plynch

im new to watercooled cars in general...aircooled vw's are my thing.....
anyway i have an 87' f-150 4x4 that has the stock 302..... it has about 80k miles on it since new and has been well kept and never abused it ran fine up until this happened... when i was driving it started to overheat and it smoked white smoke......like water in the oil.... i think its the head gasket, as my mom had and 86 thay had a jasper engine in it with 30k mile but it was bored to thin and the side of the cylinder blew out...... i dont think this happened on this one... just the head gasket... what should i do as far as replacement? i plan on pulling the heads in the morning... i think ill need head gaskets, intake gaskets, maybe v/c gaskets..... anything else? i know to clean the head stud threads out as i read on here why looking for a detailed how to... thanks...pat.....ps... do i refill the radiator after it is back together and started, or before start-up ive heard something of burping the radiator? to prevent airlock in the cooling system....? just a heads up... is the f-150 haynes manual good? it is pretty good for vw's but .....?

 

redneckf150

No one else has responded, so I'll give my 2 cents...
I have bought Haynes and Chilton manuals for several vehicles. I have subsequently had to go and purchase the factory manuals for them all. This has been the case for Ford, Honda, and Harley-Davidson. Therefore, I highly endorse spending the extra money on the factory manual the first time.

Good Luck!

I figure once you tear it apart, the problem should be self-evident.