Lloyd, those are amazingly beautiful photographs! You really do live in paradise. Thank you so much for posting them. You've made my day!

David

 

Reminds me of this oldie

 

Thanks very much!

Nice Photos!

So it's been a while since I updated. Since I shared last, I have plugged and insulated the floor, installed a new window channel kit, insulated the doors, installed new shocks, and just installed a CB radio with the antenna in the stock location (since I don't have a sound system). Next is trailer wiring and doing a test tow.

I also wanted to share some photos of an amazing night of camping on top of the Rabbit Ears of Rabbit Ears Pass.

Enjoy!

Before:


Riveted Galvanized Steel down.


My Girlfriend helping me insulate:


Final product, for now. I can't tell you how big of a difference this made! Now she would actually ride in it for a few hours... It was loud before!


I don't have any pictures of the other projects because they aren't too special. So, now the photos of camping.

This was the night of the super moon recently. Made for a spectacular view.


This is from our campsite. The little lights are cars on the actual pass. This is at 1:00 AM. We just got to camp. You definitely need 4x4 to get here, and we were exploring under the big moon for a few hours.


A little more perspective


A picture from in the morning.


Camp by morning light.


The tent


My ladies


We sat here all day and watched the world go by until the evening...


The truck ready to head home


Now, if you were wondering, these are the Ears that I was talking about. The truck is right below these to the right.


You can see the ears in the distance from here.


And then a few of the truck... and dog






Oh yea, and snow tires do impressively well in the mud and off road.

 

Good to hear from you The high country this time of year is so beautiful !
The truck is taking good care of you and your crew

 

Lloyd, once again, you've posted absolutely stunning photographs! You are a very talented photographer. Yes, the scenery is gorgeous...it's hard to mess that up, but your skill and sense of composition turns nice pictures into truly beautiful ones.

David

 

i love this thread!! just want to say, beings your thread is labelled "reliability", the ford i am working on now was my grandpas. but back in the mid 80's he was ice fishing with my dad and great uncle and ended up breaking through the ice. lol!! luckily it was on a sandbar and only the front end went in. but the engine went in and it had water in the cab. but after they got a few guys to pull the pickup out they drove that f150 home 65 miles with no problems! this is why i am restoring it for my grandpa, they are indestructible!!

 

They weren't built to last but they did anyway.

 

Thanks everyone!

Quick question for you. Do you think this truck should have trouble holding 50 mph in 4th gear on a 7% grade across 12 miles lightly loaded?

360/np435/np205/4.10/(235/85/16)


It get's pretty darn hot, an I have to BURY the pedal and it can barely hold 4th gear (40 mph) then I feel like I am running 3rd to hard.

What are your experiences?

 

Up Rabbit ears pass? With a factory set up 360 she's going to grunt for sure at that elevation trying to do 50 mph .. You would do much better with a dual exhaust system and a 4 barrel intake and carb set up for that elevation .. Lugging the motor is not good .. I would just down shift to 3rd and go whatever speed 3500 rpm's gives you and make the upgrades whenever time and money allow ..

I towed the rockies with a 390 (300 hp), c-6 with tranny cooler, duals, electric radiator fan, 4 core radiator, 750 cfm carb above 7,000 ft. in elevation, and 4:10's .. The truck needed every one of those upgrades to tow a 24' 8,000 lb. trailer .. You really need to move more air through the motor at higher elevations like rabbit ears and have the motor running it's best ..

 

A 360 new has 8:1 compression which really kills the torque and a used one has even less. When you go the route of rebuilding it make a 390 with the above mods and you will all the power you need. I'm not sure a 4 barrel would help much, you would probably end up over carbing it without a cam upgrade I think the Ford 2 barrels are 500cfm. But dual exhaust would help some.

 

Just another thought if you are running the stock air cleaner change it to a open element one your engine will breath better. It's a cheap way to make more power.

 

Flip the lid. Even cheaper.

 

Just thinkin here and that gets me into trouble quite often. Let's see, 12
miles at 7%. Depending on what altitude yer starting out at one could get
high enough for both you and the truck to run plum out of oxygen. At which
point ya both would just shut down. Of course there would have to be a road
there to drive that high. Maybe the problem I have with this is just being to
high. I suffer from Vertigo don't ya know.

seriously though a set of headers and a 4 BBL carb is the best upgrade to
any FE. An engine is basically an air compressor. It needs to be able to
Freely get the air out that is being pumped in. And an FE stock exhaust
is very restrictive on a good day.

With that said and a high altitude tune ya could pull a house to the top
Of Mt. Everest. If there was a road or one heck of a 4X4.

 

What is red line for these trucks? I don't have a Tac, yet, so I am trying to get a feel for how hard I'd be running the engine. 40 mph in 3rd seems like maybe 3500. 45 mph seems like it's pushing it a bit. Unfortunately, it likes to sit in the grey area between those two.

What does flipping the lid mean?

altitude 7,000 to 10,000 ft. basically. I spend most of my time at the elevations. The truck could easily see 13,000 and even 14,000 ft. this year. I am so used to turbo diesels and have excessive power to spare no matter what, I am having to change my thinking a little bit.

I do have a dual exhaust system, but I think on the stock headers/manifold. Not sure the difference. Would it be worth just changing headers, or should I buy a whole new system?

I have read about 4bbl carbs, and also read that the 2 is pretty good for this engine and very good for off road use, which is important to me.

How much of an investment is rebuilding it into a 390? I have been toying with the Cummins idea still, so I am not sure how much money I want to put into this engine.

Right now, my cummins idea is to modify a 4bt to about 400- 450 ft/lbs of torque and drop it in front of the np435 and then add an OD unit. So I should have a similar weight engine with 8 highly adjustable speeds. Should yield incredible gas mileage, minimal changes to the truck, and significantly more grunt. Any opinions on this concept?

Thank you as always for your informative responses.

Oh yea, and I got my trailer lights wired up and tested yesterday. Also pulled my old dodge pickup bed trailer around. It handled it very well! Obviously towing isn't going to help, but I am usually not in a hurry and who wants a truck that can't tow? Well it can now!

 

When you literally flip the lid over. A taller intake element helps.