Graham's '68 F-100 - Engine swap week

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motzingg
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Graham's '68 F-100 - Engine swap week

Post by motzingg »

I figure I've been doing enough posting and hijacking everyone else's threads that its time this project got a proper home.

To start with, purchasing the truck was discussed here:
http://www.fordification.com/forum/view ... =1&t=71367

Some cussin' and walking home was required due to a fuel flow issue I was whining about in this thread:
http://www.fordification.com/forum/view ... =3&t=71497

This might not be as interesting of a project as some of them on here, I'm not doing a full frame-off restoration, I'm not building a show truck. The goal is to get her back on the road, in proper operating trim, and stop the rust well enough to keep her preserved. I think it would be pretty cool to restore it with my son someday and give it to him, but for now my budget means this truck has to earn her keep.

I'm starting a project thread so I can document my progress, get some encouragement from you fine folks, and hopefully encourage others or share some techniques. In the end (ha.. as if these sorts of projects are ever truly finished) I'd like to have a truck that can tow 5000 lbs without breaking a sweat, through mountains or wherever it needs to go. I'd like to keep decent ~20mpg fuel milage while driving unloaded on the highway, and it has to be dead nuts reliable. I'm probably going to spend about $500 on the motor/ turbo project, Maybe 200 on the body and cosmetics and try not to spend much more anywhere else.

My background mechanically is all over the place, I'm a mechanical engineer with a lot of machining experience, I work on vintage motorcycles and mopeds mostly, and enjoy bringing anything old and mechanical back to good (or better than new) operation.

My blog, mostly dealing with my moped and motorcycle exploits, is here http://outofcontrolmopeds.blogspot.com.


Once i get the truck roadworthy (needs to be inspected here in N.Carolina) and licensed, the peformance work will start in earnest. I've started laying out the bits for a mild turbo build of the 240 straight six.

"Here is what i've got planned for my 240 six:

Motorcraft 2100 carb on stock manifold 'converted' by milling out the carb mounting area and installing an aluminum spacer
Stock exh manifold with turbo flange welded on. The stock exhaust outlet will get machined off flat and a piece of heavy wall tube will be mitred and welded on to put the turbo under the manifold and next to the block. Saving my pennies for some rocket rod.
The turbo i'm looking for is a TD04HD-16T as found in the 'hot' 20v volvos. V70r and v70xc, some of the c60's... etc. There is a TDO4-15T in a saab that i might grab if that doesn't pan out. Found a V70 xc that a guy is parting out on craigslist... hoping to get the whole system off that.

The first phase of the build is shoring up the stock engine and getting it running right, I installed a boost-referenced Carter smallblock chevy fuel pump last night. I ordered the DS distributor and controller from Rockauto on monday and those should show up this week along with plug wires and my narrow band o2 sensor. The chevy rocker arm swap is also in the works. At this point i'm just taking my time to find the parts cheap. I could go buy it all tomorrow for top dollar, but its all used junkyard stuff so i'm being cheap. Trying to do the whole thing from fan to clutch for less than $500

As far as an intercooler goes, its on the list, but the budget will put it off a while. The stock volvo turbo will be set at 5-7 psi which should be fine without the intercooler, and keep the plumbing simple for now.

I'm looking out for a dodge cummins intercooler cheap, i passed on one for $125 a week ago, i think something cheaper will come along or I might just use the Volvo one if i get it, they are pretty good sized but prone to breaking the plastic 'tanks' on the ends.

As far as the performance goes, running it through a few turbo calculators I've seen numbers that look like 300 or so ft-lbs around 2000 rpm and 150-170 hp at 2700. That is at 10 lbs with the intercooler, which is the final plan. I'm looking to have plenty of power for towing without loosing much if any gas mileage. I'm looking for a T85 borg warner right now, but if that falls through i've got a whole row of Mazda 5 speeds to pick from at the local pull-a-part for $125.

"

So thats about it:

Motor mods:
2100 2v carb - rebuilt
modified stock intake with spacer to fit 2v carb
chevy rockers
duraspark distributor and ignition module
eventually i'd like to go to a fully built 300 with low compression forged pistons... but that is a ways out

Turbo project:
stock Carb exhaust manifold modified to fit TD04 turbine
TD04HD/L-16T or 15T depending on what i can find
Blow through carb setup

Drivetrain:
Mazda 5 speed, retaining 3.70 gears for right now

Suspension
Max air rear shocks
better front shocks?

Body
Paint job- probably pebble beige, thats what my wife is pulling for. Maybe i'll butch it up a little by painting the grille and bumpers black? We'll see, either way it will be a cheap 1 part acrylic enamel paint job.
Last edited by motzingg on Wed Nov 19, 2014 10:30 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Graham's '68 F-100 "on the road again"

Post by sargentrs »

Sounds like a good plan. Good luck and keep us posted on your progress.
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1970 F100 Sport Custom Limited LWB, 302cid, 3 on the tree. NO A/C, NO P/S, NO P/B. Currently in 1000 pcs while rebuilding. Project thread: http://www.fordification.com/forum/view ... 22&t=59995 Plan: 351w, C4, LSD, pwr front disc, p/s, a/c, bucket seats, new interior and paint.
1987 F-150 XLT Lariat, 5.0/C6 auto.
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Re: Graham's '68 F-100 "on the road again"

Post by motzingg »

Was finally able to sort the plumbing for the Carter pump last night, got it all hooked up and no funny business... I was concerned it might blow out the float valve because of the higher pressure (7-9 instead of 3-4), which it didn't. Bonus.

Drove around the block 3-4 times and 'got on it' to make sure it wasn't starving out. Seems solid now.

Definitely being held back by the messed up distributor, the vacuum canister is shot and the whole thing is rusted to heck inside, the duraspark unit should be waiting for me when i get home from work. I'll be hooking that up tonight and posting with progress, maybe some pics to make this more interesting.

I think before the motorcraft goes on i'll make a deluxe fuel filter with a 3/8 from the pump on one side and 5/16 out the other side. The 5/16 sucks because its such an oddball size in my world of hydraulics, I dont have any tube, fittings, etc to work with.
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Re: Graham's '68 F-100 "on the road again"

Post by chad67 »

Sounds like the Ecoboost concept! I bet you'll be running better power and torque than the estimate you posted.
1967 F100 SWB
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Re: Graham's '68 F-100 "on the road again"

Post by motzingg »

Duraspark is hooked up and working as of last night. It was easy, so easy a caveman (with a soldering iron and basic knowledge of electrical systems) could do it.

I've got pics on my camera at home that i'll post, and probably try to clean up the wiring as well. Its pretty ugly right now.

The windshield gasket should be coming in today also, I'm hoping to be able to get it inspected tomorrow.

The only problem is, the high end cutting out is the same as before.. must be the carb. Wrong main jet, cant tell if it is too rich or lean. Probably too lean, maybe i can put some tape over the air filter and make it better.

And now, after a couple backfires and assorted abuse during the duraspark install, there is a horrendous metallic clicking sound in the engine. Sounds like it is about once per rev, or mabye every other rev. It could have something to do with my fuel pump so i'm going to pull that tonight and check it out. It sounds like the nastiest bad lifter ever, but i'm not sure how that could have happened? I'm hoping nothing in the valve train has let go.
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Re: Graham's '68 F-100 "on the road again"

Post by motzingg »

just to keep up with this...

the windshield didn't go so smoothly. i've been mr. mom for the last couple days because my wife pinched a nerve in her neck and has been pretty messed up. Last night during my magic half hour.. between putting my son to bed and darkness... i got the old windshield out. It was no small task with the 40 year old rock hard rubber gasket, ended up just kicking it out from the inside mostly.

There is a combination of caulk, sealant, and whatever else previous owners could gunk in there to stop it leaking so its going to take another day to wire wheel all the crap out of there and paint and primer the lip before putting the seal in.

in other news, my neighbor Raymond, who has owned '5 or 6' straight six fords over the years seems to think that my ticking is a collapsed lifter. Crap. He was pretty emphatic that i shut the motor off and pull it before i damage something important.
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Re: Graham's '68 F-100 "on the road again"

Post by Alstoyz »

In the future. If you take a sharp utility knife & cut just on the perimeter of the glass from the outside, the glass will almost fall out... :2cents: :thup:
1970 F-100 SWB Tubbed
1971 F-350 4X4 (traded for 71 crewcab)
1971 F-250 Crew-Cab Dually
1972 F-100 SWB 4X4
1972 F-350 Crew-Cab 4X4 Dually
2001 F-350 Crew-Cab Short Bed 4X4 Dually
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Re: Graham's '68 F-100 "on the road again"

Post by motzingg »

yeah that worked well getting it out at the junkyard where the gasket was still rubber and there was no sealant. This gasket was like hard plastic, breaking into small chunks, and it was all gunked together with a combination of household caulk and deteriorated tar-like sealant.

luckily the window itself wasn't nearly as robust.
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Re: Graham's '68 F-100 "on the road again"

Post by motzingg »

Its been a couple weeks and I've been busy with the truck and other projects, had to run to wisconsin over memorial day weekend to graduate :woohoo: and take care of some other assorted family business... make progress on a escort head gasket i'm doing... etc.

Finally have some of the photos off the camera so i'll post them with the last couple weeks' progress.

Extreme crustiness of the old distributor:
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Reman DS2 Distributor: Everything from the DS conversion came from '1979 f100 4.9L' and a couple of the things (dist. cap and rotor) from the auto parts store were wrong-o.
Image

Guts of the DS system:
Image

When i ordered the dizzy from Rock Auto they said it was supposed to come with a cap and rotor and everything, but it didn't. Two trips to the auto parts store and one trip to the distribution center on the other side of town and I finally figured out what was going on. The DS dizzy has a 2 part cap. The original cap they gave me was a small 1 part cap and it was wrong. I think i got a TFI cap the first time, so make sure everything fits together before leaving the store!!!

This is the correct 2 part cap:
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Friggin' monster compared to the old one... that is annoying but whatever.

They gave me the wrong rotor at first too, first a tiny little one, then they gave me this weird round disc thing, then this one:
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This is what the complete/assembled distributor looks like: Note that i've removed the old oil pump driveshaft and put it in the new dizzy. I also took this photo on some scrap carpet i have in my office, I do not recommend putting greasy parts on white carpet otherwise!
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AAAAANNNNDDD not so perfect fit! The bosses on this, which were machined on the old one, were rough finished, probably as-sandblasted and therefore chewed up and too big. Go figure cheap reman garbage parts... oh well i'm not complaining, at this point i was in for about 80 for the whole dizzy unit, not as good as the '$45 with cap and rotor' that rock auto advertised, but thats OK. I probably would have saved a few bucks getting everything from rock, but loosing a saturday would have cost more in time.

Image

I just used a ******* file to 'turn down' the surfaces a couple .001's. It only took a few seconds, literally, to get it to fit.
Image

Image

That big cap got in the way of the stock coil mounting, but it does clear. Eventually I'm going to upgrayydd to a better coil (this one is getting real hot with the electronic Ign. ) and mount it on a piece of aluminum with the DS box, but for now it is working good.
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Here's the dizzy sitting in its new home! I'm not sure if i was trying to show the position at #1 TDC but it is a bit off the old distributor location. The #1 cylinder is more like 5 o'clock rather than 6 o'clock but you can figure that out pretty easy.
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I guess this would be a good time to quickly describe the process i've been using for setting my timing. If you are a seasoned distributor junkie you can probably skip this. I turn the engine over to TDC on #1. I'm not sure how to tell if it is TDC on the compression stroke or TDC on the exhaust stroke without removing the valve cover, so I've just done trial-and-error. If it backfires, flip it 180. I note where the cap goes on the distributor and put the rotor about there, the helical gear will cause it to turn counterclockwise about 10 degrees, so set it at about 10 degrees from lining up with the #1 pole. It will only go in at one of 12 places, i think? However many teeth there are on the gear, so you have a 50/50 chance that if you get it close it will be right. Once it is in, you can put the cap on halfway and look through there and swivel it back and forth until it lines up the rotor with pole #1. Since you don't know exactly where your timing will be without it running, get a friend, neighbor in my case, to swivel the dizzy back and forth through a 20 degree sweep while you crank it. It should light up pretty quickly once you hit the 'sweet spot' then you can adjust it by ear to get it close enough to stay idling and get a timing light on it.

YUP... so back to the hook up. This is the ds box i got. I ordered it not knowing what i was getting and it had the option for a $14 'dual mode' and a $35 'single mode'... well, i figured 'Twice as many modes!' for half the price! how could i go wrong? So i got the 'yellow' box.

So lots of digging on the interweb and research and I've figured out a few things: (Excuse me if this is obvious)

Duraspark came on 70's ford vehicles, not sure exactly what engines, but probably like 74-80 or something like that, basically the Pre-EFI, but post points engines. The system uses a mechanical and vacuum advance distributor with a reluctor trigger and conventional cap and rotor. The late 70's incarnation appears to be the simplest and easiest to drop in. The duraspark box listed for the '79 f100 4.9 L should be the correct blue strain relief box. There was a high energy red box that requires a hotter coil and a special resistor to keep from smoking the coil, this might be a good high performance option, but requires the special coil (or perhaps an aftermarket like Blaster or something). The yellow box I got is called 'dual mode' and features an additional option for spark advance/retard based on a pressure switch for high altitude operation.

The box is mostly 'dumb' meaning that it fires whenever it sees a signal from the reluctor coil in the distributor. This is nice because you can tune it with conventional means (vacuum/springs) just like a points dizzy. There is a white wire that gets powered from the start wire (pick it up at the solenoid input from the ignition switch) that retards the ignition a few degrees under cranking so it starts easier.

The yellow box has the added feature of advancing or retarding the ignition when the correct wires are connected. I don't know yet how much or what wires to hook up but i'm going to figure that out soon. Vehicles made for high altitude or some emissions thing i dont really understand needed this because the jetting in the carb (jetted for high altitude) was way lean at low altitude and it needed an advanced spark. Some kind of pressure switch triggered this function, but i hope to use it as a boost retard that will pull the timing back (or un-advance it depending on how the wires work) when the engine is running a certain amount of boost.

Hooking up the DS system couldn't be easier, three of the wires go right to the distributor. One (red) goes to the 'hot' side of the coil coming from the ignition switch to power the unit, green goes to the 'cold' side of the coil, that was hooked up to your distributor, that wire triggers the coil by grounding it and collapsing the field. The white wire goes to the start pole of your solenoid to trigger the 'start retard' mode for easier starting.

Thats about it. Here is my yellow relief box:
Image

Here are the wires i made to hook it all up. There are 3 10" wires with female spades on each end. These go from the pins in the connector on the dizzy to the pins in the connector on the box. There is a 16" wire with a female spade on one end and a #10 ring terminal that goes to the ground side of the coil. There is a 16" red wire that goes from the hot side of the coil (#10 ring) to the female spade into the red connector on the box. There is a long white wire that goes across the engine bay from the #10 ring terminal on the 'S' pole of the solenoid into the female spade on the white wire of the controller.
Image
For my purposes the other wires are left unhooked right now, but they will be the boost retard feature eventually.

I know that for now this is a pretty sloppy way to wire it, but i wanted to make sure it was all working before setting the wiring in stone. Eventually i'm going to convert to some GM-style weathertight connectors and run everything in wiring loom. I'm also going to make an aluminum plate to bolt everything down to, and run a sturdy sturdy ground strap directly to the engine. I'm planning on running a big-@$$ alternator with a secondary fuse block for running high-power accessories eventually, so i'll figure all that out once i know what accessories i'll need and what needs relays/fuses,etc.

So thats it, I guess i didn't take an installed picture, but with those loose wires, it looks like hell.

In the process of getting it to run, there was a huge backfire and once it got running well there was a nasty lifter tick. My neighbor was helping me and he suggested that i shut it down immediately before i mushroomed or bent a pushrod. So 2 steps forward, 4 steps back!

My first thought was that some oil or crap got in the check valve of a lifter and it collapsed, so I pulled off the side cover and valve cover and wrecked all the 40 year old gaskets in the process... damn. Long story short, the craziest thing happened. One of those damn pressed-in rocker studs pulled out... nearly 3/16"!!! There was a good bit of daylight under the rocker between the pushrod and pulling out everything and comparing it, a tiny bend to the pushrod.

I looked up some stuff on forums and decided to just give the stud a little tap with a brass hammer and see if i couldn't get it to set down. A surprisingly small tap pushed it down a bit too far, but i have the studs that need to have the nut bottomed out on them, so i had no choice but to over-tighten it. I'm hoping the hydraulic lifter will eventually collapse enough to allow full closure of the valve, otherwise i'm going to have to pull the head and tap those studs out for chevy with the rocker swap. Not exactly something i wanted to do at this point, but whatever.

It was quite shocking how easily that stud went back in. I made two lite taps then one pretty good whack and on the third hit it sunk right down. Probably 1/16" too low right now, but the lifter should (i hope) collapse and take it out.

Either way its running smooth as silk right now.

In the process of troubleshooting that I thought my fuel pump might be clacking instead of a lifter, so I went to pull that and noticed one of the bolts wasn't seated down all the way. At some point someone had replaced the 5/16" bolts holding the pump on with whatever was lying around and one was ever so slightly too long and also not graded, so when i went to torque it down, it broke off pretty easy in the block, and of course it was bottomed out so it made for an ugly extraction down there.

So between chasing down a mystery clacking and extracting that bolt, that burned a whole saturday with nothing new getting done.

The window also proved to be more difficult than i planned. Like I said earlier I expected soft rubber to cut out nicely and an easy job of replacing the window, but the leaking hard rubber was caulked (with household caulk) in place- probably 20 years ago- and the caulk was now hard as hell and very nasty. Plus some sort of gasket sealer was liberally applied and since degraded in the opposite direction turning into a tar-like substance.

I decided to go ballistic on the damn thing and busted out the wire wheel and angle grinder. As much as i hate disturbing the (very good) 40 year old primer, it was less scary than wasting a $50 gasket because gunk underneath prevented a tight seal, or even worse, getting moisture in there that could cause rust from scratches made removing the old gunk.

Image
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That last one is a little hole, rusted out from the back side. Most cars from wisconsin would look like that along the bottom of the channel. I've fixed them many times and its a PITA... so this isn't so bad, but i'd like to know if that is a compartment i can get at to POR-15 from the back side?

Anyhow, that was after the first night and wire brush, i had to get another one and finish the next night,
Image

Thats after primer, 3 coats of the Duplicolor anti-rust sandable stuff. Pretty nice. I went with white so i wouldn't have a shadow under the beige. All this hassle is really just so i dont get that tiny little line around the window gasket after I paint it... Kinda a lot of work for a work truck, but I hate HATE rust.

This is the seam above the windshield. It was full of white caulk everywhere so i'm not sure where the caulk ended and seam sealer began. I'm probably just going to seamseal it with a tiny bead before i put in the window. Maybe POR-15 because you wont see it up there, under the seamsealer. Or over? Any thoughts?
Image

So that's about where I'm at. I bought my paint on Saturday, went with a cream beige. I'm using a product called ALK-200 that is abrasion and chemical... well, just about proof. Its basically one step beneath POR-15 for toughness, i've had to take it off with sandpaper before and its almost impossible to scratch. Its also dirt cheap. Not the best finish but... work truck.

Also, i finally figured out why it was cutting out on the top end. The crappy little dollar store 'performance' air filter was completely choking it out. I pulled the filter off and now it revs up smooth all the way as far as i'm willing to free-rev it. That would also explain the plugs being so fouled. Maybe not an ignition problem after all... either way its running great now and getting close to be inspect-able.

I had to take a break to finish up this little escort head gasket job i'm working on. Probably going to sort that out this week and get her on the road, hopefully back to the truck for next weekend. If all goes well, I might try to go after my transmission and turbocharger saturday.
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Re: Graham's '68 F-100 "on the road again"

Post by motzingg »

For anyone who is keeping track, the DS conversion cost:

Dizzy: $55
Caps: $9 &14
Rotor: $3.5
Box: $14
Spark plug wire set: $7
Wire terminals: $5

If i had known what i was doing and taken the distributor out without loosing the place of TDC#1 it probably would have been a 2 hr job, having to make 3 trips to parts stores and trying to figure it out as i went along took an extra day.

Hopefully this writeup can save someone from having to run around like an idiot.

The junkyard wanted $35 for a distributor and $20 for the Ign. Module, so I would strongly suggest buying the cheap stuff from rock, it all works and you would go crazy trying to diagnose a single broken component while trying to get it to run. Plus factor in your time going to the junkyard to pull it, in this case, much easier to just buy new.
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Re: Graham's '68 F-100 "on the road again"

Post by Gettysburg150 »

Awesome, I can't wait to see the turbo part. Will be paying attention!
1969 F100 4x2 FE360 C6 auto, Soul Donor
1969 F100 4x4 FE360 4 speed, the eternal project
1971 F100 4x2 FE360 4 speed, retired fire truck

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Re: Graham's '68 F-100 "on the road again"

Post by motzingg »

slowly but surely... we'll see if this guy has a cherry picker to get the engine/trans out the '92 donor truck. if not, i'm gonna be hurtin'.

I talked to a co-worker over lunch and he said that the back fire for sure popped that rocker stud out, he said its fairly common for that to happen. Still scares me how easily that came out.

when i go to the chevy rockers, i'll for sure be pulling the head and tapping those out for studs.
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Re: Graham's '68 F-100 "on the road again"

Post by motzingg »

Well, Its been awhile since I had time to get on the forum here... but the truck has been coming along nicely.

Slow, really, a couple other projects have been taking my money and time away from 'Buck' as I've named the truck. It has also been boring and tedious-type work lately fixing odd-and-ends stuff that just takes time.

The windshield went in about a month ago. I screwed it up the first time and didn't get it centered. When the gasket wasn't seating, i put a little too much pressure in an area where the curve didn't line up and put a tiny crack in it. By the time i got the windshield out and back in, it was cracked all to hell! Damn!
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I'm going to re-do it when i paint the truck and find a better used windshield. The local junkyard has 3-4 dentsides right now and they get $35 per windshield. I think i got hosed on the first one i bought. It was cloudy in the lower corners and had a bb gun hole in it, for the rock bottom price of $50!!!
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The next big project was the fuel tank. It was bad. I really wish i had taken an before picture because when i shined a flashlight down the filler hole and looked in the level sender hole, it was shocking... looked like something from a shipwreck doccumentary!

This picture tells it all, this filter ran on the truck for less than 5 miles before it died, then i blew it out backwards, and it filled up again while idling in the driveway!
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out comes the tank... one advantage to the in-cab tank is that it is the easiest tank i've ever pulled!
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Fugly lookin' thing. Someone must have jammed something big behind the seat and crunched it in. Note the cracked dent in the corner
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Cleaned up and patched with some JB Weld... worked great!
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To begin cleaning the tank, i sloshed around the fuel that was in it- about 3 gal- really well to get all the gunk agitated. I poured it out into a 5 gallon pail, making a nasty varnishey mess in the back yard. The gas came out looking like an unfiltered dark ale, when it settled out over a couple days, there was about 1/2" of varnish/rust sludge on the bottom of the bucket. Mind you that wasn't even the bulk of the gunk.

The tank was filled up with 1 gallon of Muriatic acid and 20 gallons of water (give or take)... usually when i do this with motorcycle gas tanks it is 1 gallon of acid to 2 gallons of water or so. At the strong concentration it takes 3-4 hours and you have to be careful or it will eat right through it. With the weak concentration 1:20, it took 3 days sitting in the back yard to get it looking like this:
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Its hard to get a good picture inside the tank, and most of you would probably expect to see nice clean shiny steel, but the clean slightly oxidized inside that is shown is perfectly fine for a gas tank. The rust that is left is just minor surface rust and it is stable. All the loose particles and crusties have been disintegrated and the stuff that is left won't contaminate fuel.

I went to the auto parts store and my buddy was working there so i got to go in back and dig through fuel filters to find the best one. I passed on some big steel ones in favor of a clear one so i could see what was going on. Ended up finding a big clear one that should hold plenty of dirt.

I've probably put 10-15 miles on the truck just driving around the neighborhood now and the fuel supply issues seem to be fixed. The filter is staying clean and there is massive fuel flow to the carb.

I also got my 2100 autolite/motorcraft carb cleaned up and torn down. Sandblasted and ready to get rebuilt. Should be able to get to that next week.
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Re: Graham's '68 F-100 "Buck" the truck

Post by motzingg »

Haven't had much time to work on the truck the last couple weeks, but I've been making slow, steady progress. I picked up a new moped last week with it, drove about 15 miles including a stretch of 55+ mph road, w/ no tags. The fuel system seems to be sorted out, as my big filter is still catching some crap, but hasn't plugged up yet and it is a much more manageable quantity. I'll be keeping an extra filter in the truck and changing it regularly until the system gets purged out, but for now it drives and runs out just fine.

The brakes were the next issue that needed addressed. The previous owner told me that the guy he bought it from had replaced the pads (shoes?) recently but hadn't adjusted them and they might need bleeding. I pulled off the wheels expecting it to be a quick job. The rear brakes were working fine and got me out and back to pickup the bike, but when i drove down to the end of the block to turn the truck around... nothing. No brakes and i was headed into a sharp turn in a residential neighborhood with another car turning left in front of me! I got it into first gear just in time and slowed down enough to make a screaming turn that chucked all the spare parts in the drivers seat into my lap... got hit in the head with a radio! I was LUCKY to have made it out and back picking up the moped, especially going 60 mph.

When i got back to the driveway the master cylinder was dry on oil. Not sure where it was leaking to, but for all i know there may have not been much fluid in it. What was in it looked like reddish chocolate milk...

As expected the drums gave me hell trying to get them off. I'm sure there is a better way to remove these old drums, but I don't know it. I tend to avoid drum brakes like the plague, most of my experiences with them have been very traumatic working on cars in the rust belt. Usually they are a real bear.

I was pleasantly surprised when i got the drums off to find a lot of brake dust but no rust. The shoes were, as advertised, in pretty good shape, and they were also way out of adjustment as expected. Probably 10-15 turns on the adjuster nut.

I also cleaned up the hubs with a wire wheel and painted them with POR-15 to prevent further rust.
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As usual i got carried away when i realized that the tie-rod end on the drivers' side drop link was shot. I didn't look closely at it before i pounded it out with a hammer, and realized that it wasn't a replaceable unit, the entire link had to be replaced. CRAP. O'riley on a sunday afternoon didn't have one and would order it for $60, so i figured i'd put the nut back on and try to order from Rock Auto. Well, the pounding mangled the threads real bad, so that turned into an hour or two of futile re-threading attempts. Finally i gave up and just cut the whole threaded end off at the cotter pin hole with an angle grinder, and got the nut back on. It should be good for moving it in and out of the driveway until i can place the order with rock auto.

This is a dumb picture, i was sitting in the mud, in the sun, covered with brake juice and not sure why i took it...
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I put the drum on and pumped the pedal but it was the same, no resistance for the first half then slight resistance when the rear brakes kicked in.

bummer.

at this point i had the cover off the reservoir and saw brake juice spritzing on my windshield. yep, master cylinder shot. I was hoping it was something i could fix, so i pulled it all apart, but no bueno... it was shot.
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So i called o'reily again (these guys are great but i drive them nuts constantly whining about $60 tie rods for 50 year old trucks) and to my surprise they not only had the master cylinder, it was only 18 bucks, and made in USA no less!

I ran over and grabbed that, installed it, and filled/bled it all out.

Holy crap, i'm not sure what you guys are complaining about with drum brakes... maybe it will change when they are hot and hauling a trailer through the mountains... but these things are wicked. I just about ate the steering wheel on the first test drive. I was expecting to need a lot of foot force like before and instead i barely touched it and sent everything in the interior flying, including myself. Definitely need to get on top of those seat belts now!
motzingg
Blue Oval Fan
Blue Oval Fan
Posts: 742
Joined: Wed Apr 24, 2013 1:11 pm
Location: Milwaukee WI

Re: Graham's '68 F-100 "Buck" the truck

Post by motzingg »

Had a great weekend working on the truck, my wife is on a short two week break from her 60+hour/week master's program and was able to watch our little man Saturday so I could get work done.

First order of business was the elusive seatbelts. At about 3 on saturday I made my 3rd attempt at pulling seatbelts out of a junkyard truck. The first, second attempts resulted in me wasting 1-2 hours cranking on rusty bolts only to be thwarted by stuff stripping out or me finally just giving up. Since this is the last thing i need to get my truck roadworthy (state law doesn't require it pre-'69 but my MOM told me bar-none that i wasn't to be driving a car without seatbelts) I set a hard goal and buckled down.

The donor truck was a really nice '93 f150. I'm going to end up getting as much as possible out of this truck, it has a 4.9 with a MR52 and 2.73 gears... It was in a minor front end collision... i wish i could put the whole drivetrain right into Buck, but thats way too big of a job for right now.

The seatbelts were the kind with the ratchet about halfway up the B pillar, in this case on a base model they were hanging out in the open, but the nicer interiors have a plastic shroud over them.

I wasn't quite sure how to mount them but i figured i could put them in the cavities under the waterline behind the seats. Didn't think it through that far, just kinda jumped in and started pulling them.

Didn't have the right torx so i had to run down the road to the auto parts store and buy one. Then i got to the last two bolts on the floor behind the seat (where my previous seat belt removing attempts usually fail) and couldn't get them out. I had the big 1/2 inch ratchet but no 1/2-3/8 adapter... damn.

Came back Sunday morning and got them out pretty easily, Also found a few other goodies. Some headlight wipers for my brother's volvo... My V70XC turbo i've been looking for (didn't have metric tools to pull it) and a nice BMW bosch coil. The yard hosed me down for $64.. ouch. 7 bucks for each seatbelt upper and each lower. Still cheaper than new seat belts but not by much.

Ok got everything home and started lining up where the belts would go. The upper mount point is already in the cab, so is the lower and middle mounts, but the ratchet mount would have to get made. The cavity there where i planned on putting it would have been perfect aside from the stupid gas tank filler. Part of me wants to get the tank out of the cab, but part of me really likes having that goofy spigot hanging out right there... For now its staying.

I made the difficult decision of cutting up otherwise unmolested 45 year old sheet metal. I took about an hour to think this over and drank a beer while looking at it from every angle... one does not take things like this lightly. My decision was based on my safety and the safety of anyone who rides with me. Ultimately having 3 point ratchet belts will improve the truck for its intended purpose, which is hauling people and stuff around. Its never going to be a show piece and I don't really care about originality as long as the stuff that made the truck great when it was first built is preserved.

Finally I got up the courage to make the cut. I made a template of the ratchet and marked it out on the inside of the B pillar.

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you can see in this pic where it ended up:
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I drilled out the radius corners with a hole saw
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And made the cut with an angle grinder and cutoff wheel
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Got a little raggety on the passenger side... dang! You really don't notice once they are installed. Besides its a work truck.

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I drilled a hole in the sheet metal where the ratchet bolts through, and cut the ears off the mounting tab for the ratchet (not shown)
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I tig welded this nut to a spreader bar made out of steel. If anyone is curious the thread pitch of the seatbelt bolts is all 7/16-20.
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The only bolt that wasn't 7/16-20 was the upper mounting bolt. I was a bit stumped on this one, originally planning on grabbing a long 3/8" bolt, some washers and making or buying a spacer, shim stand off thingy. When i went to the hardware store i started digging through bins to see what i could find, and almost accidentally I found this bolt. Its a stub axle for a lawn mower, the thread is 3/8 and it has a big shank and a big head, perfect!
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I retained as much of the stock belt hardware (from the '93) as possible. The shank bolts were all in good shape and the right sizes, plus they have a self locking thread. I hosed everything down with PB Blaster just to make it easier for the rusted threads in the truck body to come clean. Here is the installed driver's side belt:
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and center belts
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That picture transitions to the next phase of the Sunday work. While i was digging around the floor of the truck with the seat out, I noticed that there was a lot of mud crammed into rust holes obscuring holes. When i bought the truck i couldn't see any of this because it was all mud, but once i started working on it I realized there is quite a bit of perforation in the metal.

Not knowing when to leave well enough alone, I decided to bust out the POR 15 and wire wheel, mostly just so i could sleep at night knowing the floor was stable underneath that lovely water-trapping rubber mat.

The next few pictures summarize 3 hours spent in a cab full of rust and mud dust, getting pegged by wire splinters coming off the brush, sitting in North Carolina afternoon sun, trapped in a pickup truck cab.
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POR-15 on EVERYTHING!!!! I freakin love this stuff.
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Also ground out the drip rails, door jams, and anywhere else i saw cancer creeping:
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These drip rails will have to be hit with some seam sealer later, primered, then painted. For now i just want to get that wonderful paint all up in the cracks and crannies.

Also noticed my new brake MC was starting to get some surface rust... thats a bummer! Should have painted it before i filled it with fluid and installed it, oh well, not a beauty contest.
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And that about sums it up for the weekend. Not the kind of progress that is fun to share, but it gives me a warm fuzzy feeling inside knowing that my mom is happy and the rust is stopped, for now.

Seat got cleaned up and re-installed, dash and doors got a quick wipe-down and she's back on the road! Its officially ready to drive around now!

Look at these nerds:
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