I posted this exact question in the engine section and they told me to come here
Hey guys i'm new to the site and glad to be aboard. I just purchased an 83 f150 4x4. It is in awesome shape, i will post pics later. This is my first truck and my first ford so i am new to fords, but am familiar with chevys (I have a 63 nova, i don't understand the ford chevy fight anyhow if a car is cool thats all i care about, anyhow...) It has a straight six and when i got the oil changed he said it was a 4.9, i was like holy crap, thats huge and i didn't believe him. then before i posted i searched and you guys just call it the BIG 6. It also has a "4" speed, first gear is a creeper. Well first off the things is a dog, and my milage is horrible. The previous owner said the carb was running lean. Is there a way to tell. Plus you can smell fuel VERY strong when near it after starting and after shutting it down. Would a two barrel be too big for this engine...i have more questions but i guess i'll start here

Also there is a lot of carbon deposit from the exhaust showing up on the side of the truck and it smokes, not alot but when first started for a couple minutes

 

I'm new to the site also. I was having problems with my truck and searched through this site to help find the answers.

I don't have any suggestions for you, I've only had fords for a few years, my current truck is a '92, and I'm retiring my '87 (both 4x4's) and fuel injected. Before them, I owned both a '69 and '72 Chevy trucks (both 2x4). I sold them to my neighbor who's been spend the last 15 years restoring his own '60's/'70's era GMC/Chevy trucks. He had his eye on them from the moment I got them.

When my '69 was having a back firing problem (one so bad it split open the muffler and took out a shock), I changed the carb with the one off the '72.

If I run in to my neighbor, I'll ask him if he has any suggestions. Now that he's in his late '80's, he hasn't spent much time under the hood. But he still likes to talk about them.

 

The 4.9L is known for bad gas milage and low horsepower, but it also runs forever and has enough torque to pull a house. I don't know much about carbs but it should just be a simple adjustment or replace a couple jets to richen it up. My understanding is that unless you have a exhaust analyzer it's pretty hard to tune a carb and make it run right unless you have lots of experiance. If you find some independant repair shop run by someone who is at least 40 years old he should be able to get it running right. Most dealerships and large repair places are staffed by young kids like me that have only known fuel injection. Since you are smelling gas the carb might need a rebuild.

The two barrel is just right for that engine in fact a small 4 barrel would run good too. But of course fuel injection is best, i'll probably have nightmares tonight since you brought up carbs

-Jon

 

its hard to find someone to work on a carb these days! but for sure you are running rich, not lean, if you have carbon deposits, and is it BLACK smoke or blue? black is fuel, blue is oil. im guessing you have a 1bbl carb?

 

yeah its a single barrel. It more like grayish smoke. can't really tell cause i am the one that starts it. But there is carbon right where the exhaust comes out so....yeah rich is what i thought too, also because you can smell it so strong

 

well white smoke is water, maybe a little bit of fuel mixed in with that and you would get gray smoke?