damarble
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- June 20, 2008
- Messages
- 775
- Reaction score
- 74
- City, State
- Washington
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 21 Bronco & 88 Bronco II
So I just picked up a 91 Sport with 280k, but overall it's a really nice truck, good shape in and out, drives like only 100k on it, motor still very strong and way more power than I was expecting. It actually seems to pull harder than my SOHC did (stock vs stock). I bought it from the original owner so I know the history. It's had a recent tranny rebuild and new clutch, new alternator and that's about the extent of under the hood work.
Now the problems I'm having are it overheats and has the most insanely loud tick. I haven't looked into the cooling system yet but did notice the fan was full of cracks, it's getting replaced. The PO thought the rad was plugged, I'll pull it and have it tested.
The ticking is what I'm working on now. I've dedeced that it is from the valve train. What I don't know if the lifters are bad or not. I've just taken he driver side vlave cover off to poke around. There is excessive wear on the rockers and push rods, one was even loose enough to rattle by hand.
I've come up with two options at this point. A cheap "hope it works" fix or a solid "good for another 200k" fix. Nothing in between seems viable.
For about $80 I can get new push rods and gasket kit and try to find a low mileage rocker assembly at the junkyard. This means hoping the heads do not have cracks and the lifters are fine.
For about $600 I can get new enginequest 95tm heads, reman lifters and rocker assembly/pushrods, and head gasket set. Not factored in the price is getting valves put into the new head, I'm assuming I can use stock or low mileage junkyard parts for cheap.
I don't want to spend the $600 but if it keeps it going for a long time afterward I would leave the motor alone in the future (when I get out of the service I intend to put full width axles under it and make it a weekend toy). At the same time spending the $80 now to keep it going and putting the saved $500 toward a 302 swap sounds pretty good.
I'm obviously leaning towards the cheaper fix, but the unknown is the condition of the heads. Any ideas?
Now the problems I'm having are it overheats and has the most insanely loud tick. I haven't looked into the cooling system yet but did notice the fan was full of cracks, it's getting replaced. The PO thought the rad was plugged, I'll pull it and have it tested.
The ticking is what I'm working on now. I've dedeced that it is from the valve train. What I don't know if the lifters are bad or not. I've just taken he driver side vlave cover off to poke around. There is excessive wear on the rockers and push rods, one was even loose enough to rattle by hand.
I've come up with two options at this point. A cheap "hope it works" fix or a solid "good for another 200k" fix. Nothing in between seems viable.
For about $80 I can get new push rods and gasket kit and try to find a low mileage rocker assembly at the junkyard. This means hoping the heads do not have cracks and the lifters are fine.
For about $600 I can get new enginequest 95tm heads, reman lifters and rocker assembly/pushrods, and head gasket set. Not factored in the price is getting valves put into the new head, I'm assuming I can use stock or low mileage junkyard parts for cheap.
I don't want to spend the $600 but if it keeps it going for a long time afterward I would leave the motor alone in the future (when I get out of the service I intend to put full width axles under it and make it a weekend toy). At the same time spending the $80 now to keep it going and putting the saved $500 toward a 302 swap sounds pretty good.
I'm obviously leaning towards the cheaper fix, but the unknown is the condition of the heads. Any ideas?
