Sorry for the wait between updates, but I have been extremely busy and have had little time to work on the truck.

I fabbed an elbow onto the intake but had done so without considering my other piping... I may end up having to re-clock it.....

Exhaust manifolds are started but I need to get some V-band flanges to continue to the up pipes








I think I used too small of a drill for the holesaw (not mine, it belongs to Wildhorse MFG



I also used Wildhorses tig welder as I don’t have one currently set up. I haven run tig in 4 years so the welds could be better



Does anyone know the difference between these compressor wheels? Both are powerstroke 7.3 turbos, one i believe is off of a bus the other off of a pickup.



My flanges came in from R&D so i began mockup of the manifolds







I mocked them up without cutting holes in them so I then needed to break the tacks apart, cut the holes, and weld them back together



My buddy gave me a call that he was stuck, If you knew the rig... well.... it has an 8" lift on 38s lockers all the way around. He was very stuck. He had someone else try pulling him out with a 1/2 ton chev. It did not stand a chance as it was too light. Needless to say my service truck makes a great anchor!



Holes cut, welded together





Clearance on the oil cooler. I will be wrapping these as well.

 

So.. I just bought something I probably should not have today.. I have run a bit of tig in the past at work just have never had the means of doing it myself... This will plug right into my 10LX and allow up to 300 amps at 60% duty cycle..... I have too many projects for tig to avoid getting one any longer

 

I like seeing projects like this.

 

Nothing like a bullnose crew cab!! Exactly what I wanted, but couldn't find...

Can't wait to see where this one goes!

 

Well, I spent the last month and a half in Mexico on a business trip so not much for updates or progress.. The good news is that I decided to scrap the PS turbo idea and just go with a good turbo from the start instead of upgrading later. I just ordered a Borg Warner 177272 Turbo which should be a great match for a stock pump or moderate fuelling like the R&D 90 is capable of producing. Speaking of which It should be on order soon.

The passenger side manifold is finished and ready for me to start plumbing up pipes as soon as the turbo gets here, the interior plastics are now much better than they were before thanks to National Parts depots 85-89 Medium Regiatta Blue mustang interior paint. (perfect match). I scraped all of the rotten plastic off with a razor blade, washed with dawn dish soap and ajax, and painted. I am very happy with the outcome!

 

Well, Not everything has gone according to plan. I finally finished up the core support sans AC lines but I need to get my ac condensor first before I continue with them. My turbo came in and I built a mount for it using a torch and a die grinder due to a lack of a milling machine (this may be rectified within a month or so, I have a line on one) After attempting to get the piping to fit, there is just no possible way to get the up pipes and downpipes to fit without a body lift. so... It looks like I will have to build some 1" blocks for it and have to re-build the mount to account for it.

I re-covered my headliner using polar fleece. I glued it to the original cardboard from the headliner, It turned out very good so that is probably the one thing that has been going right...


Pump came in from R&D it takes time to get it but I am sure it will be well worth the wait. I have heard no complaints from any of Justin's products. Prolly should have just spent the money on his turbo kit and would be money ahead with all of the time I have into this one. I am too stubborn to give up at this point though.. I hate ongoing projects and usually like to have them wrapped up within a month or two. Hopefully I will be back from Mexico for a month or two and be able to catch up...


I still think my intercooler is too small My helper thinks I should go bigger though so....





I created slip joints as I do not like the bellows type flex joints like the 6.0 uses these are similar to what is on our old cat. Should work fine, I left .005" clearance to allow for expansion and contraction of the exhaust piping.











doh!! just not enough room


1" spacer blocks allow for a 3"downpipe. Bracket will have to be modified as will everything else....

 

New mount created
Mockup of passenger side pipe
Downpipe fits! ( with 1" lift)
Mockup finished
Welded!
Now to run the downpipe tomorrow! I dad to break off partway through the day for a company picnic so that cut about 6 hours out of the day. Nothing planned for tomorrow so hopefully can finish the piping and begin on fuel system.

 

I managed to re tig the elbow on the intake, this time clocked the right direction



Preparation for header wrap



I used ARTR titanium lava wrap from amazon. It did not appear to be titanium but It appears to be fair quality.





I used DEI Silicone spray over the top of it to seal it and hopefully make it last. Instead of using the included stainless zip ties I used Stainless Aircraft safety wire.



The open spot on #7 is where I will be putting the pyro.



Finished!



Time for injectors, R&D stock replacements



Plenty of antisieze was used..





Return Lines finished, I am going to run the crossover at the front of the engine so as to keep heat away from them.



Current progress. I will probably roll the frame out next so as to fully paint it before setting the cab on the final time. I will also be building 1.25" body lift blocks to allow clearance.

 

you are doing incredible fabrication, I love to see a craftsman design things that all come together.
I have been following your thread...great job.


I have one question, why didn`t you use R&D`s fuel Rails instead of using the old plastic caps and rubber return lines?




Charlie

 

Thanks! I appreciate the kind words.

Honestly, the only reason I did not use them was for cost savings during the build process. I started out with a minimal budget for this build and had already bought a return line set. I felt I might as well use them since I had them. There is a good chance I will buy a set of Justin's rails later on to replace them. Either that, or find a way to build my own for the challenge of it.

 

Building Turbo oil feed line
Turbo on
Painted the frame


Had to modify an 9/16 so as to tighten the turbo oil feed line. It is fed from the oil pressure senders original location.
Downpipe built and wrapped
Dei heat shield on the firewall. I had to raise the cab 1-5/8 inches to clear the piping. I hate body lifts but this one was necessary.

Mockup of ic piping
Wasnt exactly straight but the vise broke and i was welding freehand on the bench
Pump and filters are between the tcase and front tank.
The expansion valve broke off in the evaporator so this allowed me to remove it.
Like a charm!
This is where I installed the fitting for the boost gauge.
Mockup for the grille and headlight bezels.

Had to shave the grille to make the ac condensor fit.

Core support, radiator, and intercooler painted.
Fuel system pressurized, big leak on back of IP. ..... managed to tighten the fittings and stopped it. Sure am glad I didn't have to remove the ip to fix it..
After splicing the new style gp controller harness in i had no wts light.. i had placed the wire on the opposite side of the plug from where it was supposed to be.... Doh!!
Nothing quite like cutting a $75 piece of plastic to make it fit... the 92-97 pullar pods interfere with the dash so they have to be cut down.
Not too bad, i will have to round it out slightly more and paint it to match the remaining interior.
Engine is ready to run.

 

Awesome thread, great work and keep it coming!

I don't want to steal your thunder but it's possible to do a triple pod pillar gauge on 80-86 trucks. I used a GlowShift triple pod pillar for 93-97 trucks, cut the ends off, fiberglassed the 80-86 ends on and smoothed with plast-aid plastic filler/bonding stuff. I run Westach dual gauges in the pod, so I have boost+pyro in one, oil pressure+coolant temp in another, and voltage in the third. Keeps all the important gauges at eye level.

 

Yeah, I thought about going to a triple pod, however wanted to keep the number of gauges to the minimum necessary. I do like the sound of your setup though! The dual gauges sound like they would be the way to go! I will have to keep them in mind for my next build, I appreciate the suggestions and feedback!

 

So i learned something today. Apparently the fuel tank selector switch for a gas engine is different than that of a diesel... gas on the right diesel on the left. It is easy for me to see how the diesel one works particularily when you look at the wiring. All it does is reverse the polarity to a set of wires leading to the fuel selector. The gas one, well... i am not really sure how that one worked. I am assuming that it switched the relays to the in tank fuel pumps as well as switch the fuel selector. On the gasser switch, it is missing one of the contacts for the ground and one of the power wires that lead to the selector on the diesel harness.
I am now able to switch tanks. That problem had me pulling my hair out for a while.

 

So, I found out the hard way that 87+ and 86- gauges and sending units are not compatible. That is unless you mind full reading when the tank is empty and empty when the tank is full.... I figured out a good work around by soldering the wire to the opposite end of the resistor board. I will add about a 15-45 ohm resistor (those are the two different readings I got fom the "full" levels on the senders) inline otherwise the gauge reads somewhat high. At least the gauge travels the right direction now.

started on sanding and prepping for paint. Damn someone had a hard time with the passenger side of this rig. I count at minumum 2 different repairs and about 5 layers....

Truck also runs, Started easy and I took it for a short run down the road next to where I have been working on it 1/2-3/4 throttle I hit 18 psi boost. Flat out moves in comparison to my old n/a service truck!! I was running without windshield and the dash was still loose so when I hit the throttle the gauge cluster tried to come out. It sure is nice to hear that turbo spool up! The neighbors, as usual, still do not know what to think. At least I am in Idaho where people really don't care.


Difference between the 87+ and 87- resistor boards. Top is 87+
Soldeted the wire on the opposite end of the board. I will likely add a 15 ohm resistor inline to make them read properly.original wire location at top left of board.
This is current reading at full, empty is right on the empty peg. I need slightly more resistance. Since resistors are cheap will try 15-45 ohm until it reads evenly.
Resistor board for the rear tank.
And on to sanding. The passenger front door has had a hard life.

Lots of filler. Damn... gonna be hard to redo, I hate body fender work....