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In order to lessen the chances of a killing the camshaft, I will break it in using my Dominator and the trusty old HEI. I put them on just to make sure there were going to fit ok. Since it is temporary, I will just run it off the primary side.
I also did some serious wiring harness thinning. When we did the efi 460 swap, we wired a lot of stuff to use this fuse box and the big firewall bulkhead connector. I have no desire to undo all that I previously did, so I just removed all the stuff from this harness that I never used in this harness or will not be using. Stuff like cruise control, the head and marker lights, turn signals, transmission harness.
The Megasquit is mounted in the glove box and will have it's own simple harness that comes through the firewall behind the engine to control the efi stuff. Seemed like a cleaner and simpler way to do what I want. I want to keep it separate from the Ford stuff to make trouble shooting or replacement more straight forward.
The return fitting I put in the timing cover looked to be too high for good drainage. So yesterday was poke a hole in the oil pan day. After researching several ways to do it, I decided to drill a small pilot hole and use increasingly larger punches to stretch the hole until it was the right size to tap with a 1/2" NPT tap. Worked really good! I am very happy with the results. I will add some sealer, tighten it up and it should be good to go.
You and me both. Although I am really enjoying the build aspect of it.
Hot side is finished and installed. Still need to make a down pipe, but that won't really be a big deal. Last pic is a little out of focus, but shows how well it tucks up under there while still allowing access to the starter, oil pan, and converter bolts.
Did you consider any flex sections in the header Y pipe or down pipe? I ask because having even a short flex section will help the durability of the pipe with the rocking of the engine, and will allow for a little bit of flex during expansion when it gets hot. The first turbo kit on my old Mustang was solid all the way through, and it cracked at the header from a combination of weight and expansion. The second kit I did was a lot more sturdy, and included a short (6") flex pipe on the dump that made everything a lot nicer to work with.
I did consider it, but some use one while others do not, so I opted to not put one in.
Everything is mounted to the engine so engine movement is not a big concern and the pipes support no weight, so maybe it will be ok. If not, I'll pull it off and put one in.
Played with some cardboard to get a basic down pipe idea. The temptation to turn it up through the hood is tempting, but I think I really want it pointed down or down and back.
Holy cow this stuff is big. Stapler for scale. Haha. Bought these 5" aluminized parts from ebay seller "truck-trailer-direct". Very good prices, and free shipping. They got here quick too.
Friday evening I built the down pipe. It seems straight forward, but was a little tricky. The sheer size of the pipe made it difficult to cut with my chop saw and it is hard to just grab it amd hold it with one hand. It needed one small dent to clear the cab mount a little better, but that's no big deal.
The focus the last few days had been on getting the brake lines sorted and fixed while the front end is off. To recap, this thing has always been hard to bleed and the pedal was always lower than I thought it should be. I discovered that somewhere along the way, some previous owner plumbed the master cylinder backwards. On a Ford, the large side of the master cylinder (closest to the booster) should be routed to the front disc brakes and the smaller side is for the rear drums. They had it the other way, where the primary side of the mc was trying to apply the rear brakes before the fronts. This truck never seems to run out of surprises.....
The combination valve that this thing had always seemed to be a problem maker, so I decided to use one like the one in my Mustang. It has never given a lick of trouble and performs just as expected. I robbed it from a buddy's parts car..
Of course, doing all this meant having to change some of the brake fittings to the proper size. While doing so, I noticed the line for the rear brakes that I just put a new fitting on was still loose when the fitting was as tight as possible in the master cylinder. I didn't even look at that end of the line so I pulled it back off and sure enough, the PO only used a single flare! I cut it off and double flared the line, problem solved. I wonder how much of my troubles all along were caused by that.....
Good news is that I only flared 1 line without first putting the fitting on. Haha
Now that the brakes are corrected and partially bled, I can start thinking about other, more entertaining stuff. My original plan was to tie the Megasquirt to the stock EFI truck wiring harness. When I was removing it from the engine, I decided it was in poor enough condition that I should just make a new one. Besides it had a lot of additional stuff I did not need intermingled and many of the connectors would have to be changed from Ford to GM style. Off the top of the engine, I only have to connect the 8 injectors, an intake air temp sensor, an engine coolant sensor and a throttle position sensor. And with the MS being mounted in the glovebox, it only makes sense to make a small custom harness that runs straight back through the firewall.
In order to make a harness, I needed injector connectors. I could have tried to reuse the stock ones but again, many were in poor shape. I found some adapters on ebay for $14. They have the proper EV1 connector and they click on the injectors nice and solid.
04-12-2019, 04:54 PM
