Our 250 has been sitting for some time and while doing a compression check nothing showed up on 3, 4, and 5. 1, 2, and 6 read 150. Does anyone know how to reset the valves and what their specs should be. My son is bugging me to start driving the car and dont know if I should do a head job for now and hope its okay to be a daily driver for now or pull the engine and rebuild it. Suggestions?
If I am not mistaken, the 250s had a rail shaft system where you just torque the shaft to the head. Thus, they are not adjustable. It has been over 25 years since I looked under a six valve cover, but that is what I remember. Usually, valves are not so far out of adjustment to create zero compression.
to my knowledge all STOCK ford straight sixes were equipped with hydraulic lifters, so you would set the valves at zero lash (or just barely touching). you might have a couple valves sticking, if the engine turns freely though, your head probably needs rebuilding (thats what happed to my old mav)
We actually have the car running, but we can only get about 16 mph and when we try to accelerate it just wants to cut out. At idle it runs fairly rough also.Head Job for sure?
I have a 250 and there is no adjusted for the lifters its all one unit you just torque the bolts down and thats it. You need a head job on it for sure.
well i don't think your problems is in the valves with 0 compression on that many cyls you would you would hear it blowing out the carb or out the tail pipe when you turn it over ......my guess would be that the compression rings are no longer sealed to the bore or broke....
The 144 the early 170s and some of the first 200s had adjustable rockers but none came in mavericks. You just torque the 6 bolts down to 30 - 35 ft lbs. I think that you`r gonna need to rebuild you`r engin sorry .
Thank you for the BUMMER news. The funny thing is we redid the compression check on cylinders 3, 4, 5 and 3, and 4 came up to 150 but still nothing on 5. I'm finanically not ready for a rebuild, is there any way around this?
You could try some of the Magic in a bottle solutions such as Rislone Engine Treatment. At this point you don't have much to lose.
We did try some of the Marval mistery oil before yesterdays testing. Is it possible that this stuff could help? Some one else mentioned pouring brake fluid into the sparkplug holes. The said the brake fluid eats up any carbon build-up that might have things stuck. Any thoughts?
Never heard of using brake fluid. Don't know what brake fluid would do to the seals, might create an even bigger problem.I would continue to run it with the Marvel Mystery oil and see if things improve. You may want to do a compression wet test to see if the reading goes up. If it goes up you have a ring issue. If it stays the same it is a valve issue. Take a compression reading then squirt some 30 wt. oil in the cylinder (#5) and take another compression reading. Have you been able to get over 16MPH now that you have 5 cylinders?
Brake fluid is a "OLD" trick I have used for stuck rings. Put some in each suspected cyl. and let sit overnight. Crank engine with plugs out to purge any left over fluid(be sure to disconnect coil wire first). Pour a small amount of "Mystery' oil in the cyl. and install plugs, see if it will fire on the dead cyl. If not, repeat the process one more time, if it hits on all six or eight, change the oil and filter. Worst case senario is a rebuild or engine swap. Good luck, this has worked for me, but sometimes the rings are just too siezed in the grooves for anything to work on them except replacement.
"Brake fluid is a "OLD" trick I have used for stuck rings. Put some in each suspected cyl. and let sit overnight. " This is the answer I was looking for! How much fluid should I put in? Teaspoon or more?
