So back in the fall I got repaired the original intake that cracked in the summer when I went to put the MAF exhaust manifolds on. I had chalked the break up to possible over torque or possible warped intake manifold. I resurfaced it after the repair.

I had an unbroken one off a parts engine that I attempt to use and it broke in the same spot. I then thought it might be studs causing a greater clamping force and I should lower the torque spec instead of the usual 22-32 ft lb. I found a on YouTube that explained the intake manifold is 0.040 thinner then the exhaust because they didn't use gaskets on the exhaust manifolds, just the intake. The video goes on to show an older gasket set that uses a stand alone intake gasket over a 1 piece intake and exhaust from Fel Pro that would take up that 0.040 difference. So I ordered that to try.

It failed. First, the carb head doesn't have as many bolts holding the gaskets on so I had to attempt to add those. No biggy, drilled and die grinder later and I had the holes.

Then the plugs I had for the air tubes were in the way and I attempt to cut the gasket for those and butchered it. Onto plan B.

I ordered a stand alone intake gasket and a combo intake/exhaust gasket for an EFI engine and made my own sandwiched gasket set. Started off with the correct torque sequence but only went hand hand tight. Then went 10 ft lb and made it to the 12th spot when a crack opened up. Not so much cracked but just split open. I continued and went again to 17 ft lb where I intended to stop at anyways in case it was an over torque because of the studs like the first time.

At this point I'm going to say screw it and replace my front main seal, which tore due to the length the engine sat for before firing it up, and just attempt to get the engine running with the MAF system and RKE interior harness I got from the parts truck I got for the interior. While I was messing with the engine, my brother was pulling the dash out of that parts truck and getting the RKE harness to modify with the MAF truck's interior harness.

 

So this build is NOT dead but it's definitely on the back burner to other things including family, house and my 2008 becoming a build of it's own. I have got a few things done and picked up some more goodies for my grandpa's truck.

I believe where I left off on updates was needing to remove the rear diff's pinion yoke with the balancer and replace it with one without. Which in the end gave me a lot more slip for my slip yoke and finished off the rear driveshaft.



My brother also found a shorter front driveshaft from I believe a 5.4/5R110 SD that ended up being the perfect length for my truck and that buttoned up the front drive shaft.




Next up was the track bar bracket. Sky's Off Road Design ended up selling me a prototype that they were working on awhile back for me to test on the Bricknose frame as at that point no one had done this swap on this old of a truck or with a "small block" gasser engine cross member. I unsuccessful tried a stock SD track bar bracket and a eBay one that worked for my brother's truck but unfortunately due to my engine cross member being different then a 460/diesel cross member that bracket didn't work. This style allowed bolting from behind as shown in the next couple pictures and negated the issues the other brackets had with the "small block" gasser cross member.




I spacer was required to balance the bracket out as the 89 frame is a lot different then the 92-97 frames this bracket was designed for.


In the end it worked out amazingly and apart from having to get it sandblasted and painted it's a great product and would use it again if I did another swap.

Around this time almost all work stopped on my grandpa's truck for quite awhile as I picked up something for the Super Duty that's since taken up all my "truck project time". Without going into a ton of derailing this thread details, it's a HUGE undertaking to swap one of these engines into a truck that didn't start life as a diesel and I'm still not 100% there even now. This engine started life as a core with a ruined crankshaft and has since been rebuilt and almost finished as the 2nd picture can attest.


With that said, I've started back up a bit here and there on my grandpa's truck again. Picked up some new wheels that are a little closer to the Alcoa wheels these trucks came with but obviously with the 8x170 bolt pattern for the SD axles. The idea a little later on after the above distraction is in the SD is to pull the 4.5" Icon lift out of the SD and put it in my grandpa's truck to help correct the caster with the drop radius arm brackets. I have a Pro Comp 6" for the SD waiting and will be up sizing the tires on it so the 35s will be coming off the SD and going on this truck to replace the bald tires the wheels came with.


I knocked out modifying the 09 ABS module bracket and mounting on the truck and am currently waiting on some 1/4" nickle copper brake line to run the rear brake line run and then I'll be knocking out the braking system.




So, not dead. Just VERY slow LOL