Don't forget to cut out the same length section of the dipstick. ... yeah, you're welcome.:) Honestly, that was about the only thing I could find that you didn't report in on. I sure would hate to have you put oil in it and then not be able to check the amount.

I've seen this post in here for sometime now and never really looked at it. I finally figured I would since it keeps staying up on the top of the heap and when I noticed it was 19 pages I had to see what all the comotion was about. Wow, this is real nice. Can you come over to my house and do mine? I'll pay for parts and all the beer, brats and broads you can ea.. uh, well, handle.

Jadavis, The level of dificulty all depends on your skill level and willingness to learn. I would say that swapping the front suspension and 4.6 wont be for the faint of heart. The suspension isnt that hard its just a pain cutting out all the old stuff but then the 06-07 vic suspenstion just bolts right in with 4 holes, I would recomend reinforcing the frame by boxing it in for that area though. You will also need to be able to weld on a mounting plate to the frame for the lower trailing arms. I would say at a minimum you will need a cutting torch and a welder that will do 1/4" steel.

As far as my skill level I would say it is probably a 7 out of a 10. I havent found anything I cant do with a car except body work (I hate body work). I also have a strong willingness to dive into something and figure it out as I go.

As for the 4.6 I looked into that avenue and decided against it due to the wiring and low performance (stock) on the 4.6L. I also didnt like haveing to spend lots of money for a little performance and fuel economy so I went with the diesel. ( $300 turbo and turn some screws and it will be pretty quick) I would say the 302 you have will be way easier. If it were me and I had to have a gasser I would go with a fuel injected 302-351 and an AOD. I did this in an old mustang once for $500 (thats what I paid for the wrecked donor complete and running.) I can even help you with the very simple wiring for the FI.

How do you think the whole truck is held together. :-missingt

qman, I forgot to take a pic of the dipstic but I just cut it to the required length and put similar notches in it for the high and low oil fill just like the dipstick was factory ( just shorter lol).

Oh and just so everyone knows this man knows how to haggle for work. Especially the part with the beer and broads, you can keep the brats though :D

How bout beer, broads and burgers?

What you got against brats?

That sounds good to me :D I could do a good bit of work for that kind of payment.

I am not a big fan of brats, but I love good little kids. I have a 2 year old daughter that is wonderful, she already calls my ford her truck. LOL I love it.

He may have meant Johnsonville Brats as in Bratwurst sausage. Those things are great on the grill. Thats what I thought about when I read it. Of coarse I could be wrong it wouldn't be the first time.

woops now I feel stupid :D

yes, brats was short for bratwursts

DOH!! :D


I thought you all might want an update on the progress so far.

Ok my dad came over today and helped me work on the brakes and after a few hours of work I think we have them sorted out. I just need to readjust the pedal position to that it doesnt stick up in the air so high. I have to say I only put the truck in drive and moved it a couple feet 2 times so I wont really know how the brakes do untill the test drive which will be very soon. We also started readjusting the shift linkage and cant seem to get it to shift smooth, so there will be some reworking there in the morning along with finishing the 700R4 T.V. cable linkage. I did finish the exhaust last night and I have some pics to post up.

I made the exhaust out of 3.5" mandrel bent mild steel ( I live in Tx :) ) I tried keeping everything smooth flowing as best as I can. Oh yeah I will be ordering some POR-20 monday morning and coating the entire exhaust in it to help it stay good looking and last a little longer, plus I have been wanting to try that stuff since I love their POR-15 and my entire under carriage is coated in it. :)

http://inlinethumb56.webshots.com/67...425x425Q85.jpg

The exhaust come down off the turbo into the 4" down pipe and knecks down to the 3.5" mandrel bent exhaust, notice the 45 degree bend downthe line, that is the part that goes under the tailshaft of the transso the exhaust can cross over from the driver side to the passenger side.

http://inlinethumb10.webshots.com/11...425x425Q85.jpg

Here is the down pipe with the Vortex "muffler" in it. I have no idea if this will help but I have already heard it straight piped and with just the morroso muffler I will see if the vortex helps and let everyone know.

http://inlinethumb31.webshots.com/42...425x425Q85.jpg

I have been trying to upload more photos but the web hosting page is messed up right now. Stay tuned for more. I still need to wrapp the down pipe and the front pipe that goes under the floor pan in header wrapp and will be doing that in the morning to help keep heat down in the cab.

Nice work there Carcrafter. I have a question and it might be too late to ask. But I would like the know the distance the motor mount pad on the front suspension is from the firewall?? Your motor is in so it might be hard to get the measurment, if you can that would be awsome.

carcrafter22,
This whole write-up is awesome. I have a question, you may have posted it and I missed it, but did you have to do anything to the rear leaf springs to get it lower to match the new front end ride height?

Thanks man and great work,
Jeremy

Test drive complete!!


I was kinda dissapointed due to the damn junky ass 700R4 trans not shifting at all unless I was pulling on the TV cable. I know its my fault that the tv cable linkage isnt set up right but I dont know anything about it and cant find anyone that is willing to help out with it. Sorry for the pitty part I am just frustrated on what should be great day.

On a brighter side. I was at the junkyard this morning and found a really nice pair of 14" electric fans for $15. I think they came from a 2003 mercury sable. I stopped off at the local fab shop and they are making me a custom bent aluminum shroud to fit my 2005 ram radiator for, get this, $30 wow thats cheap. I have about $100 bucks in the factory style fan setup including the fans, shroud, and spal controller. I will try and use the spal fan controller I have to run them. I tested them and on the high setting only one fan puts out 34 amps on startup (about 1/2 second) then settles down to 11 amps constant and on the low setting it puts out 28 amps on startup (about 1/2second) then settles to 10 amps constant. I also noticed on the short but fairly bumpy road I went down (many times by the way , about 15 times) the truck road like a dream, you could almost say like a new car.... oh wait it's riding on a 2006 crown vic suspension.

Congrats :) sounds like it turned out well.