Franken Ford

So I have built my creation. 1997 F-250 4x4, started just needing a tranny. Turned into a major overhaul. Rebuilt the stock 460, bored it .030" over 9.7:1 pistons, stock everything else in the block. The heads however are the dove 3 heads, the intake manifold is an Edlebrock performer 460, which I drilled and put bushings in to run the stock injectors. I built an adapter plate to accommodate the upper intake. The question that I have is; should I use the timing gear set that matches the model year of the truck or for the years of that match the heads? And would timing make the engine hesitate off the line, and sound as if it has an exhaust leak?

The efi engines have the straight up timing chain in them from the factory........... You won't be able to tell the difference of the timing sets just listening to it. Look at the chain, the one you want has the tooth and dot directly over the key way.

Tune on the accelerator pumps.

Dave C. wrote:Tune on the accelerator pumps.

????

Missed the efi part.

Timing chain set is for the stock 1996-1997 460 with the timing mark directly above the key way for the crank gear. The timing for the 1996-1997 460 is 10 deg. before TDC. However the the heads being from an older vintage 1979-1987 460 the timing is different, those years it is 14 deg. before TDC. I am thinking maybe, I should get the timing gear set for the '79-'87 vintage instead.

hank2531 wrote:Timing chain set is for the stock 1996-1997 460 with the timing mark directly above the key way for the crank gear. The timing for the 1996-1997 460 is 10 deg. before TDC. However the the heads being from an older vintage 1979-1987 460 the timing is different, those years it is 14 deg. before TDC. I am thinking maybe, I should get the timing gear set for the '79-'87 vintage instead.

no stay with the 96-97 model the heads don't know what timing set you have in it .They 79-87 set is retarded 4* which will hurt some of your power

Okay, thanks for the info. I will keep the timing as is. With that part figured out, what then would cause a rough idle and hesitation off the line? I just replaced the fuel filter. I did plugs, wires, rotor cap and button, approx. 20,000mi. before the rebuild. Any ideas of what to check?

Possible vacuum leak...could cause rough idle and lean stumble.

hank2531 wrote:Okay, thanks for the info. I will keep the timing as is. With that part figured out, what then would cause a rough idle and hesitation off the line? I just replaced the fuel filter. I did plugs, wires, rotor cap and button, approx. 20,000mi. before the rebuild. Any ideas of what to check?

Check the Fuel Pressure and how old are your injectors? Have you ever replaced them or cleaned them? How old is your fuel pump?

Is there a good test to check for a vacuum leak? Injectors are all original, truck has 98,000mi. on it, fuel pump was replaced 4 years ago. What should fuel pressure be?

Check into a ford service manual for the required pressure.

Cleaning the injectors might not be a bad Idea and also a 20k ago tune up on a 17 YO truck with 98k its probably time for another one, time kills stuff a lot worse than mileage. Especially with the typical parts store Replacement part quality.

These trucks tend to have a small hesitation right off idle from the factory.

Intake gasket leak!

 Was the heads milled ?
 was the intake new or used ?
 check intake to port alignment
 Check vacuum hose routing
 Check vacuum
 check distributer phase
check and clean injectors
If you reused the factory throttle body check and clean it and the idle air bypass valve.

The heads were not milled the valves, stems and seals were done, the intake is used, however it was inspected for cracks and any other type of damage. I am running the original throttle body, though and I didn't think to clean it, so I got to do that. Now distributor phase, what is it and how do you check it? Not to sound too much like an idiot, but I always thought that you set timing and then drop in the distributor.

hank2531 wrote:The heads were not milled the valves, stems and seals were done, the intake is used, however it was inspected for cracks and any other type of damage. I am running the original throttle body, though and I didn't think to clean it, so I got to do that. Now distributor phase, what is it and how do you check it? Not to sound too much like an idiot, but I always thought that you set timing and then drop in the distributor.

That's involved quite a bit, it's checking the timing on each cylinder and tweaking the reluctor teeth to get every cylinder in time.

I don't think you have that problem. I have seen them off a good bit and no drive ability issues. Now hp drop has been seen.