Okay, will do. I'll try to post pics in the afternoon.

Got her back this morning around 8:00. Running well. Picked it up and drove straight to college. So have about 50 miles with it so far. Will have about 100 on it by the end of the day. Temp stayed around 165°-170° driving and 180° sitting at lights. I think he put a 165° thermostat in it, but I'll have to look back at the receipt (just not the number at the bottom... haha). Seems a little bit low to me, but not really sure. Might ask the builder about it. 70 PSI oil pressure cold, 50 PSI hot while driving. About 15-20 PSI hot at 600 RPM idle.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/p...ctureid=140849

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/p...ctureid=140850

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/p...ctureid=140851


Got the other engine, as well as other various parts, in the back. I'll take it out tomorrow morning. Hopefully will sell that engine as a whole or in parts soon.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/p...ctureid=140852

looking awesome Collin.
Trav

what do you recommend for shocks on a stock height 89 F350 SRW??

Depends on what you're looking for. Stock riding Monroe shocks are cheap (probably $40-$55 a pair), while others like Bilsteins, Skyjacker, or Rancho may give you a better ride quality at a higher price (maybe $120+ a pair).

I'm running stock Monroe shocks on mine since I only have 2" suspension lift. They're old, so I can really give an accurate ride quality assessment (plus my lift springs make it ride differently).

NICE! Jealous! I bet it was all you could think about in class... I'm the same way.. Ha! Congratulations on your new truck. (Pretty much new)

The next thing to deal with on this truck will be steering and brakes.

Steering:
It's a bit loose like many trucks from this generation.
I need to shim the steering shaft
I also need to replace some bushings
If I can find the $$$, I may consider a steering stabilizer

Brakes:
1. Rubber hoses are really dry and cracked, probably original
2. Pulls to the left a little on extremely hard braking, hopefully just need to adjust the drums
3. Doesn't seem like the front brakes are doing much, going to check it out.

I plan on tackling the brakes tomorrow.

Yeah, pretty much, haha

Thanks. Now just have to suffer over the bill for a while... It's okay though, everything else just melts away when I'm cruising above everyone with my arm out the window.

Feels good looking eye to eye with dump truck drivers again, lol

mntackle on the 93 F250 4x4 that we had that was set up like your truck had Rancho Rs9000s great shocks for hauling and much nicer ride quality.
Now on the 86 F150 4x4 we just got rid of we had pro comp shocks and they sucked they held weight but the ride quality sucked.
I personally would go wth Rancho Rs9000xls as that's is what I have had a good experience with. I want to run them on all our trucks once they need them.
Trav

Have you thought about saving money for a redhead steering box I heard they are great products. Also on the front brakes you may want to consider slotted/drilled rotors. Our 93 F250 4x4 had them and they are great. If not I have Bosch brakes regular type on my 88 F150 and our 02 F250 and they stop great even though my 88 F150 doesn't run I have never had to pump the brakes when moving the truck. Also on the bushings I have heard a lot of good on polyurethane ones I am thinking about doing that on my 88 F150. Just my advice.
Trav

Haven't considered it. Don't want to dump much more money into this truck any time soon, so probably will work with what I have.


I'm not a huge fan of the slotted/drilled rotors. It's not a race car. Also, those type of rotors can't be turned and resurfaced to be used more than once. Hopefully I don't even need new rotors. Hoping I get turn them if there's still enough left to them and just put on new pads.

I'll probably look into some polyurethane bushings. Used some polyurethane body mounts, and it seems like a good material.

Got around 110 miles on the truck today. Haven't stopped to track the MPGs yet, but judging by my routes and the gauge I think I'm getting about 9 MPG. Probably about 10% Highway, 40% town, 50% hilly and windy backroads. Also have the other engine and parts in the back, so that's about an extra 750+ pounds that I was hauling around which definitely doesn't help MPGs in stop-&-go driving.

MPGs may go up a little after the engine's broken-in a little.

9mpg in a 460 is pretty darn good really especially when built like that.
Trav

<table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="6" cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td class="alt2"></td><td nowrap="nowrap">Hey BigBlockF350, What model is the truck tool box you have? I see that it is from Tractor Supply, but I don't see it listed on their website. It looks skinnier than a regular box.


</td></tr></tbody></table>

Not too bad for the setup. I'm hoping for about 11 highway. That's what it was doing before, just burning a ton of oil and making noises in the process.

I'll do the math on miles/gallons next time I fill up. My odometer is off, but I'm tracking miles by GPS

I don't know about their website, but it's been in all of their stores I've been in. It's regular depth and 12" long. I wanted a box, but I didn't want to use up much of the bed. It fits my purpose. Cost $150 at the time. If I remember right, it's actually manufactured be DeeZee.

11 is pretty high for a 460. The 460 we use to have in a 93 F250 4x4 ZF5 D60 front 4.30 gears I have talked a lot about it running 285s got a constant 7 or 8mpg. But hey if you get more that would be even cooler for you.
Trav

Ok, thanks for the info. Let me know if you can find the item number anywhere on the box. I was in my local TS store last week but did not see that box. Thanks!

Nevermind.....I found it. I wish they had it in black though!

Tractor Supply Co.&reg; Slimline Full-Size Single Lid Crossover Truck Box - Tractor Supply Online Store

Tonight I checked out the brakes. Only ended up looking at the front so far. So here we go...

1. Front drivers-side rotor is warped .006" on the outside. Couldn't put the run-out gauge on the inside of the rotor without taking the caliper off, so didn't do that. I would expect that it's worked about the same meaning total warpage would be .012" which is a lot. About .005" is the maximum that's okay to have. When turning the rotor/hub by hand you can really feel spots where it gets harder to turn.

2. Passenger front rotor may be warped slightly, but not badly. Didn't have any spots in it that really caught when I turned it by hand.

I'm going to refinish the rotors on the truck to take the warpage out as long as I have enough disc there to do it. Still have to measure the rotors, but judging on how they look, I think I have plenty left there to cut. I think they were replaced at the same time as the pads, and the pads nearly look new as I said.

3. Pads look beefy all around and almost no wear. Wear is consistent with inner and outer pads.


Next...

I went to put the front hoses on, and being that they're original (I assume, by how cracked & hard they are) the fittings connecting the steel lines to the hoses were frozen. I made up a new steel line to go between the hub to the rubber hose on the drivers side, and I put the rubber hose on. Started late, so by the time I got done with this it was past 11:00, so I called it quits.


Still have to replace the passenger side front rubber brake hose and make new steel line to run to it. Also have to replace the rear rubber brake hose. Not sure if I'll have to make steel line there or not. I'll also check out the rear brakes while I'm back there. I put a new wheel cylinder on one of the drums in the spring, but that was all I did. I want to measure the drums and look at them closely. Have a slight suspicion that one or both of them may be out of round. If so, I'll either cut them (if I have enough drum left to still cut them within spec) or put new ones on. It's hard to find good drums, so hopefully I'll be able to refinish them.


When I got the truck, the rear brakes pretty much weren't working at all. I'm betting this is why the front rotors are warped, they probably just got heated up too much.

I'll be working on all of this next Thursday, and hopefully I'll get through a bit of it. I'll post some pics too.

Okay, a real MPG number. 9.4 MPG so far on 87 octane. It always did a little better on 89 octane before, so I may try that and see. This has been mixed driving with about 25% highway and the rest is about 40% backroads, and 35% traffic/in-town/stop-and-go. And a bit of it has been "spirited driving," haha

May see a slight increase when I fix the brakes and get rid of some drag.

I'd say that's not bad at all.

No it's not. I'm pretty happy with it. The builder said it may go up a little after the engine's broken in a little too. I'm betting I can get 11-12 highway driving at 60 MPH (all of my "highways" are 55-60 for the most part.).

Just came in from starting to make a bracket to mount my air horns to the front of the truck frame. Where I'm putting them, they should be pretty hidden by the front bumper but still have a clear path for sound. Plus I'll have them pointed slightly down to keep water from sitting in them, and that'll make sound bounce off the road a little. I'll upload pics when I get them mounted.

Popped the D0VE-C heads (very desirable) off of the 1971 460 yesterday, and I sold them today for $250. Every bit helps after this engine build bill.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/p...ctureid=141035


Been loving driving the truck. Feels good riding up high again. Cars disappear behind me at stop lights, haha. Look in my rear-view:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/p...ctureid=140948

Ridin high! Yeah your truck sits a good 7 inches higer then mine.. and I still sit higher then most cars and a lot of trucks out there... I can only imagine.

Posted these in another thread ("What have you done to your truck today") yesterday, but here are a couple little things I did...

Coated my mufflers and some of the pipes with VHT "Flame-Proof" coating. It says it's good to like 1500 or 1600 degrees, and these should never get anywhere close to that so hopefully it'll hold up. I just did it to match the bottom of the truck a little better. I'll do the rest of the pipes if it seems to hold up okay (of course, you'll see pictures). Did the heat cycling and all.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/p...ctureid=141174


Also mounted a 3'x5' flag on my tool box. It's a 2-part pole, so one half only comes to be level with my tool box and the other half clamps on top. THought about using the stake pockets, but it seemed almost like a flag could just decide to jump out without actually being secured. I'm sure there are more expensive options to solve that, but my $12 setup works fine.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/p...ctureid=141175

On a different note, I sure am happy to have my truck back. I really realized I had been stressed about it being in a bad position/gone for a while when I weighed myself this morning and have lost 10 pounds since getting it back. I was seriously stressed over it for whatever reason... Guess it's just my baby.

Love the flag! Just curious, why did you paint your drive shaft like a candy cane? :-X04

I was all ready to drop $4k at the dealership eight years ago for some Serious Work on my '94. The service writer said that a car guy would have scrapped the car but that truck guys would gladly spend that much coin on their truck.

(I got out of there for about $800. I was ready to put four thousand dollars into an eleven year old truck; that doesn't mean I was happy about doing it.)

Previous owner did it. Wasn't sure I liked it at first, but I kinda like it now. I get comments all the time from people who think its cool to see it spin.

Mine would just sling oil in your face if you tried to look at it when it spins. :-X24

Nice, haha :-missingt

Got a little oil leak? At least nothing will rust! :D Just tell everyone it's sweatin' horsepower, haha :-jammin

Oh yeah, major leak. I think its my oil heater. I haven't had time to fix it. Just have to top off the oil every couple days for now! :-roll

Got back to the brakes some tonight.

I think I posted last week when I replaced the drivers-side front rubber brake hose and steel line, but here's a pic:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/p...ctureid=141324


Tonight I did the passenger side front rubber hose and steel line.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/p...ctureid=141323

The steel line on this side runs to the block on the drivers-side frame rail along the front corss-member. Just cut the line to length and bent it to match up with the existing clips. I feel like I'm getting pretty good with this brake line stuff.
Hopefully you can see my new line along the crossmember here, plus my Ford blue oil pan:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/p...ctureid=141322

I really need to degrease that cross-member. The engine had built up about 15 years of oil sweat and gunk on it before the rebuild.

Drove the truck to a car enthusiasts get together this morning (got up at 5:30 on Saturday, ouch...). It was about 50 miles round trip. It's hard to tell just by the gauge, but I'm starting to feel like the fuel economy is worsening. I think it may have to do with the colder weather and the fact that the engine only has a 160 degree thermostat in it. I'd bet that it's only running at 165 degrees cruising. I feel like it would be happier and possibly more efficient at 180-190 degrees cruising. I may call the builder back up on Monday and ask him about what he thinks. I think it may be a good idea, at least for the winter. It's no even that cold yet (about 63 high today), and it already won't run more than about 5-10 degrees over the thermostat rating.

I also adjusted the vacuum advance a little to get a little more advance at light throttle cruising speed hoping to increase effiency.

I got some oil today for the first oil change. The break-in oil is supposed to be in it for 500 miles, and I'm at about 450 in the 9 days I've had it back. Going to run Penzoil 10w-30 conventional oil in it for 3k miles, and then I'll be switching to Mobile 1 synthetic. I'm also using a Motorcraft filter.


Also, a little Tesla parked next to me at the event. Thought it was a good picture:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/p...ctureid=141404

Ha! That Tesla looks like a model car next to your truck.

Was the low temp thermostat the builder's recommendation?

Yeah, haha. It was a REALLY low car. The seats looked like you sit right on the ground.

He said that they put 160° thermostats in EVERYTHING they build. I guess it's okay. I'll use it as is for a while and see what happens as the winter comes on stronger. I also have to change out the "break-in oil" from Comp soon, so I may even see a difference in MPG with regular oil in it.

Just threw a different mechanical oil pressure gauge into the truck. The one that I just put in was cheap, and it already started to develop a tapping/fluttering noise at certain pressure because it's an un-dampened unit. I put the old gauge back into the 3 gauge pod piece that I have in there now. It doesn't match the other gauges exactly, but they all have black faces and bezels so it's okay. I can't remember ever having any issues with that one making any noise, so hopefully it'll be good.

I'm guessing they do that to keep the engine cooler and run more timing advance without detonation. Since your truck is no longer computer controlled, it probably won't affect mileage much. That said, unless it's going to void any kind of warranty from the engine builder, I'd throw a 180 in it.

I daily drive a camry to work(trucks would bleed me out in gas). This colder weather has knocked 35 miles off per a tank with no other changes. I never kept track of mileage to see this in the past but sure as chit...