attn fellow car nuts! need help choosing.

[Mysteriphys]

well... I've got a ford f-100 pickup, I bought for 400, put about 300 into it, and it was almost ready for the road, just needed tom body work... suddenly out of nowhere it just won't start, I've ruled out everything except the timing chain/gears. problem is it costs at least 50 bucks to do it all if I replace only the gears and gaskets >.< as I near the thousand dollar mark I'm wondering if it's becoming a money pit :-/

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2460732/1

theres the site, the checklist is there pretty much telling you what the deal is on whats left to do, as you can see from the pics I've done alot to it in the past year so the question is:

1. do I keep working on it because it would be a shame after all this time and effort?
or
2. do I dump it before I spend anymore money on new problems?

[Greco101]

did it jump timing? If so that's an easy fix.

[Xpirate]

Take the valve cover off and see if the valves are moving when you try to start the engine. It still might not be a broken chain. It will usually sound like it lost compression if this happens.

The plastic gear on my old pick-up broke and I had to put on a new cylinder head because the valves hit the pistons. I could get by with just grinding the other cylinder head's valve seats.

[Mysteriphys]

I've had the distributor out and I cleaned it up didn't fix anything so I'm sure the cam is moving, kuz the fuel pump is pumping and the points are sparking in order, if the chain jumped it still means seals gaskets chains and gears, and likely that I've got some valve clearance issues.... it was so weird, I started it up to move it forward, *it started up fine* then the battery died, which was normal because I needed a new battery anyway (got one) but I put the new battery in and It just wouldn't seem to puff or anything... I thought maybe it was the ground, but we tried jumping it off a van with a 950 cca battery, grounded directly to the engine, still nothing. so I'm thinking I've got no compression or the timing is off, I really hope it's timing, because I can't afford to rebuild an entire engnie... :( (or buy one for that matter)

[Greco101]

So... it's turning over, getting gas and has spark? Just not hitting?

Are you 110% sure you put the distributor back in the exact position?

[Mysteriphys]

120% :-p

the engine quit before I even adjusted the distributor. :-/

[Mysteriphys]

I'm also thinking it could be the starter missing teeth on the flywheel, but if that was the case it should still be trying to fire every now and again. I'll double check my ground, maybe I burned the ground and it's just not sparking hot enough?

[Greco101]

Have you tried shooting it with starting fluid?

[Mysteriphys]

yup

[Bucko]

To answer your original question, should you dump it or should you keep it.
That depends.
Is it what you really want?
How easy is it to come by a better one? Sometimes spending more to begin with is cheaper than buying a "cheap" car.
Do you really have the patience to see through all the fiddly boring **** that needs doing, not just the fun stuff to work on?

Sorry to answer your question with more questions, but they should at least help you decide for yourself what you should do.
I've learnt the hard way when I should have dumped something earlier and not spent as much, or sold something too cheap because I had too. You start to learn after the 22nd or 23rd car...

[Xpirate]

I agree with Bucko on this. Only you can make this determination.

This truck might have a plastic gear like mine did. You might want to change it anyway. My plastic gear broke at 120,000 miles. If it is missing some of the plastic teeth, it could have easily jumped time.

[Mysteriphys]

To answer your original question, should you dump it or should you keep it.
That depends.
Is it what you really want?
How easy is it to come by a better one? Sometimes spending more to begin with is cheaper than buying a "cheap" car.
Do you really have the patience to see through all the fiddly boring **** that needs doing, not just the fun stuff to work on?

Sorry to answer your question with more questions, but they should at least help you decide for yourself what you should do.
I've learnt the hard way when I should have dumped something earlier and not spent as much, or sold something too cheap because I had too. You start to learn after the 22nd or 23rd car...

well I'm on car 5 even though I've never had one on the road LOL... and I appreciate your answer I believe I was actually looking more for that answer than anything, someone who knows, giving me the soulsearching input that would help me get a handle on what I'm dealing with, I've decided to try a few things, if they don't work I'll rip the engines front end and valve covers off, and decide whats really wrong with it, once I know that I can make my final decision.

to xpirate, I also appreciate the response all the gears on the truck are metal, so that eliminated that, BUT, it could still be the same problem, it would just end up being the pushrods or pistons that are busted, pushrods = ok pistons = ender. other than that everything else should go smoothly. I'll be ripping it down today and tommorrow, and I'll be home to get parts tommorrow, if it's worth it.

thanks again guys I'll post up tommorrow with my results.

[Mysteriphys]

manages to get the valve covers off and pulled a spark plug, verified the valves are closed on compression, looks like my plugs are dead, I'll grab a set and try it, if that doesn't work my compression is probly gone so that'll be the end of it. thanks again for thehelp.

[Xpirate]

Did you use Champion spark plugs? I ask because they have a tendency to break. I've seen all 8 Champion plugs on a V8 engine just stop working.

[Fallen]

unless you have alot of time and money i would get a different everday driving car

[Mysteriphys]

well sparkplugs will tell the whole truth.

[Mysteriphys]

IT RUNS!!!! it was the dist cap >.<

[Xpirate]

Good. That is a whole lot cheaper than other things that could have been wrong with it.