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JacobJ, Thanks! I'm trying to do this one up right! I'm sure I'm going to catch some flack for the in cab tank.
Meangreen92, OUCH!!!! That had to be an awful feeling when he ran over his hood!
Unfortunately my time is dwindling before I have to leave town for work again. As much as I don't enjoy working on the bed I need to get it back together. I took the bed floor and set it on the Highboy frame to check my new bolt holes. All of the holes lined up good enough except the rear two. They will need to be ovaled out a bit to line up with the holes in the frame. Not sure if this is due to the aftermarket bed floor, or my measuring and welding on the underside.
Purchased a new headboard or front bed panel, whichever you want to call it. Seems to be of decent quality.
New headboard panel.
The new panels(bed floor and headboard) have holes in them that appear to be for bolts, or to weld them together. The new headboard and bed floor have holes that align nicely for bolting them together along the bottom. I think this might be a good option. I bought some 5/16 bolts, flat washers, and lock nuts to join the headboard to the bed floor. I left them loose for alignment.
Installing the new headboard.
I think this will be the only part I will use bolts to put the bed together.
I bolted the bed to the frame finger tight with the old bolts to hold everything square, and brought over the sides of the bed. I felt like it was going to be a long process to get everything back square before I started welding. Took a 5lb dead blow hammer and started fine tuning the bed floor now that it was bolted down. I was able to get some more of the damage straightened from when I ran over it. The straightening was going well until my thumb found itself in the path of the dead blow hammer. Although my thumb survived, it was a bloody mess and the jury is still out on the fingernail. I decided that was enough straightening.
I took my angle grinder and cleaned up the mating surfaces of any remaining spot welds, rust, dirt, panel sealer, or unevenness. Then coated the metal with "weld through primer".
Preparing to install the left bed side.
I don't recommend trying to install bed sides by yourself. One wrong move and something gets ruined. I had a couple close calls but I was successful. You can see some of the remaining bed floor damage in this picture. The forward right side is the area I backed over. You can still see damage, but I think I can live with it. I plan to do a bedliner when finished so hopefully that will hide most of it.
Left bedside installed.
Then it was on to the right bedside. Again, not easy by yourself. I almost dropped it again trying to align it.
Right bed side installed.
After getting the right side installed I used the two ratchet straps, the hammer, and pry bar to fine tune the bed to try to get it square. Everything actually lined up very well. There was only one area that I wasn't entirely happy with. The bed sides sit a bit further forward on the bed floor than they should. I'm talking like 1/8 of an inch. After further investigation I found that the rear crossmember of the floor is ever so slightly larger than the original. Holding the bed forward. I did some tweaking with the pry bar and got it pretty close, but I think I'll have to get in there with some heavy vice grips to pull it together tight before welding. And weld that part on both sides first. The rest should fall in line.
The back of the cab looks a tad high in comparison, but I think it's because the cab isn't bolted down to compress the body mount rubbers.
Bed panels aligned.
I'm pretty happy with how the bed looks after being put back together. Unfortunately the weather got cold and windy and I was unable to get it welded together. I did brace it with the ratchet straps.
I like the height and stance of the truck. It's even slightly taller than my International Harvester 1 ton 4x4. Both are stock height.
Still no word back from the body guy. I hope he can still come out to give me a price on paint work.
Sadly It is time for another lengthy business trip. So the project goes on hold again....
Take care while you are out on your business trip.
Great progress on your truck while you were home this time.
BTW..... I have a couple of those "ugly wheels" you sent me on my truck now. I would post a pic but I am not in front of my computer so I can download my pics.
(I think they look great on my truck!!)
Once again, TAKE CARE out there.
Watch yer top knot!!
Thanks Mike! Gonna be a stressful one. But nothing I haven't done before. Glad to hear you could use them! And they are bringing down your property value instead of mine! lol!
Somethingclever, you are close! It is a variant of an IH Travelall (Carryall is Chevrolet/GMC) called a Wagonmaster. Similar to a Chevy Avalanche, 4 door, short integrated bed. Very uncommon truck and only made for a year and a half. It should be a fun build when the time comes for its turn. I'll probably do a build thread over on Binder Planet. I was very fortunate to find such a clean original in the California desert. The frame is damaged from someone letting the suspension bushings wear into the frame. But I have a 4x4 Travelall chassis I will be swapping the body onto. Its the same chassis between the Travelall and the Wagonmaster, but then it will be 4x4 too!
Sorry, I get long winded about my IHs. lol
I can honestly say I've never seen one of those IH beasts. I am speechless. Back when that was built I bet no one predicted 4 door short bed pickups would be so common as they are today.
Thanks Mike! Gonna be a stressful one. But nothing I haven't done before. Glad to hear you could use them! And they are bringing down your property value instead of mine! lol!
Somethingclever, you are close! It is a variant of an IH Travelall (Carryall is Chevrolet/GMC) called a Wagonmaster. Similar to a Chevy Avalanche, 4 door, short integrated bed. Very uncommon truck and only made for a year and a half. It should be a fun build when the time comes for its turn. I'll probably do a build thread over on Binder Planet. I was very fortunate to find such a clean original in the California desert. The frame is damaged from someone letting the suspension bushings wear into the frame. But I have a 4x4 Travelall chassis I will be swapping the body onto. Its the same chassis between the Travelall and the Wagonmaster, but then it will be 4x4 too!
Sorry, I get long winded about my IHs. lol
1973 International Wagonmaster
What a COOL LOOKING old IH.....
Yes sir!.... That will be a nice restore candidate.
Wagonmaster...... Sorta reminds me of "Wagon Train" TV show...... LOL.
Been a while since I have had an update so I wanted to post something.
Covid has had me super busy with work I have barely touched the highboy project. Kinda frustrating, so much yet to do!
I didn't want to jump around on this project but the engine has been the only thing getting attention lately so I thought I'd go over the engine plans for this project and where it currently sits.
As I had mentioned before I am trying to build the truck I remember as a kid, but with a few improvements. The truck came from the factory with a 351M. The engine that everyone seems to love to hate. Its true, it is an asthmatic emissions crisis engine. Under powered and overweight. The 351M and 400 use identical components except the crankshaft and pistons.
I have done extensive reading on the 351M/400 engines and found them to be a solid platform that fell victim to emissions with low compression (about 8.0 to 1) and poor valve timing (retarded 6 degrees) . Those things can be remedied during a rebuild fairly easily to produce what should be a great engine for my application. This will be a driver, not a racecar anyway. But should still be fun!
Overcoming the low compression leaves you with 2 options. Swap or modify heads, or change pistons.
Changing or milling heads has a lot of options, and few get me to the 9.0 to 1 compression ratio I am targeting.
Nobody makes performance pistons for a 351M anymore. However! Tim Meyer Racing does make them for the 400! TMeyer is considered to be the king of the 351C, 351M, and 400 engines and offers engines built to your specs or application. Unfortunately they are out of my budget. Since he sells parts also, I ordered a set of his "Track Boss" piston and ring sets for a 400 engine. The "Track Boss" pistons are deck height pistons unlike the recessed, low compression originals. This should bring my compression ratio to the 9.1 to 1 target. Looks like I will be building a 400 instead of a 351M.
Overcoming the retarded valve timing will be a bit easier. The original crankshaft gear of the timing chain was offset to retard the valve timing about 6 degrees. New aftermarket timing chain and gear sets allow you to correct this by degreeing the camshaft to 0. Also the use of a better camshaft helps immensely for the engine to breathe.
A friend of mine agreed to do the engine for me if I bought all the parts. I had 2 and a half Ford 351M engines. Half of the original engine(the rest got scrapped when I was in college. Sore subject), the good running used engine that had been in the truck when I started the project( I swapped that one in during my high school years), and the low mile 351M out of the 79 F150 parts truck. So I had lots of 351M cores but none had the 400 crankshaft I needed.
Surprisingly 400s aren't a dime a dozen in junkyards anymore. I found a Ford 400 engine on Craigslist and bought it mainly just for the crankshaft. He disassembled the 400 to find that it had been gone through before. The crankshaft had been turned undersize at some point but was still in good shape. According to the numbers it looked to be a 1977 engine. We decided to just use the 400 as the core to build, and use parts off my 351Ms as needed.
The bore of the 400 was still standard and within spec, but not by much. I decided to bore it .20 over to have a fresh surface. He took the block and pistons to the machine shop to be bored and cleaned. The machine shop found the mains to be slightly out of square and wanted to line hone the mains. It turned into about a $850 bill.
Parts I have gotten together for this 400 build...
Used 400 core engine from Craigslist $150
TMeyer Track Boss piston set .20 oversize $450.00
Comp Cams cam kit K32-206-3 $447.99
Fel-Pro full gasket set FS8347PT $58.99
Fel-Pro valley pan MS96020 $27.99
Clevite SH-710S cam bearing set $28.99
Valve guide set TFS-51600252 $54.99
Melling freeze plug set MPE-109BR $9.45
Melling standard volume oil pump M-84A $49.94
Harmonic balancer PB1082N $83.99
Clevite MS-1432P20 main bearing set .20 undersize $39.17
Clevite rod bearings .10 under CB-927P-10 x8 $79.92
ARP rod bolts 154-6401 $73.99
ARP flywheel bolts 100-2801 $9.99
The heads got torn apart last weekend and I was informed I needed to order new valves. He also mentioned that the Track Boss pistons were about 80 grams lighter than the originals. I am going for a smooth running engine. So the rotating assembly will be sent to the machine shop to be balanced next week.
Currently the truck itself needs the bed welded back together, and it is pretty much ready for body and paint work. But it will sit and wait til I get home from my work trip...
Back from another business trip! Finally getting some time for the truck.
My friend has been hard at work on the 400 engine. He found the new TMeyer Track Boss pistons to be lighter than the stock pistons and there was a concern about engine balance. He sent off the rotating assembly to Greeley Automotive Machine in Greeley Colorado to have it balanced.
We all love pictures, so here are some photos from the engine build.
Below is the block fresh from the machine shop with new brass frost plugs installed and the crankshaft installed. Ford 400 being assembled
Putting the pistons and rod together. Short block assembly Short block ready for head installation. Rebuilt head ready to install
Taped up everything that wont be getting Ford blue paint, old oil filter, intake, and fuel pump installed to mask surfaces. Taped up and ready for primer and paint. Fresh Ford blue paint
Edelbrock Performer intake installed! Its an older intake so it looks different than the new ones available today.
Engine is pretty much done. I will be picking it up next week to start the drivetrain installation! Stay tuned! Edelbrock Performer intake installed and making tape removed from 400 engine.
The day has finally come where I have the engine! So exciting! I will still have to get all the accessories painted and installed but we are going to install it and do the break in run.
We went ahead and removed the cab to make the whole engine and transmission assembly easier to install. The cab was only temporary installed anyway.
Then came time to install the new pilot bearing. I used a SKF bearing from NAPA part number N3058.
Then I painted the exposed portion of the dust shield and installed it on the back of the engine. Followed by the flywheel.
Using ARP 100-2801 flywheel bolt kit I installed the flywheel using the included ARP 100-9908 lubricant and torqued the bolts to 75 ft lb.
Then the clutch disc and pressure plate was installed. The clutch was replaced right before the truck was parked, so the clutch only has a few miles on it and it still looked like new and was reused.
Somehow I had damaged the old throw out bearing so I needed a new one. You would think this would be an easy thing to find locally but apparently it no longer is. But being the truck is 45 years old now I guess I shouldn't be surprised. The one I was able to get from NAPA was a part number PN1439. I found it odd that it has a grease zerk and non of the originals did. I would normally welcome lubrication points and serviceability, however in this case the zerk is not accessible at all when assembled. So I greased it well and installed it.
As I reinstalled the clutch fork I realized that I ordered the wrong dust boot for the fork.
I found the correct one online and got it ordered. Thankfully I can install it later without undoing any progress. The correct clutch fork boot is Ford part number D7TZ-7513-A. These used to be in the HELP! section of every auto parts store in town. But it seems times have changed as not one new one existed locally.
I cleaned up the input shaft of the transmission and put a light coat of grease on the splines and where the pilot bearing and throw out bearing rides.
Finally! A engine and transmission assembly ready to install!
The harmonic balancer had mysteriously disappeared before the engine was done we had to procure another. Ford part number D5AZ-6316-A, the new one being aftermarket of course. After the new harmonic balancer was installed it was time to lift the engine and set it in place on the highboy frame.
The NP435 4 speed manual transmission had gotten a Craigslist rebuild, lol. Cleaned up and repainted, since it was the original transmission with no issues and a pretty solid bombproof transmission. I will be changing the oil in it, as well as the transfer case and axles later this build. Changing the rear transmission seal as well.
Thankfully my friend who did the rebuild came to visit and do the break in of the engine. This was very helpful because I had injured my arm at work and was rather limited in my abilities. I could still run the Payloader though!
As we lowered the engine onto the frame something wasn't quite right. After comparing the engine mounts to the original engine we determined that we had been sent a mis-boxed driver side engine mount. Part number on the box was correct but it was a passenger side mount. A quick call to NAPA resolved the issue and we got the engine set in properly.
The nice pretty frame sure gets dusty quick in the desert.
After getting the engine and transmission secured to the frame the focus turned to getting the engine the necessary things it needed for a break-in run. Fuel, spark, exhaust, oil, and coolant. I installed a known good Edelbrock carburetor I had sitting around, and ran a fuel hose to an electric fuel pump and boat gas tank. I still had the original exhaust Y-pipe and about 4 feet of pipe, so we decided to install it for the run. Surprisingly good shape for rust belt exhaust.
I added 6 quarts of Comp Cams 10w-30 Engine Break-in oil (Comp Cams 1590).
We removed the oil pressure sending unit and replaced it with a pressure gauge. Then with the distributor removed we used a drill and a socket taped to a 1/4 drive extension to prime the oil system. This worked very well and we achieved about 80 psi of oil pressure.
He began modifying an old engine harness and ignition coil to allow us to use the original Duraspark module and distributor for an ignition system. I rounded up some old radiator hoses to block off or loop the water pump to the thermostat housing. Then made an adapter to hook the garden hose to the 5/8 heater hose port on the water pump, and put a short heater hose on the block connection to the ground to keep the engine cool during the break in run. Then finding plugs for all the open vacuum ports we were ready to run!
Sadly the first many attempts to start the 400 were uneventful. He was getting rather frustrated and the sun was beginning to set. Although we were certain that the timing was correct or close enough we finally determined that we were 180 degrees off. Once that was corrected the engine lit off immediately and we set it to run at 3000 RPM using the tachometer on the timing light and verified oil pressure was good. Unfortunately by this time the sun had set and it was too dark to see much. The engine ran beautifully, 3000 RPM for 25 minutes. The rigged up cooling system worked well, as did the rigged up Duraspark setup, and boat fuel tank. After 25 minutes had passed we backed the throttle down in increments. It idled beautifully!
If you are interested in watching the video I have it up on my YouTube channel. My channel is mostly IH stuff, but I'm thinking about doing more videos on this project.
After the engine was done with its break-in run I had hoped to sand and paint the firewall before reinstalling the cab, but the New Mexico weather wasn't having it. We went ahead and got the cab reinstalled before the rain and wind.
Nothing too exciting, but I uploaded a video installing the cab to my YouTube channel if you are interested.
I had meant to change transmission oil and inspect the NP435 transmission before installing the transmission back into the truck but it didn't happen. So I needed to get this done before I forgot. I had cleaned and painted the outside previously while it was out.
I removed the top cover to inspect. Much to my disappointment it had some moisture in it. It probably happened when i first removed the cab and before I removed the engine and transmission it did get rained on. Sadly that was long enough ago that there was some rust inside.
Vanilla milkshake anyone?
I sprayed the gears with brake cleaner to get the milkshake off and to expose any rust. I did find some rust on a few gear teeth and I scrubbed it with Scotch-Brite to minimize high spots. Then I reinstalled the drain plug and filled the transmission with clean parts washer solvent and spun the gears by hand trying to get as much rust and milkshake out, then drained the solvent. I had to remove the PTO cover on the side to get my hand into the transmission to ensure I got any remaining debris or goo. This sure was disappointing, because it was 100% my fault for not covering the transmission when I first removed the body.
Once I had the inside of the transmission clean and dry I reinstalled the drain plug, and removed the fill plug on the side to fill with fresh clean oil.
NOTE: I do NOT want to start an oil discussion on here! This is what I used and why. If you have a different opinion that is cool, we all have different opinions, you use what you want on your project.
My 1977 Ford truck owners manual calls for SAE-50 oil in the 4 speed transmission. Originally the NP435 called for 80w-90 gear oil, but it was changed to SAE-50 in later years for faster shifts and fuel economy. I decided to go with 80w-90 gear oil because I live in a very hot climate and that is what this transmission was originally designed for. You may have a different opinion, and that's cool. If I don't like the way it shifts, or I move to a cooler place I may change it someday.
I made sure to use a GL-4(or lower) 80w-90 gear oil. The common gear oil these days is GL-5. GL-5 gear oil contains extreme pressure additives that work amazing in certain applications such as hypoid gears in differentials. Unfortunately these extreme pressure additives in GL-5 gear oil contain sulfur and phosphorus which can react aggressively towards bronze and copper (Yellow metals) found in many manual transmissions in items like bushings and synchros. This issue is clearly stated in some manual transmission service manuals. I went with a GL-4 80w-90 from Sta-Lube for this reason plus it is not difficult to find at many parts stores if I needed to add some.
I feel that I caught the moisture just in time and the cleaning, flushing and precautions I took will let this transmission live on for many years to come. It feels good to have this done. I was going to do the rear transmission seal but I realized I didn't have one yet.
Until next time!
Rezvani's Latest Post-Apocalytic Monster Is a Ford F-150 Raptor Underneath
Slideshow: Called the Fortress, the 850-horsepower pickup combines Raptor underpinnings with military-inspired features, survival equipment, and a starting price of $285,000.
However! Tim Meyer Racing does make them for the 400! TMeyer is considered to be the king of the 351C, 351M, and 400 engines and offers engines built to your specs or application. Unfortunately they are out of my budget. Since he sells parts also, I ordered a set of his "Track Boss" piston and ring sets for a 400 engine. The "Track Boss" pistons are deck height pistons unlike the recessed, low compression originals. This should bring my compression ratio to the 9.1 to 1 target. Looks like I will be building a 400 instead of a 351M.
