Ive got an 81 f 350, 4 speed that had a 400m. I blew the motor last week. Ive put a 351w in it from an 84 crown vic, also converted it to hydraulic clutch. The distributer has 3 wires just like the 400 did but no plug so I had to guess where the wires went. It is getting spark now but the coil gets real hot. We pulled the distributer and got the engine to TDC probobly about 10 times. It turns over great but wont even try to start. It is getting fuel and spark. I really want to hear it run, the engine is cammed and bored and I did hear it run about 6 years ago before I pulled it from the truck. Its been under cover since and is in excellant shape. Any ideas, it is driving me nuts.

The 85 that I have for parts is way different than the old DSII's used to be. You may have to find an older distributor to get it to work. The first hint that things are different is the different plug.

That has me stumped. As long as you have fuel, fire and compression and at the right time, it should fire off. Does it even pop, like it wants to start?

As far as the coil getting hot, it may be getting full 12 volts. On those model trucks, the coil is designed to operate on 9.6 volts. There is a resistor wire somewhere that lowers the coil voltage. It may have gotten bypassed in the swap. Even if it is getting full voltage, it should still run. It just might shorten the life of the coil.

I'm sure somebody else will be along shortly that will be of more help.

Oh, and welcome to FTF!

The wires on the distributer are the same as the older 400 just different colors. Theres 3 of them just the plug was cut off. I love this truck and really want to hear it run, shes got 35 inch Boggers and it loves the mud.

If I get the 3 wires mixed up from the wireing harness to the distributer would that make the coil get the full 12 volts? If i dump a lot of gas down the carb it will backfire back threw the carb and start the thing on fire!

Backfiring through the carb is usually a timing issue. I don't know about mixing up the 3 wires.

Is it possible that it is 180 degrees out of time?

I was thinking timing also but Ive pulled the distributer, #1 plug, and got it tdc at least 10 times. Even the timing mark lines up with the main pulley.Nothing has gone right doing this swap. My pedals were out of an 88 and wouldnt fit under the 81 dash so I had to change the hole dash in it and nothing lined up.Thank god for sheet metal screws!It would of been nice if I could of made the linkage clutch work on the hydraulic bell housing.

The reason I asked is because the piston will come up to TDC twice. Once on the compression stroke and once on the exhaust stroke. It needs to be TDC of the compression stroke.

Forgive me if I'm telling you what you already know, I just want to make sure I'm explaining well.

To add to what was just said, pull the #1 plug, rotate it over until the compression blows your finger off of the hole, then set the balancer to TDC, and then verify #1 is hitting on the distributor (should be the 2 o'clock position). I like to transpose a mark from #1 on the cap, to the base of the distributor for easy verification. Your vacuum advance should be pointed directly at the radiator if its dropped in correctly. If you messed up, you can cheat and move your wires 180*, or do it right, and reset the distributor. BTW, a parts house distributor is only $60. It will/should have the correct end, and wired correctly.

Are you getting spark at the plugs? Pull a wire, shove a screwdriver in it, set it so it sits about 1/2" or less from the engine, without the metal touching. Crank the motor, you should see a spark.

I have a spark tester on the #1 plug wire and I also got lit up from the coil.That fealt really good.Im pretty sure its on the compression stroke, it blew my finger out when it came up.

are you using the correct firing order
351W firing order is 1 3 7 2 6 5 4 8. Count them counter clockwise on your cap starting from 1

All my friends are telling me to get a chevy and I wouldnt have these problems but I dont think I could do that.Love my Fords!

Im almost a hundred percent sure that the fireing order is the same as the 400m. All I did was take the cap and wires off the 400 and put them right onto the 351.

grantpete said:

Im almost a hundred percent sure that the fireing order is the same as the 400m. All I did was take the cap and wires off the 400 and put them right onto the 351.

Click to expand...

Compliments of autozone.com:

http://www.autozone.com/Action,specsSelect/N,23200242/addVehicleId,1691302/shopping/specsSelect.htm

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So on that note, after reading this:

grantpete said:

....................If i dump a lot of gas down the carb it will backfire back threw the carb and start the thing on fire!

Click to expand...

Me thinks posts #7, 9, and 10 need to be reread and a confirmation on TDC compression made. The alternative method to doing this as noted in post #10 is to pull the valve cover, rotate the crank slightly in each direction of rotation at what is thought to be TDC compression, and watch what the rockers on cyl #1 are doing. No rocker arm movement = TDC compression, rocker arm movement means you are 180 off.

Firing order 1-3-7-2-6-5-4-8 distributor rotates counterclockwise

---------
| 1 2 3 4 |
| |
| 5 6 7 8 |
Yes they are the same firing order. With the larger cam you may have to try rotating the dis. while someone cranks the enigine over. THe larger cams can make the timing a bit off from a stock cam.

Maybe I am reading it wrong (wouldn't be the first time), but the engine he swapped in is a 351 from an 84 crown vic.

This (again from auto zone) is the firing order for that engine:

http://www.autozone.com/Action,specsSelect/N,23200242/addVehicleId,1691302/shopping/specsSelect.htm

If I am looking at the two correctly (your link and mine), they have a different firing order.

I had looked it up as well last night, and matched Cowboy's findings. However, the 351 W is fairly rare in the Vics, usually found in the police cars of the day, the 302 is more common, which uses a different firing order.


Firing order 1-5-4-2-6-3-7-8 ----------
front | 1 2 3 4 |
of | |
vehicle | 5 6 7 8 |
----------
distributor rotates counter clockwise

The cap and wires I originally took off the 351 when I got the truck and put them on the 400 because it needed a cap and that one was new.Im about to go out and play with it now so Ill let ya guys no what happens.

Well I know I got the firing order right now, I had it backwards. Thought #5 was # 1. Must have had a brain fart. Also replaced the carb gasket, the back half was blown out. It trys to start now but still wont. Im wondering if the guy who put the timing chain in messed it up somehow. I cant see any other reason why it wouldnt run.