n8in8or
I never met a project I didn’t like
Well, here I am with another Ford truck project.....sorry guys. I have some GM projects coming up, but for now it's a couple Ford projects.
A little background on the truck. I bought it back in 2006 from a co-worker after he drove it over the front of a Saturn that pulled out in front of him. The suspension on the right front corner was trashed, but the frame was still good and other than the front bumper the body was pretty good too. The truck was 2 wheel drive, but I found out that 4 wheel drive parts were a direct bolt-in, so that was the route I went. I put the truck together, made sure all the wear parts were replaced and 2 weeks later drove it to Seattle and back from Michigan. The truck worked flawlessly other than being super doggy from the combination of the lo-po 300 6 cylinder, 3.36:1 gears and 31" tires. Shortly after that I swapped in axles with 3.55 gears and that helped, but it was still a dog......it was what it was. I drove it like that for the next 4.5 years as a daily driver and trailer hauler. It was always reliable for me. After that I got a different daily driver so the F150 became a typical pickup that was just used when something needed to be carried, but no matter what, I could always walk out and count on it starting up and doing what I asked.
Fast forward to 2017: the truck in my other project thread (the 1990 F350) was supposed to replace the F150 and I was going to finally sell the truck. I wanted to get a Bronco to use as an off road toy, but my brother convinced me to try using the F150 since I knew everything about the truck. So last fall I got some good mud terrain tires and decided to give it a go. First outing was just some 2 tracks in the woods with a little mud in low spots - not much of a challenge, but still fun. Then we had a warm snap in early December and we hit a local off road park.....what a blast!!! The truck did pretty well for what it is and I look forward to more. Unfortunately the trip was cut short when I got a little too ambitious with some deep water (oops, I forgot the intake snorkel was behind the grill on this truck and when the water rushes over the bumper guess where it's gonna go???). Luckily taking the plugs out and cranking the engine to pump the water out was all I needed to do in order to drive 35 miles home - these 300s are tough!
So now it's time to make the truck a project. I plan to always have this truck....it's just too darn handy not to keep it, but I am going to do some upgrades to make it more fun to drive and to make it more capable off road - yet I don't want to go too far so that I can't use it to move brush and stuff around the yard. Here are the ideas so far:
Mild lift - looking at a 4" front/3" rear lift. I want to try making my own tubular, extended radius arms. I'll still run the 31s I have on the truck now, but maybe I'll put 33s on it in the future.
Rear locker - looking at a Spartan lunchbox locker.
Front locker? - I would love to have a Spartan in the front, but I do drive the truck in the snow sometimes so I'm not sure on this one. Maybe I can drive it on the roads with just 1 hub engaged???
Gears? - I have a set of axles with 4.11 gears that I can bolt in, but the developing engine plans have be re-thinking that.
Engine - Well this is ever-evolving. I have had a cam for the engine since 2007 that I never installed. It is a mild Crane cam that helps torque and is still computer compatible. I think the head gasket is going bad so the thought was to yank the head and also do the cam swap. Since I had to take the head off I might as well do some porting, right? Well I happened to find a complete 1995 engine a couple hours from me for $125 supposedly with a bad rear main seal - perfect for a cylinder head core. So I got the engine home and tore it down - it was missing the #6 spark plug and fuel injector, so it was going to be interesting to see what was going on there. Everything looked fine inside, but the oil pan had a ton of gas in it, so I'd guess that the injector went bad and filled the engine with gas. The cylinders look ok and the crank journals are within spec so it had me thinking about doing a full engine rebuild.
So I joined fordsix.com so I could learn more about these engines. In the meantime I started porting the head, which was fun. Well wouldn't you know, I start hanging out on the forum and I get a bad case of forumitis! I had to have a turbo on it! I've always thought it would be a good turbo candidate with the tough short block and low-ish compression, so reading about some turbo builds just amplified those already lingering thoughts. So now it's on: a full-on turbo build. I'm trying to keep it a budget build since it's just a little side project, but the project is ever-evolving depending on how invasive my case of forumitis becomes. I will update this thread as I make more progress.
I'm going to switch to my phone now since it's easier to upload pics from it. I have a few to show the truck and what progress I've made so far. Enjoy.
A little background on the truck. I bought it back in 2006 from a co-worker after he drove it over the front of a Saturn that pulled out in front of him. The suspension on the right front corner was trashed, but the frame was still good and other than the front bumper the body was pretty good too. The truck was 2 wheel drive, but I found out that 4 wheel drive parts were a direct bolt-in, so that was the route I went. I put the truck together, made sure all the wear parts were replaced and 2 weeks later drove it to Seattle and back from Michigan. The truck worked flawlessly other than being super doggy from the combination of the lo-po 300 6 cylinder, 3.36:1 gears and 31" tires. Shortly after that I swapped in axles with 3.55 gears and that helped, but it was still a dog......it was what it was. I drove it like that for the next 4.5 years as a daily driver and trailer hauler. It was always reliable for me. After that I got a different daily driver so the F150 became a typical pickup that was just used when something needed to be carried, but no matter what, I could always walk out and count on it starting up and doing what I asked.
Fast forward to 2017: the truck in my other project thread (the 1990 F350) was supposed to replace the F150 and I was going to finally sell the truck. I wanted to get a Bronco to use as an off road toy, but my brother convinced me to try using the F150 since I knew everything about the truck. So last fall I got some good mud terrain tires and decided to give it a go. First outing was just some 2 tracks in the woods with a little mud in low spots - not much of a challenge, but still fun. Then we had a warm snap in early December and we hit a local off road park.....what a blast!!! The truck did pretty well for what it is and I look forward to more. Unfortunately the trip was cut short when I got a little too ambitious with some deep water (oops, I forgot the intake snorkel was behind the grill on this truck and when the water rushes over the bumper guess where it's gonna go???). Luckily taking the plugs out and cranking the engine to pump the water out was all I needed to do in order to drive 35 miles home - these 300s are tough!
So now it's time to make the truck a project. I plan to always have this truck....it's just too darn handy not to keep it, but I am going to do some upgrades to make it more fun to drive and to make it more capable off road - yet I don't want to go too far so that I can't use it to move brush and stuff around the yard. Here are the ideas so far:
Mild lift - looking at a 4" front/3" rear lift. I want to try making my own tubular, extended radius arms. I'll still run the 31s I have on the truck now, but maybe I'll put 33s on it in the future.
Rear locker - looking at a Spartan lunchbox locker.
Front locker? - I would love to have a Spartan in the front, but I do drive the truck in the snow sometimes so I'm not sure on this one. Maybe I can drive it on the roads with just 1 hub engaged???
Gears? - I have a set of axles with 4.11 gears that I can bolt in, but the developing engine plans have be re-thinking that.
Engine - Well this is ever-evolving. I have had a cam for the engine since 2007 that I never installed. It is a mild Crane cam that helps torque and is still computer compatible. I think the head gasket is going bad so the thought was to yank the head and also do the cam swap. Since I had to take the head off I might as well do some porting, right? Well I happened to find a complete 1995 engine a couple hours from me for $125 supposedly with a bad rear main seal - perfect for a cylinder head core. So I got the engine home and tore it down - it was missing the #6 spark plug and fuel injector, so it was going to be interesting to see what was going on there. Everything looked fine inside, but the oil pan had a ton of gas in it, so I'd guess that the injector went bad and filled the engine with gas. The cylinders look ok and the crank journals are within spec so it had me thinking about doing a full engine rebuild.
So I joined fordsix.com so I could learn more about these engines. In the meantime I started porting the head, which was fun. Well wouldn't you know, I start hanging out on the forum and I get a bad case of forumitis! I had to have a turbo on it! I've always thought it would be a good turbo candidate with the tough short block and low-ish compression, so reading about some turbo builds just amplified those already lingering thoughts. So now it's on: a full-on turbo build. I'm trying to keep it a budget build since it's just a little side project, but the project is ever-evolving depending on how invasive my case of forumitis becomes. I will update this thread as I make more progress.
I'm going to switch to my phone now since it's easier to upload pics from it. I have a few to show the truck and what progress I've made so far. Enjoy.
I have a real soft spot for the howl of a 460. The lower RPM torque of the 460 would be better offroad as well. A turbo 6 just isn't on par with a 460 no matter how fast it is: I have no doubt it will be quick. A 351 would not howl...
