliary fuel tank to gravity feed the EFI fuel pump. Now the truck starts and runs but only on the aux tank and not on truck’s own fuel tanks. Previously I knew one tank had a bad internal fuel pump and now the other one is bad too. So while the engine does run, my stale gas woes are not quite over yet as both tanks will need to be lowered to replace the internal pump modules. On the bright side I may finally have a fuel gauge which works properly. When I had the truck the first time, the fuel gauge was never trustworthy when either tank was under half full. The odometer became my actual gas gauge with each tank being good for about 200 miles because at 220 - 225 miles you would run out of gas.

I was very pleased with the a/c which is still blowing cold air.

Before shutting the truck off yesterday I made certain stabilized fuel was run through the EFI system.

This brings me up to date where I am currently at with bringing this truck back to life. My attitude towards it has changed. I am looking forward to doing what it takes to accomplish this goal of putting this F250 back on the road. I am also very pleased to see considerable parts support for these trucks from the various online companies. At this time I don’t have any questions about the truck but will in the future when it is a more appropriate time. Eventually I will need to look at remounting the spare tire and if someone could obtain the OEM Ford tooling to produce the tailgate like has been done on 1979 and earlier trucks; I wouldn’t have to look for a good used one. As I’ve mentioned previously this truck has been hard on tailgates, it’s on at least number 4 and the reproduction one on it right now needs replacing…….

 

[ArdWrknTrk]

Part 3

After getting the 1986 5.0 engine home, do I immediately put it in my F250? No, due to other circumstances the project stalls and I loose interest somewhat. The truck is on one side of my shop and the replacement engine on the other side near my regular work area. My regular work area is always seems to be filled with a customer’s motorcycle or ATVs. So again the truck sits for almost another 2 years until I need to bring my travel trailer back inside in order to do some major work on it.

I move the F250 over to my work area or should I say now a greatly reduced work area. Now at least it is next to the engine. With the Ford now encroaching in my work space, working is cramped and takes creative thought on how I can squeeze one more machine into my shop. I am forced now to work on and maintain my own automobiles outside, hopefully when the weather is nice. Then it hits me, I am spending all my time fixing other folk’s machine that I can’t fix my own. It’s decided I need to retire from being a small engine / mc-atv mechanic so I can concentrate on fixing my own stuff. With the trailer, truck and some vintage motorcycles; I have enough projects of my own to last several years.

By the end of 2022 the trailer’s repairs are completed. I’ve retired a second time and now I can finally focus on the Ford. Plus my wife is nagging me to do something with the truck. An important step is to be able to borrow a cherry picker. In June I start prepping the replacement engine for installation in the F250. It starts with removal of all wiring, alternator, power steering, etc. I made a lifting plate which attaches to the lower intake manifold, now comes removal of the upper intake manifold. I found evidence of stale fuel varnish in the fuel rail. Now I am dreading a repeat of sticky valves due to stale gas varnish.

I ponder how to deal with this potential ticking bomb. I want to avoid removing the lower manifold in order to obtain direct access to clean the valve stems. My solution was kroil. I started by spraying some into each intake port. If you aren’t familiar with Kroil, it is perhaps one of the best penetrating oils available. Plus it will act as an effective solvent to old fuel varnish. It is not as good as carb cleaner but I didn’t want to be spraying a bunch of carb cleaner directly into my engine either. I take the kroil one step further by spraying it on the valve stems directly while in the process of replacing the valve stem seals as an additional precaution.

I find the engine turns freely with the spark plugs removed. Conversely, it’s considerably more difficult to turn over with the plugs installed which means there is decent compression. All looks go so far.

Several other external parts are replaced including the water pump and thermostat.

The Bronco engine came with O2 sensor headers so I decide to leave them on, hoping they will line up with the stock exhaust on the truck.

In 2018 I did not take apart the engine in my truck; a friend did, so I have to figure out how to re-attach the power steering and a/c. The Bronco had factory air but my truck has dealer installed air. They are considerably different with mounting brackets and v-belts. The only memories I have of working on this truck date back over 20 years. The power steering was easy to figure out but the a/c was still a mystery. The a/c compressor was still attached to the system inside the engine bay. Plus being a dealer installation finding a photo online of the a/c system has been impossible so far. Keeping the a/c intact was essential since it blew cold air last time I drove the truck and it is still has R-12 Freon inside!

A big day arrived, a couple of weeks ago, with the replacement engine going into the truck. Everything lined up except the exhaust which was close but not quite. Then I recalled that while the exhaust system was essentially stock, it was not the original factory installation. The entire system had been replaced at least once, its no wonder things did not quite line up.

The a/c mounting mystery was easier to figure out once the engine was in place. Plus as I continue to work on the truck, my memories of working on it in the distant past are coming back too.

When I put coolant into the engine, I discovered a coolant leak at the thermostat housing. What a pain to access being it is partially behind the water pump. I now did what I should have done in the first place which was to replace the housing when I replaced the thermostat. The replacement part in appearance and fit was a noticeable improvement over the OEM cast housing from Ford. Note- thermostat housings are not terribly expensive and a worthwhile investment to avoid a potential headache later especially if access is difficult.

With everything back together I realized it is time for the big test and see if the engine will run. Initially it would not start due to not getting fuel. The high pressure fuel pump made the appropriate noise but would not pump fuel even with an auxiliary tank connected feeding it via gravity. Then the engine tried to start but wouldn’t stay running. I then re-connected an auxiliary fuel tank to gravity feed the EFI fuel pump. Now the truck starts and runs but only on the aux tank and not on truck’s own fuel tanks. Previously I knew one tank had a bad internal fuel pump and now the other one is bad too. So while the engine does run, my stale gas woes are not quite over yet as both tanks will need to be lowered to replace the internal pump modules. On the bright side I may finally have a fuel gauge which works properly. When I had the truck the first time, the fuel gauge was never trustworthy when either tank was under half full. The odometer became my actual gas gauge with each tank being good for about 200 miles because at 220 - 225 miles you would run out of gas.

I was very pleased with the a/c which is still blowing cold air.

Before shutting the truck off yesterday I made certain stabilized fuel was run through the EFI system.

This brings me up to date where I am currently at with bringing this truck back to life. My attitude towards it has changed. I am looking forward to doing what it takes to accomplish this goal of putting this F250 back on the road. I am also very pleased to see considerable parts support for these trucks from the various online companies. At this time I don’t have any questions about the truck but will in the future when it is a more appropriate time. Eventually I will need to look at remounting the spare tire and if someone could obtain the OEM Ford tooling to produce the tailgate like has been done on 1979 and earlier trucks; I wouldn’t have to look for a good used one. As I’ve mentioned previously this truck has been hard on tailgates, it’s on at least number 4 and the reproduction one on it right now needs replacing…….

Dennis Carpenter is the only one I know that has the original tooling and authorization/license to reproduce Ford parts.

Shame they don't offer a Bullnose tailgate. (I thought at one point they had NOS for sale)

The smooth stamped repop tailgates are just too thin.

At least you live in the best part of the country to turn up a solid survivor.

If you have garbage fuel be aware there is a filter element in the multifunction fuel reservoir on the driver's side frame rail.

(I'm sure you know this, but you didn't mention it)

[Rickman Metisse]

Dennis Carpenter is the only one I know that has the original tooling and authorization/license to reproduce Ford parts.

Shame they don't offer a Bullnose tailgate. (I thought at one point they had NOS for sale)

The smooth stamped repop tailgates are just too thin.

At least you live in the best part of the country to turn up a solid survivor.

If you have garbage fuel be aware there is a filter element in the multifunction fuel reservoir on the driver's side frame rail.

(I'm sure you know this, but you didn't mention it)

Yes, I am aware of the frame mounted fuel filter which I've replaced in the past and have a new one on hand. I was able to siphon most of the fuel out of the tanks using a Harbor Freight pump after figuring out how to get around the restriction at the top of each tank where the filler hose connects. My original draft of the postings was huge and I had to condense my narrative somewhat. I won't be able to work on the truck for a couple of week so I will put off ordering the fuel pump modules until I have at least one tank on the ground.

Perhaps when the trucks get a bit older, new tailgates off original tooling will get made. As an older gentleman stated the other day at the local auto parts store, " 1985 doesn't seem that long ago but yet it is".