Wow, where to start...I traded a 1979 Ford F-100 that had been rolled, for a 1974 Ford Maverick, 4 door, inline 6 cylinder (200), and it's basically kicking our butts. I thought, how hard can a 6 cylinder be to work on? Well, obviously, I need enlightening. It seems to be either leaking or burning oil, as we have to add oil at a higer rate than normal, about 2 quarts every 100 miles or so. There's no obvious leaks or puddles, and the car does'nt smoke at all. Compression readings are mid 100's on all 6, and plugs look okay. We found #5 spark plug a liittle caked, but it's firing and has good compression. At times, the radiator regurgitates violently after engine is hot, but it has'nt done that in the last 50 miles (?). We replaced the radiator, and thermostat, but the cooling system still seems to want to hold a grudge against us, and act up when she feels like we don't have enough problems. Right now, the engine surges, from just barely running to about 1100 rpm when cold, about every 2 to 3 seconds between peaks, and requires "milking" of the gas pedal to keep her idling. New points, plugs, wires, and carb cleaning seemed to help for awhile, but now she's surging. I pinched one of the distributor vacuum lines while this surging was happening, and it seemed to stabilize the idle. I've looked several times for vacuum leaks, with none found....all vacuum lines attached and not split. Im guessing a new distributor may be in order, and we would love to replace the old Carter one barrel carb, which turned out to be a little above our rebuilding skills. Coming off the alignment rack about an hour ago, tech says she needs new upper and lower ball joints, we have a loose wheel bearing on the right, and need 4 shocks, and idler arm bushings. I was quite surprised that's ALL she needed. He was quite blunt, and told me it simply was'nt worth it...whatever that meant...(He was'nt from around here). Me and my son are motorheads, and enjoy working on the old Ford, but money is kind of scarce, with him being a Senior in High school and all, very expensive. I rebuilt my 1972 vintage british motorcycle, so I am a little familiar with older engines. What do ya'll think we should do with the old car? Just sell it for all we can get, or sink like, $1000 or so in it...It does need paint, but the body is solid. I think the engine is okay, but Im beginning to wonder if I should look for another 6 cylinder for it...Oh, and we can't seem to get the "donut" to last, that goes between the exhaust system and the exhaust manifold...Put 2 in already, but simply blows them out after a couple of weeks, and they're really hard to find at the auto parts stores....Any help and or advice would be much appreciated....Will consider offers...Atlanta area.http://mmb.maverick.to/attachment.php?attachmentid=44427&stc=1&d=1282779164
I had a similar problem with the donut. All the part store ones were junk and kept on going out. So i got one from the junkyard off a v8 car and it worked on the 200.
This sounds like a good father son project car. I would start off by rebuilding the engine than do the upper & lower ball joints and shocks. Leave the paint and any body work for last. Good luck and don't give up.
First make sure your PCV valve is the right one and working. If you have oil in the air filter it is caused by either blowby(bad) or a malfunctioning PCV system. If you have a lot of blowby,the engine can use a lot of oil without smoking or leaking. Do the PCV system first,it's easy and inexpensive. Also make sure the connecting hose,and the port on the engine where the hose connects are both clear inside. Crud can build up in them and clog up the system. Donut----this is not factory but it works great! Make a bracket that clamps to the exhaust pipe either at the bend or right after it,and bolts to the engine block either at the starter or near it. This will keep the pipe from vibrating and chewing up the donut! Mine hasn't gone bad since,and that was about 2yrs ago. The running issues could be a bunch of things,and I have to go now,but someone else will have ideas on that. I'll check back later on your post and maybe can be more help!
The oil consumption problem may be a simple as the weight of oil that is being used. Remember these cars were designed for 30w, sometimes multi viscosity oil will run right by the rings. I had the same problem, I changed my oil at work and we use bulk 10w30 that is 30% synthetic. It immediately started to smoke at idle and burn oil. I switched to 20w50 and the problem went away. Try the other things with the PCV and such and if it doesn't help try a thicker oil and see if it helps.
