Slick 60's

Good evening,

I've recently purchased a '65 ford F250. Great truck! good condition for it's age. The previous owner claimed 71K original miles. I'm inclined to believe it due to the number of mud dauber and wasp's nests. I drove it over 200 miles home with no problems, except a slight death wobble over 65 MPH.



welll..... the next morning, I ended up parked on the side of the road. I have a brake fluid leak somewhere that I can't locate. well, I refilled on brake fluid, then noticed a wet spot on the passenger floor.


wait... what?

that there is a class II leak...
I manage to nurse it the 1/2 mile home, while it pisses out of the heater core. I get it parked, and open the passenger door to unleash a flood of coolant.

I manage to capture some in a jar. lo and behold, brown coolant.

a LOT of brown coolant.

I scientifically determined it was the heater core.
Well, after a quick shopping trip for a new heater core, valve cover gaskets (another class II leak) and 12 gallons of distilled water to flush the coolant.

not to mention a case of beer for my assistants.

we started late due to work. My buddy chris did the valve cover gaskets.


while I worked on the heater box, and yeah, it was pretty muffed.


After a quick deconstruction and reconstruction, it was fine. the heater box might be a little off, but hey, it's summer.
well, two flushes and it's still rusty. yah.

updates to come.

Good looking truck. Core was probably good enough until it really got up to pressure. The good is that you now have a good core and that the heaters can be removed in a flash compared to most cars.

Nice truck. Just curious, what would be a class I or III leak?

Nice score, lookibg forward to seeing the progress!

Good looking old truck. Even the ones that look clean can still have mechanical issues which you discovered. In a pinch you can always bypass the heater core. For the most part, you have plenty of room to work on things with these vehicles. Once you get the few gremlins worked out you should have a great Slick. CONGRATS!

Day 2 wrote:Nice truck. Just curious, what would be a class I or III leak?

It's an army thing; a class 1 is sweating, not enough to form droplets, class 2 is leaking enough to form droplets, and class 3 is "holy @#$& it's leaking!", Aka constant droplets/stream.

Thanks for the kind words. After sorting some basic things like making sure I don't crash and die from brake failure, I have a list of some small things to do. Most of them are safety/sanity related, such as installing seatbelts, upgrading the brake system, and getting a vintage style radio that works. I should be posting fairly regular updates on it.

Also, is it against the rules to post content about other projects in this thread? I'm also working on a LS swap into a Volvo that might interest you guys.

Nice looking truck!
Regarding the brakes, I recently had similar issues on my '67 - brake fluid level dropping but I couldn't find the leak. It turns out that it was leaking out the back of the MC into the cab. The firewall insulation was soaking up the fluid so I didn't notice it until it became saturated and it eventually left a wet area on the floor mat.

slixtyfive wrote:Nice looking truck! Regarding the brakes, I recently had similar issues on my '67 - brake fluid level dropping but I couldn't find the leak. It turns out that it was leaking out the back of the MC into the cab. The firewall insulation was soaking up the fluid so I didn't notice it until it became saturated and it eventually left a wet area on the floor mat.

Thanks! I checked the back of master cylinder, but I don't see any fluid or moisture, though there is some rust below it, as if the paint has been stripped off by brake fluid. I'm thinking it's one of the wheel cylinders and I just can't see it because it's inside the drum. Of course, that means that I need to open up all the drums to figure it out.

Anyway, One of the other issues that the truck has is that the driver's door handle's splines are stripped.

So, I used this as an excuse to place an order to LMC for seatbelts, new cabin insulation/sound deadening, and floor mats.

Oh and I drained the coolant again, still pretty rusty.

Should I be too concerned? I'm debating going and getting a cooling system flush with solvents and stuff.

I'd flush it

I would fill it with one gallon of white vinegar and a garden hose, run the engine for a bit after the thermostat opens then drain it with one of those garden hose flush kits until it runs clear, wait 1/2 hour and water flush it again. Once it runs clear your good to go. do not let the vinegar stay over nite as it is an acid.

unibody madness wrote:I would fill it with one gallon of white vinegar and a garden hose, run the engine for a bit after the thermostat opens then drain it with one of those garden hose flush kits until it runs clear, wait 1/2 hour and water flush it again. Once it runs clear your good to go. do not let the vinegar stay over nite as it is an acid.

what do you mean by drain kit? I've been draining it through the petcock in the bottom of the radiator.

He means one of those kits that goes in the heater hose. You hook a garden hose to it, take off the radiator cap, turn on the hose and run the engine. Or something like that. Prestone makes them, and they explain it better in the directions on the back.

Dan

dub4lyfe wrote:

unibody madness wrote:I would fill it with one gallon of white vinegar and a garden hose, run the engine for a bit after the thermostat opens then drain it with one of those garden hose flush kits until it runs clear, wait 1/2 hour and water flush it again. Once it runs clear your good to go. do not let the vinegar stay over nite as it is an acid.

what do you mean by drain kit? I've been draining it through the petcock in the bottom of the radiator.

That is as good as you are going to get as far as cleaning it out the passages while still in the truck. When I pulled my engine last summer, I took out all the freeze plugs and used a power washer and got all sorts of nastiness out. The best thing would have been to have it vatted but didn't go that far.