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as the title suggests, I have a 1989 f150. The truck sat for 15 years, and I have resurrected it. It was made into a rat nest, but they haven't seem to have done much damage. It has the 302 motor, and it just turned 172,000. I cleaned the intake off with a compressor, and spliced some starter relay wiring that had been chewed. I replaced the relay, cleaned the airbox/intake, and attempted to start, along with some fresh fuel in the front tank. It wouldnt start, so I unhooked the intake hoses and sprayed a light spray of starting fluid. After a couple tries, and sputtering, it roared to life. It seems it had leftover gas after attempting to siphon the old stuff out, because it bogs and pops but eventually revs up. The oil gauge reads low, but not on L. I heard about the gauges being a glorified idiot light, but I need to know if this is bad. It has a 4 speed w/ OD manual transmission, with manual hubs. The interior wasn't THAT bad, I am cleaning it a little at the time. I drove it a short distance (2 miles) to my shop, and it overheated, due to a brain fart of not checking the radiator for water. I filled it up with water, but my thermostat wouldn't work. I made my way to the shop, and shut it off. I removed the thermostat and hooked everything back up, and started her up. My oil gauge was still reading low, right on/a little past the first white mark. I will change the oil when I can, I have a 6 pack of castrol GTX 10w-40. I need to know the best oil filter for this motor, I'm on a budget but I know filters matter A LOT. Is 10-40 safe? I live in georgia, warm most of the time, even in winter. The brakes work a little, but I have to mash the pedal to the floor. The clutch works flawlessly, I filled up brake fluid reservoir with fluid but I haven't driven it since. The motor bogs down but revs up eventually after popping, but I've chalked that up to old stale gas. However, Rats chewed the (EGR motor? EVR? Idk what it is, but the wire that goes into the harness is gone, chewed all to hell, along with the hoses. I have a 95 F150 5.8 to steal parts off of, including a spark plug wire . I need to know everything about this truck. If it's work fixing, if oil gauge is normal, etc.
Welcome to the site!
As far as oil filters - strong believer here in the Motorcraft FL-1A.
May wish to consider some injector cleaner. Suspect the injectors may not be misting correctly after sitting for so long, causing at least some of your sputtering and popping. Many here recommend SeaFoam, I also like Berryman's B12.
May wish to consider changing your oil and filter first to see if that affects your oil pressure. Typical readings should be half-scale on the gauge or better. If you get noticeable gauge movements while beating stoutly on the top of your dash - could be an instrument panel connection problem, if nothing else, a quick-n-easy check.
Many opinions on oil - mine is that 10W40 will be fine, ran it the entire time I had my '89.
Suggest to get the correct thermostat in - else the engine will think it's in perpetual warm-up mode. May want to consider a cooling system flush while you have things apart.
Brakes would be my suggestion to go after next, after the quick-n-easy oil change. Strong believer in being able to steer and stop on command. Recommend to completely change your brake fluid, which gets rid of moisture and will also bleed any air that may have gotten in. If this doesn't resolve your pedal issue, will need to look at things such as correct drum lining adjustment, possible soft hoses or problem with the master cylinder.
As far as the chewed wires - perhaps post a pic so we have a better idea what we're dealing with.
As far as being worth fixing - kinda biased here towards 'yes'. But without seeing it and looking it over - you're going to have to make that call. Will say that era has generally been very dependable, parts are still readily available, and one should expect 225-250 thousand miles out of a 302 that's been taken care of. But, after sitting for 15 years, one should expect some problems resurrecting it from its dormancy - hopefully simple, low-cost, easy to figure out problems.
Good luck, and keep us posted!
Welcome to the site!
As far as oil filters - strong believer here in the Motorcraft FL-1A.
May wish to consider some injector cleaner. Suspect the injectors may not be misting correctly after sitting for so long, causing at least some of your sputtering and popping. Many here recommend SeaFoam, I also like Berryman's B12.
May wish to consider changing your oil and filter first to see if that affects your oil pressure. Typical readings should be half-scale on the gauge or better. If you get noticeable gauge movements while beating stoutly on the top of your dash - could be an instrument panel connection problem, if nothing else, a quick-n-easy check.
Many opinions on oil - mine is that 10W40 will be fine, ran it the entire time I had my '89.
Suggest to get the correct thermostat in - else the engine will think it's in perpetual warm-up mode. May want to consider a cooling system flush while you have things apart.
Brakes would be my suggestion to go after next, after the quick-n-easy oil change. Strong believer in being able to steer and stop on command. Recommend to completely change your brake fluid, which gets rid of moisture and will also bleed any air that may have gotten in. If this doesn't resolve your pedal issue, will need to look at things such as correct drum lining adjustment, possible soft hoses or problem with the master cylinder.
As far as the chewed wires - perhaps post a pic so we have a better idea what we're dealing with.
As far as being worth fixing - kinda biased here towards 'yes'. But without seeing it and looking it over - you're going to have to make that call. Will say that era has generally been very dependable, parts are still readily available, and one should expect 225-250 thousand miles out of a 302 that's been taken care of. But, after sitting for 15 years, one should expect some problems resurrecting it from its dormancy - hopefully simple, low-cost, easy to figure out problems.
Good luck, and keep us posted!
I will change the oil one day this week, Ill figure out how to post pics. It looks pretty rough, but definitely not bad for a 15 year sit. I got a NAPA oil filter, and im gonna use the case of castrol. The antifreeze was drained, and my water was circulating, when i took my top hose off it poured antifreeze green, no residue or nasty stuff in it, very clean. Will post pics this weekend.
I'm gonna drain the tank this weekend and put 10-15 gallons of fresh 89 in it. Sea foam it, and put some injector cleaner in with the new gas. Both pumps/tanks work, but the second tank is a LOT worse, takes longer to rev . I will take a pic of the engine bay and the interior, along with the instrument cluster, etc. Thank you all for the help! I'm glad I haven't wasted a lot of time on this because I really like this truck.
Last edited by 89XLTLariat; 09-08-2016 at 11:50 AM.
Reason: spelling error
also, what will the EGR do to the engine as far as quality of operation if it's chewed all to hell? I'll try and find the harness and the wire that got chewed so I can swap out the EVR stuff on my 5.8. If a spark plug wire will work, a EVR should too! I would just like to know if that should be on the top of my list, or more towards the bottom.
ALSO, the odometer I believe has rolled over, because it has 17,100 miles with the tenth of a mile on the right. (The white one.) I know 17k is way too low, but 117 sounds right. How many miles should I expect out of this truck? I dont want to waste my money......
Last edited by 89XLTLariat; 09-07-2016 at 11:05 AM.
I will post the pictures I have as of now, but they are from snapchat so.....
I had a video of the engine running, but it seems to have gone missing. Also, the one of the dash was a video of a start-up, but I can't get it to play.
The oil gauge hadn't quite gotten where it stays, right on/past that white mark.
Last edited by 89XLTLariat; 09-08-2016 at 07:45 AM.
I heard about sea foam on a forum here and decided my 95 F-150 XLT flare side needed it. Got a few opinions on it and value ya’ll input. Highly recommend putting it in gas tank NOT in vacuum line off power boost. My 302 V-8 5.0 has just bearly 92000 miles. Before sea foam the truck wouldn’t go anywhere off a starting line without considerable gas pedal pushing to get up a simple hill here in Prescott, Az. It had no guts to go even though I installed a K&N air intake system and a straight pipe. Warming up in the morning was a rumble of and engine looking for power. Very frustrating for this rejuvenated hot rod grandma reliving her college days in San Diego in 70s.
ALso the front gas gage didnt work but best friend said thats because it is a Ford (BullPucky). Before sea fowm got front gas gage to work for few hours by running out of gas in town on a 7% grade downhill street. Switched tanks quickly then once level switched back to front tank. Not out of gas just steep angle. Gauge worked fine for 4 days then, because it is a Ford, died.
So mechanic poured SEA FOAM into front tank with half tank. I drove it out on open highway from Prescott through Paulden and up the mesa towards Ashfork. Good 25 miles with cruise set at 65mph. OOOHHH Engine sputered and pissed and moaned then kicked out of cruise control with a loud cough. It didn’t die on the road it just got a new lease on life. This truck has the attitude I want now that the engine is cleaned out. Filled with gas after this initial blow out. Took 10 gal and got 20 Mpg. Far cry from 14 mpg before this endeavor.
Front gas gauge now works fine for more times than not. Previous owner said it hadn’t worked for about 50k miles.
Acceleration around slow cars in traffic and others who like to brake at green lights and passing on I-40 going up 6 mile grade at 65mph piece of cake now.
Sluggish is not in my truck’s vocaulary anymore and the open road beckons me now.
First road trip since I bought my truck in June 16. Gotta do more. Teddy bear buckled into passenger seat with map on his lap and we are ready to go. Already been to the Grand Canyon and do not like the Phoenix metropolis mad house, so guess next trip is 50 miles out and 50 miles back. I like to drive (ex-heavy equipment operator Air Force) but prefer digging with back hoe or front-end loader.
Thanks for your help in getting my truck up to my wild woman days of yore.
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"Proud Woman Vet Driving”
The problem isn’t the problem. The problem is your attitude towards the problem.
09-06-2016, 03:54 PM
1989 F-150 XLT Lariat 4x4 5.0 (302) STOCK
. I need to know everything about this truck. If it's work fixing, if oil gauge is normal, etc.
