1990 ford motor

We had a customer about 6 or 7 years ago with an older Ford sewer unit. It spun a main or something, but the engine was shot. It was mid to late 80's with the Ford diesel. I remember they kept calling it a "Brazilian" Ford. Made in Brazil, maybe? These engines were not rebuildable. I remember finding any parts was really a nightmare. Nothing new or reman, all junk yard. We ended up finding a complete running motor, but it had to come over seas in a container ship. Can't remember where. I just remember how hard and long it took to get the engine and any information about it. When the new engine came the injection pump leaked at some of the plungers. We sent the pump out and it took a very long time to get it back. The engine never ran right and they ended up scraping the truck about a year or so later. Those engines are also completely backwards to the usual engines we have. The exhaust is on the drivers side and fuel is on the passenger side. So a lot of rework has to be done get a Cummins or Cat engine to work. It wasn't cost effective. Those engines were blue in colour, if I remember correctly. Is this what you have?

 

Some guys love these motors and some guys hate them. They are really a new holland motor. You may want to look at the tractor or boat guys for parts. I think 280 is about the limit for the engine in a truck using factory specs. In a marine application you can get 350 out of them. Mine will start on the first or second revolution even if it has sat for a couple of months.

 

They came in two versions, 6.6L and 7.8L. I've seen quite a few of them but not lately. Not sure if ford still supplies parts for them or not. I saw many 6.6L engines and not many problems out of them in light duty apps. One local quarry ran a 7.8L 270 hp for years. It scorched a hole once and we repaired it, then much later it had bottom end troubles, broken crank if I remember right. I don't know what they did with the truck at that point. I know they loved the way it pulled. They said it was the only little engine that would pull a pup in the hills..no problem. I guess they just worked it for all it was worth and traded it. That series of engines were gray in color, New Holland, made in Brazil.

 

7.8 liter motor? That's the Brazilian motor. PItA to find parts for. It can be done, if you possess the scavenging skills, but I'd have to concur that you're probably better off to replace it with something for which service and parts are available on the market. IIRC, they discontinued them for on-highway applications after 1991. I know a lot of B-Series and L-Series vehicles used them from... I want to say 1985 to 1991.

 

Time for a baby cat or cummins maybe a Detroit 453-t!!!worked on a few of the Ford's Napa is or was pretty good about getting some parts for them but there getting few and far between.

 

Out here on the west coast you still run into them a lot. They are very common in the F800 trucks. A lot of the vocational trucks, line trucks, dump trucks and rail road trucks have them.

They were not that common in the commodity or over the road trucks because ford built a heavy truck and the weight cut into the payload a little bit.

We have found that the HP tends to be under rated.

I have a FT900, three axle, with a 210 HP 7.8 that out pulls a friends 350 HP cummins. My friend is happy when he gets 6 MPG but if the 7.8 ever got that bad of a fuel mileage it would be in the shop. All this while my truck pushes around a MT-17 front axle.

They have a reputation of being hard to work on from mechanics that are used to working on cats, cummins or detroits. The other issue is a lot of the F series trucks have alligator front ends.

Parts are not that big if an issue. My local parts house as well as 4 ford dealers have no issue getting the parts. The issue us that the breakdowns are not on the computer and you need to look at the micro fiche. A lot of the parts guys are to lazy to look the parts up. It does take a little time to cross reference the parts but in the end the usual question is how quickly do I need the parts. Another issue is that ford sold it's heavy truck line to sterling but sterling did not put the older trucks in the computer so you will need both the vin number and engine numbers to get some parts.

There are some quirks to these engines. The first is you will screw up the IP if you power bleed the fuel system. The IP is easily rebuildable if you find the right shop.

The engines are cold blooded. Mine will not heat up while idling.

They also like to run at 2400 to 2500 rpm.

The trucks were built during an era when the speed limit was 55 and they like to cruise at or near that speed. They will do 65 but they are not happy.

Do to the age of these trucks used low mileage engines are available but the 210 HP version is the most common.

CARB even has created an exemption that will allow these vocational trucks to soldier on at least until 2020.