Lookin great man! I meant to ask you... Where did you get that push bar? Or did it come on the truck when you got it?

Thanks! I got the push bar on Craigslist for $15 right after I got the truck 2 years ago. It was chrome, but the guy who had it painted it gloss black. I prefer the black. The chrome underneath is nice though because if it gets scratched or nicked the chrome shows through, and it won't rust like regular steel when the paint is scratched off. I don't know what brand the bar is. It doesn't gave any markings or stampings.

Figures.. Craigslist always has the deals man!

Popped in some new headlight bulbs today. Supposed to be 4k bulbs, so they make a slightly less yellow light then the old 3k bulbs and more of a little bit whiter light. I also used a 3M headlight restoration kit. My headlights weren't too bad, but they did have some oxidization from being over 25 years old. The kit came with pads I used with my cordless drill, and it really made the lights look new. Between that clean up and the 4k bulbs, I have a noticeably better light beam.

I also modified my PCV system setup slightly to try and solve the baffle issue that's been letting slinging oil be sucked up and into the carb.

I just cleaned up mine with some polish and some sealant from walmart, kinda did it the cheap way, but I definitely noticed a difference in lighting. Have you considered a headlight relay harness? takes the load off the headlight switch and makes the headlights brighter by using heavier wire and relays to supply more voltage. I'm making one right now for mine. Also, what 4k bulbs did you use, I'm curious, right now I just have sylvania xtravisions

Sounds like an interesting mod. Very easy to do. May have to try it at some point. Tell me what you gain out of it. I already run one relay for my grille lights, bumper clearance lights, modded 3rd brake light, push bar lights, and interior floor lights. It flips on when the parking lights come on with the first pull position of the headlamp switch. That relay is only loaded around 5.5 amps. I could easily run another relay dedicated to the headlights. How does it work with the high beams? Will they still suck off of the headlight switch or do you run a separate relay there?

I'm using Sylvania halogen somethings... Don't remember the name right off, just that they said 4k. They're 45/65 watt I think, so the heavier wiring off of a separate relay may not matter as much for these as some of the ones with 85 watt high beams.

The benefit you get out of a relay setup depends on how bad your stock wiring is. My son's Jeep Cherokee was putting about 10 volts to the headlights with the engine idling. I put relays on it and the difference was like night and day (pun intended). Before the swap I wasn't sure if the low beams were on or if it was just the parking lights. Almost seemed like some high-buck accessory lights afterward.

I put two relays on it, one for the low beams and one for high. I guess they make kits, but I just picked up relays at an auto parts store.

Wow, sounds like a real difference. I'll check my voltage. I checked once before but it was almost a year ago and I don't remember what I found out...

Thanks for sharing!

Makes sense. And that's the way I'd do it. No reason for a kit, wiring is easy as long as you do it right the first time. Fuses, solder, heat-shrink, and cover the wire in plastic housing. Oh, and electric grease if needed at any plug-in points.

heres a LinkHeadlight Relay Conversion!!! - Ford Truck Fanatics to a guy who made his own with aftermarket headlight plugs, I'm fusing the low and high beam circuits separately, so if the low one fails, you can see to get off the road safely, and I soldered to some ford headlight plugs. I'm about 2/3 done. not trying to clutter up your thread, just trying to help.

Thanks for the link! I'll look into doing it when I find the time. Should be an easy task.

Changed the oil today at 3000 miles since the rebuild. I switched to Rotella T6 diesel 5w-40 synthetic. Its 1250ppm of zinc should about satisfy my flat tappet cam. I'm going to keep a little extra zinc additive in it until I break about 10k miles though probably just to ensure the cam gets broken in well. This T6 oil seems to build pressure much more quickly than the 10w-40 conventional oil I was running before. Much better peace of mind for cold starts at 0 degrees...

I also got a 180 degree thermostat to replace my 160 thermostat. The 160 keeps the engine right at 160 since the rest of the cooling system is up to par. 160 is really too cold for efficiency or a lot of cab heat in the winter. The engine builder uses only 160 t-stats because he builds mostly high performance weekend drivers and race engines. A lot of times I can really smell the un-burnt fuel in the exhaust and suspect I can improve efficiency a bit. I have been doing decent on fuel though. About 10.3 mpg average, and recorded a recent tank of all 4x4 driving at 9.85 mpg. I'm happy with it considering my entire setup from the short gearing, to the C6, monster 468, and the lift. Plus it's wintertime, and fuel mileage always takes a dump with the winter fuel and cold temps.

Lastly, I got gaskets and fluid for the D60 front diff and the 10.25 rear.

I hope to get to both the t-stat and diffs next week.

regarding the headlight relay I can say for a fact that they are much brighter. I am running the same Sylvania silver stars or super whites something like that in my 88 F150 and our 89 F250. My 88 F150 when I got it had a headlight relay. Yesterday when we took both truck for a test drive the 89 F250 could see probably 1/3 to 1/2 as much as my 88 F150. Both truck also still need there headlights adjusted. If I get both trucks started at the same time at night I will try and get a pic.
Trav

Started hearing a metal on metal knocking sound last week while driving. Only during certain RPMs, like 1100-1500 rpm. I dropped the inspection cover off of the transmission housing, and found that one of the torque converter bolts wasn't tight enough. Tightened that up and haven't heard a thing since. That was last Thursday. Boy was it a relief to find that loose nut because I didn't know what else it could be. I'd had a little but of a rattling noise in that same rpm range since just about when I got the truck back from the engine builder but I never thought much of it because it was so minor. Now the light rattle isn't even present.


I also put a 180 degree thermostat in the engine. I finally have good cab heat.

Last Thursday I changed the rear differential fluid and cover gasket while some friends did the front differential for me. From records that I have, it hadn't been done in either differential since 1998, so it was definitely time. Didn't find any real signs of wear in the old fluid or the diffs, so that's a good sign especially considering that I'm hard on the rear one almost every day.

If you don't get hung up on his GM bias, Mark (of M.A.D. Enterprises) is a great guy to work with and has some really good material on his site regarding headlight relays. His kit has everything needed and quality wires/connectors, but you can easily duplicate locally.

Here is his article on the relays: Brighter Headlights

We completely rewired my son's '69 C10 during his teenage years using Mark's products, and couldn't have been happier with the results. He still drives the truck today...12 years later.

Thanks, man. I'll check it out. I honestly haven't even gotten around to checking voltage at the headlights yet... It's been cold... I'll get to it this week though.

From reading about the headlight relay setup and all it seems that there's no issue with the 18 gauge wiring that's stock, but just that the total routing of power from alternator>battery>dash>switch>headlights is what kills voltage. Interesting to know since I figured I'd use considerably heavier gauge wiring with the relay setup. Now I'm thinking I'll probably use about 14 gauge. That'll be heavier than stock and leave capacity for some low amp fog lights or something if I ever want to tie into that. I may wire the high beam system even heavier gauge and tie some long range spotlights into that since I'm still not sure I'll be happy with high-beam performance.

Thanks guys for all of the info and replies about the lighting stuff.

14 gauge is plenty, this is what sold me on the relay harness, some bulb facts. even though a 9007 uses a different filament, and 55 watt low beam, it is still relevant. http://www.dfuser.com/Install%20Guid...bs%20facts.pdf.

Here's a pic from last Thursday doing the diff fluid front and rear

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/p...ctureid=148317

I'm so jealous you have access to all that equipment at your school! I mean, I'm in school for aviation maintenance.. but I don't own a plane so the equipment doesn't benefit me much. :-X04

Yeah, it's really nice to have. They've got 7 lifts, 2 alignment racks, hoisting equipment, brake lathes, cylinder head machining equipment, and pretty much all of the tools you could ever need. A couple of weeks ago I used the stuff there to do a repair on my moms Suburban that the dealer wanted $1600 for, cost me $45. Definitely taking advantage of it while I can.

Oh yeah!? Well.. we have airplanes! :-duel1 :-X04

Hahaha

I bet the planes are pretty cool. I've got a teacher (automotive electronics systems) who works on DEA helicopters for a living. What he does sounds pretty neat, and I imagine plane work is similar. Sounds like there are really tight shop requirements and a lot of procedure involved. Mostly to make sure everything is tested right and nothing is left on/in the aircraft (tools, rags, etc...). Can't exactly pull a plane over into the shoulder if you break down...

Just checked out my rear brakes today. It'd been about a year since I last had the drums off. Everything looked good so I just cleaned it all up. Got some dirt/mud out that was causing some squeaking.

I also put in a different vacuum advance on the distributor because the one on there didn't seem to be operating well, and my gas mileage took a hit. The replacement gave me more part-throttle power back, better throttle response, and there's a good difference in how far I need to be on the gas to maintain speed (less now). My MPG should go on back up to 10, lol. With that vacuum advance being weird the last week I've been more around 8.5MPG... Having everything tuned right really makes a difference in economy and performance.

I ordered a new carburetor for my engine yesterday afternoon. I've been running an a Edelbrock 1406 600cfm carb with vacuum secondaries and electric choke. The one I just ordered is a Street Demon 750cfm carb with vacuum secondaries and an electric choke. From my reasearch I should be able to get this one to run leaner and get more power out of it. The design seems pretty good on these Demon carbs. The top comes off like an Edelbrock/Carter and it adjusts the same as an Edelbrock. The carb has fairly small primaries to keep fuel economy up while cruising and it's got huge secondaries to feed in the power when you step in it.

Hey Collin. How've you been? Anything new going on?

It sounds like your trucks been running pretty good lately. That's good to hear.

I bet that new carburetor will be sweet. :-jamming It should be a pretty good improvement no? Was there anything wrong with your old one, or did you just want to upgrade, haha. }>

I'm still jealous of your tuck because it makes me wish I could drive my Dad's old truck, and it looks darn good too, lol. :D

Got anything else planned for it in the future?

Going pretty well. Staying busy with school and work.

The carb I've been running is fine. It's only 2 years old this month. I just wanted to upgrade. I'm not totally sure what to expect out of the new one, but I should get better WOT performance and I think the carb design will lend itself to better part throttle response too. I'll have fun experimenting with it all.

As for future plans, all I really have planned right now is to do a little body work and paint the whole truck. I'm thinking I may be getting all of that finished up sometime in April/May.

Yeah I've been pretty busy with school too.

I figured you just wanted to upgrade. It sounds like it should be a decent improvement. And I'm sure you will have fun testing it out, haha. ;) :-X04

Ok sounds good. I can't wait to see it all finished, should look sweet. You're keeping the same paint job right? How's the paint now, just a little faded?

Yeah I'm going to keep the same two-tone. The clear coat is gone on the top of the cab and the hood. The rest looks pretty good.

Ok that's what I figured. Should be pretty sweet with fresh paint, can't wait to see it. :-X22

Did you have any clearance or rubbing issues with the 3 inch lift and 37s? If so, was it severe or do you think it would've worked with a 4" lift and 37s?

I also have 2.5" suspension lift. So 5.5" total. No issues whatsoever. I can go off-road and bounce around without ever having any issues with rubbing. It should also work ok with 3-4" lift though. You may have to space the front bumper forward a little.

Haven't done much to the truck recently. Just been driving it. I've got about 5,000 miles on the engine since the rebuild that was finished up in late October (I think I'm remembering that right). That's a lot of gas, haha... Almost $2k at 9mpg, lol...

I was driving in the snow a few day ago, basically just ice and packed snow on the road. Nobody was out driving, so I had a little fun. 45 MPH dual lane power sliding sideways in 4x4, had a blast! Then I heard a bit of a clunking/squeaking, and turns out my front driveshaft u-joints are pretty much toast. Guess I'll replace those soon. I should probably grease up my rear u-joints that I put in last summer while I'm under there. Better grease the ball joints too since they're pretty much a main failure point in these trucks.

Replaced a transmission cooler line last night. It had been rubbing a header tube for a long time and was developing a thin spot from the rubbing and heat. It was going to start leaking soon. New line bent and flared took care of it. I may replace the other trans cooler line at some point too just so that they're both new.

Nice truck, I didn't read the entire thread was it FI originally?

I don't blame you. It's over 20 pages now... Yes, it started life with a fuel injected 351.

mine only shows 10 pages on it??
Trav

Depends on how many posts you chose to view per page.
Default is 15 IIRC.

I thought that was why I changed mine right away it drove me nuts flipping pages.
Trav

I see, I just picked up an 88 f250 that came with a FI 351 and was swapped(for whatever reason) to a carb setup.

A lot of people prefer the carb setup because it's what they know. The EFI setup is less than great on these anyhow.

How do you like the 351 in that 3/4 ton? A lot of people tell me they don't have enough grunt in the bigger trucks.