Big Blackie - The Build
#526
06-09-2014, 07:47 AM
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#527
06-09-2014, 12:41 PM
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Location: Corvallis, OR
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Hey Gary, I see you found a Saginaw for your engine, so I just posted over in your thread.
#529
06-09-2014, 02:27 PM
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#530
06-09-2014, 07:04 PM
#531
06-21-2014, 10:34 PM
When I had my crumbling doors out I was rather stupified for some time on what to do. I spent an enormous number of hours searching the ww internets for a similar kind of replacement foam that I could use to restore them. I bought every kind of weatherstripping known to man at the hardware store, I went to a specialty place I know about called "The Foam Man,” I even ordered custom sheets of 1/4" memory foam if you can believe it, all in an effort to find a similar replacement.
In the end I found no foam exactly like what Ford used on these doors. The memory foam comes closest but I have serious doubts about its longevity in my heater ducts, since I've already observed its longevity in the form of a mattress topper my wife bought, which did not inspire confidence.
As usual I was missing the forest for the trees. These climate control doors do not need to create a vacuum lock seal for the Space Station. They just need to generally direct air hither or thither. Frankly the foam padding on the doors may not even be necessary, other than to prevent the sound of doors banging when you switch from hot to cold.
What I finally settled on for all my doors was 1/8" adhesive backed neoprene. I actually bought mine from eBay, just do a search for neoprene sheet and you'll find a bunch of sellers. I got a sheet 1 foot wide by 54" long for about $18 shipped.
It is not as thick as the factory foam on a few of the doors,but I found it didn't matter, the doors still make a surprisingly good seal with this thin stuff.
The only question now is how long it will last. This is one of the few areas of the interior build that I have been biting my fingernails about at night. I really would like to know that I won't need to ever look behind my dash again until the day I die. With this stuff, I can't be sure. Maybe I'll be blowing chunks of neoprene out the vents in another year. We'll just have to see.
What I can say is that this is a lot better than the crumbling mess I had on my hands to begin with.
After prepping the metal I painted the doors with POR-15, of course. You can also see my roll of neoprene sheet:
Neoprene attached to fresh/recirculating air door. I put the neoprene on both sides of each door:
Fresh/recirculating air door reinstalled in the cleaned-out housing:
In the end I found no foam exactly like what Ford used on these doors. The memory foam comes closest but I have serious doubts about its longevity in my heater ducts, since I've already observed its longevity in the form of a mattress topper my wife bought, which did not inspire confidence.
As usual I was missing the forest for the trees. These climate control doors do not need to create a vacuum lock seal for the Space Station. They just need to generally direct air hither or thither. Frankly the foam padding on the doors may not even be necessary, other than to prevent the sound of doors banging when you switch from hot to cold.
What I finally settled on for all my doors was 1/8" adhesive backed neoprene. I actually bought mine from eBay, just do a search for neoprene sheet and you'll find a bunch of sellers. I got a sheet 1 foot wide by 54" long for about $18 shipped.
It is not as thick as the factory foam on a few of the doors,but I found it didn't matter, the doors still make a surprisingly good seal with this thin stuff.
The only question now is how long it will last. This is one of the few areas of the interior build that I have been biting my fingernails about at night. I really would like to know that I won't need to ever look behind my dash again until the day I die. With this stuff, I can't be sure. Maybe I'll be blowing chunks of neoprene out the vents in another year. We'll just have to see.
What I can say is that this is a lot better than the crumbling mess I had on my hands to begin with.
After prepping the metal I painted the doors with POR-15, of course. You can also see my roll of neoprene sheet:
Neoprene attached to fresh/recirculating air door. I put the neoprene on both sides of each door:
Fresh/recirculating air door reinstalled in the cleaned-out housing:
#532
06-23-2014, 01:47 PM
Lead Driver
#533
06-23-2014, 10:52 PM
Join Date: Jan 2012
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Arbiter, I'm glad to know this is helping someone. As for the EPDM, my thought had been to use some as well, but at the time I believe I was unable to find any in the size I needed at a price I could justify.
If anyone does find some thin EPDM sheets post it here, it would be useful to others.
If anyone does find some thin EPDM sheets post it here, it would be useful to others.
#534
06-25-2014, 03:16 PM
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I've been working on my air cleaner intake routing, and I've run into what I think is a pretty big problem for all of us - the rectangular hoses appear to be universally discontinued so far as I can tell.
I just purchased one as a test last November and I was able to find one at CarQuest (Mighty Flow 96052/Dorman 708-021). I should have bought 2 (the number I need) or 4 (to have some backups) but I wasn't sure it would fit so I just got a single one at the time.
Now CarQuest shows them as unavailable and every other source I've looked at shows all rectangular hoses of any size or length as unavailable as well.
The specific air cleaner hose I need is 2-5/16" tall x 3-11/16" wide by ~25" long. In addition to the two part numbers above, I've found several others in this same size:
NAPA 825-6031
Goodyear P2516-25
All are listed as discontinued and none of the usual suppliers seem able to even order them from some back warehouse.
This leaves some dodgy fabric hoses in a junkyard. Assuming I even find some in decent shape (I have not seen any in my many trips thus far), their best years are already long behind them at this stage.
Before I go any further with the idea of using a stock air-cleaner on my engine, I'm going to have to find some suitable substitute for these hoses. If one can't be found, I'm not sure what I will do. RamAirBox has a kit for our trucks but it runs close to $300, looks odd, and is perhaps unproven because I haven't found any info about one in an F-series.
Yet another fly in the ointment...
I just purchased one as a test last November and I was able to find one at CarQuest (Mighty Flow 96052/Dorman 708-021). I should have bought 2 (the number I need) or 4 (to have some backups) but I wasn't sure it would fit so I just got a single one at the time.
Now CarQuest shows them as unavailable and every other source I've looked at shows all rectangular hoses of any size or length as unavailable as well.
The specific air cleaner hose I need is 2-5/16" tall x 3-11/16" wide by ~25" long. In addition to the two part numbers above, I've found several others in this same size:
NAPA 825-6031
Goodyear P2516-25
All are listed as discontinued and none of the usual suppliers seem able to even order them from some back warehouse.
This leaves some dodgy fabric hoses in a junkyard. Assuming I even find some in decent shape (I have not seen any in my many trips thus far), their best years are already long behind them at this stage.
Before I go any further with the idea of using a stock air-cleaner on my engine, I'm going to have to find some suitable substitute for these hoses. If one can't be found, I'm not sure what I will do. RamAirBox has a kit for our trucks but it runs close to $300, looks odd, and is perhaps unproven because I haven't found any info about one in an F-series.
Yet another fly in the ointment...
#535
06-25-2014, 03:23 PM
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#536
06-25-2014, 03:46 PM
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I don't but I think maybe you had found one or got close to it back here in Dad's Truck build? There was also this thread where NumberDummy and Chris bandied about a lot of part numbers, but pretty much all the photos are now missing so hard to tell what is going on.
If I recall, the hose itself may only have been sold be Ford as an assembly with the plastic intake housing that bolts to the core support.
This is all a real shame because I finally worked out a dual snorkel intake and all the routing and had to modify an air cleaner and modify one of the plastic core-support intakes, and it was all going to work beautifully, and I was just getting ready to send my cleaner off to Leanna for beautiful powder coating, but now I'm derailed by a stupid flexi-hose!
If I recall, the hose itself may only have been sold be Ford as an assembly with the plastic intake housing that bolts to the core support.
This is all a real shame because I finally worked out a dual snorkel intake and all the routing and had to modify an air cleaner and modify one of the plastic core-support intakes, and it was all going to work beautifully, and I was just getting ready to send my cleaner off to Leanna for beautiful powder coating, but now I'm derailed by a stupid flexi-hose!
#537
06-25-2014, 04:17 PM
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#539
06-25-2014, 05:17 PM
There was also this thread where NumberDummy and Chris bandied about a lot of part numbers, but pretty much all the photos are now missing so hard to tell what is going on.
There is a page from the parts catalog on that thread, though, maybe it has the part number to what you're looking for (there are 30-some-odd variations of that hose IIRC).
#540
06-25-2014, 08:29 PM
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Yeah, I've noticed that same ImageShack problem on a lot of threads here and on other forums.
As for intake hose, I saw a note on the internet from a year or so ago where a guy said if you look in the Balkamp catalog at NAPA you can find some ducting still available. Well I went to NAPA and browsed through the Balkamp catalog but saw nothing, in fact there was hardly any ducting of any kind so I wonder if they've updated their catalog.
I am on first-name basis with the NAPA people after all these years, the friendly lady there is going to do some research for me but I actually don't expect it to turn up anything.
There's always the custom solution like this thing over on 460Ford. But I'm not sure I could stand to have my engine bay look like that.
As for intake hose, I saw a note on the internet from a year or so ago where a guy said if you look in the Balkamp catalog at NAPA you can find some ducting still available. Well I went to NAPA and browsed through the Balkamp catalog but saw nothing, in fact there was hardly any ducting of any kind so I wonder if they've updated their catalog.
I am on first-name basis with the NAPA people after all these years, the friendly lady there is going to do some research for me but I actually don't expect it to turn up anything.
There's always the custom solution like this thing over on 460Ford. But I'm not sure I could stand to have my engine bay look like that.