Soooo, I been taking my time putting this old '71 Flareside (with a 360) back together for about a year now. I'm kinda lazy sometimes. Bought it and drove it home with water and oil coming out the tailpipes and a horrible vibration. Put a new driveline on it and since it came with a complete gasket set I decided to take a chance and change out the head gaskets as well as the oil pan and front cover etc.. I also put a new timing chain set in it while I had it open. Got it running last night and was starting to put water in it to check for water tight but it got late so I turned in. Well, tonight I filler up with water and fired her up to see if she was water tight. Well, much to my dismay I spotted a little bit of water coming out of the right tail pipe. I know better! Sooooo, I guess I'll pick up a head gasket kit Fri. and go ahead and pull the heads and have them resurfaced, assuming I don't see something else like a cracked block or something. Other than that the engine sounds great. One thing I've noticed about these old Fords is that they are a lot easier to work on than all the Chevys I've owned. I've always hated to have to adjust the rockers on them Chevs after pulling the heads. Ford, just bolt 'em on and bolt the rocker shafts down.
Rednecks, white trucks and Pabst Blue Ribbon beer!
i'd wait and check that it wasn't just condensation in that pipe. somebody else knows how to check that.
"It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt." - Mark Twain
'70 f250 4x4 Crew cab 460/C6 '72 F100 390/C6 9.8 MPG AVG. '89 Mercury Cougar LS Dual Exh. V6 . 18.9 MPG AVG. In Town.
I don't want to give em a heart-attack. That is what would happen if I answered the door in the buff. Heck it almost scares me to death when I step out of the shower and look in the mirror.~Mancar1~
fuelly.com
You need a pressure tester for the cooling system. Stant makes the one most use. It goes on the radiator where
the radiator cap goes on. It's got a hose and it's a little pump so you can pump pressure up to see if theres any leaks.
It has a guage on it so you whatch and pump it to about 14psi. Then wait a little and see if it holds pressure.
If no, look and see where it's squirting out.
Another deal thats handy. Block Ck. It's a kit with a glass/plastic, tube with a cone on the one end. It comes with
a bottle of fluid you pour in, maybee 2" or so. It goes in the radiator fill, and if the head gasket is leaking, the fluid
turns "yellow". Pretty sure test! It turns from blue to yellow cause it picks up CO leaks in the cooling system.
Between these two aids to diagnose with, you can figure it out most times. Ya know if your loosing coolant,
theres gotta be a leak somewhere. Could be inside or outside. The outside ones are easy. Sometimes that mousy
"stop leak" wil cover it. Get the silver stuff. Don't use "Barr's". It plugs up the radiator. Radiator guys get pissed
when you bring them one that had "Barrs" in it. They can tell right away. Jake
You can rent that tester from autozone. You basically "pay" for it and then when you bring it back they give you your money back. If you use it, pull the valve covers - once you apply the pressure (20lbs?) you can see coolant oozing from head core plugs, or rocker arm bolts - personal experience.
Also, when I had the above problem, local builder who did the long block used a product called "Iron-Tite" in a silver bottle. It worked great.
I don't know about FE's but on a small block you could also have a rip or blow out on the gasket between the water jacket opening, and the intake port between the manifold and the head.
Good luck!
"O say, does that star spangled banner yet wave? Oer the land of the free and the home of the brave?" It does at my house! God bless America!
Nope, no oil this time. It isn't condensation because there was none coming out the other side. It has true dual exhaust and there is about 3.5 feet of pipe with muffs. I have a pressure tester, in fact it is an old Stant one and it works fine. But I won't need it. Why, you may ask? Because when I was done and took the cap off the rad. (which was leaking badly in two places) water flowed out of it. About 3-4 quarts. What this tells me is that compression is being lost into the water jacket and then water is sucked into the bore and then out the tail pipe. I'm thinking cracked head. Well, when I take it off I'll check it more closely than I did last time. Do you all think if it is just warped that I should mill just that head or should I mill both. I don't really care that much about this engine because eventually I want to put a 300 six in it as it was originally equipped.
Rednecks, white trucks and Pabst Blue Ribbon beer!
Hey rj, you were right, just condensation in the muffler. What I thought was a cylinder pressurizing the water jacket was simply the block heating the water and when I pulled the cap the thermostat had'nt opened yet so the water flowed out of the rad.. It does have a lot of blow-by though. I can't complain too much for a $600.00 truck though, can I? And I fixed the other problem I had. Could'nt get the truck to run and had a funny condition where the coil "batt." wire would pulse and the truck would'nt run. Found out I had the hot wire from the ign. switch going to the temp. sending unit and the temp. sending unit wire to the coil.
Rednecks, white trucks and Pabst Blue Ribbon beer!
Bought it and drove it home with water and oil coming out the tailpipes and a horrible vibration. Put a new driveline on it and since it came with a complete gasket set I decided to take a chance and change out the head gaskets as well as the oil pan and front cover etc.. I also put a new timing chain set in it while I had it open. Got it running last night and was starting to put water in it to check for water tight but it got late so I turned in. Well, tonight I filler up with water and fired her up to see if she was water tight. Well, much to my dismay I spotted a little bit of water coming out of the right tail pipe. I know better! 
Sooooo, I guess I'll pick up a head gasket kit Fri. and go ahead and pull the heads and have them resurfaced, assuming I don't see something else like a cracked block or something. Other than that the engine sounds great. One thing I've noticed about these old Fords is that they are a lot easier to work on than all the Chevys I've owned. I've always hated to have to adjust the rockers on them Chevs after pulling the heads. Ford, just bolt 'em on and bolt the rocker shafts down. 
:):):)
Well, when I take it off I'll check it more closely than I did last time. Do you all think if it is just warped that I should mill just that head or should I mill both. I don't really care that much about this engine because eventually I want to put a 300 six in it as it was originally equipped. 
