Can someone who knows what they're talking about on a Ford big block please help me?
I'm new here and this is my first post I don't even know if anyone is around?
I am a chick but I can keep up pretty well if you lead me in the right direction.
I have a 1986 E350 Ford Econoline cutaway Motorhome.

It was sitting for years and years and only driven a little bit.
I am trying to overhaul it.
I replaced the spark plugs and I sprayed seafoam deep sleep inside of the cylinders to lubricate.

I replaced the starter
I have a new battery
And I bought a new solenoid from Amazon

Changed all the fluids and trying to start it now for the big moment..
But...
No matter what, when I turn the (loose) key in the ignition, the starter cranks two or 3 times and dies down.
Like, it gives up. Seems like it can't handle the effort.
The first I thought it was just a battery and I tried jumping it to another battery for added juice. I then went and bought a brand new battery.

No matter the cranking amps, it's doing the same thing.
I took the starter off and realigned it.
I can turn the engine manually although it is pretty tough to turn with a big breaker bar even.
I tried to turn the flywheel with a big flat head screwdriver and I really couldn't even get it to move.

But I did see the flywheel turning when I manually spun the engine at the crankshaft.

One more detail, don't let this scare you though..
So, I power wash the s*** out of the engine one day and covered the distributor and the carburetor and some electronics.

But later, when I decided to pull all my plugs out one of my cylinders was entirely full of water.

Water did sit on top of the engine for a while. And then I saw that my valve cover gaskets were pretty loose.. could that have been the entry point for the water in one cylinder?

I turned the motor and the water drained out.

​​​​​It kind of freaks me out how water got inside I'm hoping it's just from the power washer. The vehicle was pretty low on all fluids so I do not think it was coolant.
I get an oil change and there's not creamy oil but there was water that drained out with some of the oil at the beginning


Having said that,
What would you do next? I have checked my ground to the engine and it all seems okay.
Is there some kind of bypass test I can do to single out these components?

My main concern is that the engine is too hard for the starter to turn because of some kind of rust buildup or warped? I dunno can someone please chime in 🙏🙏🙏. Thanks..Victoria.

 

There are a few things you might consider,

Before going into any detail, a starter for an automatic is different nose length than stick shift. Did you get the correct starter ?

Then, you might remove all the spark plugs and see if the engine will crank over. If water comes out of the spark plug holes, that means the plugs were wet and must be dry to provide spark. If they were wet with fuel instead of water , we need to know that.If the engine oil is contaminated with water , still, it needs to be drained and replaced again along with the oil filter..You might put a squirt of motor oil into each cyl to help with cyl lubrication..Let us know if you can get it to spin over with the starter and plugs out.

 

Hello thanks for your reply sir. Yes, I verified that I have the correct starter and it is an automatic.
The engine is not even cranking enough to spit fuel and fire.
I am only getting a turn and a half or so of a revolution on the crank engine from the starter.
I will go ahead and pull out the plugs as you said. And crank it.
I looked in all of the cylinders before with a boroscope and there was only water in one cylinder for some reason and I think it was after I power washed.
The engine does hand crank by the way it's just very hard to do it by hand as if there is resistance.

 

What is the condition of the vehicle battery ? If it is too low in the state of charge the starter may not be able to turn it over either.

 

All right new information...
I got a new battery and let it charge overnight
Then I turned the key and a change and a new problem.
The starter kept on cranking and cranking and cranking even when I turn the key off.
This happened long ago which made me think starter and relay were bad. But now I think that it may be the ignition actuator sticking???

Question for you, I have
​​​​​​two sets of wiring in the engine bay that I'm not sure about.

One is connected to the ignition key and fuel pump. When I turn the key the fuel pump comes on and I think it is attached to the starter relay.
But..
There is another set of wires red, connected to a black wire with a yellow stripe. When I put these on power, the fuel pump runs no matter what. So I do not know where to connect those wires to?
I'm wondering if I have wiring issue causing the cranking by not having something hooked up correctly?
Do you have any thoughts as to where the second set of wires may go that keep the fuel pump running continuously?