That P/S pressure line is missing the square cut nylon o-ring on the fitting that goes to the pump. Ford part number 388898-S. Buy it at your local Ford dealer. You may have to heat it up in Hot water to get it mounted over those threads.

 

I took the picture before I put it on. I had 5 of them in my toolbox at work. I had to take it apart to fix the leak, so I ended up replacing it twice.

anyway, because I'm a nerd, I set up a couple mics and recorded the sound of the new mufflers.
https://soundcloud.com/firegoat73-1/exhaust-sound

 

Flipped the front spring hangers today.


When I bought it and today.

 

Are those stock mustang wheels on the CV front?

 

I love the stance you got out of it. Looks great

 

Yeah, the wheels are off of a 11-12 V6 mustang. Possibly other years as well. 17x7 with 225/60R17 tires. With the crown Vic rear end they sit right at the wheel lip. There is about 1/4 clearance on the outside. Flipping the front spring mount dropped the back 3".

Back


Front

 

I took the truck out to Sonoma raceway (it'll always be Sears Point to me) today. Made 3 passes and broke the trans mount on the 3rd run.


Going out there, my benchmark was the time I set with my 61 F100 back when I was 19. That one had a 2bbl 351C with a C4 and 3:73 gears. Best run with that one was a 16.1, I only ever took it out there once, but the 4 runs I made were all within a tenth of each other. Best run with this one was a 16.05 with a 16.06 and a 16.23. The two faster runs were had by shifting 1-D-1 so that I could hold 2nd gear longer and shifting at 5000 rpm.

 

Been steadily working on the truck lately. Picked up a set of power heated leather seats out of an 06 Milan. Installed a set of air helper springs in the rear so it will stop bottoming out if I put more than a gallon of milk in the back. Also put in some sound deadener and will probably put in some carpet today. Oh and I had to change the heater core on Thursday because I started getting a nice puddle on the pass side floor.

 

and after the carpet

 

So I just moved to Michigan, which may prove to be a bad idea, but here I am. I used the F100 to tow my trailer loaded with my 3 bay snap-on tool box, tool cart, air compressor and a bunch of other tools and such. In it's current form it's not much of a tow vehicle, lol. I would say it was comparable to my 3.0 V6 Ranger. Loaded down the power seemed similar but its not as stable as the Ranger, and far less comfortable. It made the trip without a single issue, I half expected something to go wrong at some point, but nothing ever did. It was between 10-11 mpg on most of my fill ups, one was almost 13 but that one was mostly down hill coming out of Wyoming.

The fun part was seeing all the looks people gave me. I watched so many people twist their heads around as they passed me on the highway. I had 3 different people come over to talk to me while I was getting gas, a few "cool truck"s, people pointing at it from across the parking lot and so on. I can't imagine the attention it would get if it didn't look all beat up.

 

Excellent write-up. Thanks much for all of the detail.
I do have a couple of questions though.

1. Where did you find the info for all of the wiring of the 5.0 into the bump?

2. If you had to do it again, would you go with a 5.8 instead of a 5.0?

3. What brand of air helper springs did you use in the rear?

Thanks,
Gene

 

The wiring wasn't bad at all. The engine harness in the cougar comes out separately from the body harness, so there isn't much cutting or modifying needed. I ordered an original Ford manual off of eBay for $13 and used it to figure out what wires needed to be hooked up to what. Most of the wires that needed to be connected ran through 1 connector. The book shows where they need to be hooked up, be it constant 12v, switched 12v, grounds, etc.

Right now the 5.0 is essentially stock with the exception of the intake and removal of the converters. I don't tow much or very often, so the 5.0 is fine. If I were going to use it to tow or try to make it really fast, a 5.8 would be a better choice. My dads 5.8l F150 will take mine off the line while the F100 will pull away on the top end.

I don't remember who makes the helper springs. My buddy had them laying around his garage after he got them in some kind of trade at some point. I made my own brackets to mount them, so really, any air bag would have worked. I'll see if I can find pictures of them.

 

Firegoat, nice build. Have you trimmed your bumpstops in the rear to help add some suspension travel? I did the full hanger flip out back on mine and cut my bump stops in half and haven't had an issue. How does yours ride with the helper springs?

 

Nice build, very good explanations and photos. Good luck in Michigan.