[Doc]

The old tired, shoddily rebuilt 289 is out of the car. (I am posting this for the newbies).

I am transferring over pans, and various odds and ends to an 88 5.0 to put back in the car. I pulled off the pan to find trash, RTV, and something that resembled diaper pellets in the oil pan. There was RTV everywhere....not even a pan gasket!!! JUST RTV!!!

I pulled the intake manifold off, just to get it off, and what do I find on the intake manifold gaskets? RTV! 2 spots of it around the thermactor ports on these heads (not sure the heads are true 289), on both gaskets. No wonder I could not get this engine to run right. What is worse the oil that was left in the bottm of the pan looked like it was starting to show the signs of a gacked head gasket.....but the head gaskets seem to be fine. What is the water from you ask? It is from the water ports on the ends of the heads pushing water out between the head and the intake. Not enough to make it steam, but enough to make a mess, and make the engine overheat. This was caused by the two fairly thick beads of RTV used to hold the intake gaskets in place.

Here is the moral to this story. RTV is your friend, bit it is not a fixall for everything. You use it sparingly. You DON"T USE IT ON THE HEAD SIDE INTAKE GASKETS! if you are having a hard time getting the intake set down on the heads without it slipping then go get some all thread the correct size, and cut four pieces to length long enough that they stick up out of the manifold for you to remove them once the intake is in place.

RTV works and works well for many things, but it is not meant to be a replacement for the correct gaskets.

As far as the other garbage that was found in the bottom of the pan....

Think of an engine overhaul as brain surgery! Cleanliness is next to godliness! the cleaner you keep things the better. I am taking the oil pan and valve covers to the machinen shop to have them acid dipped and stripped so I can get nice fresh pans and repaint them.

This could have been a very successful engine overhaul if it had been done properly. There is no excuse for amateur work......even from an amateur. Find a clean, well lit place to work, and take your time, and keep stuff clean! It is not rocket science. A good manual and good tools will go a long way.

Doc

[5.0 in a 66]

Oh god! I've seen some RTV screwups, but that has to set some kinda record!

[Doc]

I think I weighed it out to about 2 tubes worth of RTV. I still haven;t stripped the whole engine down yet, but anticipate the same kind of crap.

What is so sad abotu the RTV on the intake gaskets is that the stuff was allowed to set up before the gaskets were set in place. I can still get fingerprints off the RTV from the smear. Stuff is thicker than the head gasket.

If I had known about all these problems with the car before I bought it I woudl have looked elsewhere.

Sad....

The 289 is going to be sold off in pieces. If anyone needs a crank, block, heads, etc. I am more than happy to forward casting numbers off the stuff. I am taking the heads crank and block to the machine shop to get a "no cracks" paper on each.

I can tell you that this block s not original to this car. I foudn a factory rebuild tag that is pretty close to the age of the car pegged to the oil rail on the block. It looks as if someone blew the original enigne and had the dealer replace it. The heads are thermactor port equipped, and I am not sure if htey are correct either. Will have to get some measurements off the block and crank to make sure it is even a 289...lol.

What a sad day for my son. He thought he was getting something special, and I am not a Ford guy to start with so I had no idea what to look for.

We got screwed. The previous owner did all this shoddy work,a nd now I am left holding the bag. Oh well, restomod in progress!!!!

Doc

[Preacher17]

Pretty darn funny...unless of course you have to clean up the mess, anyway i got to thinking about holding gaskets on and thought it might be interesting to tell what we use at work. I'm an aircraft engine mechanic, mostly turboshaft engines, during reassembly there are a ton of 'o'rings and gaskets you need to put back on. What we use is Crisco...yup, right out of the can, it will hold the o-ring in place long enough to assemble the parts. Some engine makers also recommend petroleum jelly (actually petrolatum, vasaline basically) it also works well. Engine oil also can work well depending on what you are holding in place but I wouldn't dip gaskets in in. Anyway a dab or two of Crisco or vasaline is all it takes. Never used either one on a car but I don't see any reason it wouldn't work. the great thing about Criso and Vasaline is as soon as the engine heats up it melts away. Get this , we even pack bearings in Crisco (do not try on a car) so it isn't oil starved during the first run and it holds the rollers in place during assembly. All this is correct proceedure for the engines we use it on...thought it might be interesting, and maybe help if someone wanted to give them a try...I may next time around don't know why I haven't yet. The key is don't over do it...just a dab will do ya......