New Project 1987 F150

[zoom zoom]

This is my grandfathers 87 f150, he bought it new and is the original owner. I think it was in my uncles name for awhile, and my cousin was the last driver..so who knows what he did to it.

It's sat in the same spot for the last 2 years, tags expired 8/11. My grandpaw offered to give it to me, and I want it, but my wife would kill me. Anyway the deal is I fix it and I can use it whenever I want...I need a truck occasionally.

I started tinkering with it yesterday and finally got it running today. It seems to run great for me, I drove it around the block a few times and the only issue is me with the clutch, I'm not used to the thing.

It will have good tags today or tomorrow but my grandpaw says its not fixed yet. It would stall out after running for awhile, say more than 100 miles+/-. If you let it sit it will eventually start back up.

There is a new front gas tank on it, but the problem was before that was installed. I'm thinking maybe the fuel pump, the filter is new but its obvious the pump has been there for awhile. Engine runs good but the idle jumps a bit.

Straight 6 with a 4 speed

Anyways, the pics...

[91blufestiva]

Nice! Looks just like mine!

[fastiva89]

have you tired cleaning the EGR?

Plus I'm jealous 91blue, how did you find that clean of a truck in MN?

[Bert]

Good stuff!
I'm not sure what the smog-test laws are like out your way but if you are entitled to throw away all that Rube Goldberg EFI junk and convert to a simple carburetor your mileage will go up, there will be acres more room and the engine will be really easy to service. If you don't believe me have a look at EPA fuel economy ratings for 86 300 carb VS 87 300 EFI. As well, a Mazda 5 speed (M5ODR2; which is light-weight at 100lb VS the commercial ZF5 tranny which is twice that weight) will bolt right up (no matter what you decide to do with the engine) and provide you with an overdrive gear too.
Last year I scavenged the exhaust manifolds off a 300 six 87-96 model (they are supposedly better flowing than the carb versions) but it took me the better part of a day to 'not so politely' get them off a U-Pull wreck. Too much garbage in the way! Whereas the same operation on my carbed 86 F150 is at very most 1/2 hour's not-unpleasant work.
By the way, www.LMCTRUCK.com carries virtually every 80-96 Ford P/U and Bronco part you can imagine, and then some!

[Bert]

PS: Having to wait awhile in order to restart the truck is often related to a faulty electronic ignition module. These generally need to be re-newed every decade or so but aren't expensive and are located on the drivers side inner fender. Cigarette package-sized aluminum box with one plug-in and two screws.

[blkfordsedan]

My brother has a 96 with the 300-I6. It would have intermittent issues where once it got warmed up and you shut it off, it wouldn't start. If it did, it would run rough. Once cooled off, it ran great. As time went on, it got more frequent. Eventually, it wouldn't start at all. It ended up being the PIP in the distributor. It's a common issue with the 300-I6. You can buy a rebuilt distributor pretty cheap...otherwise you have to tear the distributor apart to replace the PIP.

[nitrofarm]

Zoom, Whatcha doing in a Pickmeup Truck? I thought you were supposed to be in a Raft by now?:whip2:

[blkfordsedan]

The EFI 300-6 is a good motor. Tough as nails and great low speed pulling power.....as long as your not in a hurry to get anywhere. I'm surprised it doesn't have the Mazda 5-speed.....maybe its too old. All the farmers around here snatch those EFI I6 trucks up as fast as they go up for sale. They can pull stock trailers all day and not use much fuel. You can bump the timing up to around 10* BTDC and that will help improve both power and MPG. Just make sure it doesn't spark knock under high load conditions. Also, everyone I've seen has the throttle bodies set up so they don't open all the way. You can tweak the linkage so they open up to 100% and it will make a noticeable difference at WOT.

[Movin]

Zoom, nice score!! We have hundreds of those things around here. Like Bert said, those ignition modules needed replaced more than any of the fuses! Most common symptom was run perfect for awhile then die. It would have to cool off for awhile then restart. I have a test tool just for this it is so common. Enjoy the truck!!

[zoom zoom]

Good stuff!
I'm not sure what the smog-test laws are like out your way but if you are entitled to throw away all that Rube Goldberg EFI junk and convert to a simple carburetor your mileage will go up, there will be acres more room and the engine will be really easy to service. If you don't believe me have a look at EPA fuel economy ratings for 86 300 carb VS 87 300 EFI. As well, a Mazda 5 speed (M5ODR2; which is light-weight at 100lb VS the commercial ZF5 tranny which is twice that weight) will bolt right up (no matter what you decide to do with the engine) and provide you with an overdrive gear too.
Last year I scavenged the exhaust manifolds off a 300 six 87-96 model (they are supposedly better flowing than the carb versions) but it took me the better part of a day to 'not so politely' get them off a U-Pull wreck. Too much garbage in the way! Whereas the same operation on my carbed 86 F150 is at very most 1/2 hour's not-unpleasant work.
By the way, www.LMCTRUCK.com carries virtually every 80-96 Ford P/U and Bronco part you can imagine, and then some!

I haven't heard of that before, but it definately sounds intriguing! I was looking at that big nasty pollution pump thing and I swear my old 85 f250 didn't have that..that would clear up alotta room too. Honestly for now I just want to get it running and eventually I'll do this or that to it. I'm gonna get him to have the title notarized over into my name in case anything ever happens.

Zoom, Whatcha doing in a Pickmeup Truck? I thought you were supposed to be in a Raft by now?:whip2:

tryin to make money the other deal fell through, i think..they set me back to MAY!!!

My brother has a 96 with the 300-I6. It would have intermittent issues where once it got warmed up and you shut it off, it wouldn't start. If it did, it would run rough. Once cooled off, it ran great. As time went on, it got more frequent. Eventually, it wouldn't start at all. It ended up being the PIP in the distributor. It's a common issue with the 300-I6. You can buy a rebuilt distributor pretty cheap...otherwise you have to tear the distributor apart to replace the PIP.

I haven't personally experienced the no start issue yet, it's always started right back up for me. My grandpaw is the one who said it needed to sit awhile before it would start.

What it does for me is buck really hard when you let off the clutch, and the engine is stumbling on idle and I got it to stall a couple times too. When your moving it will be running great one minute, then go thru a fit where it jumps really hard a few times, stalls, (the rear end locks up because it's still in gear) then starts back up by itself because it's moving in gear and runs fine until it decides to do it again. If you give it alot of petal it will do it almost every time, but if your easy it doesn't seem to do it as much.

The coil pack is new too. My grandfather paid a guy 1700$ to fix it, and it didn't get fixed. He put a new middle tank on, obviously removed the rear one, both tanks should have new pumps, the exhaust is like new front to back, the selector valve looks like it's possibly new(at least low milage) but the external (high pressure) fuel pump is still sitting in the stock sheath and it looks rotted out. It whines really loud all the time.

[neanderpaul]

My grandpaw offered to GIVE it to me, and I want it, but my wife would kill me.

[zoom zoom]

Update, new fuel pump, and I removed the filter and blew thru it, fuel was comming out clean and it had very little resistance. It's still got problems. If you give it gas under load it just wants to kill out. I took the vacuum hose off the fpr and it didn't change anything.

It can sit and idle ok for a few minutes, then studders. If you touch the throttle while its studdering it stalls. I've thrown about 70$ worth of parts at it, so its time for a manual.


@bert, I didn't see that aluminum box, but I didn't look real hard either, I got mad when it stalled and I burned the NEW solenoid up. I wasn't cranking it over much either, it only took a couple seconds and it started smoking. I ended up having to pull it about half a mile with babyspire to get it home.

I want to do a little research and find out how to check the map sensor and tps, and read up on the whole fuel injection system.

[blkfordsedan]

I believe I would still investigate the ignition system. Go to Ford-trucks.com and search the forums. TONS of onfo on there. Probably the most knowledgeable forum I've ever been on in terms of trouble shooting, technical and diagnostics. There are ways to test all the components. Even a Haynes manual would help in that respect.

[Bert]

What has alerted me to "modern car problems" is that I only have a very rudimentary 'Christmas tree' collection point for vacuum hoses going into the intake manifold of my old carbed six. But during the past 10 years these have routinely split, blown off or otherwise failed and then the engine immediately runs like sh&*. Easy to diagnose when there are only 3-4 hoses and right in your face.
Pulling apart a 97 B3 engine this afternoon (with it's 3-4 dozen rubber and steel vacuum and signal lines that go all over the place) tells me that integrity of rubber, hoses, clamps and connections on modern cars is going to become a GD nightmare over the long run.
Hang on to your baby and start modifying it so as to make things simple. From what I've read commercial carriers (UPS, Fed-Ex etc) didn't expect to have to service these I-6 engines during the first 1/2 million miles and gravitated to diesels only because EPA forced the end of the commercial inline gas engines in 1996.

[zoom zoom]

Will do Brian, thanks for the heads up on that site. I've checked out a few and made a thread or two but no replies.

The solenoid vacuum lines on aspires can be a pita trying to figure them out, if you need a picture I can get a few good ones of the hose routing. I have replaced quite a few on my aspires just because I didn't like the way they looked.


I suppose I should have clamped the return line to see if the FPR is busted, but I didn't even think of it till a little bit ago. I did order a Haynes manual today, the total including shipping was less than $6 lol..