[onebadmerc]

I haven't seen so much carnage in running motor before, until I tore the rest of my 240 apart last night. I bought a 70 F100 a year ago that had this engine in it. Every exhaust valve was sunken into the head and five lobes on the cam were gone. Four of the piston skirts had severe cracks in them with 2 piston skirts lying in the bottom of the pan. All of the pistons had broken rings and one of the pistons was partially melted down to the top ring. There was one spun rod bearing with the rest of the bearings looking like they were sandblasted with BBs. What is totally surprising is this thing actually run, it smoked like a banshee and knocked, but it run. This motor was a C5AE casting and by judging from the parts in it, this engine has never been rebuilt. It was running until last year and has 39 years of use and abuse.

[Max Keith]

A fine testimony to the strength and endurance of a Ford 6.
Now dont mess around, just drop a 300 in there instead.

[BOBCRMAN@aol.com]

Sounds like that old six got Run hard and put away wet quite a few times! Broken skirts are typical in that motor with high miles. The sunken seats are from hard use with no-lead gas. You will probably find numerous cracks also..

Ya can't say she died easy!!!

[onebadmerc]

Max Keith, I have a 302 that will be going in the place of that old six. I just need to find time in between work and school to get it done. At least I have the old 240 out of the truck. All I need to do is pull my 302 out of my car and cut the truck radiator support for a bigger radiator. I also need to clean 35 years of muck out of the engine compartment. I will say one thing, that old 240 took a beating and kept on tickin, it was better than a Timex.

[Max Keith]

How well I know them to be sturdy. Used to race one in a limited sportsman on dirt in a 58 Ford back in 69-70. An amazing engine. Saw 7500 rpm, many nites, and nothing special done to it other that the usual hop ups and a balance job. One nice thing about it, all you really need to drop that 302 in is a mid sump pan, the 302 flywheel, and engine mounts. As for your radiator, I really dont think that old 240 radiator would have any problems cooling your 302. The only problem may be with the hoses.
If you still have the radiator out of your car, that should probably do the job as well.

[Pony]

I had a van with a 240 in it years ago and treated it badly. Coming back from the beach one day it started ratteling like a broken valve spring and smoking really bad. Pulled the head and it everything looked good. Spun the motor over by hand looking for a bad cylinder and discovered #6 piston stayed at TDC. Turns out it broke at the oil ring grove and the rod would push it up and the valve would knock it down. It made a wild knocking noise, but it made it home. I replaced it with a 300 and it was still running great when I sold it..