Now that the truck is back to being my DD, I also finally broke down and had my headlights aimed. I'd been thinking about getting some fog/driving lights because illumination at night wasn't that great. Now that he headlights are adjusted properly, it's a world of difference.

Still might get some additional lights, but at least it's not a necessity now.

 

Get the wiring harness kit from LMC, it makes an even bigger difference. I have mismatched headlights and I can still see farther at night than alot of new cars...

 

The Heavy Duty Harness in their catalog? Seems like a steal at $30.

 

Replaced my lift/fuel pump on the truck, but the new one is reading even lower fuel pressure than the previous one... Going to check my vac/fuel tester is working properly tomorrow. If the tester is good, time to get another pump tomorrow and try it all over again...


Time for a cold beer...

 

Not complete yet, but I've started on my custom grill with blue oval delete.

 

For awhile I thought that I had popped two freeze plugs in the F100. As it turns out, they didn't pop, they rusted through. Every single freeze plug in the block was corroded. The two plugs on the left are the ones that rusted through.

 

Got around to buying some TFS twisted wedge 170 aluminum heads and TFS 1.6 rockers. Also got my rusty cab on a trailer ready to haul off to the shop. Now all I've got to do is find a shop here in tx that is actually willing to work.

 

Resealled the front window so it doesnt rain on the inside of my cab anymore.

 

putting the engine together this weekend so i've been doing some painting

 

Swapped out the rear axles so I finally have 4.10s instead of the 3.55s. It drives SO much better with the 37s on it. Planning on doing the fronts over the weekend.

 

Painting with high-quality, high durability, high-temp suitable paint is almost always a good idea, and the block looks better in blue.
I have the idea in my head however, that intake manifolds ought to be silver, chrome, or perhaps white, while exhaust manifolds and headers ought to be black for thermal reasons.
Is that a correct thought?

 

Well, that's a good debate. Technically, it doesn't matter. Whether your paint is white/silver/blue/black or anything in between, without the right amount of ceramic material in it, it won't dissipate heat as well. The point of paint being light or dark as it refers to heat is because of light absorption/reflection, but since your hood is closed and most heat in an engine bay is from radiant and ambiant heat, the paint color doesn't really matter.....what matters is how much ceramic material is in the paint. The higher levels of ceramic material, the more heat is dissipated, and the more effective it is. Of course we're only talking about minimal gains in large horsepower applications as well, but every little bit helps right?!!

 

Not really. White/silver/chrome objects radiate and absorb less radiant heat, while black objects absorb and radiate more heat. The intake does have too much opportunity to absorb or radiate heat as it doesn't get that hot nor have other really hot things near it, so the color probably would matter much.

But, the exhausts get very hot and black would let them radiate it to everything around. That causes two problems: First, it can kill the things like starters. Second, lost heat cools the exhaust gasses and disrupts their flow. thereby reducing the engine's efficiency. This is one reason they make "header wrap" - to keep the heat in.

 

While I have the engine bay wiring to a minimum, I figured it would be a good time to remove the plastic inner fenders and clean them up a bit.

Driver's side:








Both inner fenders removed.





Not to be that guy or anything, but my fenders are 100% rust free.






And finally, since I added a leaf to each spring pack to bring the truck up in the rear, and since I plan to upgrade to the 6100 GVWR option, I figured it's time to add some F150 emblems since everything else on the truck is F150 spec except for the vin number. If I could change that too, I would.

 

i started putting the engine together today. 6 hours we got the bottom end done. i know we wouldnt win the engien masters at that rate but we took our time. here are a few pictures. i should have it finished tomorrow i built a stand to run the engine in on i will do that later this week.
cleaning the block with soapey water
the rods laid out on the table waiting for the pistons
got the pistons on the rods and ready to set ring end gaps
here is a beter shot of the pistons
this is where we stoped for the day