Naked valve train pic!

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This is a 1978 Ford 200 cid motor with 108,000 miles, if the odometer is to be believed.
Currently at the end of the rinse phase of Arx, and GTX HM.
I am very happy to see there is no sludge at all.
I am pulling the head to swap out a cracked exhaust manifold.
And swap in a mildly worked-over head, a peppy cam, and a double roller timing chain.
grin2.gif
 
Those are good old engines.

And no intake manifold gasket leaks!

Back in the dark ages, Hot Rod magazine did a test where they sawed off the intake manifold, adapted some Honda MC cars to the head and it matched the 289 V8 in performance.
 
I've owned a couple of those in Fairmonts and Zephyrs. Mom had a '78 Zephyr wagon back in the day, and I bought a '78 Fairmont 2-door in '95 for $100. I drove it for 3 years and sold it for $500.

Great engine. Too bad the rest of the car wasn't up to that standard.

But I would have to give props, the 1978 Fairmont still had a working R12 A/C when I sold it in 1998.

It had to be the easiest oil change I ever did. I could do the whole thing from the top of the car by kicking the drain pan under the car and then positioning it from the top.

No lying on the ground to change the oil in those rides.
 
ugh. my wife had one when we 1st met. problem was, a previous owner had done some 'shadetree' work on it; whatever pollution control devices wern't ripped out of the car were left tied up underhood with rope. never rad right (maybe having something to do w/ exhaust venting out underhood?) I rebuilt the carb, changed the plugs I think. it ran pretty good after that (plugged up the exhaust leak too!)
I had a 300 I6 in a F100 also (from my father-in-law; that family always had fords). the compression was so bad, you couldn't leave it in gear and park it; it would still roll. couldn't rev past 3K, lots of bad clunking/grinding noises also.
 
Originally Posted By: JackFish

This is a 1978 Ford 200 cid motor with 108,000 miles, if the odometer is to be believed.
Currently at the end of the rinse phase of Arx, and GTX HM.
I am very happy to see there is no sludge at all.
I am pulling the head to swap out a cracked exhaust manifold.
And swap in a mildly worked-over head, a peppy cam, and a double roller timing chain.
grin2.gif

high technology
 
Very cool. What type of car is this in?

I'm just old enough that I remember when those types of cars were common - family friend and neighbor had a 1978/79(?) Merc Zephyr wagon that they drove for something like 14 or 17 years...don't know if it was a I-6, but it went like 400,000kms. I was in that one a lot.

When we moved, our neighbour across the street had a 1978 Fairmont sedan w/ a 2.3 4 and a 5-speed (I know not the same engine) that had over 300,000kms. First family vehicle after they moved to Canada from Hungry....

When I was in college, A guy I hung out with had a 1982 Mercury Cougar with a 200 I-6. It was in decent shape, and he was selling it very, very cheap to get rid of it. I had a 1986 Honda Civic at the time, and I actually thought about selling it to have an old beast like this. I still kick myself a bit that I didn't jump on it, b/c the car ended up going to the junkyard when he got tired of trying to sell it....

Good cars, and good memories!

:D
 
Originally Posted By: addyguy
First family vehicle after they moved to Canada from Hungry....



did they finally get something to eat in Canada?
 
Most of those 200's responded really well to milling the head 0.060 inches. That raised the compression up to the point where the engine would really respond with snap.

I built one up with a barrel per cylinder Weber carb setup. It ran great! Easily outpowering the 289/302 engines. It also got 28 MPG.

Chris
 
I am just about to swap the head on this one with a rebuilt that has been shaved .050., oversize valves, dual valve springs, pocket-ported and gasket-matched. Got a dual pattern cam and a double roller timing chain with 6* of advance or retard.

Got any pick of that Weber set-up? That sounds awesome!
You should check out fordsix.com.
 
I think I heard of someone drilling and machining the intake for 3x1 carbs. We had some version of this in our 60 Falcon w/3 on the tree. 170 maybe?
 
I had that engine in my 66 Falcon, and a few other Fords over the years. They were good engines and with a little care lasted a very long time. Working on them was a snap.

Frank D
 
Originally Posted By: harley145000
Those old ford sixes are tougher than all heck.


Until you bugger up a bearing trying to put in a cam:

So I had to pull the engine.

Tore it down today and it's going to the shop tomorrow for a bit of work:
 
I used to work with a guy who had a Fairmont sedan in that exact color with a built Ford 306. It was a sleeper - rusty and faded body work, and ran 12's regularly.
 
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