Extreme 7.3 PSD makeover!
 

I am building this CCSB Lariat for a friend's 16yr old daughter. Its getting a forged rod engine with 147k miles and a freshly rebuilt transmission. The cab is going to the body shop later this week and will get painted with no interior or glass (no tape lines) and hoping to use spray-in acoustic/thermal insulation everywhere inside. Planning to do all the common mods/upgrades for reliability, but it will be 'stock' power. I'll try to come back and post more pics as it gets done!

Here is the painted chassis with engine/trans back in it: (that's a sacrificial valve cover - the stock VC's are gonna clean up like new ;))

http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m...ps22dccb16.jpg

The X in the background is an '04 Eddie Bauer with 7.3 and 4wd conversion! (V10 delete!! }>)

looks like a ton of fun. keep us posted!

Subscribing, can't wait to see how it turns out. That's one lucky 16 year old!

Your having too much fun Jason. As punishment you should convert my dually to 4wd...
That'll teach ya :D :-drink

Nice! Lucky girl!

I've been keeping an eye out for a v10 excursion for a cummins swap....A guy can dream can't he?

Bring it up Frank. We'll use the parts from my X so part of it can live on in your truck!

Yes, this is a lucky girl - but she has her head on straight and will appreciate this vehicle. She is a teenager though and will be driving in LA, so its bound to get banged up a little... :( Maybe we should go ahead and put some big bumpers on it???

And yes, I AM having fun!!!!

Im swapping 7.3's from one truck to another this week. These guys are blown away I can pull an engine in 4hrs or so - without being in a hurry. :)

Teenager and 4 tons of metal in L.A. traffic - great safety cage. 5.4L gasser and she'd be in a cocoon of safety. Maybe you should install a bad ICP sensor to "depower" the 7.3L.

I am guessing that knee feels better?

Thats one lucky girl for sure. Thats great she has her head screwed on right. Are you going to use lizard skin for inside the cab?

Where did you get those wheel supports with casters on them? Those are cool and I can see how useful they would be.
Nice pic above.

looks like fun.
if only the rest of us had the time and tools to do it.

No gasser Rich, this is a veggie-mobile!! And yes 4 tons of Super Duty is an awesome way to hedge your bets your kid will survive a collision. Besides, we are talking about a place with avg speeds just above walking with an occasional jaunt up to jogging speed...

The knee is great. Still building muscles back, but no pain or limitations. The best part is my ankle and other knee are not hurting any more!!!

I have no idea what those dollies are from, but they are awesome!! We roll engines, transmissions, trucks - all sorts of stuff around with them. You can see how they allow me to stuff a 3rd rig in my '2' bays.

Oh, it took 5hrs to snatch an engine from a donor truck today... But, I also removed the under hood wire harness and dash/cab harness. ;)

Lizard Skin or a similar product is what I had in mind.

You dont need time and tools, youve got ME! LOL. Another friend saw these pics and just placed an order for a truck. The final price is what youd expect to pay for a super clean, low miles 7.3 - but its waaaay cleaner than any SD you are likely to find and ya get to upgrade ANYTHING you want all at the same time. Not unlike custom ordering your dream truck from Ford! Want a CCLB F350 Lariat with 6" lift, Stage 3 injectors and supporting mods? Ok. ;)

Like I said, this is lots of fun! I will 'own' all of these trucks for the rest of my life. Each is built as if I was doing it for myself. I do not punch a time clock and like I said earlier, Im in no rush to get done like your hourly/production 'mechanic'...

Thanks for your support guys. If it wasnt for FTE, Id be paying some shmuck to wrench on my truck - not playing with cool tools and big trucks!!!

Rock on Jason! Build 'er up right!

DIY veggie system or? Any other notable mods?

Yes, a 'SkySkiJason' custom veggie system - automated for the simplest operation.

Im putting together a list of recommended mods right now. Itll be stuff like bellowed up-pipes, plenum inserts, upgraded CAC boots and clamps, etc. New GP's, $0.50 mod, fuel bowl rebuild, turbo rebuild, new HPO orings, etc are standard practice anytime I have an engine out.

Good to hear from you Jason.

WOW that is cool. Glad the recovery on knee is moving along great.

In a few weeks I need to come over for a visit! I hope my 4 yr old will drive mine to school.

Me interested...I have MN 2001, looking to do a cab swap......looks like nearly the same process. Interested in the Lizard Skin results. Planning on other sound proofing?

Jason you're the man. Must of been hard to covert the V10 over to diesel in the EX.

That would be great Jason, & You know That I would be honored!

However I'm currently working on something big. No time or funds for fun stuff. :)

So are you saying LA as in Los Angeles, or LA as in Louisiana? Either way, can get banged up!!! And I wouldn't say that Los Angeles traffic crawls. L.A. traffic you will either be doing 5 mph or 85 mph...all with the same amount of cars around you (no joke). It can be some of the most frustrating, fun, and SCARY driving of your life. It just depends on the moment.

And if it's L.A....tell her the two most important rules of driving there:
1. ALWAYS use your turn signal. They will honor it, and get mad if you don't. They understand that if they're idiots that the 85 mph speed will now be 0 due to a crash.
2. ALWAYS CHECK YOUR BLIND SPOT before changing lanes. Motorcycles are allowed to drive between lanes there due to the 60's and 70's laws when the motorcycles were air-cooled engines. It is very easy to hit a motocycle there.

Yes, Los Angeles. They recently moved up to Camarillo from Beverly Hills - so this poor girl has been exposed to the madness that is LA traffic her entire life. I agree with 5 or 85 MPH, but I'm not sure about 'honoring the turn signal' bit... :-X15 I find myself using the signal and watching the idiot close the gap I was getting into. Of course my truck resembles something from Mad Max - so I change lanes anyway. You are spot on about them avoiding hitting me, it seems they always avoid scratching their cars with my truck!!! Most of the time I worked there, I had a 10-12 mile commute and it took anywhere from 45min to 1.5hrs to do it. Personally, I'd prefer oral surgery to that kind of torture.

The motorcycles splitting lanes absolutely blew me away the first time I was out there. :-X15 I'd guess they don't like my 102.5" wide trailer and truck with the mirrors pulled out.... At least they get to smell my delicious exhaust while they wait for a chance to go by!! :-drink

Here in the south, we have the polar opposite 'problem'. 4-way stops are down right comical - everyone wants to let the other guy go first (and nobody moves, then they all go at once, then stop and repeat :p). Now, I admit it recently took me over an hour to get home from 10 miles away. But, there was a big truck in the ditch and they closed the road 'over the mountain' while they recovered it - so I had to take a lengthy (but scenic!) detour to get home.

I am sure some things have changed...when I lived out there 20 years ago, I originally drove like I was in Houston. That is to say, you do NOT use your blinker or you are giving away your strategy...which is a sign of weakness. :-X04 My epiphany occurred when I once was driving down a lesser crowded freeway, and was about 5 car lengths in front of the car in the lane next to me, who was traveling the same speed I was. I changed lanes which was essentially just a smooth pulling over since we were both driving same speed, and again 5 car lengths. As soon as I got into the lane he honked, he changed lanes, sped up and as he pulled alongside me he flipped me off.

I was dumbfounded at why he was mad. I asked my passenger who was a local L.A. person why that dude was so angry as I didn't even come close to cutting him off, drive crazily, or anything. He asked if I used my blinker, and I said "No." He laughed and said something to the effect of, "Brah...you ALWAYS use your blinker here, otherwise we will get into a full-on wreck, mess up our cherry rides, and the traffic will back up!" From then on, I did notice that if you used a blinker people would let you over as they wanted to continue driving 85 mph in traffic versus 5 mph. Then again, that WAS 20 years ago.