Nothing as of late. Got the truck buttoned up for the winter. Progress will be halted or very slow for the next while as I'm still basically working outdoors and subjected to the weather.

 

Ran into a small issue with the fuel lines from the donor truck (351w, RCLB, the white cab came from it as well for those trying to keep track), the connectors for the fuel rails will not reach. I'm guessing because the 4.9L is a taller engine then the 5.8? Anyone swap from the 5.8 to 4.9 have any ideas?

On the hunt for some lines from a truck with the 4.9 just in case.

 

So I haven't abandoned the build. Just slowed down somewhat. Been busy with house, shop and a new daily driver "build".
I picked up this '94 F-150 back in Feb 2015 with a blown E4OD.



Picked up a runner E4OD from a 351W truck and swapped it in this March.


I had collected some parts for a 6" lift and got to work putting the front in while also rebuilding the diff and swapping in a 4.10 Dana 50 center section and stub shaft.


The lift "kit" came with 6" blocks that I didn't want to mess with so I did a shackle flip with stock Ford parts.


After that I rebuild a different 8.8 with trac-loc and regeared it to match the front.


Took it in this past week for an alignment and swapped the new wheels (16x10) and tires on (285/75r16) and started to daily drive it 100%.


Today my bro and I worked on putting the remote start, new stereo head unit and door speakers in. Then did a 6 Liter tune up which made a pretty big difference, can't give it a true test as I'm still breaking in the new gears.
Couple more things to finish up and then next year I'd like to do some body work to make it a little more presentable

Now for the real build, my grandpa's truck. I managed to get some proper fuel lines from the auto wreckers last weekend. The plan to date is still to back burner it until I can finish up fixing up the shop to work in. Everything has been outside to date and it'd be really nice to have a roof and 4 walls to work in and leave the truck in whatever disarray or completed stage without having to worry about weather or cleaning/packing everything up.

So lots done but not to the grandpa's truck sadly

 

I gotta say, them jack stand base blocks are what speaks the loudest to me, I'm impressed!

Don't get me wrong, the truck cleaned up real nice!

-Enjoy
fh : )_~

 

Thanks. I build 4 of them because I had the truck like this for quite awhile and wanted to make sure nothing sunk into the ground.

 

I've been a member here for awhile, and your build thread is the only one I've bothered to read from start to finish. Wow...what a heck of a job you've done. I'm impressed.

My truck, a 1989 F250 XLT Lariat with tilt steering and without power windows, is a Utah truck, so the frame is perfect. I've got a little bit of rust to deal with, but not too much. Now that I live in Pennsylvania, I'm finding replacement salvage yard parts without rust to be a chore to locate. I bit the bullet and ordered a pair of bed arch patch panels, and hope to have those installed before winter sets in.

I don't have the luxury of a garage...heck, I'm one of the few lucky folks in this neighborhood to have a driveway to work on, so I'm at the mercy of Mother Nature. Today, I was working on the truck today, but was forced indoors due to a storm that's kicking up.

Thanks for the build thread...I've really enjoyed it.

 

Thanks for the kind words. It's been interesting finding rust free parts up here as well. I'm subjected to having to buy after market parts a lot of the time. While people on here complain about the quality of jobber it's a lot better then rusty OEM pieces any day.

I have yet to be able to work on anything big inside the shop. My brother and I tried to bring the daily driver in when I first went to swap the trans in and ran into issues with the floor. So back outside and under the overhang. Been doing everything under that overhang for the past year.
A lot more progress will be hindered now due to winter rolling in though

 

Seems like all I do is update about picking up parts for a snail's pace build thread but I guess some small update is better then nothing

Found some different seats from a Super Duty for the truck since the other blue set went into the F-150. These are power so that will be nice. Also got another reg cab/crew cab seat pan to mount these on.


Overhead console with a nice spot for some switches on the front panel.


Picked up a Super Duty steering column for the wheel. Figured the extra controls might be nice.


And the most recent pick up is a '08-'10 bumper with fog lights.


I'm still on the fence about the bumper mod. I have a later '90s bumper with the cut outs that I had planned on using but the 6.4 bumper has grown on me. I'll have to make custom brackets to mount either bumper anyways. Guess I'll see when it gets to that point in the build.

 

How about another parts update
Late night surfing on Kijiji yielded a new in box reman steering pump for $80. Local parts houses are anywhere from $280-380 + core ($250+) for this exact box so needless to say I made out like a bandit.


I also went ahead and ordered a better head gasket and head studs.


I've been researching it a lot in my down time and have come to the conclusion I will be boosting the truck down the road. I might as well prep for it now while the engine is easy to reach.

So the end goal at this point will be to get the truck finished and running 100% on the stock engine management and drive it. From there I will be focusing on a DIYPNP Megasquirt build and swap that in and start tuning while still naturally aspirated. Followed by the turbo build.
Ambitious but it will be broken down over the course of a few years and individual projects. Step 1: finish the truck obviously

 

Excellent write up! I just binge read the whole thing after I stumbled upon this looking for rust repair tips.
I'm glad you stuck with the 300, the rebuild is what got me hooked because I have fallen in love with mine. The facilities you have access to at work most of us can only dream of.
I like the transformation from fixing up your grandpas old truck to make a DD with mild upgrades, a half dozen (or more?) parts trucks, "crushing" setbacks, to "turbo 300 with Megasquirt someday" I can't wait to see what's next.
Thanks for the inspiration and best of luck!

 

Thanks
I've thought few times about swapping in a different engine but after my grandpa passing earlier this year it basically set it in stone that this truck will be powered by the same engine he put the miles on in the first place.

I also came to accept the fact that this truck will be "the truck" I build for a good long while. It started as practice for my '79 F-150 project but with how this project ballooned I can only imagine what the '79 would be like. I had a plethora of parts trucks for this one. It wouldn't be as easy with the '79.

 

Can't go wrong with a boosted 300, very daily - friendly; fast boost and enjoyable part throttle pedal feel.

 

That's what I'm hoping for. I'm aiming for a pretty conservative 8-10 psi on hopefully 87 octane but will step up to higher octane if I have to.
Also been looking into an EDIS set up too and it looks like the DIYPNP kit will handle that with everything else

 

Don't count on 87 octane, that's for sure!

 

I full realize, and accept, I probably will be stuck running 89 octane even with a perfect tune, EDIS and intercooled. I found this thread where he claimed to run 7-8 psi with 87 octane but that's a really dated thread and I've seen more people (recent info) running higher octane or ethanol.
They can run up to 10% ethanol in the gas locally but I doubt it'll help all that much. Would just like to aim for no higher then 89 in case I get stuck somewhere without higher octane choices.